Entertainment
Queen Latifah on Returning to Host This Year’s NAACP Image Awards: ‘I Want to Deliver Something to My People’
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – NOVEMBER 03: Queen Latifah speaks on stage throughout the thirty eighth Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony at Barclays Center on November 3, 2023 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Kane/Getty Images for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)
Queen Latifah returns to host the NAACP Image Awards for the second yr in a row and admits she feels the pressure.
“I put a certain amount of pressure on myself with every project and everything I do because I want everything to go well and be good,” she tells ESSENCE from her makeup chair between rehearsals for a movie show. “I really just want to serve my people.”
Broadcasting live from the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 16, the fifty fifth NAACP Image Awards will culminate a week-long celebration of Black excellence in entertainment. Distinguished honors will go to Usher, who’s the 2024 President’s Award recipient, poet Amanda Gorman, who will receive the President’s Award, and stylist June Ambrose, who will receive the Vanguard Award.
Not only can Latifah take the stage because the evening’s host, but she’s also an NAACP Image Award winner, as she was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series for her starring role within the film, which she also executive produces. , a brief film produced by The Queen Collective – a Proctor & Gamble and Latifah-owned Flavor Unit Entertainment company that goals to expand opportunities for female and non-binary filmmakers of color – was also nominated for Best Short Film.
“I’m one among those individuals who appears like each time I try to make a movie, I’m doing all the pieces I can to share my vision and make it universally appealing to everyone. It’s nice to have such a prestigious organization that your parents find out about and everybody looks at your project and feels it deserves an award,” says Jenn Shaw, director of the film, which tells the story of a prepubescent girl torn between keeping a gap between her teeth. and the pursuit of a “perfect” smile. All vital measures.
“I’m incredibly impressed,” Shaw adds of the nomination, “but I also think it’s just the start of something for me as a filmmaker. I would like to earn more, I would like to develop and I would like to receive more opportunities.
Latifah is hopeful about Shaw’s future as a filmmaker and other Black creators, despite renewed conversations concerning the forms of Black stories studios proceed to allow to be told in light of the recent cancellation of popular TV series like “Issa Rae” and
“For us in the arts, I think we still have a lot to offer that no one else can do,” Latifah says. “I feel like if we stay on our path and keep doing what we’ve been doing and keep building things like the Queen Collective and other collectives, supporting each other, we’ll start to see these projects progress because there’s nothing different like them.”
He adds that awards shows also play a giant role on this effort. “When one of us wins, we win in a different way. We tend to win, and so does Cord [Jefferson] winning the Oscars in a way that our speeches are designed to promote each other, not just self-promotion or maintaining the status quo.”
This selflessness made it a no brainer for the Queen to return to host the NAACP Image Awards this yr. “It wasn’t a big deal to agree to it,” he says. “It was just a matter of whether I could make it happen within my schedule and, beyond that, whether we could make it well done, properly produced and with a large number of people involved. I’m more than happy to be on this show.”
Shaw is happy concerning the nomination and potential win, but like many viewers, she will be able to’t wait to see what Latifah will wear on the large night. Although the host didn’t reveal any details about her upcoming wardrobe, she did promise that she would dress in front of the audience.
“We’re going to bring it, and I know everyone at home will bring it,” Latifah says. “I like award shows and seeing what everyone wears and the way different they give the impression of being from one edition to the subsequent. I like all this melaninated beauty and I can not wait.
The fifty fifth NAACP Image Awards will air live on Saturday, March 16 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET and CBS.