Cynthia Erivo on ‘Normalizing’ Black Queer Love in Video for New Song

Author: Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tony winner Cynthia Erivo, who is fresh off of playing the Queen of Soul in the NatGeo series Genius: Aretha, has released “The Good,” the first song off of her upcoming debut album Ch. 1 vs. 1, due out later this year. The video and song about remembering the good times in a relationship depict a Black female couple played by Erivo and Suriya.

Erivo, who rose to fame playing the iconic queer icon Celie in The Color Purple on Broadway and who’s gone on to star in Harriet and Widows, explained the story behind the Mollie Mills directed “The Good” video.

“I wanted to normalize seeing Black women in a relationship on screen, because often it’s really fetishistic,” Erivo said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“In storytelling, chapter one and verse one is the way you always begin, and because I believe I’m a storyteller, that’s what I wanted to do with my music,” she added. “That’s what this is about, just starting [and revealing] the human parts of me that you don’t often get to see.”

In an interview with The Advocate for Genius: Aretha, Erivo shared why it’s so critical to her to explore the intersections of Black and queer stories:

“It’s unbelievably important to keep telling stories that give space and solace to LGBTQ+ members, Black members of our society, of our communities, because there isn’t enough, there’s not enough space,” Erivo says. “I think the more we can see it, the more we get to understand that we deserve space too. And we have to be seen so that we can make great things, that we can create great art, and that our experiences are valid too.”

“It means a lot to me to be able to be part of that community. It means a lot for me to be able to tell those stories too. I hope we keep making space to tell them,” she says.

Watch “The Good” below.

Original Article on The Advocate
Author: Tracy E. Gilchrist