This photo of 47 #StrongBlackLeads has gone viral. It's a new day in Hollywood.
It's a new day in Hollywood, and several dynamic black Netflix creatives took an empowering photo to celebrate it.
In a beautiful photo, 47 black Netflix actors, producers, screenwriters, and more came together to recreate "A Day in Harlem" to promote #StrongBlackLead's A Great Day in Hollywood campaign.
Image by Kwaku Alston/Netflix.
In an incredibly powerful re-creation of the iconic 1958 photo and documentary that celebrated the golden age of jazz, art, and culture in New York City, actors and actresses came together on a Harlem block to promote what "Stranger Things" actor Caleb McLaughlin called "a new day" in American film and television.
"This is a new day, built from the ground, broken by legends," McLaughlin declares in the promo. "A day for our generation to see untold experiences of our blackness. Representing a limitless range of identity. Playing kings and queens of our neighborhoods."
This is not a MOMENT. This is a MOVEMENT. https://t.co/HtzTDPIDXo— Strong Black Lead (@Strong Black Lead) 1529894510
As the camera pans to different black creatives, such as Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Logan Browning, and Laverne Cox, viewers are reminded of just how bold, beautiful, and diverse blackness really is.
Black people are strong, beautiful, powerful, queer, straight, wealthy, poor, and complex.
As McLaughlin continues, "We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black." In short, black folks are human, and Netflix is working to make sure that's reflected in as many ways as possible.
In a press release, the Netflix team stated, "Our vision was to bring together Black creatives and icons in Hollywood for a once-in-a-lifetime moment."
As television producers and filmmakers continue to work to make media more inclusive and representative, it's clear that black people are at the forefront of the movement, telling their own stories on their own terms.
"We stand up on any stage, and any screen," McLaughlin says. "Today is a great day in Hollywood."
Yes, it is.