Southern Diva

Alice Walker’s book The Color Purple is a classic. I remember it being in my mom’s personal collection as a child. When it was adapted into a film in 1985, it cemented Celie, Nettie, Mister, Sophia, Shug Avery, and Harpo into our culture, especially Black American culture. Lines from the movie are often quoted and the infamous childlike “patty-cake” scene is often imitated to signify that two people may be apart physically but never separated in their hearts.

Decades would roll by and a play would be created based on the book, starring a then fairly new R&B singer Fantasia Barrino still riding high off her time on American Idol. My mom, sister, and I went to see that too (It was awesome!). Now, The Color Purple is back. It has been reimagined into a more modern film based on the play and book before it. Fantasia reprises her role in the play as an older Celie, Halle Bailey, who also stars as Ariel in Disney’s Little Mermaid, appears as a young Nettie and more. Watch the trailer below.

The movie is set to release in America on December 25, 2023.