Bridgeton is back and the Netflix series is as gosy and over the top as ever.

I love the dialogue as ridiculous as it is sometimes.

Same.

We're talking about the romance and the clothes and the nudity and obviously the

Queen's hair. Listen to the pop culture happy hour podcast from NPR. from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident. I like to feel seen when I go to the theater or turn on the TV as much as the next person

but to keep it real there are more than a few shows, movies, and plays that have made me tired of capital R representation.

I'm not going to name names, but as a black woman, sometimes I feel like stories that are marketed to me are actually talking past me, or trying to explain my identity and experiences back to me when I just want to be entertained.

It's tiring but also kind of boring and it leaves the most compelling and surprising stories

about Black Life on a shelf,

which is why I am so excited to be talking

to a phenomenal playwright whose work

has been slowly changing the face of American theater

while also expanding the way black people define our identities

for ourselves.

Her name is Jocelyn Beo.

Jocelyn is a first generation Ghanaian American playwright whose new play,

Joja's African Herbrading, is nominated for five Tony awards this year,

including Best Play.

Joja's follows a day in a braiding salon in Harlem and the lives, fears, and passions of the ladies inside.

Today we're talking about the everyday magic of your local braiding salon, the key to laughing through adversity

and how her plays might be the perfect remedy

for the Social Media Diaspora Wars.

...