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“No one got into comedy to make fun of Donald Trump. You get into comedy so you can dress like a dinosaur and sing a song,” Peacock’s The Amber Ruffin Show host Amber Ruffin told Refinery29 over the phone in late November. But Donald Trump’s administration — a white supremacist black hole that swallowed logic, human rights, and comedy starting with his election in 2016 — banished such frivolity from the late night TV landcape. When he was elected, the comedy community wasn’t quite sure how to deal with a professional reality show buffoon squatting in the White House for four years. But the after-hours genre very quickly became our most reliable daily reality check on Trump & Co.’s punishing, brain-melting activities. 

From Samantha Bee’s Full Frontal monologues on TBS to the reliably searing commentary of Daily Show correspondents like Dulcé Sloan, late night was there to break down the day’s horrors into digestible pieces and maybe make you choke out a gallows laugh before bed (or during your morning commute). As Comedy Central’s Sloan told Refinery29, “That seems like what everyone has been doing the whole time: Just like, ‘I know I’m not the only one who saw this!’” 

But today is January 21, 2021, the first official full day of the Biden era. Trump is somewhere in Florida, far from the cameras of Washington, D.C. Despite weeks of blood pressure-raising deadly turmoil, you can practically hear the national sigh of relief over a new day in America. 

“I am thrilled that we will be able to get back to dressing like dinosaurs and singing songs, and we won’t have to do heartfelt pieces about the hate people feel for us,” Ruffin, who is also a breakout writer/recurring star of NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers, added. ”I mean maybe not as many.”  

Comedy can also be real joy about a sandwich you ate. It doesn’t have to be so painful.

Amber Ruffin

Late night likely won’t be tasked with defining reality following the lumbering fascist’s departure from the Oval Office. While Biden may be the  “plastic straws” of politicians, as Woody Harrelson said during his 2019 Saturday Night Live impression of the now-president, he has shown a basic interest in humanity in the months leading up to his White House move-in date. Comedy is getting so much of its time — and sanity — back. The genre will be filling that gap with creepy crawlies, sandwiches, and the importance of smaller elections, if you ask its leading ladies — while also probably still battling the dregs of what Donald Trump has wrought. 

“I think I’m mostly just excited to wake up and not have to see Donald Trump,” Full Frontal co-head writer Kristen Barlett chuckled a week prior to Biden and Harris’ Inauguration Day. After all, when Barlett — who took over the leadership role in February 2020 — was confronted by Trump every single day, Full Frontal’s less politically dire stories could be pushed for months. The “Fat People Have Heads” segment, which Barlett wrote with Full Frontal writer Ashley Nicole Black, was conceived in October 2019. It finally aired in February 2020. 

Other topics took a backseat, too: “We have a show about endangered wildlife,” Bartlett noted. “With Donald Trump the past four years, there hasn’t really been time to talk about that. And then we have a piece coming up soon about environmental racism. Stories that highlight what’s happening in the world that needs to be fixed.” 

The key to tackling these serious issues going forward is hyper-specificity. For Full Frontal, that hopefully means exploring endangered animals through the lens of “ugly animals.” “Yes! We know about pandas,” Barlett explained. “But there are also some very important worms.” 

Ruffin, on the other hand, is open to sillier fare: “The main thing that most comedians are thinking now that Trump is gone, is, ‘I can get back to comedy. Comedy can be part social commentary. That’s great. But comedy can also be real joy about a sandwich you ate. It doesn’t have to be so painful. Hopefully, Joe Biden will give us the room to do that.”  

Late night’s stars recognize that the fatal insurrection at the capital just over two weeks ago means they won’t be done grappling with Trump’s legacy anytime soon. “We all knew he wasn’t going to go quietly into the night,” The Daily Show’s Sloan, who is prioritizing “evergreen” stories this year, said. “Them raiding the Capitol wasn’t a surprising thing. The surprising thing was them being allowed to leave. That was the thing that was hardest to understand and was kind of insulting, truly — as an American, as a Black person. That was the thing that was hardest to stomach. I’m just like, ‘What do you mean they’re just going home?’”   

Late night writers are prepared to monitor Biden’s response to the inevitable troubles to come. While they know a Biden presidency is a step in the right political direction, they don’t expect this new political era to be a cure-all for a nation in peril. More than 400,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, with numbers continuing to rise. Climate change is still a deadly pressing threat. Only two weeks ago, thousands of dangerous Trump supporters stormed the Capitol. It’s unlikely their views changed overnight. 

“I’m only going to say nice things about Joe Biden… kidding! That is super not the case. I think we’ll just tell the truth like we do about everything else,” Ruffin joked. “A positive-ish thing about having gone through four years of Trump is people got fed up with garbage. And I think there still will be plenty of garbage. Even if everything Joe Biden did was right, to undo the Trump garage is going to quite a lot of work.” 

Sloan echoed Ruffin: “Trump is gone and Biden’s here. But we still have to look at, and find the comedy in, any flaw or any issues that might come up with Biden being president. This can’t be, ‘Ding dong the witch is dead.’” 

