If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

SLR:  Who influenced you growing up?

EDC: Mary Glass was my high school librarian. Mrs. Glass instilled in me the art of being a lady. Mrs. Glass was a chocolate, petite, Delta Diva — very refined in every sense of the word. All my life I wanted to be like her and to make her proud in my accomplishments. She was the first person to discuss college with me, vacationing, acquiring the finer things in life and the first adult to show me what Black people could do more than work at a factory!  Because of Mary Glass, I graduated in the top 10 of my senior class and went on to become the business owner you are meeting today. Mrs. Glass died of breast cancer 2 months after my graduation, but she lives on in my daily walk. She whispers in my ear daily to calm down! I can hear her clearing quoting her favorite phrase to me, “I choose to walk the path least taken, knowing that God is with me.”

As the president of EDC Creations and The Sankofa Literary Society, located in Prince George County, Maryland, Ella D. Curry’s firm provides press kits, graphic design, website design, and branding to small and medium-sized businesses, authors of all literary genres, and individuals.  EDC Creations’ specialization in Internet book promotions, publishing website and marketing materials for new authors is boosting their success rates and educating them on how to turn their passion into lasting lucrative careers in the world of publishing.  Dedicated to Curry’s other loves, which include children, literacy and the preservation of African American history, is the Sankofa :Literary Society , which offers authors, artists, reviewers, journalists and book clubs an array of innovative services.  Incorporating various media formats, Curry, through an Internet radio talk show — Black Authors Network Radio — , Curry brings together authors, publishers and community leaders to discuss the issues that are important to our communities locally and on a global scale.  

SLR:    Please Ms. Curry, Tell us about your early life and education?

EDC: I grew up in the South, the Deep South. Diana Green, my great grandmother, Elizabeth Cook, my grandmother and first mentor, were my very first teachers, there after I continued my formal education at CACC Community College, University of Alabama, Birmingham, and later at the University of Maryland, University College. The lessons that I use daily in life did not come from my college education. They all come from my interaction with the PEOPLE God sent to guide and educate me. My angels come from all walks of life and bring about a myriad of curriculums for Ella Curry. My education continues daily as I meet people who share information or history I didn’t possess. My grandparents instilled me values and standards that no degree could ever out shine. With the simple basics in understanding “the golden rule”, I have grown so much more than a few letters behind my name. Common sense, a feeling of purpose and genuine compassion for your brothers and sisters can bring so much more success in life.

As a successful writer, your career involves more than just writing good material. While producing the best written work is the core of any writing career, getting the attention your work deserves is an important component of your career and is no longer just the responsibility of your agent or publisher. Additionally, it begins long before you land that writing contract or in some cases before you’ve typed “The End” on the final draft of your literary masterpiece.

That’s why it’s crucial to incorporate the business side of your writing career as soon as possible. I’ve introduced you to the benefits working with a publicist in book marketing. It is also important in terms freelance writing as well. We’ll talk more about that later. This series of articles will re-introduce you to Ella D. Curry and EDC Creations. I first told you about Ms. Curry and EDC Creations in August when I wrote the first installment of Author Marking Essentials.

Join me know as we learn more about Ms. Ella D. Curry, EDC Creations and what she is planning for black and multicultural authors, community leaders and the changing face of literacy now and for years to come.

More than just a catalyst to ticket sales, the predominant face associated with a film has a lot to do with the direction it will take and how it will be perceived. The same holds true for the making of The Secret Life of Bees, a New York Times bestseller by Sue Monk Kidd. While she never imagined the book would be published much less make it to the big screen, when asked if she had any input in cast selection, Sue Monk Kidd admitted, “Well, they were kind enough to ask my opinion. They asked me way back, years before, they asked me who I would see playing and I said, Queen Latifah, not that [the stage name] queen had anything to do with it. But she came to mind after I saw her in Chicago. I thought she’d be fabulous.”

No doubt the multitalented performer has excelled at everything she associates herself with from modeling, rapping, acting, producing, talent management as well as her latest foray into classical music, Queen Latifah as matriarchal figure August Boatwright in The Secret Life of Bees would be a major coup. Even director Gina Prince-Bythewood reflects, “The fact that we got everybody we wanted is a great blessing.” More than anything, Queen Latifah was perfect for the role, Bythewood said of the actor, “She exudes warmth and she’s larger than life–and that’s really what August needed to be.”

