April 23, 2020 

By Lapacazo Sandoval 

Contributing Writer 

 

I will confess that I’ve just become a fan of CBS ALL ACCESS “The Good Fight” binging the show in preparation to speak with first-generation Nigerian-American Nyambi Nyambi who plays the character Jay DiPersia and investor with a passion for justice. The acclaimed legal drama returned fo a fourth season this month.

 

The series—created by Robert King, Michelle King, and Phil Alden Robinson—is a spin-off and sequel to The Good Wife, which was created by the Kings.

 

The “Good Fight” follows Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart, as she loses her employment after an enormous financial scam destroys the reputation of her goddaughter Maia (Rose Leslie) and Diane's savings, leading them to join Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) at one of Chicago's preeminent law firms. The series stars Baranski, Leslie, Jumbo, Erica Tazel, Sarah Steele, Justin Bartha, Delroy Lindo, Michael Boatman, and Audra McDonald, and features Paul Guilfoyle and Bernadette Peters in recurring roles.

 

If Nyambi Nyambi looks familiar and you are a CBS fan you might know him from starring alongside Billy Gardell and Melissa McCarthy in the CBS sitcom “Mike & Molly.” For six seasons, Nyambi portrayed the sarcastic Senegalese waiter/café owner Samuel.

 

The ambitious Nyambi has kept his mind on his money and his money on his mind. Some of his television credits include PBS’ “Mercy Street,” NBC's “Blindspot” and “American Koko,” an ABC digital series from Viola Davis’ production company JuVee Productions. Plus he’s put his magnificent voice to use in the role of ‘Martian Manhunter’ in the Warner Brothers/DC Entertainment animated features “The Death of Superman” and “Reign of the Supermen.”

 

An artist who respects every aspect of his craft Nyambi has paid his dues in the theater has been a part of the highly acclaimed production of New York City’s Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park working alongside Al Pacino and Ruben Santiago-Hudson in “The Merchant of Venice” and “The Winter’s Tale.” His additional theater credits include the first Broadway revival of August Wilson's “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and the role of Caliban in Classic Stage Company’s “The Tempest,” opposite Mandy Patinkin. He has worked with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and the Williamstown Theater Festival. Nyambi is a proud member of the Labyrinth Theatre Company based in New York City.

 

Alongside Danai Gurira (“Black Panther”), Nyambi serves on the board for Almasi Collaborative Arts, an organization dedicated to developing emerging African artists.

 

Maybe his birth (April 26) on the campus of the University of Oklahoma was the first clue thirst to Nyambi’s thirst for knowledge. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Bucknell University before earning his Masters of Fine Arts from the Graduate Acting Program at New York University. A disciplined man Nyambi played four years of Division 1 basketball for Bucknell and made the ESPN Dick Vitale “All-Name Team,” which honors the best names in college basketball. Post-college, Nyambi took on the role of coach and led basketball teams at teen camps.

 

A comic book aficionado and avid gamer, Nyambi writes and draws in his spare time and has two published works as an author. He contributed a poem to the Eisner Award-winning graphic novel Love is Love, which continues to donate all proceeds to various charities in honor of the victims and their families of the Orlando Pulse shooting. Most recently, Image Comics published a comic he wrote in collaboration with his sisters for the award-winning series “Bitch Planet.”

 

Here is what fellow Taurean Nigerian-American Nyambi Nyambi had to share about being a part of the CBS family and why he loves comic books.

 

L.A. WATTS TIMES: Well happy almost birthday Nyambi Nyambi. You are April 26th and I am April 27th, I am just saying!

 

NYAMBI NYAMBI: Thank you and happy birthday early to you, as well.

 

LAWT: Oh my gosh, I love your voice. 

 

NN: (laughing) Thank you.

 

LAWT:I also love you in CBS ALL ACCESS “The Good Fight” and I dig your character [Jay DiPersia] a lot. It’s been a while but how did you find him?

 

NN: Producer Brooke Kennedy asked me this question early on in the process. One of the important things was that I didn't know. That’s where the character started. The idea that I don’t know and he doesn't settle for that. That’s not who he is.