Despite the garbage ahead, Kristen Barlett is still hopeful. “No matter what, our show wants to hold people responsible for inciting violence [earlier this month]. I think that’s going to be a very real thing we talk about for the rest of the year,” she began. “But, my God, I hope we get to talk about the worms as well.”

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“I am telling you right now, if it wasn’t my dad the last time someone knocked at my door, I would have probably just not opened it, locked it, and been done with it,” 2020 Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams laughed over a Zoom call with Refinery29, lovingly leaning on the shoulder of her winner, Zac Clark. On Tuesday, the Bachelorette finale aired the couple’s engagement after Adams broke up with Ben Smith for the second time and eliminated Ivan Hall, citing religious differences.  

“What if it was me?,” Clark joked, forcing his fiancée to reconsider her position. “Okay then I would have opened the door … I was done with the door after a while,” Adams admitted. 

If you watched the second half of The Bachelorette season 16, you probably noticed the revolving door of surprise visitors Adams had to entertain. Bennett Jordan, slow-to-emotions Smith, and Adams’ own father Desmond Adams all stopped by to drop bombshells on the Bachelorette. 

Usually, a Bachelorette’s dad begging her not to make the “biggest mistake of her life” — as Desmond did during Tuesday night’s finale — would be the biggest shock of the episode. But, for many watching, they walked away from “Week 12” still thinking about faith. Adams’ early-episode split with Hall over religion was the ultimate shock of the season closer, leaving viewers wondering what happened during an apparent off-camera conversation. Hall has since told Bachelor Nation alum Caila Quinn via direct message he “isn’t religious.”

The finale suggested that Adams, a proud Christian woman, aligns with fiancé Clark on the subject — and everything else — in a far more potent manner. Now, about three months after their engagement, the couple is giving us major insight into the delicate topic, while spilling Fantasy Suite secrets and meditating on their most emotional conversation in the finale. 

Refinery29: Religion becomes such a surprising key to the finale. What was the process like for you to talk about such a personal thing on camera? 

Tayshia Adams: “My faith is a huge part of me. It’s how I was raised and it’s something I fall back on every single day. It’s gotten me to this point in my life. Religion is a real subject that everybody should be talking about. I don’t think it falls short of any of the big conversations that I’ve had with any of the other men. So, of course I’m going to talk about religion.”  

How are you both connecting as a couple on religion? It was clearly a big part of your decision making. 

Zac Clark: Look, for me, I believe in God. I believe that there are no coincidences. I’m here for a reason, and Tayshia and I have been able to connect on that. We do share time in prayer together and all that kind of stuff. I believe that’s important to have that foundation, because we’re going to raise children together and do all the things. We believe in that being a central point to everything else. 

How did you approach your private conversations in the Fantasy Suites, since that seemed to clinch your choice? 

Adams: “That is really the time where you’re able to take a deep breath and let it all out and really talk about the things that might be a little embarrassing in front of the camera. Or something you’re actually fearful of — something you’ve experienced in that past that you don’t want the whole world to hear. Zac and I are really comfortable with each other talking about any subject. I don’t think that we shy away from anything that we feel like needs to be discussed.”  

Clark: “I think there’s a lot of energy around the Fantasy Suites of, What happens there! All this scandal. But the truth of the matter is, when the cameras went away and producers left, nothing changed. That was really a huge tell for me in our relationship that we were being authentic, no matter what was going on.” 

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A post shared by Zac Clark (@zwclark)

Tayshia, at the end of your final one-on-one with Zac, you voiced your fears of becoming a “housewife” in five years after saying you want to “rule the world.” What was it like sharing that anxiety, which is very relatable? 

Adams: “That was really on my heart. I’ve been in a situation where I don’t speak my mind and I don’t say what I feel. At the end of it, someone will like hold my words to me and they’re like, ‘No! You said you wanted to do this.’ Yes, but I also meant this. 

“People can twist your words. I feel like you have to be honest with yourself and your partner if you want a successful relationship. That’s a fear that I truly did have and again I feel like I can talk to Zac about anything. Just the validation that he gave me was very reassuring that I can continue to do that in a safe place. You should definitely vocalize how you feel always.”  

Zac, what was it like supporting Tayshia in that very vulnerable moment? It feels like Tayshia saved sharing her biggest fears for you. 

Clark: “One of the things we were able to connect on was that the reality of my life and the reality of her life is that we are two very busy, energetic, passionate human beings. So, really allowing one another to have our lives, truly, [is a priority], whether it’s work or going on a trip with the ladies for a weekend. Just supporting her and knowing that when we are together we’re going to be each other’s priority. 

“We joked on the show that we’re going to build an empire. But there’s some truth behind that in that we’re going to support each other in our dreams and our goals and our aspirations.”  

Adams: “Oh, no, no, no. I wasn’t joking. I’m building an empire.” 

This interview has been edited and condensed.

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Ten seconds: That’s how long it takes to know that Odley Jean is going to be a star. As high school junior Dominique “Dom” Pierre on the new Netflix series Grand Army, a range of emotions — relief, over a much-need injection of cash for her siblings; pride, from her work as a teenage hair expert; playful irritation, over her white classmates screaming “Bodak Yellow”; and casual horniness for her crush — wash over her face within the first 10 seconds that viewers see her in the series’ premiere. 

