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	<title>Gugu Mbatha-Raw &#8211; The Dithering of a District Diva</title>
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	<description>Chasing God + Purpose</description>
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	<title>Gugu Mbatha-Raw &#8211; The Dithering of a District Diva</title>
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		<title>Here&#8217;s Why You Need to Watch &#8216;Beyond the Lights&#8217; on Netflix TONIGHT</title>
		<link>http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/heres-why-you-need-to-watch-beyond-the-lights-on-netflix-tonight/</link>
		<comments>http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/heres-why-you-need-to-watch-beyond-the-lights-on-netflix-tonight/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2015 09:07:56 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brooke Obie]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[At the Theater with a Diva]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[#DamnNoni]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Beyond the Lights Movie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cynthia Erivo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fly Before You Fall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gina Prince Bythewood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gugu Mbatha-Raw]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kaz]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nate Parker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Noni]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.districtdiva.com/?p=3640</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[TONIGHT, July 25, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. EST / 4:30 PST, Beyond the Lights writer and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love &#38; Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees) will be hosting a Beyond the Lights live-tweet as we all watch together on Netflix (or just buy it here). Here&#8217;s why you should join in: Without question, Beyond the]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/heres-why-you-need-to-watch-beyond-the-lights-on-netflix-tonight/beyond-the-lights-movie-620x300/" rel="attachment wp-att-3782"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3782" src="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/Beyond-the-Lights-Movie-620x300-300x145.jpg" alt="Beyond-the-Lights-Movie-" width="300" height="145" srcset="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/Beyond-the-Lights-Movie-620x300-300x145.jpg 300w, http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/Beyond-the-Lights-Movie-620x300.jpg 620w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p>
<p>TONIGHT, July 25, 2015, at 7:30 p.m. EST / 4:30 PST, <em>Beyond the Lights </em>writer and director Gina Prince-Bythewood (<em>Love &amp; Basketball</em>, <em>The Secret Life of Bees</em>) will be hosting a <em>Beyond the Lights </em>live-tweet as we all watch together on Netflix (or just <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a title="buy it here" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RFG788E/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00RFG788E&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=theditofadisd-20&amp;linkId=YVMXEGY2VVWDFFVK" target="_blank">buy it here</a></strong></span>). Here&#8217;s why you should join in:</p>
<p>Without question, <em>Beyond the Lights</em> was the most underrated movie of 2014. This beautiful love story about a Rihanna-esque pop star on the verge of suicide has it all: heart-melting romance, suspense, drama, action, <em>superb</em> acting, a solid storyline, bountiful tear-jerking moments and the sweet satisfaction of watching two people fall completely in love. So why didn&#8217;t we make it #1 at the box office last year??</p>
<p>I&#8217;m kicking myself for being so ridiculously late to this party, having just seen the film this month at the suggestion of my cousin. I&#8217;d been watching the new Nina Simone documentary, <em>What Happened, Miss Simone?</em> when my cousin&#8217;s text came through that <em>Beyond the Lights</em> on Netflix was a must-see. After watching the legendary Simone, what a joy to watch another film about&#8211;at least, in part&#8211;the impact of Simone on <em>Beyond the Lights&#8217;</em> main character, the young singer, Noni Jean (played impeccably by the gorgeous Gugu Mbatha-Raw).</p>
<p>Besides getting to feel in your bones one of Simone&#8217;s most gut-wrenching but less-famous tunes, &#8220;Blackbird,&#8221; the film features one song that sounds to me like the voice of God, for real: &#8220;<a href="http://www.districtdiva.com/2015/07/cynthia-erivos-fly-before-you-fall-lyrics-voice-of-god/" target="_blank"><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Fly Before You Fall</strong></span></a>,&#8221; by Cynthia Erivo. You&#8217;ll be wanting to <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OLF0U3M/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B00OLF0U3M&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=theditofadisd-20&amp;linkId=VM6V5GLPIGYJKMDP" target="_blank">buy the soundtrack</a></strong></span> when the live-tweet is over because it&#8217;s chock-full of catchy songs written by The Dream that I can&#8217;t for the life of me get out of my head&#8211;and I don&#8217;t want to!</p>
<p>I will not even confess how many times I&#8217;ve seen this movie in the past month, how many friends and family members I&#8217;ve made watch it with me, or how many times I&#8217;ve played &#8220;Fly Before You Fall,&#8221; <strong><a href="http://www.districtdiva.com/2015/07/cynthia-erivos-fly-before-you-fall-lyrics-voice-of-god/" target="_blank">just to make it through the night</a></strong>. It may be a year old, and it would&#8217;ve been great if I had found it sooner, but in this past month, I <em>needed</em> it in a way that perhaps I didn&#8217;t need it when it came last year.</p>
<p>Even in fiction&#8211;or maybe especially so&#8211;I <em>needed</em> to see a young Black woman learning to deal with mental illness and attempted suicide out in the open. I <em>needed</em> to see a young Black woman finding and defining her own freedom. I <em>needed</em> to see a young and gloriously Black couple connecting on a soul-level and then falling in love. And I <em>needed</em> to see Nate Parker without his dag-on shirt (kidding! But that&#8217;s a bonus).</p>
<p>Gugu&#8217;s criminally underappreciated performance (and singing!) will gut you and mend you all at once. Gina&#8217;s vision and story will have you rooting for love, and the songs will have all you fellow Blackbirds ready to fly.</p>
<p>So watch with us tonight, tweet me <strong><a href="http://www.twitter.com/brookeobie" target="_blank">@BrookeObie</a></strong>, use #DamnNoni to keep up with the live tweet and thank me later!</p>
<p>// <a href="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_ssw&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Ftheditofadisd-20%2F8003%2F7dce725d-0ebf-42e7-8358-131d661d5800&amp;Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</a></p>
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		<title>Cynthia Erivo&#8217;s &#8216;Fly Before You Fall&#8217; Is What the Voice of God Sounds Like</title>
		<link>http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/cynthia-erivos-fly-before-you-fall-lyrics-voice-of-god/</link>
		<comments>http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/cynthia-erivos-fly-before-you-fall-lyrics-voice-of-god/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 25 Jul 2015 09:04:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Brooke Obie]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[At the Theater with a Diva]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[beyond the lights]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Cynthia Erivo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Fly Before You Fall]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gina Prince Bythewood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gugu Mbatha-Raw]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lyrics]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nate Parker]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[secular songs that make better gospel songs]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[song explanations]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.districtdiva.com/?p=3644</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[If you&#8217;ve seen Gina Prince-Bythewood&#8217;s glorious film, Beyond the Lights, you&#8217;ve probably heard a snippet of Cynthia Erivo&#8217;s &#8220;Fly Before You Fall&#8221;. But it&#8217;s not until you hear the whole song that you&#8217;ll begin to understand why Erivo&#8217;s stirring words and sweet melody are what I think the voice of God]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/cynthia-erivos-fly-before-you-fall-lyrics-voice-of-god/beyond-the-lights5/" rel="attachment wp-att-3784"><img class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-3784" src="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/beyond-the-lights5-300x145.jpg" alt="beyond-the-lights5" width="300" height="145" srcset="http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/beyond-the-lights5-300x145.jpg 300w, http://www.brookeobie.com/districtdiva/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/07/beyond-the-lights5.jpg 596w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></a></p>
<p>If you&#8217;ve seen Gina Prince-Bythewood&#8217;s glorious film, <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong><a title="Here’s Why You Need to Watch ‘Beyond the Lights’ on Netflix TONIGHT" href="http://www.districtdiva.com/2015/07/heres-why-you-need-to-watch-beyond-the-lights-on-netflix-tonight/" target="_blank"><em>Beyond the Lights</em></a></strong></span>, you&#8217;ve probably heard a snippet of Cynthia Erivo&#8217;s &#8220;Fly Before You Fall&#8221;. But it&#8217;s not until you hear the whole song that you&#8217;ll begin to understand why Erivo&#8217;s stirring words and sweet melody are what I think the voice of God sounds like&#8211;and it&#8217;s not just because of Erivo&#8217;s Heaven-sent vocal range. Listen to the lyrics:</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><strong>Cynthia Erivo&#8217;s &#8216;Fly Before You Fall&#8217; lyrics:</strong></span></p>
<p><strong><em>I see the way that you look when you hear his name</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>I see his picture up in your frame</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>You refuse to admit you still miss him but</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>It&#8217;s okay</em></strong></p>
<p>Apropos for the movie, this song plays during the aftermath of the lovers&#8217; break-up, but for me, this verse represents someone bearing witness to a person&#8217;s general, yet severe heartbreak, and that someone is acknowledging and validating the heart-broken person&#8217;s feelings, even as the person doesn&#8217;t want to acknowledge them, herself.</p>
<p><strong><em>You&#8217;re a tower of strength when you&#8217;re breaking down</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>But through the wall I can feel your cry </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>And when it&#8217;s quiet you&#8217;re screaming inside</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>And I break as </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>I hear you, loud as a bomb,</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Wanting a shoulder to cry on</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>I hear you tumbling fast</em></strong></p>
<p>Do you know how connected you have to be to a person to &#8220;feel&#8221; them crying?! This is nothing but a representation of God&#8217;s love for His children! While you try to hold it together in front of everyone, God not only feels you, sees you and hears you, but He &#8220;breaks&#8221; when He feels and sees and hears what we&#8217;re going through! Especially in times that are so low it feels like not even God is paying attention or cares how much we&#8217;re hurting, it is so comforting to know that God actually hurts when we hurt because He cares so much for us. When we&#8217;re suffering in silence, still, God hears us, &#8220;loud as a bomb&#8221;. We are not alone in our pain. He cares so much about our sorrow that He collects all of our tears in a bottle.</p>
<p>// <a href="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_w_mpw&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Ftheditofadisd-20%2F8014%2Ff7de8182-a634-4471-89c9-db51b0d1616b&amp;Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</a></p>
<p><strong><em>Here and now you&#8217;re afraid</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><em>Don&#8217;t you worry, I&#8217;ll teach you to fly before you fall away</em></strong></p>
<p>Every time in the Bible that God and Jesus encounter people, they both say, &#8220;Fear not,&#8221; or &#8220;Don&#8217;t be afraid&#8221;. It&#8217;s no wonder the chorus to this song and then the powerful bridge are the soothing words, &#8220;Don&#8217;t you worry,&#8221; and &#8220;Don&#8217;t be scared&#8221;. God is with us, &#8220;here and now,&#8221; even in our fear. That alone is good news, but it doesn&#8217;t end there; &#8220;I&#8217;ll teach you to fly before you fall away,&#8221; tells us that before things get too far gone, before you sink too low, before it&#8217;s all over and you fall away, I will equip you with all that you need to survive. Even if it&#8217;s one day at a time, I&#8217;ll give you just as much as you need to keep going, to stay hopeful, to know you&#8217;re not alone.</p>
<p><em><strong>It&#8217;s in the moments when you&#8217;re left all on your own,</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>And it hits you from out of nowhere</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>You try to hide it sometimes unsuccessfully</strong></em></p>
<p><em><strong>With a smile that fades quickly</strong></em></p>
<p><strong>Your resistance to sadness is futile but</strong></p>
<p><strong>You&#8217;re a fighter can&#8217;t stand defeat</strong></p>
<p><strong>You&#8217;re a magician at hiding the hurt from you</strong></p>
<p><strong>But I see and</strong></p>
<p><strong> I hear you, loud as a bomb</strong></p>
<p><strong>Wanting a shoulder to cry on</strong></p>
<p><strong>I hear you, tumbling fast</strong></p>
<p><strong>Here and now, you&#8217;re afraid</strong></p>
<p><strong>Don&#8217;t be scared (x2)</strong></p>
<p>This song came to me at a time I can only describe as despair. It came after weeks of feeling an unnameable kind of lonely, misunderstood, devalued and ignored. It came after weeks of saying out loud to God, &#8220;Are you even paying attention?! Do you even care?!&#8221; This song was the confirmation I had been longing for.</p>
<p>After discovering &#8220;Fly&#8221; and having its lyrics pour into my soul, there&#8217;ve been many insomnia-plagued nights where I&#8217;ve just played this on repeat and let God affirm me and validate me and love me until I fell asleep, comforted. It still represents comfort and peace to me&#8211;so much so that just hearing the opening chords cause me to tear up with gratitude in remembrance of God&#8217;s great promise to never leave us nor forsake us.</p>
<p>However long it took for this song to be written, produced and so staggeringly performed by Cynthia Erivo, God made it so that at just the right time, I would hear it and see Him and feel Him working behind the scenes, so far in advance, to be ready to meet me in all His glory exactly when I needed. I&#8217;ve never been more grateful or more sure of His perfect timing.</p>
<p>So, thank you, too, Cynthia Erivo, for this confirmation, for facilitating this new-found peace and for being for me the voice of God.</p>
<p><em>Catch Cynthia on Broadway in The Color Purple, with Jennifer Hudson and Danielle Brooks</em>.</p>
<p>// <a href="http://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_ssw&amp;ServiceVersion=20070822&amp;MarketPlace=US&amp;ID=V20070822%2FUS%2Ftheditofadisd-20%2F8003%2F7dce725d-0ebf-42e7-8358-131d661d5800&amp;Operation=NoScript">Amazon.com Widgets</a></p>
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