Ava DuVernay and her cast were photographed exclusively for ESSENCE, June 30, 2016, at Café Soulé in New Orleans. From left: DuVernay, Rutina Wesley, Kofi Siriboe and Dawn-Lyen Gardner.

Field of

DreamsIn Queen Sugar, Ava DuVernay’s first TV series, New Orleans siblings attempt to rebuild not only their family farm but also their broken lives

BY AYANA BYRD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL ROWE | STYLING BY JAMES KNOX

116 ESSENCE.COM SEPTEMBER 2016 Ava DuVernay was tired. Not need-a-nap sleepy, but outright exhausted. HOLLYWOOD’S She had just finished her Oscar-nominated film,Selma , and it had required months of research into the violence and racist hate aimed—sometimes with SOUTHERN ROOTS deadly consequences—at Black people during the Civil Rights Movement. Along with Atlanta, Although that was then and this is now, the news reports of Black bodies New Orleans serves harmed by White violence throughout her making the film were not lost on as a backdrop for television the director. Which is why, unsurprisingly, she was beyond tired. and movie productions Enter . “She invited me to rest at her property in [Maui], Hawaii,” says DuVernay of the media mogul, who starred in and produced “New Orleans is so mystical to me,” says Selma. “Lots of sitting around eating great food and reading great books.” actress Rutina Wesley about her favorite One of the titles that Winfrey suggested she pick up was Queen Sugar. The American city, which she first fell in love with novel, by Natalie Baszile, is the tale of a woman in Los Angeles who moves while filming HBO’sTrue Blood. “People live in back to Louisiana to save the 800-acre sugar farm she inherited from her their truth; what you see is what you get.” father. “Oprah thought I would dig it,” she says. But Queen Sugar spoke to her Audiences have been seeing a lot more of the in a much stronger way. “The character is from where my family is from [in city thanks to a proliferation of shows shot ALouisiana], and was hanging around the South Los Angeles area where I’m there, including the following: from and live,” says DuVernay, who had been considering ­creating a TV series TREME Wire creator David Simon’s love and immediately thought of how to turn the novel into one. And then her letter to the Big Easy, the HBO series hostess reminded her, “Well, you know I own a network. What about us?” was a post-Katrina look at class, music and On September 6, Queen Sugar debuts on Winfrey’s OWN. DuVernay wrote tradition that starred many natives of New the pilot and finale and directed the 13-episode season. She has kept the Orleans, such as Wendell Pierce. title, but much has changed from the book. “I just basically went in there and AMERICAN HORROR STORY: COVEN thought, This is the basis. Let me do a remix,” she says. The Golden Globe–nominated season three Queen Sugar is now a story not just about one woman’s journey back home of this FX cult hit upped the show’s shock from life in L.A. to a farm in Louisiana but also about an entire family in and factor and starred Kathy Bates—whose around New Orleans. It deals with the members’ dynamics as well as the rebuild- DAWN-LYEN GARDNER KOFI SIRIBOE character tortured slaves—and Angela ing of life after prison, police brutality, activism, intrafamilial class differences and Bassett, who charmed as powerful the plight of Black farmers. The drama stars Rutina Wesley (Nova), Dawn-Lyen voodoo leader Marie Laveau. Gardner (Charley) and Kofi Siriboe (Ralph Angel) as siblings. “My intention was ROOTS For the remake of the iconic My intention was to render real to render real human relationships that look like many of our families, who are seventies miniseries, filmmakers went to human relationships that look like many wrestling with ourselves and each other,” says DuVernay. Louisiana and shot at four plantations The director is curious to see how audiences will react to a series that is of our families, who are wrestling with near New Orleans. One, Madewood,

QUEEN SUGAR, SKIP BOLEN/WARNER BROS./COURTESY OF OWN. D SKIP BOLEN/WARNER BROS./COURTESY OF OWN. SUGAR, QUEEN such a departure from the current prime-time lineup. There are no presiden- ourselves and each other.” —AVA DuVERNAY was also used in Beyoncé’s visual album tial affairs or record-label takeovers orchestrated over threesomes. Instead ­Lemonade, and another, Evergreen, was

LETTE LITTLEJOHN. there is a tenderness, an intimacy in the approach of getting to know who a featured in Django Unchained.

ANNE MARIE FOX/WARNER BROS./COURTESY OF OWN. BOOK STILL, BRIAN HENN. HENN. BRIAN STILL, BOOK ANNE MARIE FOX/WARNER BROS./COURTESY OF OWN. these people are. A scene may involve nothing more than someone standing MUDBOUND Pariah and Bessie director in a field and measuring the ground to plant seeds—and yet, supported by Dee Rees uses areas in and around New strong acting and a script of nuance and depth, it becomes unforgettable. Orleans for her upcoming film. Based on the VERNAY: HAIR, FELICIA LEATHERWOOD;

u One of the show’s most layered characters is Nova, who is not in the 2008 novel, it’s a period drama about two novel and will be played by Wesley. “She’s a journalist, an activist, an World War II vets returning home. Charles D. ­herbalist; she’s brown brown brown and gorgeous and has locs,” says King’s company, Macro, is producing. DuVernay. “And she’s not earth mother either.” Adds Wesley, “Nova’s a NCIS: NEW ORLEANS When CBS deeply conflicted, inspiring, driven and passionate woman, and I’ve never decided on a second spin-off of its hitNCIS , played anyone like her in my life.” it headed to NOLA. Now in its third season, With Queen Sugar wrapped, DuVernay has begun her next project: a LETTE LITTLEJOHN. FOR CLOTHING DETAILS, SEE WHERE BUY. TO

a the drama investigates crime against men Disney film adaptation of the children’s book A Wrinkle in Time. “The and women in the military. CCH Pounder children will be brown—I’m excited about that,” she says. Yet the journey stars as a medical examiner. —A.B. she has taken with Queen Sugar promises to give audiences the same Above left is a scene from the new lifeline that Winfrey extended to her back in Maui—a respite peeking into OWN drama Queen an emotionally rich other world. • Sugar. Director Ava

DuVernay (far left, u with Oprah Winfrey) VERNAY AND WINFREY, Ayana Byrd is a writer based in Brooklyn and Lisbon. She’s the coauthor of Hair Story: is excited about tell- Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America (St. Martin’s Griffin). ing an “elongated story—you get 13 hours, not just two.” Michael Rowe (@michaelrowephoto) is a Los Angeles–based The series is adapted photographer. His work has appeared in ESSENCE, The Wall from the novel by NCIS: New Orleans Natalie Baszile. Street Journal, Complexd and The Advocate. is shot on location.

RUTINA WESLEY NCIS: NEW ORLEANS, SKIP BOLEN/CBS. ROWE, COURTESY OF SUBJECT.MAKEUP, PORSCHE D COOPER. WESLEY AND GARDNER: HAIR, CAPRICESIRIBOE: GREEN; BARBER, MAKEUP, L JOLLA; WAYNE GROOMING, L

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