Beyond what Queen Latifah brought to the film is what she brought to the attitude on the set. When Bythewood explains the difficulty in getting the film off the ground she continues in a voice rich with gratefulness and sincerity, “Latifah is the reason this film got made. Like none of the actors got paid at all for this and Latifah set that tone because she knew that if she didn’t take a huge pay cut and was not in the film, it would not have been made. And films like this need to be made, so she really set the tone which allowed me to have this caliber of cast for no money.”

Carrying a film that studios are skeptical to make not because of its value but because of its potential for broad market appeal, can be a lot a pressure for one actor to take, adding to that the need to adjust within the movie’s budgetary constraints and a less humble or value-based actor would fold under the pressure. However, when asked if she was excited about being the only person envisioned to star in this moving playing one of its only two lead roles, she simply replied, “Yeah.”

Though modest, everyone joined in to sing Latifah’s praises. Nate Parker of The Debaters didn’t miss an opportunity to share what Queen’s presence did for the making of the film, he stated, “One of the things I noticed when I was watching you [Queen Latifah] that was obvious was that you really were like glue. I said it earlier you were almost like the honey between all the kids. And the reason and the connection was clear how everyone kind of fed off of your wisdom.”

Even as all the accolades buzzed around the room for this shining star, Queen Latifah ensured that the accomplishments of her fellow actors weren’t overlooked. She told Ella Curry, Literary Publicist and CEO of EDC Creations and others when asked how she worked so well with the cast and crew, “I think that I can be kind of disarming, because I’m not insecure with myself out of the normal range that other women can be. I’m not walking around on set with a chip on my shoulder and my ego all up like this wouldn’t have been made without me. I don’t do that…you know it’s not one person that makes a movie. Everybody makes a movie. To me the better you keep your spirit the better it is. You’ll have to ask the others how they felt working with me but I am a fan of theirs as well.”

Obviously her philosophy works because the Oscar winner of Dream Girls, Jennifer Hudson said of the Golden Globe, Grammy and SAG-winning actor, “…Queen has the most beautiful spirit. Like, she comes around you and her joy just spills out and everyone is just smiling and happy and you don’t even know why you’re smiling.”

It is an attitude such as this full of peace, humility, honesty and gratefulness that allows the joy the cast experienced on the set to translate through a movie as powerful as The Secret Life of Bees.   

Books and their parts are often used as metaphors for life. For example, “never judge a book by its cover” or “judge a man not by the color of his skin by but the content of his character”, but Grammy-winning, multi-platinum recording artist, Alicia Keys, as she often does in her music, reveals a new perspective in judging a great novel or judging a person. While sitting within the stop and go environment of the movie set for The Secret Life of Bees with book in hand, Keys ponders, “You can tell a good book by the first line, because really a person will show you who they are the first time you meet them.”

Indeed, Alicia Keys showed everyone who she was with debut album “Songs in A Minor” and her subsequent critically acclaimed album release “The Diary of Alicia Keys”. With such movies as Smokin Aces and The Nanny Diaries in her repertoire, the singer, songwriter and musician, has successfully added actor to her resume as well. Knowing what makes a great product, Keys voiced her interest in participating in the film years earlier during its first trip through film development which later lost steam. When the movie landed unwavering support from Fox Search Light Studios, something that hadn’t existed earlier when it made the rounds at other studios, director Gina Prince-Bythewood was uncertain about casting Keys as it would be only Keys’ third dramatic effort. Additionally, the role of June Boatwright had to be rewritten much younger than the book’s character to correspond with Keys’ age. The singer/songwriter definitely did her part by learning to play the cello. Keys said of the experience, “It was actually really exciting for me to learn a brand new instrument…it was definitely a lot of work learning the finer details.”

Apparently, Keys is no stranger to the details as all seeds of doubt have been replaced with adoration. Bythewood said of her performance, “Her work ethic is unbelievable and Alicia gives an incredible performance.” That work ethic was also evident as Keys honored her other commitments without affecting the shooting of the movie. During the Super Bowl the crew and cast members witnessed Keys shed her afro wig and prim clothing to emerge as a sexy songbird ready to dazzle a screaming adrenalin-pumped crowd only to show up later right on schedule as her character June Boatwright. She explained, “I felt uncomfortable when I had to leave everybody, because we had created an environment that really made us sisters and family.”

Nate Parker of The Great Debaters said of getting to know his character’s love interest before the shoot, “…she’s a fantastic person. She’s an activist, she’s a real activist make no mistake. So we had so much in common so take that and apply it to the script, it was…I don’t want to say ‘easy’ but it was effortless…After that I no longer saw her as the singer that other people see.”

