Director: Barry Jenkins
Written by: Barry Jenkins, inspired and based on book by James Baldwin
I hope the new year has been well for all of you. There are so many new opportunities and activities going on throughout the Roanoke Valley. One of my new resolution is reading one book a week. This is one I plan and believe I can stick to throughout the whole year. Life surely moves at a fast pace, to slow down, we must choose to make time.
The Grandin Theatre is slowing time down for us or rather speeding it up. On Friday January 18, 2019 they will premiere Barry Jenkins’s latest movie, If Beale Street Could Talk, based on the novel by the great James Baldwin. It was originally release in major cities on Christmas Day 2018. This is not the first time that The Grandin Theatre has shown work by Barry Jenkins or James Baldwin. The theater showed Golden Globe and Academy Award winning Moonlight by Barry Jenkins in 2016 and I Am Not Your Negro, a documentary on James Baldwin, in 2017.
This story is one you should rush to watch like we do other shows and movies filled with comical and bias depicting black culture. Barry Jenkins has made movies about love with his past movies, therefore I trust that his adaptation of Baldwin’s soulful novel is one to see. The movie has a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes and numerous positive reviews. It is already nominated for several awards including a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. It is a movie of ups and downs and the love and pain that comes with being black in America, themes that James Baldwin wrote about over 45 years ago that continue to exist today. Set in Harlem, New York during the 1970s, this love story is one that exploits the injustice in America’s justice system and the toll it will take on the most innocent people, even if falsely accused.
If you are free this Friday head over to The Grandin Theatre to see If Beale Street Could Talk.
Ashley Rhame is a native of Roanoke, Virginia. She has self-published two books, Soul Cry and God’s Eye. She is currently writing her third book of poetry, Chasing Sun. Her work has been featured in the Artemis Journal alongside poets like Nikki Giovanni, Natasha Trethewey, and others in the Appalachian area. Ashley has also lead workshops at Hollins University, Girls Rock Roanoke, church youth departments, and other local organizations. She currently leads a regular youth writing workshop, TeenSpeak with Roanoke Public Libraries. You can find her every other Wednesday night at Soul Sessions using her voice to create a space that is loving, reflective, and healthy. When Ashley is not writing, she enjoys photography, reading, sipping tea, wandering around art galleries, and indulging in sweets.
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