The
Women of Brewster Place, a miniseries based on the novel by
Gloria Naylor, was produced in 1989 by Oprah Winfrey's s firm Harpo,
Inc. Winfrey served as Executive Producer and starred along with
noted actors, Mary Alice, Jackee, Lynn Whitfield, Barbara Montgomery,
Phyllis Yvonne Stickney, Robin Givens, Olivia Cole, Lonette McKee,
Paula Kelly, Cicely Tyson, Paul Winfield, Moses Gunn and Douglas
Turner Ward. The story, spanning several decades, includes a cast
of characters that depict the constant battles fought by African-American
women against racism, poverty, and sexism. Interpersonal struggles
and conflicts also pepper the storyline, often revolving around
black men who may be fathers, husbands, sons, or lovers.
The
Winfrey character, Mattie, opens the drama. Her road to Brewster
Place began when she refused to reveal the name of her unborn child's
father to her parents (Mary Alice and Paul Winfield). Milestones
for Mattie included living in the home of Eva Turner (Barbara Montgomery)
until she died and willed the house to Mattie; then forfeiting the
house when her son, Basil, jumped bail after Mattie used their home
as collateral for his bond. The other characters' journeys to the
tenement on Brewster Place were just as unpredictable and crooked.
Kiswana, portrayed by Robin Givens, moved to the neighborhood to
live with her boyfriend. They worked to organize the neighbors,
plan special activities for the neighborhood, and to protest their
excessive rent. One of the most powerful scenes in the drama occurs
between Kiswana and her mother, Mrs. Browne (Cicely Tyson). When
Tyson comes for a visit, she and Givens begin a conversation that
progresses into a heated argument regarding Kiswana's name change.
Mrs. Browne reveals why she named her daughter Melanie (after her
grandmother), and in a powerful soliloquy tells the story of that
grandmother's strength and fearlessness when facing a band of angry
white men.
Other
women from the building reveal bruises inflicted either by the men
in their lives, or by the world in general. Cora Lee (Phyllis Stickney)
continues to have children because she wants the dependency of infants;
once they become toddlers her interest in them falters. By the end
of the series, however, she begins to see the importance of all
her children, and after being prodded by Kiswana, she attends the
neighborhood production of an African American adaptation of a Shakespearean
play. Through this experience and her children's reaction to it,
the audience sees a change in Cora Lee.
Miss Sophie (Olivia Cole), an unhappy woman and the neighborhood
busybody, spreads vicious gossip about her neighbors in the tenement.
Etta Mae (Jackee), Mattie's earthy, flamboyant and loyal childhood
friend, moved to Brewster Place for refuge from her many failed
romances. Lucielia Louise Turner, housewife and mother (Lynn Whitfield),
lived a somewhat happy life with her husband Ben (Moses Gunn) and
daughter Serena in one of the tenement apartments until Ben lost
his job and left home. Lucielia then aborted their second child
and her daughter Serena was electrocuted when she used a fork to
chase a roach into a light socket. Theresa and Lorraine (Paula Kelly
and Lonette McKee) decided to reside on Brewster Place because,
as lesbians, they were seeking some place where they could live
without ridicule and torment. Their relationship, soon discovered
by their neighbors, became the backdrop for the drama's finale.
Criticism
of the miniseries began before the drama aired. The Naional Association
for the Advancement of Colored People requested review of the scripts
before production to determine whether the negative images of the
African-American male, present in the Naylor book, appeared in the
television drama. This request was denied, but Winfrey, also concerned
with the image of black men in the novel, altered several of their
roles. Ben Turner, the tenement's janitor and a drunk in Naylor's
novel, was revamped for the teleplay, and in a scene created for
especially for the series, explains why he felt pressed into desertion.
The producers also attempted to cast actors who could bring a level
of sensitivity to the male roles and create characters who were
more than one dimensional villains.
Still,
newspaper columnist Dorothy Gilliam criticized the drama in a two
part series for the Washington Post, as one of the most stereotype-ridden
polemics against black men ever seen on television, a series which,
moreover, trotted out nearly every stereotype of black men that
had festered in the mind of the most feverish racist. In spite of
such criticism the series won its time period Sunday and Monday
nights against heavy competition, The Wizard of Oz on CBS
and a Star Wars installment, Return of the Jedi, on
NBC.
Though
criticized for its portrayal of African American men and women The
Women of Brewster Place offered its audience a rare glimpse
of America's black working class and conscientiously attempted to
probe the personal relationships, dreams, and desires of a group
of women who cared about their children and friends, who worked
long hours at jobs they may have hated in order to survive, and
who moved forward despite their disappointments. A spin-off of the
miniseries titled Brewster Place, also produced by Harpo,
Inc. aired for a few weeks in 1990 on ABC, but was canceled because
low ratings.
-Bishetta
Merritt
Bobo,
Jacqueline, and Ellen Seiter. "Black Feminism and Media Criticism:
The Women of Brewster Place." Screen (Glasgow, Scotland),
Autumn 1991.
Kort,
Michele. "Lights, Camera, Affirmative Action." Ms. Magazine
(New York), November, 1988.
