Lena Waithe & Kerby Jean-Raymond conversation at 92Y in NYC
Lena Waithe and Kerby Jean-Raymond at 92Y. Photo Credit: Andrea Klerides / Michael Priest Photography
I was in the building to witness this great conversation last week at the 92Y( thanks Carrie !) between friends and ground-breaking creatives Lena Waithe & Kerby Jean-Raymond. As a writer, film grad & fellow creative to listen to Lena delve into her writing process for the new film Queen and Slim, it felt very open and a great reveal about her process and inspiring to understand and feel what she went through to create this script and as a creator in general. Queen & Slim opened on November 25th in theaters.
Kerby asks about writing more in a poetic way rather than a linear writing with Queen and Slim:
Lena Waithe: “Everything in the movie is a culmination of an experience or conversation I have had or gone through or something I have witnessed or seen. The movie is also a reflection of who I am right now. Ten or Twenty years from now I will look back on it and say oh that’s where I was as an artist, that’s where I was as a woman then. It’s a time capsule”
Kerby asks how does the next Lena actually become the next Lena education-wise, experience-wise and what can you give to let someone look through the window of what this process looks like:
LW: “The word I can think of is an obsession. I am so obsessed with almost everything, I’m obsessed with dialogue, the musicality of language and words; I’m obsessed with an inflection that’s a big thing for me of where do you put that and what word are you putting that on. It really is like music to me. I am an operatic writer, I need the words to feel and sound a certain way to invoke a certain type of emotion. “
Kerby speaks on how his life has changed, securing the bag and breaking through:
Kerby Jean-Raymond: “If you are listening in the hopes of being here one day, you have to trust your struggle and trust your process.”
To see the full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEu-M5yjkFg
Kerby Jean-Raymond and Lena Waithe Photo Credit: Andrea Klerides / Michael Priest Photography
Lena Waithe & Kerby Jean-Raymond. Photo Credit: Andrea Klerides / Michael Priest Photography