 

LAWT:You are a first-generation Nigerian-American. New York has a healthy enclave. Does Los Angeles?

 

NN: Yes. Nigerians are everywhere. Literally—everywhere. In all the big cities doing all the big things.

 

LAWT:What I’ve gathered from your biography is that you are a well-rounded artist. I was especially curious about your passion for comic books. Can you share a little bit about that with me?

 

NN: Yes, I am passionate about comic books. I’ve been a huge fan of comics all my life. The first half of my life was all comic strips and then I discovered the comic book stores, later on in life. For the past 15 years, I’ve had my head in a comic book every single day.

 

LAWT:Wow. Don’t you also do illustrations?

 

NN: I do. I do. That’s something that I’ve always done. Now I’ve taken a deeper interest in refining my skills. In college, I use to give away drawings as gifts to women that I had crushes on.

 

LAWT:Cute.

 

NN: Lately I’ve been taking online classes. Trying to soak it all in. Using that work, those drawing skills to help support my imagination when it comes to acting. 

 

LAWT:You are a very committed artist. In love with your craft. I respect people who put in the work.

 

NN: Thank you.

 

LAWT:Can you describe a few of your CBS ALL ACCESS “The Good Fight” colleagues in terms of superheroes from the comic book universe?

 

NN: (laughing) Wow.

 

LAWT:Just a few. Please.

 

NN: Ok. Christine Baranski is Wonder Woman. Luka Quinn is Black Canary. Delroy Lindo at first I had him as Superman but now I’ve changed it, he’s Batman.

 

LAWT:Delroy as Batman? I can see that.

 

NN: He’s been [Delroy] a great friend, off the screen.

 

Audra McDonald is Storm but as Nubia.

 

LAWT:Nubia? I don’t know that character.

 

NN: Nubia was the late 70’s. She’s in the Wonderwoman universe and she actually battles Wonderwoman in a couple of issues [of the comic book] and wins. She [Nubia] is also an Amazon. Audra is incredible. Six Tony Awards. Having her on our show and working with her on a daily basis is just a dream come true.

 

LAWT:Preach. What’s next for you — creatively? I’m excited and I will be closely following your journey. I see you, April 26th. 

 

NN: I’m working on a graphic novel, I also took a documentary class and the hope is to do a documentary centered around comics. I’m developing this right now because of this pandemic a lot of these comic book stores are suffering. They are small businesses. 

 

LAWT:I can imagine.

 

NN: When we come out of it and where we come out of it, it’s tough to gauge where some of these businesses will be at the end of the spectrum. A colleague and I are shaping up a short film right now. Our goal is to then push it to a full-length film. I’m writing it with my writing partner. 

 

LAWT:When you can share more — will you?

 

NN: Of course. Happy Birthday, April 27th.

 

LAWT:Happy Birthday, April, 26th.

 

Nyambi Nyambi (@Nyambi) · Twitter

 

https://www.cbs.com/shows/the-good-fight/

 

This phone interview has been edited for clarity and length.

April 16, 2020 

By LYNN ELBER 

AP Television Writer 

 

“Mrs. America,'' which dramatizes the Equal Rights Amendment fight that pitted a surprising and determined opponent against a deep bench of supporters, is a marvel in many ways.

 

The impressive cast includes Cate Blanchett and Margo Martindale. The miniseries was created by a woman, Dahvi Waller, and largely written and directed by women.

 

It drills down on how the constitutional amendment was blocked while deftly painting both the broader and finer points of America circa 1970, when a wife, as a jaw-dropping moment illustrates, needed her husband to co-sign for credit.

 

One more achievement: While the story is driven by Blanchett's conservative powerhouse Phyllis Schlafly, attention is paid to the women of color who fought for civil rights and to make “second-wave” feminism of the 1960s and '70s – successor to the suffrage movement – address the obstacles they alone faced.

 

Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne) and Betty Friedan (Tracey Ullman) are among the movement's white luminaries featured in “Mrs. America,” but alongside them are African Americans including trailblazing politician Shirley Chisholm and firebrand activist and attorney Florynce “Flo” Kennedy, who are played, respectively, by Uzo Aduba and Niecy Nash.

