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| Photo: Skip Bolen (Warner Brothers Entertainment, Inc./ Courtesy of OWN) |
I was late getting into the newest season of OWN Network's Queen Sugar. The internet seemed to be up in arms discussing the one and only Nova Bordelon, who actress Rutina Wesley says is an "exhausting" character to play. In a Vulture interview Wesley states, “I feel a lot of pressure being Nova. Her messiness, which I love, is exhausting. Sometimes I want her to just be quiet and have a stable moment and keep her feet grounded. But it’s also fun because she’s very active in me. She activates me. I love that she’s unpredictable. I love the mess that is Nova because you never know where she’s going to go.” Well I'm all caught up on this season so far and had to write my peace on the ever growing debate surrounding Ms. Nova.
As you may know (or not), this season of Queen Sugar starts with the release of Nova’s new memoir Blessings and Blood. The New York Times has given it a stellar review, Nova is press package ready, tour dates are set, her manager and PR team are gassing her, and she's proudly taking her moment in scintillating ethereally like African goddess Mawu. Blessings and Blood tells the story of Nova’s life as she sees it. Her story, as she sees it, is incomplete without telling the stories of her family members. Stories that have remained barricaded. Secrets. Though this should be a celebratory time for Nova her anxiety is at an all time high. Nova Bordelon wrote this memoir, pitched, shopped, and had it published without consulting with her family. Knowing that her family's very private information would be shared publicly in a matter of weeks, Nova inadvertently slid her manuscript on her family member's desks while they were busy, went home, and waited for their reactions. Whether you watch the show or not you can predict that her family's reactions were far from pretty. What is Nova’s end goal? Why would she do this to her family? These are fair questions. Nova's goal through her writing was to invoke healing in her family and families around the world bounded in shame by their secrets.
The internet, much like Nova's family but without a filter, has virtually condemned Nova and has sided with her family’s ostracism. As I read through many of the comments I couldn’t help but think about Nova’s place in the real world. Though Nova Bordelon is a fictional character she resides in a very real realm of human psyche today especially in writers who write to heal. What does this virtual lapidation mean for them...for us? I see a lot of Nova in myself.
Though Nova’s intentions are pure in heart I do agree writing a memoir that shares her family’s secrets without their knowledge was indeed the messiness Wesley described her Vulture interview. As a writer who writes to heal I have written several pieces some of which I share publicly (many I do not) that upset people. Writing and bearing stories can heal the bearer. Reading and discussing those stories can heal the masses. So I understand Nova’s passion and have experienced her urge to regurgitate truth on paper. To those of us who have an ounce of Nova within it is imperative to remember that mass healing can not happen until you yourself are healed. That’s Nova’s truth. She wrote the memoir to heal others but has yet to heal herself. Now she's invoked another layer of trauma onto herself and her family.
Nova’s Aunt Vi said in an episode that every secret in a dark corner doesn’t need light. I’ve been wrestling with that sentiment because secrets like some plants can still grow in darkness. Many families hold on to secrets not realizing that that hold can be as detrimental to a family as genocide is to nations. Especially in the Black family. Secrets don't remain isolated in a moment in time they transcend generations. Secrets do indeed grow in darkness. I think the Novas of the world have a responsibility to heal their families. We also have the responsibility to bear the internal light until the family has begun healing and is open to external elements. However, we can't bear internal light from contaminated distortion.
I am very intrigued on where Nova Bordelon’s role in the Queen Sugar saga will take us as viewers. Queen Sugar itself is dark in emotional drama and could use more elements of joy in its characters. But I as a viewer find joy in seeing my likeness on screen through powerful episodic content.
To the Nova Bordelon's of the world: continue to empathetically be the light you seek.
