Posted: Jun 30, 2021 10:30 AM ET | Last Updated: June 30
Joey Badass (left) and Andrew Howard in Two Distant Strangers.(Netflix)
Black Light is a column by Governor General Award-winning writer Amanda Parris that spotlights, champions and challenges art and popular culture that is created by Black people and/or centres Black people. While Amanda is away on maternity leave, a different writer will be featured in a guest edition of the column each month. This month's edition is an essay by writer, filmmaker and musician Matthew Progress.
I'm a Black storyteller who has been shaped by the stories that were told to me. I was gifted Pan Africanism from my Garveyite elders, Black abstraction from my contemporary art mentors, and unconditional self-love from my grandmother. But learning about the powerful complexities of my culture has never been an endeavour that mainstream film and television could help me with — even amidst a new wave of Black representation.