But the true power of Jean’s performance really shines through in Grand Army’s seventh episode, when Dom, exhausted from running on the hamster wheel that is her life, unburdens herself during an interview for an internship at a mental health organization. In five minutes of true vulnerability, Dom makes clear that access to mental healthcare isn’t some esoteric intellectual exercise for her — it’s a lifeboat, one that she, and thousands of Black women and girls like her, desperately need in a world specifically crafted to work against them. Dom isn’t sad that “self-care” feels out of her reach, she’s angry. But Dom also knows she isn’t allowed to be angry. Unless, of course, she wants to fall into society’s trap for her, and be dismissed for her emotions. So Dom is simply left heartbroken. 

“The first time I read it, I cried,” Jean says, sporting a cozy mustard yellow shirt, a short black bob, a bare face, and a bracelet reading “GRAND ARMY” on her wrist.

The 24-year-old self-described “mommy’s girl” is talking to me on Zoom from her bedroom in her family home in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood on a late September morning, admitting that she can’t imagine moving out of the house she shares with her mother. Jean, who is finishing her last semester toward a degree in social work at Nassau Community College and just recently started an internship at a women’s and children’s center, also went to high school in Brooklyn. Her alma mater, Clara Barton, is not so far away from where the fictional Grand Army High School could be found — and that’s not the end of the similarities of Jean and Dom’s experiences. “It’s a topic that a lot of my friends talk about and I grew up talking about,” Jean continues of her series-defining monologue. “It gave me chills.” 

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When audiences see it, they too will likely get chills. But they’ll also feel invigorated, because they’ll be witnessing something unique for television: an authentic and unfortunately rare look at what it means to be a Haitian-American girl like Dom, who lives in a working- class matriarchal household that fits three generations of family members into one apartment. Dom is the kind of girl who strives for everything she has, whether that means sleepless nights or parties skipped to maintain stability for her loved ones and fulfill her own college dreams. 

“It resonates with a lot of the Black girls, Caribbean Black girls in Brooklyn, I would hope,” Jean says. For her, this moment is defined by hope and a little bit of awe. “I’m still embracing the fact that things are happening the way they’re meant to happen. I did work for this, and this is just what happens when you get a leading role for a show on Netflix,” Jean says, before whispering in shock, like a roller coaster is about to start, “What the fuck?” 

Although Grand Army is a show about New York City teens, it was mostly filmed in Toronto, though some shooting did take place in Brooklyn. Whereas many of New York City’s public high schools are effectively segregated — Jean’s high school student body was, she says, almost 100% Black — Grand Army goes out of its way to be multicultural. Still, the interactions among the GA kids resonate with Jean years after high school.  

“The slut-shaming was present. The depression and going through mental health [issues] was present,” she recalls, comparing her high school experience to Dom’s journey. “Some privilege was very much present, even through colorism.” 

Jean often sounds like Grand Army’s perfect daughter and hyper-busy student, Dom; she even studied nursing in high school because it was what her mother wanted her to do. Like Dom, who can be seen on the show juggling a multi-part hair business, familial obligations, a heavy course load, high school sports, and a blossoming love life, Jean was also extremely busy during her high school years, doing hair for extra cash and selling brownies to pay for prom.

“I had to learn the hard way that I was taking on too many things and had my schedule overpacked,” she says. “But at the same time, I wanted to do everything because it’s an opportunity. I’m still learning that. I’m still learning how to break out of that.”  

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It seems like she’s doing a good job at figuring out how to do just that, and bucking the expectations that everyone else had for her. Despite her mother’s practical nursing dreams, Jean had other ideas, and first caught the acting bug doing a Christmas play towards the end of elementary school. “This one guy in my church was like, ‘Oh, you little actress! You need to take acting classes. I see you in movies and stuff,’” Jean remembers. “I was such a shy kid, I was just like, ‘I don’t know!’ But deep down I really wanted to do it.” 

Jean was finally able to explore her brewing passion in high school, when an extra credit assignment introduced her to the work of Opening Act, a non-profit theater organization. “I didn’t even know my school had a theater program,” she says, looking into the camera with a resigned stare. Jean joined Opening Act the next semester. It was a move that put her directly on the path to Grand Army. 

“One of the Opening Act students invited me to a StopSlut Girl Coalition meeting,” Jean explains, referencing the workshop founded by Grand Army’s creator Katie Cappiello that brings teenage girls together to combat slut-shaming and sexual aggression. After the first meeting, Cappiello invited Jean to another event. “She offered me a scholarship to her girls’ theater program,” Jean says. Eight year later, Jean has worked with Cappiello nonstop, performing thought-provoking plays as part of the StopSlut Girl Coalition around the country for audiences filled with judges, lawyers, and survivors. This kind of emotionally heavy subject matter requires a level of trust between actor and director, and it’s clear Jean has that with Cappiello; she even tears up talking about Cappiello’s impact on her life.

Despite their long-standing working relationship, Jean swears Cappiello didn’t write Dom for her — or about her. “It’s not my story,” she says. “I think Katie wrote Dom for every one of us. Because I’m not the only first-generation Haitian student she had.”

