A Quote by KiKi Layne

As much as I love to slay a red carpet hitting the ground running with 'Beale Street' and 'Native Son,' representing two such important voices in James Baldwin and Richard Wright let people know that I'm an artist and I really have something to say with this gift.
When men are put into these types of circumstances like Bigger in 'Native Son,' or Fonny in 'Beale Street,' it destroys relationships, their love, their relationships with their children - it's under attack.
I really do love bluesy-jazzy music, so I love Etta James, B.B. King and Billie Holiday. I love that they have soul in their voices - I think that's something important is having.
If you think about black art, all black art, whether it's Invisible Man or whether it's James Baldwin, Langston Hughes, Zora Hurston, or Richard Wright, they all deal with elements of identity and trying to humanize our experience and our struggle in the world where people have been indifferent to who we are and what we are. It's basically just saying that our lives have meaning.
Let it be said that the makeup artist at '90210' made me look better for the fake red carpet than I've ever looked on an actual red carpet.
Personally, I hate waiking the red carpet. You are expected to conform to every single expectation. People will say, "Try as hard as you can not to sweat on the red carpet." Meanwhile you are super nervous, and there are tons of camera flashes, and people are screaming your name. It's not fun - not for me, at least!
The states of birth, suffering, love, and death, are extreme states: extreme, universal, and inescapable. We all know this, but we would rather not know it. The artist is present to correct the delusions to which we are all prey in our attempts to avoid this knowledge." - James Baldwin, "The Creative Process
Generally for red carpet, I love to relax first. I love to work out. I love to eat well, drink tons of water beforehand, so on the night of the red carpet I feel good and ready to go. I also love to get a good body scrub.
Angry Black White Boy is bananas! Actually, it's a banana split with razor blades in it. Adam Mansbach is the white Richard Wright, and Angry Black White Boy is our generation's Native Son.
I love getting dressed up for red carpet events and having my hair and makeup done professionally - that definitely helps with nerves of going down the red carpet.
Diane Kruger looks pretty awesome on the red carpet and is effortlessly cool. I'm also a fan of Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin.
I scroll through Instagram and Twitter, and whenever I see something that speaks to me, I take a screenshot to save it for red carpet inspiration. Sometimes, if I see an outfit I like on the street, I'll take a picture, too. References are so important.
The red carpet is not something I really know how to work. It intimidates me. I feel very tiny.
I'm a big guy: I look like a linebacker, you know? But no one cares, really, that I'm educated. I have a copy of 'Fire Next Time' by James Baldwin in my bag. I have an Ibsen play in there, too. I have to walk through this world with that duality all the time, that I live in two different worlds.
Today, I don't even think that people like [James Baldwin] are possible. He would not have that much room.
The light bulb going off in my head was a fear that in this pivotal moment in history, when America faces so many serious problems, when the middle class and working class of this country are being decimated, that there were not voices out there representing the tens of millions of people who needed a voice. And the idea of going through a campaign where there is not a serious discussion about the most important issues facing America, where there are not voices out there representing people who are hurting - that seemed to me unacceptable.
I didn’t fall in love with James. Falling sounds like an accident. Falling hurts. I’d fallen in love with Michael, fallen hard like slipping off a cliff and hitting the rocks below. Falling in love was something I’d vowed never to do again. I chose to love James.
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