We get deep into our creativity with Piece by Piece, and deep into our feelings about how toxic the relationship between franchises and fandom has become. Our third PBS Renegades Aftershow also comes in to celebrate Celestine Tate Harrington.
PBS Renegades Aftershow #3: Celestine Tate Harrington: Building a Legacy
The third episode of Rioter Day Al-Mohamed’s PBS American Masters series Renegades highlights Celestine Tate Harrington, who was born with a condition that left her limbs unusable. She made a name for herself playing the electric keyboard with her tongue, captivating audiences in downtown Philadelphia and on the Atlantic City boardwalk in the 1980s and 1990s. She also won a landmark case against the Philadelphia Department of Child Welfare who sought to take away her infant daughter due to her disability.
In the latest Aftershow, Rioter Renee and guest host Mariette Largess sit down with the episode’s director Cashmere Jasmine and producer/writer Marsha Hallager about what drew them to Tate Harrington’s story, working with her family, and their favorite scenes in the episode. ‘Celestine Tate Harrington: Building a Legacy’ is available to watch on PBS now.
Day also stops by to bring you another one of her beloved 60-second Secrets to celebrate Celestine’s birthday! (Keep scrolling for a transcript of the clip.)
RIOTUS Catchup, Piece by Piece
Sherin, Monique, and Julian take over to chat what’s on their minds, starting with a quick rundown of everything we’ve got going on right here on RIOT-US.com (so you’ve got lots of good stuff you can read while you listen). Then Julian gives us his thoughts on Piece by Piece, the incredibly creative Lego biopic about Pharrell Williams (you can also read Julian’s review right here). Stay tuned for an Extra Innings with more about Piece by Piece, where Sherin and Julian continue to tell Monique about why this movie is so delicious.
Oh, and shoutout to French chocolatier Amaury Guichon, who made a giant chocolate Lego sculpture of A$AP Rocky that Rihanna commissioned for his birthday.
The Joker: Folie à Deux, Superfan Test Groups
Next up are some things our Rioters are NOT loving. They take some shots at Todd Phillips and The Joker: Folie à Deux (read Julian’s review for more). Then they get into the notion of superfan test groups, sparked by an article by Variety about toxic fandoms. From Disney to Lord of the Rings to the DCEU and all the franchises in between, the shift towards algorithms and pandering to the worst of the fandoms is affecting media in a bad way.
Our Rioters break it down, backing up their arguments with examples from past franchises that worked, and examples of how racism, sexism and other bigotry has been given a voice. They close out this fiery conversation by sharing why we should let creators create.
TRANSCRIPT: 60-Second Secret: Celestine Tate Harrington
Hi, this is Day with Geek Girl Riot.
Welcome back for the another in the series of our 60 sixty second secrets focused on the RENEGADES film series from American Masters/PBS. This episode celebrates Celestine Tate Harrington and it is quite fitting as tonight, October 15th would have been her birthday.
Out of all of the RENEGADES episodes, the one about Celestine Tate Harrington, is probably the most intimate. The film team was honored with the trust of her family and her daughter Nia without whom the film would have been so much poorer. Tonight’s 60 second secret isn’t really a secret, only perhaps adding a few more details to Celestine’s story.
In the short film, we see Celestine on the Howard Stern show. As a part of his show, Stern had on a group of personalities he referred to as the “Whack Pack”. These are folks who tended to be “unusual in some way” and honestly, it felt a little like he was making fun of them on the show. We see her talking to him, and Stern is giving her a hard time, and Celestine gave it right back to him. She saw the benefit of publicity and SHE is the one who originally reached out to him. After Stern’s phone conversation with Celestine, and hearing her play, he invited her to play at his U.S. Open Sores live event on October 7, 1989. Celestine played the Star-Spangled Banner with her tongue at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to an audience of more than 16,000. The crowd was booing her and she didn’t care. She was there to tell her story, and her message. Celestine was fearless.
There was the clip where she even offers to sign a copy of her autobiography for Howard Stern. Truly, all publicity was good publicity and Celestine, as Stern said, “knew how to work a room.” The short film mentioned her 1994 book, “Some Crawl and Never Walk”. It was published with funding from heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield. He met Celestine, by chance on the Boardwalk and donated money to have it published in hardcover. That was the power of Celestine Tate Harrington.
This is Day with your 60 Second Secret on Geek Girl Riot.