Still, it was Jean who won the part of Dom, even though, as someone new to the world of screen-acting, she had some uncertainties going in. “When I got the role, I felt like I wasn’t ready for it. That I wasn’t good enough for it. Black women, Black people, have to normalize giving themselves credit and wanting more for themselves,” Jean says, wiping away tears. “We need to normalize being able to take that in and feel like, Yes, you know what? I deserved it.” 

Now that Jean has read every Grand Army script and watched the series “so many times,” she is ready for other people to see it, even if she can’t control their reactions. When asked if the cast recognized that there would undoubtedly be some drama upon the series’ release, Jean says, “Hell yeah!” But she also turned down comparisons to other recent controversial teen shows, like Euphoria and 13 Reasons Why. Instead, Jean thinks it’s more like Degrassi, which she watched while she was growing up: “It taught you the things that were going on.” 

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Her face lights up when she mentions the fact that Lauren Collins — aka Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Paige — was at the Grand Army table read. “And they tried to get Manny in, but Manny was busy,” Jean reveals. 

Like Degrassi before it, Grand Army isn’t afraid afraid to dive into painful topics like sexual assault, systematic racism in the education system, and even terrorism. Dom’s storyline sheds light on the precarious position of families that are just one paycheck away from financial ruin, and shows the creative ways they must overcome a system stacked against them. 

“I feel like Grand Army is literally a mirror,” Jean says. “We need to see this because we’ve been seeing [these problems] all year. We see it with politics. We see it with everything.”

Jean isn’t just seeing the problems — she’s acting on them. “2020 showed me the facts,” she says, “And I was just like, I don’t give a fuck. It is what it is.” Lately, she has been using her own Instagram account to reflect the injustice she sees in the world. In July, she spoke out about police brutality and reminded followers that Black lives still matter — even if ant-racist protests began to disappear from their feeds. 

“We need protesters, we need organizers. We need everyone at this point. It’s really touchy, but that’s because this system is so protected. And I can be dragged literally for [doing the Black power fist],” she says, doing the gesture into the camera for emphasis. But Jean — who has five Black nephews — shrugs at the threat of hypothetical hate. “People’s lives are at stake. My nephews’ lives are at stake. My mom’s life is at stake. My family is at stake the minute they step out of their house, because of the color of their skin. Because of our history. I’m not going to back down.” 

And there’s more than one way to make a stand: Jean says it’s “amazing” to know she can serve as a sign of possibility for young people watching Grand Army. Particularly since Jean needed to look up to actresses two generations ahead of her — like Taraji P. Henson and Jada Pinkett Smith — as a teen, since Jean’s teenage years were filled with shows like Gossip Girl and Pretty Little Liars that lacked anyone who looked like her, let alone had a similar background. Yet, Jean also recognizes her potential fans need more than just her as a hero. 

“We need to see more characters like Dom. And maybe even better ones, too,” she says. “I want girls to see themselves, no matter what skin tone they are, no matter what color … I want girls like me to be able to know they can get there no matter what.”  

“The quote under my high school picture was, ‘I live to inspire,’” Jean says, a proud smile spreading across her face. “I used to always say that when I was young. It’s so cool to be in a place where I can actually do that.” 

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“I have to show proof that this is my natural ass — ever since I was a little girl. That this is part of my DNA, and I was born like that,” Amara La Negra announces. We sit facing each other, any Zoom-related disconnect vanishing as she stares directly at me through the camera. Despite claiming not to be “fixed up,” Amara’s auburn curls hang to perfection around her immaculately highlighted face. Every time she blinks, it is impossible not to notice the purple shimmer dancing on her eyelids; each gesture brings my attention to her inch-long bright pink coffin nails. (“I couldn’t see myself without nails. I think I would feel like a boy.”) 

“I didn’t get my nose done,” she continues. I didn’t ask, but 29-year-old Love & Hip Hop: Miami star Amara is used to people assuming she’s lying about her appearance. Despite years of defending herself, Amara must constantly explain her Afro-Latina identity as a dark-skinned woman — down to whether or not her body is natural or surgically enhanced.  

It’s early September and Amara is in her Miami home, talking to me while that aforementioned natural bottom sits comfortably on a rococo chair that might better be described as a throne. Its gold curves and filigree rise above her shoulders, a stark symbol of luxury against a flat white wall. This manse is well-known to fans who tuned in to watch Amara in Love & Hip Hop: Miami season 3, which aired earlier this year. Yet the opulent confidence of her personal brand and ardent Afro-Latinx advocacy are juxtaposed with a lesser-known story, one that includes homelessness and visits to adult film sets. Amara is open about the complexities and multiple facets of her life. It’s all part of her crusade to cut through ignorance about her community, which is comprised of all the people whose ancestors were “brought” to Latin America from Africa (read: brutally kidnapped and sold into slavery).

This campaign is personal for Amara in more ways than one. Since becoming a public figure in 2012 with her single “Ayy,” the self-described singer, author, performer, dancer, and “activist” has dealt with allegations that she dons blackface, and criticism that her skyward-reaching afro is fake. 

For the record, Amara’s hair isn’t a wig, but she does add extensions to maintain a perfect round shape in the Miami humidity. “I know that it’s very loud and scandalous for a lot of people when they see me,” she explains. “But it’s what makes me feel the most comfortable, because it goes with my personality. It represents my beliefs.”

