January 2023

Kenya Barris has carved out a TV empire for himself thanks to being the creator of Black-ish and two of its spin-offs as well as an executive producer on a slew of Netflix TV programs. Barris has also had a recurring presence in film as a screenwriter but save for being one of the writers on the 2017 comedy Girls Trip, his writing credits have been for a wave of reboots/sequels from major studios like The Witches, Shaft, and that Disney+ Cheaper by the Dozen remake. Considering that he was one of several writers on all these films, not to mention that these were franchise pictures designed to please audience expectations rather than challenge them, it’s fair to say Barris’s voice hasn’t been especially discernible in feature-length narratives up to this point.

I attended a family reunion over the weekend. This gathering was different because what drew us together were the memories former generations shared more than those around the table. I was there with the kids, grandkids, and great grandkids of my paternal grandmother and her siblings. I never met my dad’s mom. She was seven months pregnant with her third child when she died at the age of 24 of a brain aneurysm. She and the baby both died. And yet, my daughter’s middle name was chosen in honor of this woman: Clemmie.

What comes to mind when you think of someone who is blessed? Maybe it’s a successful career, a long marriage to a loving partner, children who have made it to adulthood, or a whole passel of grandchildren – and all of them enjoyable to be around. No doubt, many of us would count those as blessings, and we might mention many more in a similar vein.