Black Women in Entertainment
Gabourey Sidibe Explains Why Being A Black Woman Is “Pretty Lit Right Now”
It’s a perfect, sunny September day on the roof of The Standard, High Line hotel in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District, and Beyoncé’s “Blow” is blaring over the portable speaker. A team of stylists, assistants, and photo directors go about their business as if Queen Bey is just background music. But not Gabourey Sidibe, who is singing every lyric and ad lib while subtly executing choreography in between the camera’s clicks. She’s a fan. The two of us enthusiastically philosophize about what it means that we just so happen to be at the same hotel, and possibly just rode up in the same elevator, where Beyoncé was infamously caught in the middle of a fight between her husband Jay-Z and her sister Solange in 2014.
Sidibe and I are only half-joking when we agree we need to take a moment to “soak up the energy” of this place, and not just because Beyoncé was here. Overlooking the rest of New York from the rooftop of one of the city’s swankiest spots would make anyone feel empowered. This scene — Sidibe, wind blowing in her hair and freely vibing to sounds of the most powerful woman, a Black woman, in music — perfectly illustrates a truth that she shares with me later: “Being a Black woman is pretty lit right now.”
Her statement is bold. It contradicts everything we know about how racism and sexism work in this country. But ever since Sidibe earned an Oscar nomination for her star turn in Lee Daniels’ 2009 movie Precious, she has been riding a wave of #BlackGirlMagic that has transformed her into a prime example of a Black woman unapologetically taking up space. Not only has her star been steadily rising (a regular role on Fox’s Empire, a recurring role on The Big C), she’s spent her entire career clapping back against body shaming and racial profiling, winning fans over in the process. Now, she’s making her directorial debut with The Tale of Four, a short film produced by Refinery29’s SHATTERBOX Anthology, an initiative dedicated to increasing the …
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