Amara’s fans can now see more of those convictions on HBO’s Latinx-led special Habla Now, which premiered on September 18. The special is a part of the educational blitz Amara has been on for years, having served as pop culture’s Afro-Latinx 101 professor on The Breakfast Club radio show, NPR, The Real, and her own VH1 reality series. Amara is a natural at schooling ardent followers and casual fans alike, thanks to her unflinching honesty and willingness to answer potentially uncomfortable questions even before they’re asked, like, when she point-blank told me over Zoom: “This is part of my genetics. I don’t take melanin shots. I don’t take melanin pills. I am naturally Black.” 

Born Diana Danelys de los Santos, Amara’s confidence, work ethic, and stage name — Amara La Negra, meaning “Amara the Black Woman” — are, she tells me, a tribute to her parents and heritage. A first-generation American born in Miami to Domican parents, Amara was raised by her single mother, Ana Maria Oleaga. “I come from an immigrant mother who is Carribean. We are accustomed to working very hard. If I were to work just one job, I think I would feel like my life is trash.” Her father, whom viewers saw briefly on Love & Hip Hop, wasn’t in her life until recently. 

An only child, Amara was a natural-born performer. At the age of 4, she auditioned to be a dancer on the classic Latinx variety show Sábado Gigante with the support of her mother. Although it might seem like a dream to be cast in a show at such a young age, Amara has since explained that as “the only Black girl” in the cast, she was often pushed to the middle of a number or into the back row, despite her talent. In Habla Now, she recounts a formative moment, when she overheard Gigante’s hair expert telling her mom that Amara’s coily hair was simply “unmanageable.” 

Amara — whose stage name is taken from the girl group she was in as a teen — bounced around the Latin music scene until her breakout hit, “Ayy.” But fame — even coupled with a childhood showbiz career — doesn’t necessarily mean fortune: Amara was broke. In 2015, she spent three months without a home, something she fearlessly spoke about on Love & Hip Hop this year. “The truth of the matter is, everything is not glitz and glam,” she says now. “I was washing my ass in a freaking 24-hour McDonalds and Walgreens because I was embarrassed. I was already famous. I didn’t want people to judge me or look at me in a different light because I had no money at that moment.”

Her quest for financial security is often reflected in her bilingual songs, in which she demands her “dinero,” as well as revealing her romantic struggles. Lately, Amara tells me, she has been wondering if she needs to go into more “raunchy” territory. While she is totally comfortable talking about sex — “If you want to have threesomes, orgies, you want to try bondage, if you want to stick a banana up your ass, do it! It’s your life. It’s your ass!,” she urges over Zoom before regaling me with memories from an adult film set trip — Amara doesn’t sound prepared to follow in the summertime success of explicit songs like “WAP,” from fellow Love & Hip Hop star Cardi B. 

“Do I have to talk about all the things I’m going to do?” Amara asks. “‘I’m going to ‘deep throat.’ You know what I’m saying? The hell?” Amara is, she emphasizes over the course of our conversation, a self-described “traditional woman.” 

In many ways, Amara’s path to her current industry success is in keeping with tradition. In the last five years, she has released more than 10 singles, plus 2019’s seven-track EP Unstoppable. These accomplishments don’t mean she’s disowned her past, or that she’s in any way embarrassed by it: “Because I feel that the day that I die, nobody else’s opinions really matter.” But some of her professional endeavors are outside of the performing realm, and have raised many eyebrows, like when she uses Instagram to promote questionable products. In recent weeks, she boosted the profile of a credit “expert” and then took the post down within days. Amara has also partnered with a supplement company that has 189 complaints on the Better Business Bureau website. She makes no mention of these complaints in her many Instagram posts advertising the brand. When asked for comment, Amara’s team told R29 that these posts were “binding” promotional obligations from “a former manager she’s no longer with.” 

While Amara’s current team won’t name her “former manager,” Love & Hip Hop viewers are intimately aware of Amara’s behind-the-scenes career difficulties. In a season-long plotline on Love & Hip Hop, the disintegration of Amara’s professional relationship with her manager, Julian Boothe, and his desire to retain ownership of Amara’s musical masters, should she sever their professional ties, was prominently featured. While much thinkpiece ink has been spilled about white women artists and their artistic autonomy (see: Taylor Swift), there was no similar furor when Amara’s troubles were laid bare on VH1 every week. 

Amara, who says she is still technically in the midst of legally disentangling herself from Boothe, isn’t surprised by the public neglect for her situation, though, telling me with zero affect, “We’ve normalized everything that’s bad with Black women… We are the most unprotected species on the planet in my eyes.”

There’s a reason Amara has compartmentalized the most punishing aspect of her road to fame: the pervasive specter of colorism that follows her everywhere as an outspoken Afro-Latinx woman. “Do I get a lot of [racial slur] notes? Yeah. Do I get a lot of death threats? Yeah. Because I have become one of the main faces for the Afro-Latino community,” she says matter-of-factly. 

