Like most black women, I have read Push by Sapphire maybe more times than I should have. Not for the faint of heart, it follows an pregnant obese teenaged black girl who is sexually and mentally abused by her parents in the crime-infested 80s of NYC. Needlessly to say the novel is precious to me for more than one way. I was wary when I heard that Lee Daniels had auctioned the book to adapt the script into a film. Would Hollywood taint this story up by replacing Precious with the Hollywood Version of fat, it’s Hollywood Version of dark-skinned? Aka not any of the realties of these things. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw Gabourey Sidibe plastered on the advertisements.
I’ve been rooting loudly for Gabourey Sidbie from the moment I saw her. She was a woman after my own heart: black, fat, a New Yorker, and unapologetic about it. I was worried too. Would Hollywood cast her over as a fluke, never to be heard from again? Gabby shined too brightly for that. Despite the media, actors, and trolls attempt to cast her out of the business with enough fat-shaming and racist remarks to garner an entire article done by Cosmo, Gabby is still out here and working just fine.
With her debut memoir, This Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare, nominated Gabby will recount everything from her sudden rise to fame to her one-of-kind upbringing in Bed-Stuy/Harlem to her first job as a phone sex operator. She will share in a fresh honest way stories of her polygamous father and talented other who supported her family by singing in the subway. Paralleling her new life surrounded by a cast of superstar and super rich people living in mansions while she stayed in her mother’s small apartment. Gabby will tell it all from discussions on race, weight, depression, friendship, fashion, celebrity, and haters with open-honesty and grace. Said to be an irreverent laugh out loud chilling read, there was no way I would leave Gabby out of National Women’s History Month. She is a trailblazer after all.
Join us this week to in reading a memoir that I’m beyond excited to devour: Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare by the polarizing Gabourey Sidibie
You can find it at your local indie bookstore, or here if your lazy (like me) here.
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