Spotlight- Hulu Original Series, Unprisoned

The great Olivia Pope, oh sorry, I mean Kerry Washington has blessed us with a new show starring herself along with actor Delroy Lindo titled “Unprisoned”. Based on a true story, the show centers around Paige (Washington) a therapist and single mother to a teenage son and her father, Edwin (Lindo), who was released from prison following an almost two decades stay. Now you have a father and daughter who only knows each other from the past before his sentence and must learn about each other’s present mind; so now the trauma of the past is at war with the present for both of them. As a therapist, Paige gives advice to others, but she could benefit from using her own words to help with her healing including love for herself to release herself from the bondage of her childhood.

      I wanted to spotlight this show as the 55^th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr assassination comes up on April 4^th. He was a Black man taken away from his family along with so many others during that time who left families behind who had to deal with that trauma. Some of these children went on to do great things and others were unable to free themselves from this mental captivity. The history of Black men being taken away from their families began during slavery as they were subjected to capture without a trace to those who they left behind because during these times there was no social media to find a lost relative; flash forward to the 1960’s through the 1980’s when men were being killed at the hands of racist people, being drafted into the war to fight other countries instead of their home country who discriminated against them, or being arrested during the unwarranted war on drugs.

   As women who lost their spouses during those times there was no opportunity to relax because they had to keep pushing in order to survive and to take care of their children if they had them. The ‘strong black woman’ mode has been passed down to us not out of want but because there was no choice. This is something we should be proud of because Black women have continued to thrive in many industries and in raising families to be greater people. But we still have so much stress because our genetics have programmed survivor’s mode into our DNA. What can be done? How can we breathe? How can we release the tension from our past? When I need to escape from the world and its stress, I often put on my music and have my own personal karaoke until I fill up my cup again; on the other end of it, sometimes when I hit my pillow at night, I cry to mourn all the negative/conflicting thoughts on my mind so I can move forward and free myself from the stress it is causing to my brain.

So how do you manage your stress or trauma to move forward? It is not good on our health to keep it all in. Share with us because some of us can use new ideas for releasing that tension! And don’t forget to check out the show and let us know if you like it.