OlderYara Shahidi Dishes On Redefining The Voice of a Black Artist
Yara Shahidi is opening up about starting her own production company!
The 20-year-old grown-ish star recently launched 7th Sun Productions alongside her mom Keri and ABC Studios.
Now, Yara is speaking out about redefining the voice of a Black artist and forming her company.
“At 20, I’m working on honoring all of my desires, honoring what I’m passionate about. The lesson that my mother taught me at a really young age is the fact that my voice belongs in these spaces,” Yara told WSJ. Magazine.
“At the same time, I feel like I’ve been unintentionally trained to be an amenable person,” she continued. “Being amenable has oftentimes been weaponized against [Black artists], because we operate in the binary of either you’re amenable or you’re aggressive. As we create things that haven’t been seen before, we’re also saying, OK, let’s redefine the concept of risk when you’re bringing in a young writer of color or a young writer of any [race, sexuality, gender, etc.].”
“Many creators inspire me, especially young ones, like [20-year-old] Phillip Youmans, who did [the 2019 critically acclaimed drama] Burning Cane,” Yara added. “I feel like we’re really seeing the uptick in incredibly young filmmakers because Hollywood is becoming more accessible in terms of the ability to produce and distribute content.”
“But we know that the digital space, especially for Black and brown creators, is extremely divisive,” she said. “When you put content out into the world [on social media], based on those terms and agreements that we all click through, the content isn’t ours. It ends up being co-opted, and it ends up being taken and not credited.”