Certainly, Keys talent didn’t miss anyone’s radar on the set. When the book’s author, Sue Monk Kidd visited the set during filming, she recounts on her website, “It’s clear that Alicia has completely owned the character of June.’Everyone thinks of her as a singer,’ one of the crew whispers to me, ‘but just wait.’”

Luckily, we no longer have to wait to see Alisha Keys embrace the character of intelligent and strong-willed June Boatwright in The Secret Life of Bees, which opened October 17th.

Before going into the drugstore, Director Gina Prince-Bythewood tapped her young actor on the shoulder, “Jennifer, whatever you do, don’t hit anyone.” Confused, the Oscar-award winning actor of Dream Girls, Jennifer Hudson walked into the North Carolina drugstore unsure what would happen next or why she would need such a warning.

The unique telling of life’s universal themes of love and belonging in 1964’s racially turbulent south within Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 New York Times bestseller The Secret Life of Bees easily seeped into the movie’s preparation in much the same way honey seeped through the walls of the author’s childhood bedroom. While improvisation and research are not unusual preparatory measures for performing a period piece such as this, the exercises Prince-Bythewood developed exposed some of her youngest cast members to the mindset of South Carolina in 1964. Knowing her casts’ lack of personal connection to or personal reference of that time, the director had to move past just exposing them to the music and clothing of the generation. As Prince-Bythewood summarized, “Jennifer was coming up on the Oscars then…and just thinking of how I’m going to bring her down to where Rosaleen was, no education, she’s working as a nanny, she’s invisible, this is 1964 and she had nobody to talk to about that; I mean we weren’t alive at that time so I had to do something dramatic.”

             In a time where pure racial hatred has given way to tolerance, acceptance and sometimes racist passivity, the director constructed an exercise that brought the everyday race relations of 1964 into the cast’s own mental and emotional framework. Bythewood sent southern-born I Am Sam star, Dakota Fanning and Chicagoan Jennifer Hudson on a shopping excursion at a drugstore and diner. It wasn’t until Hudson witnessed the polite service Fanning received that is afforded to everyone today and contrasted it to her own experience of being ignored and insulted with racial epithets in the same mock-scenario, did she come to realize that racism was an outward expression of a belief system that was a commonly accepted form of human interaction for the time period.

             Throughout interviews with the young actors at the faith-based press junket, amazement at the race relations of the time period were echoed repeatedly regardless of everyone’s familiarity with Rosa Parks’ story, stories of lynchings and the videos of African Americans beaten in the streets with batons and hosed down like wild dogs at the hands of the police during racial protests. When asked about the seemingly pervasive amazement at 1960’s race relations, one of the youngest male cast members, Tristan Wilds of 90201 and The Wire commented, “…you don’t really understand what goes on unless you go through it yourself…” One of the older male actors, Nate Parker of The Great Debaters said it best when EDC Creations CEO and Literary Publicist Ella Curry asked about research and breaking from the ’60s character when the work was done, “We’re still in the Civil Rights movement. The only thing that changes is the clothes and the hair.” Two completely different perspectives from young African American men no more 10 years apart speak to the depths of discovery The Secret Life of Bees brings to all who encounter it.

On the surface, Sue Monk Kidd’s 2002 New York Times best seller The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, a young teen-aged Caucasian girl learning the lessons of love and family in the Civil Rights era of South Carolina 1964. Adapted to the screen and ready for a mid-October 2008 release, the preponderance of African American supporting characters enduring the treachery of the South during the Civil Rights era would lead those unfamiliar with the story to believe it’s another “We Shall Overcome” redemption saga.

As Director and Screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood put it when Ella Curry, Literary Publicist and CEO of EDC Creations asked about the book’s appeal for a movie adaptation, the director said, “It starts with the story. I wanted to tell this story…I knew that the story and the themes were universal.”

Indeed the themes of family, community, respect, and spiritual awakening in The Secret Life of Bees applies to everyone.

 While these concepts have been covered in many literary works, the origin of this story is like no other. Rarely is the era of Civil Rights explored from the perspective of a Caucasian teenager, Lily Owens played by Sam I Am star Dakota Fanning, who is an outward African American sympathizer. So outward are Lily’s connections to the African American southern community that she leaves her abusive father after the death of her mother and discovers her life’s lessons amid her African American nanny played by Dream Girls Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson, and the bee-farming African American Boatwright sisters who board them. The story belongs to the Boatwright sisters as much as it belongs to Lily as they survive that turbulent time together. Prince-Bythewood continues, “…to bring the Boatwright sisters to life, like we just don’t see women like that and I wanted to be the one to be able to do that. I felt it was a gift.”