 

While Chisholm is best known, “there are many Shirleys of the world we have never heard of,'' Aduba said. “That's why it's so exciting to see a project like this, telling not only Shirley's story but quite a few of these women that, I would argue, the population at large doesn't know their names.''

 

Chisholm was the first African American congresswoman, the first major-party black candidate to seek the presidency and the first female Democrat to run. She's heard loud and clear in episode three, which is anchored in the 1972 Democratic convention and the machinations that pit Chisholm against what should be her sisters-in-arms.

 

In a revealing scene, Chisholm is pressured to end her bid in favor of eventual Democratic nominee Sen. George McGovern, with New York Rep. Bella Abzug (Martindale) chastising her for failing to get a campaign green light from the power brokers.

 

Aduba, a two-time Emmy winner for “Orange Is the New Black,” quotes Chisholm's succinct reply: “I didn't get anywhere in this life waiting on someone's permission.”

 

The first three episodes of the miniseries debut Wednesday on FX on Hulu, the streaming platform's hub offering FX series and exclusive releases such as “Mrs. America.” The remaining six episodes will be out weekly through May 27, with an ensemble cast that includes Sarah Paulson, Elizabeth Banks, John Slattery, James Marsden and Jeanne Tripplehorn.

 

Nash (“When They See Us,” “Claws”) calls it a blessing to play an “unsung hero.”

 

Kennedy was “absolutely amazing. And that mouth, man!” said Nash, who watched footage of her in action and used it to shape her performance. “On set, I was like, 'Listen, do you want me to say these words, or do you want me to talk how this woman really spoke? Because she didn't have a filter.”

 

A wealth of books by Schlafly, Steinem and others was part of the material that helped “craft this highly researched and very clear-eyed view of this time period,” executive producer Stacey Sher said during a Q&A with reporters.

 

Making the series inclusive, both on screen and off, was never in doubt, said writer-creator Waller (“Mad Men,” “Desperate Housewives”), also an executive producer.

 

“It was always obvious to me that you can't tell the story of second-wave feminism without telling the story of intersectional feminism, so it was obvious that I would include women of color leaders in the story,” Waller said. “The question for me was how to do that when your way into the series is Phyllis Schlafly?”

 

Schlafly was a defense hawk and a onetime Republican congressional candidate who is introduced in the series as intent on derailing a U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms pact. Then the proposed ERA, approved by Congress with bipartisan support and nearing the required number of state ratifications, caught Schlafly's eye. She argued it would subvert, not secure, women's rights and, if both sexes could be drafted, put national security at risk.

 

Schlafly proved an astute grassroots organizer and champion for her cause even, as the series depicts, she faced slights by men who underestimated her.

 

She debated only white opponents, Waller said, so her political arc didn't intersect with that of Chisholm or the other women of color depicted in the series, including young political leader Audrey Rowe Colom (Melissa Joyner) and activist and poet Margaret Sloan-Hunter (Bria Henderson).

 

With Chisholm, the way in was to tell “the story of Phyllis' world and the story of Shirley's world” and depict their thematic intersection “of women, race and power,” Waller said.

 

Episode two, titled “Gloria,” is about Steinem but also focuses on Sloan (as she was then known), who was a lesbian, and the pivotal 1977 National Women's Conference held in Houston, Texas. The meeting became a flash point for the “tension between whether to include (issues of) race and also gay rights in the women's movement,” Waller said.

 

While she would like to have made more episodes about other leaders of color, she hopes viewers are inspired to further explore their lives and achievements.

 

That goes for Hollywood, too.

 

“Mrs. America” did its best to honor overlooked women but is “by no means comprehensive,” she said. “There could be a whole series just on Flo Kennedy, and I hope there are many biopics of Shirley Chisholm.”

April 16, 2020 

By Lapacazo Sandoval 

Contributing Writer 

 

Although A’Lelia Bundles has no blood tie to the great Madam C. J. Walker, she is still referred to as the great-great-granddaughter because of the adoption—by A’Lelia Walker, (Madam C.J. Walker’s daughter), in 1912, of a little girl named Fairy Mae Bryant who is Ms. Bundles blood relative.

