A Renaissance, Reboots, Recognition & A Reality Check
How Black Broadway revivals inspired my thoughts this week on Kim Roxie's LAMIK reboot, the Sharon Chuter interview in Beauty Independent and why model Karen Alexander matters to me.
The Broadway production of “The Wiz” is probably the foundation for my Stephanie Mills and Andre de Shields fandom. The icons who played Dorothy and The Wiz respectively cemented not only my affection for them in that production, but their subsequent work has proven it is well-deserved. A revival of “The Wiz” is embarking on a national tour this fall before opening on Broadway.
Then I learned that Leslie Odom Jr would be starring in a new production of “Purlie Victorious,” this summer. I never saw Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee in the play, but a song Melba Moore sang in the musical production, “Purlie” called “I Got Love”, also holds significance to me not only for the songstress's vocal prowess but also because I learned to play the song in my junior high school band. So I am looking forward to seeing the play even if there will be no song.
Kim Roxie’s Reboot of LAMIK Pays Off
I first met Kim Roxie, founder of LAMIK Beauty more than a decade ago, and I interviewed her for the pod in episode 12. We first met when I was the beauty director of ESSENCE, but we remained connected after I left in 2013. She even came to NYC to be one of the featured lecturers at my Beauty BizCamp® the same year.
I’ve watched her as she made the hard decision to shutter her store and reimagine what LAMIK can be. She committed herself to learn at the intersection of technology and entrepreneurship, used lean start-up methodology, and rebuild her brand set by step. Getting a chance to premiere her brand on HSN was a long-awaited dream come true. But then Kim give was faced with another hard decision when Southwest canceled during the holiday snafu: reschedule or drive 17 hours, she chose the latter.
She made her debut in late December and sold far and above anyone’s expectations (but probably not her own). This woman is committed to her customer. But she had been practicing her infectious TalkShopLive show, Kickin it with Kim Roxie, which often features her daughter Loretta.
The good news is that HSN has invited her back next week, this time for two shows. Mark your calendars.
Sharon Chuter Offers Us A Reality Check on Pull Up For Change and Shares Why She’ll Keep Fighting
While this week’s newsletter has a lot of nostalgia, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention things that were happening now that impact the growth and success of Black beauty brands. This week, Beauty Independent published a sobering interview featuring Sharon Chuter, founder of Uomo Beauty, who is also the force behind Pull Up for Change (Make it Black). It is definitely worth reading.
While I am not surprised by the shift—from overwhelming support to minimal action, it is still a bothersome outcome. The new version of “House Party” sums it up comically when Lebron James’ white neighbor rings the doorbell in search of a lost koala, and in his exchange with the movie’s leads, Jacob Lattimore and D.C. Young Fly, he says something to the effect of “Black Lives Matter…I posted TWO squares on Instagram!” Unfortunately, it sums up the performative nature of this kind of support, which Chuter points out, gets categorized as part of "woke politics.” Much of the work, program, and people who were announced with much fanfare have fizzled out.
Retailers ran out there, grabbed a whole bunch of brands very quickly to make headlines, did not care that their brands were not ready to scale, did not create any structure for these brands to actually scale, and then rushed them in and quickly exited these brands, bankrupting businesses.”
Yet in spite of these challenges, Chuter is not giving up the fight. She points out that in spite of all of the smoke and mirrors, Black brands overall aren’t better off than they were in 2020. But she continues to push the boulder up the hill, not only in building her brand but by championing others (her efforts have funded ten brands thus far).
The article reminded me of when my friend, Dana Wood, interviewed me for The Robin Report.
Why I Appreciate Karen Alexander
You already know that I am an original staff member of American Elle. Yes, I have been around for DECADES. (Although this is still a youth-obsessed culture and industry, I am still here!) Throughout the eight years I worked there (and the two years I served as a consulting editor afterward), I had some great global adventures. But since this is Black History Month, I wanted to write a Karen Alexander appreciation post. Although I worked with many of the Black models who appeared on the pages of the magazine (yes, we used to turn pages then), I worked with Karen on one of my first shoots, and more often than the other models. (And shout out to Roshumba, because she was my first feature article byline in the well aka the middle of the magazine.)
One of the fondest memories I have of Karen is when we were on Harbour Island, where I assisted a team from French Elle. Over the three-week shoot with Gilles Bensimon, models flew in and out every week. The ones I remember most were Stephanie Seymour, Elle McPherson, Renee Simonson, and Cindy Crawford (Cindy, because the French team left the two of us and all the luggage behind at the North Eleuthera airport when there was no room for us on the plane), but there were also a few others. The crew primarily spoke French, while the photographer’s assistant, Greg, and I did our best to keep up, sometimes we just spoke to one another. Anyway, the week that Karen was there was like getting a lifeline I desperately needed and I will forever be grateful to her for some Black girl normalcy when I was way out of my depth.
Since I have been knee-deep in a writing project, I didn’t get a chance to start watching the Supreme Model six-part documentary until recently. Because of when I started in the media world, episode three is especially dear to me, because it is dedicated to the 80s and features Karen, Roshumba, Kirsti Bowser, Kara Young, and Veronica Webb. Naomi Campbell figures prominently too, but I didn’t work with her directly. When I look at the covers above, I was at Elle during the making of those issues. When they mentioned The Black Girls Coalition, started by Iman and Bethann, it too held significance to me. I won a pair of Pony leopard print Manolo Blanik’s from their raffle. My first pair of designer shoes.
Younger generations may not know the significance that Karen played in those days, but they should. You can check out episode three below.
But Back to The Wiz…
You already know that I like to connect the theme by finishing where I began. So today, I do that by recommending one of my favorite episodes of Danyel Smith’s “Black Girl Songbook” called “When Stephanie Mills Thinks of Home! Then watch this vintage rendition from Sinbad’s Summer Jam. You’ll thank me later.