The real irony comes in the fact that these interracial relationships and the damage of racism that is felt across color lines were not solely drawn up from the depths of the author’s imagination. When Sue Monk Kidd was asked how she came up with the story’s perspective, she replied, “I was pulling from both imagination and memory. I grew up in a small town in Georgia so I came of age in the ’60s…It was a time I think when it was just very volatile and very vivid and I remember it deeply.” While Lily’s plight is not autobiographical to Monk Kidd’s experience, the emotion, the symbolism as well as certain occurrences like bees making honey in the walls of her childhood bedroom is true to her memory.

The Secret Life of Bees shakes up the perspectives that surround the Civil Rights Era demonstrating the dangers and injustices that existed for many daring to blur the color line in search of self-acceptance and belonging.

In general, I don’t consider myself a movie-hyper. As a matter of fact, I tend to shy away from movies that get too much press out of the fear that I will be severely disappointed come opening night. It’s the reason why I have not seen Men In Black, Independence Day, any of the Lord of the Rings or the more recent Star Wars movies.

I did break down and see a few Harry Potter films and I saw Hitch, The Pursuit of Happyness and Hancock. (I had to throw those in so you don’t think I’m a WIll Smith hater. I’m not. He is a good actor. I almost saw Ali–almost.) Ever notice how many of the most hyped movies are WIll Smith movies? I loved him in Pursuit and Hancock. HItch was funny although I think his sidekick from the King of Queens really hijacked that movie. But in general, if there’s too much buzz, I tend to run in the other direction.

Anyway, there is just something different about The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd. Despite the fact that my publicity girl, Ella Curry over at EDC Creations obtained some killer audio at a press junket she attended for the movie and the fact that I busted my “arse” to write a slew of articles based on those audios, I really think it is a timely movie and delivers a message in a way we don’t see everyday.

Not to mention a white author successfully writing about a slew of black characters during the Civil Rights era from the perspective a little white girl and doing so with great style intrigues me. Yes, this movie is a literary adaptation. It also has many multicultural themes, so it is right up my alley. Yet, it’s sad how we often don’t hear about a great book until someone decides to make a movie out of it. This is one of those books.

So what am I warning you about? Well, I will be posting a number of the articles I wrote about the book, the movie and its award-winning cast right here at Sable Lit Reviews, in preparation for the movie’s release this Friday.

Don’t worry, each article will touch on a different theme, character or incident in the making of the movie and you won’t miss out on any book reviews or haunted reviews either. I just ask that you really consider this movie when you are making your weekend plans. The cast took a serious paycut to make it because movies like these are not made as frequently as they should. The hype surrounding someone making a movie for a good cause and to add to the literary discourse of society? Now that I can get behind!

With a presence that is all embracing, Dr. Maya Angelou has released to the world a volume of poetry and prose to the women she has adopted as daughters and to those who have claimed her as mother in Letter to My Daughter. Not unlike other works such as I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings or The Heart of a Woman, Dr. Angelou reveals to the women of the world, as Literary Publicist and EDC Creations CEO Ella Curry put it, in the rhythm of her poetry and the elegance of her prose”, an expression of numerous useful lessons in terms of the people she’s met, the places she’s travelled and the events of her life.

When Dr. Angelou met with Curry on September 11th, 2008, the seventh anniversary of a very scary and profound time in US history, it was to discuss the release of her new book Letter to My Daughter. What came out of that interview were the pure magic of spirit and a great appreciation of life’s experiences.

After speaking of friends long and recently passed, Curry, considering the political climate in which we find ourselves as a nation, asked Dr. Angelou about her own activist history. In the late 1950’s, Dr. Angelou was appointed by Dr. Martin Luther King to the position of northern coordinator for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Ever the storyteller, Dr. Angelou took us back to that time envisioning her as she was, tall, thin and with enormously billowing natural hair. Dr. Angelou goes on to tell of the experience, “A number of the people really, they were made really uncomfortable…people around the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in New York. One woman dropped a note in a column in the New York African American newspaper, The Amsterdam News. She wrote, “Who is this person who has come from the west coast with the savage hairdo? Don’t they have beauticians or at least barbers out there on the coast?’”  An anecdote like that is priceless and is only an example of many magical moments in Curry’s interview with Dr. Angelou.