While she’s measured in even the most infuriating of interviews — like when a Breakfast Club host DJ Envy nonchalantly told her “I thought you were Black until I heard you speak” — Amara’s passion and rage reveal themselves when it matters most. “We just want justice, man. We’re tired. We’re sick of having to fight to be human. Fuck that,” she told her 2.3 million Instagram followers in late May, after rushing to participate in the Black Lives Matter protests in Miami, wielding a sign reading “By Any Means Necessary.” 

However, even this inspiring activism courted controversy for Amara. While her participation in the movement was guided by her moral compass, Amara, in contrast to the other protesters around her, was not wearing a mask. She remains unapologetic about the decision — and also revealed that she had made it more than once. 

“I went to three protests with no mask. I’m not saying to do it. But I’m saying I did it,” she says. “There was so much anger and passion built within myself that I even forgot about the pandemic. I’ve never had COVID, and I’ve been good thus far — thank God.” (The CDC has recommended mask use in public since April, both to protect yourself and those around you.)

The vision of Amara in her protest videos — powerful, principled, flawlessly made-up, and, maybe, controversy-prone — is one that she works to project to the world. Amara admits to maintaining a carefully curated image for her public, saying, “I allow people to see what I want them to see … I always have to show that I am strong, that I can do this.” Amara’s Love & Hip Hop boss, Mona Scott-Young, respects her for this work, saying, “Whether it was tackling the very real issue of colorism within the Black and Latin community or sharing her challenging experiences of being a darker-skinned Latin artist trying to cross into a medium that favored lighter-skinned artists, Amara never hesitated to be vocal about her thoughts or tackle the issues of race and gender prejudice head-on.”But behind the ornate black doors of her home, Amara reckons with the immense pressure of constantly advocating for her people — and the racist hate that comes with it. 

“I cry. And I cry a lot. I cry a lot in the privacy of my home. In my bathroom. In the shower. Sometimes with my mom,” she says, her eyes darting around the room, driven by the rare vulnerability of her words. “Because it’s hard. It’s hard to have that responsibility. It’s hard to be the one to be called every time there are these conversations. ” 

Still, Amara continues to dive head-first into the thorniest of topics. Take her plan to re-release her Unstoppable song “Not Tonight” next month as part of a campaign for Domestic Violence Awareness Month. “During the pandemic, the rates went up for domestic abuse,” she points out. “My mom came from a domestic abuse relationship. I personally suffered a lot of verbal abuse, which a lot of women don’t know is abuse. I want to do something for [those women] to encourage them to leave that situation.” 

She doesn’t have plans for her new music beyond October, though, and says she’ll be taking a step back to “reset” in 2021, offering no further explanation. 

Amara leaves our conversation exactly how it started: Purple shadow still dancing on her lids, an hour of vulnerability and tense questioning once again filed away as her impassive expression resumes its place. This appears to be the last stretch of a marathon of interviews for Amara — the final lap of tirelessly educating someone else about her community… for today.  

“Me breaking those barriers gives you an opportunity for people to not look at you the way that they’ve been looking at you for years. And I will continue,” Amara says, speaking to the Afro-Latinx community, then concluding: “I truly believe in my heart that I was placed in this world for a reason, with a purpose in this era.”

Latinidad is ever-evolving. It cannot be defined by a blanket term or monolithic idea. That’s why it’s important to look at its future with respect to its past and present — and that’s our mission. In a series of essays, reported articles, and stories for Refinery29 Somos and Latinx Heritage Month, we’ll explore the unique conversations and challenges that affect these communities.

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Last week, Netflix belonged to Kissing Booth 2. This week, the streaming service is inarguably ruled by a profoundly difficult cult fave: The Umbrella Academy season 2. 

This new batch of Umbrella Academy episodes — which premieres on Friday, July 31 —  follows the dangerously dysfunctional Hargreeves siblings on a new zany, emo(tional), and bloody adventure into the past. At least a single one-liner of Umbrella Academy is destined for meme greatness, if not many more smart lines of dialogue. 

If Umbrella Academy isn’t your cup of time traveling tea — or you finish speeding through your season binge on Friday night — there are still many more new shows and movies for you to watch on Netflix this weekend. First up, there is Get Even, a British teen murder mystery for all the bored Riverdale and Elite fans out there. There is also a delightful South African rom-com (Seriously Single), another season of a Netflix baking show (Sugar Rush, now with more rules), a ton of fearlessly nerdy content, and so much more. 

These are all the new Netflix offerings broken down by plot, genre, and whether you should watch something immediately or skip for now. Keep reading for the lowdown on all of these Netflix treats, including their trailers.

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Happy Memorial Day Weekend, TV friends. Usually, I would be taking this time to convince you to stay in and keep watching Netflix shows, rather than running outside for your fun MDW plans. However, this long holiday weekend is unlike any other as many of us continue to shelter in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

This year, the onslaught of new Netflix original series, movies, and specials over MDW is a gift rather than curse. And, oh, what a flood it is. The highest profile new film premiering on Friday, May 22 is The Lovebirds, a high action comedy starring Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani. Lovebirds was initially meant to have a big theatrical debut, but as theaters around the country shut down, Paramount, its production company, struck a premiere deal with Netflix. We are lucky to have this movie sooner rather than later. 

