Black LGBTQ+ Organization Celebrates Premiere of the Final Season of POSE
CONTACT: Brett Abrams | brett@unbendablemedia.com
The National Black Justice Coalition (NBJC) celebrates the premiere of the final season of the groundbreaking television show Pose. The first two episodes of the third and final season aired on FX on May 2nd, 2021. The first episode of the season was directed by Janet Mock, a Black transgender woman who has worked on the show as a writer, producer and director since it first aired in 2018. Mock became the first transgender woman of color to write and direct an episode of a TV show in history when she wrote and directed the season one episode “Love Is the Message”. The show has received much critical acclaim and has been nominated for several major awards, winning two GLAAD Media Awards for Outstanding Drama Series. Billy Porter became the first openly gay Black man to be nominated and win a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his role in Pose.
During its run, Pose has increased the visibility of Black and Latinx trans, non-binary and queer actors, communities and stories. The show tells the stories of the legends and icons of New York’s underground ball culture scene in the 1980s and 1990s. Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles in the history of television, including Dominique Jackson, MJ Rodriguez, Hailie Sahar, Angelica Ross and Indya Moore, who is also non-binary. Besides Janet Mock, there were several trans creatives involved in the show including Our Lady J and Silas Howard. Steven Canals, a queer Afro-Latino man, co-created, produced and wrote for the show. The show takes place during the AIDS epidemic and features several characters who are HIV/AIDS positive. The explicit conversations featured about the virus and epidemic are especially important as it brings attention to HIV and the fact that it still disproportionately affects the Black LGBTQ+/SGL community today.
David J. Johns, Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition, explained
“Pose shines a vibrant, multicolored light on our beautifully diverse community, its history, and the experiences we currently face, all of which are too often erased or ignored. Too many of our community’s transgender, non-binary, and queer trailblazers were taken from us entirely too soon by the HIV/AIDS epidemic—a challenge we still face. It provides us with opportunities to further explore contemporary solutions to the problems explored including ways that our community can work better together to address the vestiges of white supremacy. While the final season has just begun and we’re excited to see where things grow; we’re thankful for all that it has contributed to the culture and look forward to more diverse and inclusive shows like Pose.”