Given the topic, Dr. Angelou moved on to describe the electricity of the time. She said, “It was heavy and so exciting because you’d have to be in his presence to sense the authority that Rev. King had.” When Curry asked if Angelou saw similarities with the buzz created around Democratic Presidential-nominee Barack Obama, she had this to say, “Yes, I sense some of that. Of course, Senator Obama [is living] in another time. He is very inclusive, which is a wonderful thing. At the same time when Rev. King first started, he was not inclusive, he wasn’t exclusive but it was only at the end of his life that he began to include openly.” She went on to illustrate the fact with King’s organization of the Poor People’s March, a march that was not about race as much as it was about the struggle of the poor, no matter what skin they might be in. Regarding Dr. King, she continued, “When he became that inclusive, he really became dangerous.”

Such insight from a woman who has lived in both periods is truly priceless. Dr. Angelou knows something about inclusiveness as she addresses Letter to My Daughter she writes, “You are Black and White, Jewish and Muslim, Asian, Spanish-speaking, Native American and Aleut. You are fat and thin and pretty and plain, gay and straight, educated and unlettered, and I am speaking to you all.” Thank God she is as we are all eager to listen.

About Laura Major: Laura Major is a multicultural fiction author and freelance writer residing in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona. Her first novel, Mismatched was published by Amira Press in February of 2008. Laura also manages a multicultural website, Sable Lit Reviews.com, one of the few of its kind providing commentary on the multicultural impact of current events as well as multicultural book reviews.

With women making the largest strides in the arenas of politics, education, entrepreneurship and business, no other time is more poignant for Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou’s poetic tribute to the emotionally adopted daughters who have touched her life. In response to the question regarding the reason for her tribute, she was quoted, “I gave birth to one child–a son, but I have thousands of daughters.” No doubt with this poetic volume, Dr. Angelou will garner many more female supporters happy to draw upon her maternal wisdom. 

On September 11, 2008, the seventh anniversary of a very scary and profound time in US history, Dr. Maya Angelou met with Literary Publicist and CEO of EDC Creations Ella Curry to discuss her gift of poetry to the world’s daughters. When Curry further asked about the book’s inspiration, Dr. Angelou confided, “Well, this is my 80th year and I have been celebrating it all year long. And I realize that I have much less time ahead of me than I have behind and that I have learned some lessons and am in the process of learning some. So I thought I would jot down some of the incidents, some events which took place in my life from which I drew great lessons.”

Always a teacher and naturally so, Angelou had this to say, “In looking at that [my life's lessons], I didn’t want to say which lessons I learned or what exactly I did with the lessons–solutions. Because I know that my readers are as intelligent and resourceful and they will read about one incident they will get one solution. They’ll gather it and then six months later, if they read it again they will find another possible lesson to be learned. I know that is the way I do when I read other people’s work…I hope that’s what will happen to my readers.”

Opening with a powerful letter to daughters everywhere, Angelou says in part, “My life has been long, and believing that life loves the liver of it, I have dared to try many things, sometimes trembling, but daring, still.” As Curry accurately described, Dr. Angelou, “in the rhythm of her poetry and the elegance of her prose”, expresses the numerous useful lessons in terms of the people she’s met, the places she’s been and the events of her life.

During the interview with Ms. Curry, one of the most awe-struck memories she shares is her friendship with Civil Rights Activist, Coretta Scott King. She says of their friendship, “I was brought to look at those events because a number of friends of mine have died recently and I thought back to Ms. King and how we were chosen sisters and how I miss her.” Knowing the importance of grieving time but also knowing the need to celebrate the legacy our loves often leave for us, Dr. Angelo continued, “…I felt, ‘Well maybe, maybe there’s a way I can reduce the mourning, if I can go back to that life and see what their friendship did for me.’ And as I went back, I was disheartened, heartened, I was inspired because I had been thinking about their absence and not really about the fun we had and the lessons they taught me.” Dr. Angelou goes on to describe how Ms. King’s “stick-to-it-tiveness” has bolstered a lasting memory of her influential husband that may not have been more than “footnote in history” without Ms. King’s tenacity.

Dr. Maya Angelou’s Letter to My Daughter is packed with profound and inspirational gems designed to do what all faithful motherly advice does–educate, empower and empathize.

About Laura Major: Laura Major is a multicultural fiction author and freelance writer residing in the greater Phoenix area of Arizona. Her first novel, Mismatched was published by Amira Press in February of 2008. Laura also manages a multicultural website, Sable Lit Reviews.com, one of the few of its kind providing commentary on the multicultural impact of current events as well as multicultural book reviews.