However. Lovebirds isn’t the only must-see new project out on Netflix for Memorial Day Weekend. There is a long list of bingeable series, including reality soap Selling Sunset, British competition The Big Flower Fight (which premiered on May 18), and South African YA thriller Blood & Water (which premiered on May 20). Netflix also rolled out a musical special from a Politician star, a down-home dramedy starring Jamie Lynn Spears, a second mysterious teen drama, and even more new content.  

These are all the new Netflix offerings broken down by plot, genre, and whether you should watch something immediately or skip for now. Keep reading for the lowdown on all of these Netflix treats, including their trailers.

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Today, there are roughly 60 million Latinx people living in the U.S. — each one of us with our own unique cultural experiences and points of view. We are launching Somos, a cross-platform channel created in collaboration with the Latinx staff at Refinery29. We seek to elevate, educate, and inspire a new generation of changemakers committed to Latinx visibility. We’ll explore the unique issues that affect us and dive into the parallels and contrasts that make our community so rich‚ all while celebrating nuestras culturas.

“I read him to filth,” Vida showrunner/creator/executive producer Tanya Saracho begins, detailing a recent conversation with a high-powered Hollywood insider. The individual in question was hoping to see Saracho, a Mexican-born playwright-turned-TV writer, pair up with another scribe so that she could help “educate the dominant culture, basically, on immigration,” Saracho says, the frustration obvious in her voice.  

Some may assume such an educational “opportunity” should be a dream, as America’s ever-worsening immigration abuses continue to plague the country’s Latinx population. Saracho, whose East L.A.-based Starz series Vida is currently speaking truth to power in its third and final season, is happy to explain why such a request isn’t a win at all. 

“I was like, Hold on. Hold on. It’s not my responsibility to educate. I will amplify, I will represent. But ‘educate’ puts the responsibility on me. It’s on me for you to learn,” Saracho continues during that same afternoon phone call with Refinery29. “You don’t put the burden on people of color or Brown queers or women to be like, Let me also educate you.”  

Hence, the filth-reading.

Such bleak pressures will only continue if Latinx writers are constantly given a seat at the far end of The Table. That is if they make it to the proverbial Table at all, as 2019’s bombshell USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative study of Latinx film representation called into question. With decades of experience between them, Saracho and her spiritual “big sister” Gloria Calderón Kellett, who adapted Norman Lear’s 1970s One Day at a Time to now focus on a Cuban-American family for Netflix and then Pop, are hard at work making sure there are Latinx voices all over writers rooms. That way, no one has to play Immigration 101 professor ever again. 

As a new decade begins, the pair’s first order of business is the brand new Latinx TV List, an initiative through famed unproduced script survey the Black List. The Latinx List’s goal is to find the best yet-to-be-filmed, Latinx-written, Latinx-led scripts out there and give them the signal boost they deserve. Earlier this month, Hulu partnered with the Latinx TV List as submissions for the contest closed. Saracho promises there’s also “a bunch” of more projects coming our way from the pair and the TV writing sisterhood who call themselves Untitled Latinx Project. 

“We were already a part of this really beautiful Latina brunch group,” Calderón Kellett starts, explaining the roots of ULP and how that sisterhood ended up spearheading the Latinx TV List. The Flash writer Judalina Neira and L.A.’s Finest writer Diana Mendez started the “lovely” group years ago. While Calderón Kellett appreciates the culinary delights supplied by her fellow writers — think everything from breakfast food to tacos — the One Day writer stresses she appreciated the “company” more than the food. Then, the company ballooned. 

I’m not putting gas on that fire. Because the negative doesn’t help us.

Gloria Calderón Kellett

“It started getting so big, which is wonderful because it means more Latinas are working. It became less of an opportunity to just sit one-on-one and go, What are the problems you’re having? What do you need to continue?,” Calderón Kellett, who stands as America’s first Latina showrunner and the first Latina writer to score an eight-figure development deal (cheers, Amazon), explains. “Goddess angel woman” Saracho, as Calderón Kellett calls her, came up with the idea of bringing together a smaller group of “upper-level” Latina writers and executive producers to figure out how to support one another and the Latinx community as a whole in Hollywood.

“That became a monthly dinner club where we would meet after work to share some food and wine and break bread and get into it,” Calderón Kellett elaborates. Saracho, for her part, admits, “I asked Glo, Can we do dinner at your house because it’s bigger than mine? She’s a proper adult, you know? Gloria’s got a house, a pool, a husband, and kids. She’s so aspirational to me.” 

Saracho has a point about her friend being aspirational. Calderón Kellett’s One Day at a Time is in the middle of airing its fourth season on Pop after a Netflix cancellation, making it the first-ever axed Netflix original to revive itself on linear TV. First-generation Cuban-American Calderón Kellett is preparing to start work at Amazon in just a fews weeks, come June 2020. The scripts for the remainder of One Day have been written, are in “phenomenal shape,” and Calderón Kellett is simply waiting for it to be “safe to go back to the set” after the novel coronavirus shut down Hollywood sets across the world (her sitcom’s Los Angeles production included).

