Black History Month came and went with a bang as AT&T Presents History by Us: Black History Told by Those Making It kicked off, celebrating the 10th anniversary of AT&T 28 Days. The event featured live music, live art demonstrations, and even a surprise performance by Brandy!

Anthony Anderson (black-ish) and Yara Shahidi (black-ish, grown-ish) sat down for a panel hosted by Finesse Mitchell where they discussed Shahidi’s audition which led to a unique bond with Anderson, Anderson’s relationship with Tracee Ellis-Ross (“I’m her safety net and she’s mine”) and how Shahidi secretly dreamed of being a historian or an FBI/CIA agent.

Before the on-stage events, Shahidi spoke with Shadow and Act and chat about her own impact on black history, dream up her very own perfect James Baldwin biopic and what we can look forward to for grown-ish’s sophomore season.

Shahidi has rightfully earned her reputation as a young lady with the utmost poise and grace, but from the moment she propped her chair for backward sitting, I knew that she was a combination of both elegance and homegirl.


Shadow & Act: For Black History Month, AT&T has curated the theme, “History By Us” for your panel today, with Anthony Anderson. Since you are considered by many to be a role model, what kind of impact do you hope to leave in black historical culture?

Yara Shahidi: I try to use my platform through education. So, of course, there’s black-ish and of course there’s grown-ish — I hope those (shows) make an impact in terms of expanding culture and setting precedence to show that people are interested in our stories so that it makes it easier for the next show and the next creative with stories that center around black people. Within my private life, I try to make sure that my peers, supporters and friends have access to our history. I feel that so many times that our history has been written out of textbooks.

So — for example — this is a complete side-note: I was at the British Museum and all of the African exhibits were downstairs. Not only do they systematically separate all of the accomplishments of Egypt from Africa as an entire entity — forgetting that all of those achievements were Black achievements — but if you look at the theoretical culture section everything that was in (that exhibit) was post-colonization. So it was very interesting to see this highly edited version of our history. It was written through the eyes of someone that is European… not written through our eyes. Nothing that really shows how did we really get here… Africa existed before Europeans got there! That was a just a larger example of our history has been constantly controlled by someone other than us. So, whether it’s simply posting about James Baldwin as often as I do, or talking about the books that I’m reading from Steve Biko to Angela Davis, I try to be that other platform that gets people interested. I don’t think there’s a lack of interest… I just think there’s a lack of access. Like, how would you know to look for this person in a bookstore if no one ever told you who this person is?

 

S&A: Speaking of Baldwin, hypothetically speaking, if there were a Baldwin biopic in the works, what aspect of his life would you like to see covered in the film?

YS: Ooooh, well first off I Am Not Your Negro was a great documentary — as a graduation gift, I got to hear Raoul Peck speak at the Schomburg Center in Harlem! It was incredible &mdsh; Spike Lee was in the front row. They were talking about the Baldwin estate…

 

S&A: I know you were geeking out!

YS: Geeked and freaked! But, (regarding a biopic), I really think there is something about Baldwin that represents intersectionality to me. When we discuss him being a man, a black man, and a gay black man in the 60s, you can’t help but relate to some aspect of who he is. And there’s something about the way he talks and his experiences… it doesn’t perpetuate (the idea) that there is only one way to view a situation. He talks with such authenticity about his experience… he talks about the fact that, one, he isn’t perfect, but he also talks about his insecurities. And you can argue that many an author does that, but there’s just something about the way he does it that I really resonate with everything he says. I Am Not Your Negro really did cover the civil rights movement and his relationship to the civil rights movement, centering around the death of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., but I’d like to see (a film) more focused on his personal life and more focused on why he went to France and even his discovery that Americans were just disgruntled Europeans. Everything that he was trying to flee from in America was just as relevant in France. There’s something about that and his personal relationships that I’d just love to know so much more about.

 

S&A: I love that! So, first off congratulations on Season 2 of grown-ish! Is there any particular topics that we can look forward to or any that you’d like to see explored in the next season?

YS: Thank you!! So, not to spoil anything but with Zoey’s personal life….hopefully, she’s a little more put together by the end of Season 1. I’m really looking forward to all of the different stories that will arise and really getting to know each character. We had the difficult task of shooting every episode (of this season) before the show came out, so black-ish at least — if something happens in the headlines — it has the time to address that, versus us having shot everything two months before it airs. So, we had that pressure of “how do we find relevant storylines?” (Storylines) that people connect to, no matter the timeline. I think it will be really interesting to find out what happens this summer… I think campus safety is a huge conversation, which is something we get to touch on at the end of this season, but I can’t wait to expound on that conversation. (I’d like) more of Zoey figuring out who she is. I know that this season was a lot of figuring out in relation to her friend group and guys, but I hope it’ll be a lot more introspective. I’m really just looking forward to having more episodes to really play with! We had to cover an entire freshman year in 13 episodes. So, things happen quickly — with each episode, it’s implied that weeks are missed, right? I’m really looking forward to having the space to play with the really more mundane stories of just the everyday aspect of (college life) and pausing on those slower moments. And delving deeper into her girl squad, for example, you have Ana who is a Cuban Republican or Nomi who is bisexual and Jewish and her uncle is the Dean, so there’s so much to explore I think.

 

This interview has been edited and condensed.