 

But that’s neither here nor there. Bundles does not have to be a blood relative (obviously) to help us understand the importance and the continuing impact of the late Madam C. J. Walker. She had access and a lot of it, so much so that (again) her deeply researched book — “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker” — is what inspired the four-part Netflix series—“Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer.

 

I’m highlighting the word inspired because Bundle herself confirmed this in our phone interview. Pushing into the definition of inspired which means an extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external creative impulse.

 

Madam C.J. Walker is inspiring and larger than a four-part series. Yes, it’s a start and a good start but my point is that her story should be told again and better. I won’t accept the argument that one story is enough. To wit, there have been six film versions of Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” the most recent version done in 2019 by director Greta Gerwig. See my point.

 

Black stories about powerful Black women need at least six versions—in my mind—as the years click on.

 

Here’s what I learned in my short, but informative phone conversation with Bundles. She’s a force-of-nature. A woman filled with determination and passion. I offer as an example the 50 years it took her to get Madam C. J. Walker’s story to the screen. fifty years of having Hollywood executives say “yes” and then change their minds. It almost happened in the 1980s with a TV mini-series backed by “Roots” author Alex Haley before his death. Then the project slid into the development film “hell” bouncing to several directors, producers, and studios like HBO, and Columbia TriStar but the project always fell short.  

 

“Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” (premiered on March 20) caught a lot of criticism for having a weak script and questionable casting choices; all valid in my estimation.

 

But it’s a big deal to have the global platform that Netflix provides and I won’t underplay that impact.

 

It’s something Bundles is proud of as well. After a 30-year career as an executive and Emmy award-winning producer with “ABC News” and “NBC News,” Bundles is now brand historian for MCJW, a line of hair care products inspired by Madam Walker and created by Sundial Brands. She is a trustee of Columbia University and chair emerita of the National Archives Foundation. She’s the author of the biography of Madam Walker, is a New York Times Notable Book.

 

She founded the Madam Walker Family Archives and is on the advisory boards of the March on Washington Film Festival, the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute and the Smithsonian’s American Women’s History Initiative.

 

Currently, she’s at work on the fifth book, “The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance” which will focus on A’Lelia Walker’s legendary parties, arts patronage and travels helped define the era.

 

Here is what A’Lelia Walker author of “On Her Own Ground: The Life and Times of Madam C. J. Walker” which inspired Netflix’s four-part mini-series “Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker” had to say about the flawed production and what’s next.

 

L.A. WATTS TIMES: What did you think of ‘Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker’ that’s now playing on Netflix?

 

A’LELIA BUNDLES: What do I really think about ‘Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker’?

 

LAWT: Yes. What do you really think about this four-part series?

 

AB: (inhale of breath) I read your review and I agreed with many of the things that you said. I think if famous people can have more than one movie story about their lives … I think that Madam Walker could be re-done. I’m almost done with writing the autobiography of Madam Walker’s daughter A’Lelia Walker.

 

LAWT: Yes, I read about that. It’s called ‘The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance’ which will focus on Madam Walkers’ daughter whose parties, arts patronage and travels helped define the era.

 

AB: Yes.

 

LAWT: Let me get back to that. I’m still on what you really thought about ‘Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker’?

 

AB: I hope to have a different relationship with the studio next time.

 

LAWT: I should hope so. So I’m thinking you did not like the product very much?

 

AB: I agree with a lot of what you brought up in your review.

 

LAWT: I’m not the only critic that expressed disappointment. I believe that there is room for another limited series on Madam Walker’s life. I can only hope that your entertainment lawyer structures your deal differently. But it’s, I feel, that the first one got made.

 

AB: Madam would be pleased that there are so many successful Black CEO and other successful entrepreneurs. Well, at least before what we are going through now [pandemic], but what she would be dishearted about is that less than three percent of venture capital goes to Black women. And that Black women are still struggling so much. Not being able to get venture capital is real because they could be providing jobs for many Black women as Madam Walker did.

 

LAWT: What are some of the other things people should know about Madam C.J. Walker and her daughter that were omitted from the miniseries?

