My first encounter with Tyler Perry was back in 2003 during an all-nighter freshman year at Albany State University (shameless plug. Go Rams!). A girlfriend called me into her room and put in the stage play Madea�s Family Reunion. I�d never heard of Tyler Perry or Madea, but enjoyed the stage play sans the seemingly infinite gospel interludes � probably because I am Methodist and used to operatic singing of hymns.



The Madea character and Perry in general did not get �scholarly� for me until I taught a black gender archetype course last year. By the time I found myself in a position to analyze Perry�s impact on black and American popular culture he was no longer a member of the underground stage play chitilin-esque circuit. Perry�s catapulting into Hollywood as a legit producer because of crossover successes including movie adaptations of his stage plays, a hand in the film Precious (2009) and his latest screen adaptation For Colored Girls set to hit theatres at the end of the year suggest Perry not only as a powerhouse of African American film but also as a gateway for the interpretation of blackness and, more particularly, late 20th and 21st century black women�s experiences. The majority of Perry�s women characters validate their blackness and ultimately their womanhood through overcoming horrifically traumatic ordeals. Perry�s presentations of black women�s narratives are often monolithic and all consuming, which has lead many critics and Shange enthusiasts to voice concerns about how Perry manhandled (pun intended) the script. Perhaps the biggest question/fear is if Madea makes a cameo appearance as the lady in drag.

This essay, however, is not to address whether or not Perry qualifies as a legit producer or screenwriter for For Colored Girls. Rather, I am intrigued by the advertisement of the film and, more particularly, the individual actress posters released to market it. I was particularly struck by the vividness of the colors (or lack thereof) used for each actress and how those details paralleled the narratives being presented in each frame.


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