Inside Alfre Woodard's - Sistahs’ Soirée - an annual Oscar party for black actresses: ohnotheydidnt

frankthesheep in ohnotheydidnt

Inside Alfre Woodard's - Sistahs’ Soirée - an annual Oscar party for black actresses

Feb 09, 2020 11:34

Alfre Woodard throws an annual Oscar party for black actresses “so that we don’t get into that bogus sense of competition that the business wants,” Woodard told me, where “they send everybody from KiKi Layne to Cicely Tyson up for the same role.” https://t.co/2tWPI9Lg2A
- Kyle Buchanan (@kylebuchanan) February 8, 2020

Every year for the last 11 years, Queen Alfre Woodard throws a party of black actresses during awards season - Sistahs’ Soirée. It is a very small event and doesn't get a lot of gets press coverage - I think partly because Alfre wants it that way and partly because the people covering awards season don't care about black actresses. Anyway, this year the New York Times covered the party. Invitees included Cynthia Erivo, S. Epatha Merkerson, Lorraine Toussaint, Tiffany Haddish, Amandla Stenberg, Laura Harrier, KiKi Layne, lashana lynch and others.

When speaking about the event to the New York Times, Afre said “I’m gathering women who have been nominated in the acting category by the academy...as well as those who, in a perfect world, should have been.”.

The goal of the event is to foster camaraderie amongst the actors. She says - “It’s important to me that when we hear our sisters’ names, we think good thoughts and feel protective of them, so that we don’t get into that bogus sense of competition that the business wants to put you in by saying, ‘Too bad there’s only three roles for black women this year,’ and then they send everybody from KiKi Layne to Cicely Tyson up for the same role.”

Alfre is no stranger to the awards season hustle, she was nominated in 1983 for a film called “Cross Creek,”. This year she earned nominations from the Independent Spirit Awards for her role in "Clemency", but was snubbed by the Academy/Oscars. She seemed unbothered by the snub saying "it’s something entirely separate from what we do". Instead she is more frustrated by Lupita Nyong’o's career tragectory - Alfre said to New York Times “She (Lupita) is still the great mahogany hope, but you’ve seen Lupita more on magazine covers than you have onscreen,” Woodard said. “Every time out, Lupita is fabulous, but look at what she’s done since she won that Oscar and then look at the opportunities of a Scarlett or a Charlize.”

Alfre has one simple commandment those at the party “Stay busy, my daughters, Stay busy, and especially stay joyful doing it.”

Pics of the Sistahs’ Soirée through the years....

2009