Ankh Speaks: Understanding Industry

Gay bloggers have explained that when Noah's ARC was cancelled, the actors and fans weren't the only ones who missed out.  Noah's ARC was not only a rare chance for gay actors of color to showcase their talents and tell their own stories, but gay fashion designers, musicians, writers, directors, and producers also found employment and opportunity.  They had a safe haven to do what they wanted and say what they wanted.  And when the show was cancelled, many opportunities - for those who really needed it - were lost.

As we try to expand our publishing house, that story sticks with me every step of the way.  As we reach out to artists to design our book covers, and track down music for our book trailers, we try to think about the opportunities MCP's industry could provide to those who really need it.

For those of us living in the West, we know how it goes.  Once a white person can dance, sing, rap, or do anything artistic in a manner which even remotely reminds white people of people of color, that white person is automatically first choice.  Same thing in the world of gender: why pay a woman for her innovation if you can pay a man to co-opt and execute it?  Same thing in the world of sexual orientation or transgendered identity - why let gays and transpeople tell their own stories when you can hire "normal" people to dilute their messages and slap a shiny, happy face on a formulaic storyline?  Same thing with the physically disabled.  Why show an amputee and tell her tale of surviving war or illness, when you can get an able-bodied person to fake a "cooler" disability like deafness or blindness?

Even the same thing with anyone over the age of thirty.  Why remind people they all have to grow up, work, pay bills, and be responsible when you can keep your audience perpetually attending high school and college?

MCP is about opportunity for women of color, (and by extension all women, and all artists of color).  Here, the neglected are first choice.  They can tell their own stories, which won't be changed or diluted.  The artist whose vision's been dismissed or the musician who's struggling to raise sales in the Downloading Era has all our empathy.  Because if we can get our support up, we can get their support up as well.

So I leave you with this: one of my best moments as a Director here at MCP, and a Moderator at the Blasian Narrative, was when a reader emailed us ecstatically to say she'd downloaded Skye's mind-blowing album from Amazon.com and then thanked us for exposing her to Skye's music.  I was so proud, and more certain than ever that this was precisely what I wanted to be doing.

I understand that we're trying to do is going to take time, but I'm going to love doing it every single moment of the day.