The musician talks about why she admires Horne so much and how one of her dreams would be to play her. She also explains what she means when she says that she’s “ready to be free.”
Biographical Timelines
Written Features
How It Feels To Be Free filmmakers’ statement
5 ways Lena Horne revolutionized the entertainment industry
A professional song selector shares 15 songs of Black women’s empowerment and freedom
Black entertainers are still longing for equity in entertainment
How Nina Simone reinvented herself after a rejection from classical music conservatory
The image makers are always consequential
The story behind Nina Simone’s protest song, “Mississippi Goddam”
Video Features
Clip | Alicia Keys doesn’t mind being compared to Lena Horne
Clip | Book excerpt from “How It Feels to Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement”
Clip | Diahann Carroll talks race and makeup while filming “Julia”
Clip | Halle Berry on how seeing Diahann Carroll on TV changed her
Clip | Lena Waithe on mixed feelings towards Blaxploitation
Clip | Lena Waithe on why Cicely Tyson’s hair is revolutionary
Clip | Why Cicely Tyson was selective about her acting roles
TRANSCRIPT
- Well, see what happens is people compare me to Lena Horne a lot (laughs). And actually that's my dream.
One of my dreams, you know?
That's one of my dreams is to play Lena Horne, because you could just kinda get the sense of the sass, and determination, and like, 'get out my way,' that she has had in her.
So, that's what I think of when I think of Lena Horne.
And as Black women, our truths as artists is a unique truth, and it's a layered truth, and it's a complex truth.
It is one that is so beautiful, and it is so incredibly moving, and it deserves to be told, and heard, and understood, and recognized and celebrated.
And all the things that happen when you're exposed to a variety of people's truths.
You know what I mean?
So, yes, I do think that, for me, I do think it is very important to talk about what is happening in the world.
And specifically as Black women, to talk about what's happening to us.
And who we are.
What I mean when I say I'm ready to be free is just I'm ready to let go of anything that is holding me back.
And I find that a lot of the things that hold me back are self-imposed.
And I think in so many ways, for so many of us, they're self-imposed, they're imposed upon us by each other.
They're imposed by us, onto us, by society, by all the oppressions that are constantly around us.
And I'm ready to be face to face with myself and honor myself.