It was inevitable that such a high-achieving supper club as the ULP, which currently counts 18 high-powered Latinx women writers among its ranks, would start generating big ideas. “Every month we meet and there’s an aspect of that. Like, The casting is going so slow … But then, we’re like, What else can we do?” Saracho explains. Enter the Black List, to which ULP sister Lindsey Villarreal, writer for USA’s The Purge and Saracho’s Vida, was already connected. Then the Latinx TV List was born. Ten scripts will be named the finalists of the inaugural list; Hulu has confirmed it will offer a WGA minimum blind pilot script deal to two winning writers or teams. The streaming giant will also meet with all 10 finalists. 

If anyone can handle managing such a massive undertaking in the quarantine era, it’s the women of the ULP, who have already had a Zoom get together during the pandemic. “It was more like, Let’s check in, because It’s scary out here,” Saracho sighs. Now, they’re looking forward to the script-reading and script-discussing at hand, which Calderón Kellett confirms will continue over Zoom and email.  

“I’m hoping for fresh voices. For stories that haven’t been seen a gabillion times. And really, authenticity. That’s the answer … Because I’ve read many, many versions of the Latinx experience that are not. I’m fully done with stereotypes,” Calderón Kellett says, preparing to start reading submissions (the Black List will review the scripts first, then the women of ULP). 

Calderón Kellett is quick to point out that Latinx TV List winning scripts don’t need to be defined by their Latinidad in much the same way all Latinx people aren’t defined by theirs. “The submissions for this, they don’t have to be like Super Latinx Stories. It can just have Latinx leads … We don’t get to see our community in a rom-com.” she explains, before broadening her claim to reveal that, “We don’t get to see our community,” period. When Calderón Kellett is reminded that we haven’t gotten a coming-of-age story about, say, a second-ish-generation, middle-class Afro-Latina growing up in the extremely white, Republican suburbs of New York, she lights up, exclaiming, “Where is she? Let’s hear that story. That’s a case in point.” 

You don’t put the burden on people of color or Brown queers or women to be like, ‘Let me also educate you.’

Tanya Saracho

As Calderón Kellett and Saracho wait to decide who will actually win the first Latinx TV List, they must deal with a crisis no one could have seen coming: the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent shutdown of Hollywood. Saracho admits the Untitled Latina Project wanted to throw a mixer for the finalists as a way to officially usher them into Hollywood production. Before quarantine, this is when a group of buzzy upstart talents could easily mingle with prospective managers, agents, producers, executive bosses and, hopefully, the journalists who will one day cover their content. Such a populated event is no longer possible, but one-on-one conversations are.  

“The 10 writers who get listed, we want to sit down with them and ask, How can we share our experience with you? And maybe there’s a manager that I can introduce. We’re not guaranteeing anything, but that’s part of opening doors,” Saracho says. Calderón Kellett, who scored her first TV credit back in 2004 with FOX’s Quintuplets, agrees, saying, “I want to get to know them and see what their journey has been. It’s interesting to hear from this next generation what the roadblocks have been for them so we can clear them out. I don’t really know what the roadblocks are anymore.” 

As the pair aims to bring down those roadblocks for writers, they have their sights on much more within their community. “We’re thinking of doing all these other things, amplifying not just writers because we’re writers, but we’re trying to hire Latinx editors, directors, cinematographers! We’re trying to gather all the Latinx who are working,” Saracho explains. (Men too). This way, when a network exec says they “can’t find” a Latinx person for a job — which Saracho says she was told through the grapevine just the other day — anyone can point to cold, hard proof to refute such laziness. 

That’s why Calderón Kellett is marching into the future more determined than ever, even in the face of COVID-19: to help uplift the community she loves so much. As she says, she has suffered “a billion,” slights over her 13 straight years of churning out TV content as a Latina writer. But, she continues, “I will tell you, this is really the truth — there’s a billion and I don’t think about them any more.” 

“I’m not putting flame on that fire. I’m not putting gas on that fire. Because the negative doesn’t help us. What helps us is the conversation moving forward towards positivity. I think we are responsible for saying, We don’t need to participate in this. We can say, I’m going to put forth voices that I want to see.”  

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Netflix has felt a little sleepy over the last few weeks since the explosive premiere of Tiger King. Well, those lethargic vibes end right now thanks to this week of new Netflix shows and movies. 

Out of the gate, three buzzy series will be competing for your eyeballs. First, there’s Outer Banks — the sun-drenched heir to The O.C.’s throne — which premiered on Wednesday, April 15. The new teen show swaps out the Cohens’ Southern Californian backyard in favor of the sandy shore of North Carolina’s Outer Banks island chain — and ups the intensity by 1,000. Friday, April 17, gives us Too Hot to Handle and #blackAF. The former is the latest must-see Netflix reality show; the latter is a comedy from the man behind Black-ish, Kenya Barris. 

However, that is not where this week’s Netflix flood ends. There is also a new film starring Knives Out favorite Ana de Armas, multiple foreign language films, and a pair of stand-up comedy specials. No matter what you’re looking to binge, you’ll find something in this lineup. 

These are all the new Netflix offerings broken down by plot, genre, and whether you should watch something immediately or skip for now. Keep reading for the lowdown on all of these Netflix treats, including their trailers.

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