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PEOPLE & ARTS Saturday 3 February 2018
Issa Rae says female creative voices have been amplified

Thursday night at a listen- school teachers, a college
ing party at Paisley Park for professor specifically who
Justin Timberlake’s new al- was just really encouraging
bum. in terms of pushing me for-
The 33-year-old signed a ward, helping me gradu-
development deal with ate ‘cause Lord knows that
HBO to produce more con- was hard to do,” said Rae,
tent like “Insecure” for the who graduated from Stan-
network. She said she’s ford University.
thankful for her teachers in “Just because I liked ex-
school who pushed her to tracurricular activities and
reach her full potential. I didn’t like going to class,
“I had a lot of good men- but you guys should go to
tors in school, like my high class,” she said to laughs.q

This June 25, 2017, file photo shows Issa Rae arriving at the BET Awards at the Microsoft Theater in
Los Angeles.
Associated Press
By MESFIN FEKADU There have been major that’s really discouraging in
AP Entertainment Writer wins by women’s stories a way because there’s so
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Issa on television at the recent many stories to tell.”
Rae said she feels that Emmy and Golden Globe “Insecure,” which Rae cre-
women’s voices have been Awards by HBO’s “Big Little ated, produces and stars
amplified in the film and Lies” and Hulu’s “The Hand- in, earned her two Golden
television worlds and she’s maid’s Tale,” shows where Globe nominations and will
happy to be part of the actresses Nicole Kidman, return for its third season
group leading the change Reese Witherspoon and this year. It’s based on her
and opening doors for oth- Elisabeth Moss also serve as hit web series, “The Misad-
ers. executive producers. ventures of Awkward Black
“I do think there’s a renais- Director Ava DuVernay Girl.”
sance in so many different made history with her Os- She said going from You-
ways,” the actress said at car and Golden Globe Tube to HBO “was a long
NFL’s Women’s Summit on nominations, while Shonda journey of brokenness, you
Friday. “We have a new- Rhimes continues to be a know. The first episode cost
found power, a newly redis- force on television, launch- me $25.”
covered power. We’re like, ing hits on ABC with “How Rae launched a Kickstarter
‘...We can speak up, and to Get Away with Murder,” campaign to keep the se-
we can get stuff done, and ‘’Grey’s Anatomy” and ries alive and music mogul
we can make a change, “Scandal.” Pharrell funded its second
and we can reclaim our When asked by Maria Me- season. She said when
stories.” nounos about there being the show’s fan base grew,
“It just seems so much more one opportunity for a mi- networks were interested
attainable (for women) be- nority actor or a woman on in building it up but Rae
cause you are seeing a a show or project, Rae said, didn’t agree with some of
shift behind the scenes.” “The one slot thing is ridicu- the ideas.
Rae’s words come on the lous but there’s truth to it. “I had opportunities to take
heels of Greta Gerwig’s “Because I think a lot of ‘Awkward Black Girl’ to
historic Oscar nomination executives, people who television really early on for
for best director with “Lady put stuff on television have big networks, but for them
Bird,” making her just the that mentality of, ‘Oh, we it was about shifting it and
fifth woman nominated for have our black show, so changing it to fit their stan-
the prestigious prize. sorry. Maybe try NBC.’ And dards, and that never ap-
pealed to me. I was not in
a rush,” she said.
Rae was one of the wom-
en who spoke at NFL’s third
Women’s Summit held at
the Pantages Theatre on
Friday, days ahead of Su-
linda.reijnders@cspnv.com per Bowl 52. She spent