a lot of reviews i’ve seen of rafiki have given it a 3/5 and critics are calling it a sweet, simple, almost bubblegum-ish movie…. but like that’s the whole point of it? it’s meant to be a drama at its core, but bursting with joy, music and love.
we often take advantage in the west of the fact that we can portray the sexual, political and complicated aspects of lgbt life without it being censored, but in a country with militant homophobia and anti-gay laws, a portrayal of a lesbian romance in the modern day between two teenagers as sweet, and innocent is an incredibly brave stance to take.
rafiki is not as complex or heartbreaking or visceral as brokeback mountain, but it’s a powerful statement in and of itself to make a movie about lesbians that’s actually happy in tone for once. it’s something that larger studios here are still too scared to make lmao
some highlights from my students’ romeo and juliet modern interpretation projects:
– someone made a username for friar laurence with 420 at the end – the same kid who put 69 in romeo’s username like i wouldn’t know what either of those things mean – the girl who added ‘clean’ at the end of all the songs on her juliet playlist like lmao girl i know spotify doesn’t have the clean version – the kid who said romeo and juliet killed each other – the weird dichotomy of kids who put love story on their playlist vs the kids who choose bad blood – the kid who wrote ‘get a room’ as tybalt’s comment on romeo’s couple pic – the kid who said ‘romeo is probably one of those douches who follows a ton of people so they follow him back and then he unfollows all of them’ – the one who legitimately used the word ‘alrighty’ do kids say this in their text messages???? i thought i was the one talking like an elderly person but okay – the one who made romeo’s username ‘montagoose’ – the only kid who acknowledged that posting about your secret relationship on instagram was a bad idea – the girl who wrote that romeo would unironically say ‘#blessed’. she’s right. – the one single solitary girl who wrote mercutio as gay as shakespeare did (she’s also the only one who used mercutio at all which is a tragedy but whatever) – the one who wrote romeo’s insta bio as ‘thus with a kiss i die… LOL RIP ME 😂💀’ – the one who made benvolio’s username benvoliYO
You are an excellent teacher
– Two of my students decided that Romeo would absolutely be that guy who thinks he’s real cool and uses slang more than standard English. They also decided that Juliet would probably talk like a valley girl. They’re not exactly wrong. Their performance was so funny I almost cried.
– Another group made Friar John a former pirate. Nothing I said would dissuade them.
– had to tell one group that they couldn’t have Romeo call an uber, but only because the rest of their setting was Elizabethan
– A legit argument broke out in one group over whether or not Romeo would believe the earth was flat. I mentioned in passing that if Romeo thought the earth was flat, that Juliet might believe the earth was hollow, which resulted in even more arguing.
– I didn’t have any costumes for the boys, since I brought my own costumes from home, which is how all of my skirts became capes and almost all of the boys fought over the flower crowns.
– one of my students is playing Juliet’s balcony. It’s amazing.
– the only reason we aren’t getting an explicitly bisexual Juliet in one group’s performance is because we couldn’t figure out how to bend the idea to meet the prompt.
thank u for ur additions friend ur children are also geniuses
As you may have heard, children are being forcibly detained at the US/Mexico border by the thousands – 2,000 in six weeks, in fact.
BPAL wants to help. We’ve formulated an array of simple, elegant perfume blends to raise funds for RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services), who are intervening to provide legal aid and reunite families.
backup blog in case tumblr explodes 