 

AB: For me, what’s important about her life was that she was nurtured, mentored, and empowered by other women. And part of that is how she got to the point of doing that for other women. When she was the poor Sarah Breedlove-McWilliams, widowed at 20, who moved from Louisiana to Mississippi, along the Mississippi River to St Louis. She had three older brothers who were barbers who were there. She began to learn the hair care business from her brothers. Their barbershop was very near Saint Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, and it was the women of the church, like Jesse Batts Robinson, a schoolteacher, who began to give her a vision of herself as something other than an illiterate washerwoman.

 

These women were part of national organizations. So that’s where she got this idea of organizing women. So through that and carrying through the story, she starts a company. Yes, she works for [businesswoman] Annie Malone for a while, but for a short while, and then she begins to develop her own business, establishes a company, and trains thousands of women. She becomes a patron of the arts, a political activist who supports the anti-lynching movement and involved in so many other things. So that part, the philanthropy, and her political activism get telescoped in the series.

 

LAWT: Now let’s talk about the new book that you are writing — ‘The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance.’

 

AB: Yes. So I’m almost finished with the first major biography of A’Lelia Walker called ‘The Joy Goddess of Harlem: A’Lelia Walker and The Harlem Renaissance.’ I’m so excited to be doing this book because when I was writing, ‘On Her Own Ground,’ initially I thought it was going to be a double biography. That was very ambitions for me. I have hundreds of letters that Madam Walker and her daughter [A’Lelia Walker] and their attorney F.B. Ransom [Freeman Briley Ransom] wrote to each other almost daily and that’s why I can turn this story in such a rich and detailed way. 

 

LAWT: A lot of research.

 

AB: I’ve done additional decades’ worth of research. In the biography of Madam Walker, I develop the relationship between the two women. And what I found when I was writing that book is that most of the things that people knew about Madam Walker were incorrect.

 

And I’m finding as I’m writing, most of the things people know about A’Lelia Walker are incorrect. She’s portrayed as a party girl. She’s very different from the character who appears in the series.

 

LAWT: What did you discover?

 

AB: I have just discovered she[A’Lelia] knew everybody, all the artists and musicians and writers. She hosted the first art show for Augusta Savage, who was a very famous Black woman sculptor. She helped to underwrite some things; she hired a lot of Black musicians. She also was kind of an impresario and she knew how to have big events that would get attention.

 

She traveled internationally to London, Paris, Palestine, Monte Carlo, Rome for the coronation of the Pope, Addis Ababa, where she met the Empress of Ethiopia. So she’s a much more substantial character.

 

So it’s kind of painful to me to see people sort of over and over again, basically say, Madam Walker made the money, and A’Lelia spent the money. It’s so two dimensional.

 

LAWT: Was she a queer woman?

 

AB: In the Netflix series they created [the character] Esther (Mouna Traoré). She did not exist and an affair that didn’t exist. The conflict between her mother did not exist. I don’t know exactly why they felt the need to do that but they did.

 

LAWT: Say what now?

 

AB: The conflict be­tween mother and daughter (Madam and A’Lelia) was over two men. Two very handsome doctors. One who was a guy with a swagger and a bit of a bad boy. And the other that was a good guy so you know where that story goes.

 

LAWT: So. She was not a queer woman?

 

AB: Well. I don’t know. I’m giving you a really honest answer. Here’s what I know. She [A’Lelia] was married three times. She had many friends who were queer.

Some of her women friends had been married, heterosexual and then later had relationships with women.

I know from the letters because I have these detailed letters, how heartbroken she was over the second husband.

 

 

The second husband was the love of her life. The third husband was the good guy. The one her mother wanted her to marry.

 

LAWT: So no queer anything in this story of A’Lelia Walker in Harlem in this period. A period and a place is known to welcome sexual expression?

 

AB: Well as I am doing my research I did find a friend of hers that may be more than a friend but I have absolutely no concentrate evidence of this. And I think when you are writing about people, I need facts.

 

LAWT: Understood.

 

To learn more go to: www.madamcjwalker.com, www.aleliabundles.com

 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.