The film is based on an actual event, and Palmer portrays an enslaved woman in Georgia who runs away and realizes that it’s not the 19th century. She has four major projects lined up this year alone, starting with Krystin Ver Linden’s directorial debut, Alice. Of course, Palmer will still be in front of the camera. The next chapter of my career is not just on camera, but being a part of telling stories from behind the camera as well.” But as I’ve grown and have seen the impact that roles and art ultimately can have on society, it feels more like a community. “My initial draw to working in entertainment was about my love for it. “I’ve learned that my love for the arts is beyond a personal thing,” she said. Palmer is now at a point in her career where her art is about something bigger than herself. It has always been about asking herself this question: “Now that you’ve done that, how can we expand upon it?” She continued, “It can be disappointing that it’s taken so long for some of these things to happen, but we must focus on the fact that we’re here and congratulate one another for making those strides and thanking the people before us.” But it’s not enough for Palmer to just be the first. Palmer understands that her career and the work of so many fellow artists are testaments to how things have moved forward. “Whether it’s me or the people that have come before me, it’s important-especially as a Black person-to always acknowledge being here because there were things and reasons as to why we weren’t in some of these spaces,” she said. Palmer truly has been out moving the culture forward as this generation’s trailblazer. She also won an NAACP Image Award for her performance in Akeelah and the Bee, was the first Black actor to star in Cinderella on Broadway, and broke the record for Nickelodeon’s largest audience for a live-action premiere for the series True Jackson, VP. She began acting at the age of 10 and went on to become the youngest actor to receive a Screen Actors Guild nomination for her performance in The Wool Cap. In fact, she welcomes change both on a macro level and in her personal life.Īnyone who has followed Palmer throughout her near two-decade-long career knows that she’s been an agent of change in every sense of the word. But Palmer’s stardom doesn’t make her immune to the changes the wider world has gone through over the last few years. Not to mention, there’s been an explosion of investment in the arts and science, from the development of the COVID-19 vaccine to the proliferation of streaming services because of the pandemic. The renaissance began after the bubonic plague (hello, global pandemic), and it coincided with the start of the Atlantic slave trade, something that continues to shape how we’re currently protesting systemic racism. We have faced unprecedented events over the course of the last two years, and as we continue to adapt, the world today is reminiscent of the fraught state of politics and culture in the early 15th century. “We’re in an extraordinary moment-almost like a renaissance age-where you can truly create no matter who you are, and people are using their platforms to say something,” Palmer shared with us over Zoom in early February. The multi-hyphenate creative sees her own work and the work of fellow artists right now as the beginning of a new age, a new way to view the world. A renaissance is not a cultural movement without the icons behind the curtain, and there aren’t many other present-day artists out here doing the work onstage and backstage like Keke Palmer. History may largely be told from the perspective of the group in power, but art has always been a tool for those on the margins to dismantle, challenge, and shift the collective narrative.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |