I'm a homegirl that knows a little bit about everything and everybody.
You don't know if you don't lie about that, right, Lauren can't.
Hey, y'all, it's Laura L. Rosa and this is the Latest with Lauren L.
Rosa.
This is your daily dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news, and the conversations that shake the room. Now, when we talk about conversations that shake the room, we know that y'all love when we bring the live conversations, the sit downs here on the podcast. So I got something really really special for all of my lowriders today if you've ever seen the show Girlfriends. And I kind of feel like a little like a dub when I say that,
because who hasn't seen the show Girlfriends? But if you have or have not seen the show Girlfriends, we are going to talk a lot about it today in this episode because we have a icon joining us.
Ms Golden Brooks, who played Maya on.
The show, will be joining us to talk about in our exhibition that has taking place in la June twenty ninth in June twenty eighth at the Line Hotel in La So. On June twenty ninth and June twenty eighth or June twenty eighth and June twenty nineth.
I'm like, why am I saying it backwards.
Like that you'll be able to come out and check out some art pieces that were all created by black women artists and photographers. Because Girlfriends, the show is turning twenty five or has turned twenty five this year. So we and when I say we, we talked to Golden Brooks me Delaney George, who was the co founder of DCDG and Co.
She put the whole exhibition together.
She figures out, like, you know, what is the focus of the exhibition, who will be focusing on what? And then you know, she puts all the pieces to the puzzle together. So she brought me in with an amazing dope artist named Brittany Bird.
Brittany is creating.
Some of the pieces in the show as well as helping to you know, bring other artists into the show as well. And in conversation with Golden Brooks, we got to talk a lot about what the show meant to us and pour into Golden Brooks maya from Girlfriends just on her and what that looks like for us at our ages and you know, we started watching Girlfriends so
long ago. She you know, Golden Brooks is in this conversation just receiving all of the flowers, but for a lot of the conversations, she's kind of in awe still of the impact of Girlfriends.
But mar Brock, I.
Kill Golden, Tracy Ellis, Ross Lynn at everybody who has played on this series, Jill, Marie Jones. I think that they all and somewhat and in some way understand how important they are. But I think it's different when you get to hear it firsthand from women creatives who've been inspired by the work.
So that's what we're doing here.
So take a listen to this exclusive sit down with Golden Brooks maya of Girlfriends as we celebrate twenty five years of the show. All right, all right, morning morning, y'all are glowed up for lining and on a Sunday, all of y'all are giving and all are glowing. I'm really excited to be here. I've been in preparation for
this conversation. I've been watching a lot of Girlfriends and conversations that I went back through some of the art that we selected or that was a part of the major selection, and we narrowed it down to for the exhibition that is happening in LA and I don't know.
I think it's just so dope.
How you know, a show that we watch and now have been able to rewatch with our mothers or grandmothers and nieces, our aunties and you know, all these people that are in our lives is now like we're now talking about it in a way of art and exhibition. I think that it's amazing to see art be able to be communicated in so many different ways. So I'm
excited for this conversation. You know, I know you guys are without introduction, but if you want to just say hello really quick to the audience and lets them know what part you guys are playing in this, you know, twenty five year anniversary art exhibition that we're putting on in LA that will be open to the public in a few weeks.
I think that that would be a great way to kick it off.
Yeah, okay, oh, Golden, you go ahead, Golden.
Oh you go first.
Okay, Okay, Well, Nati, Hi everybody on the live.
I'm Delaney George.
I'm the co founder of Creative Fine Arts Agency DCDG. Also, this is our first iteration of our new brain child, Iconic Visions, which basically partners legends like Golden works here and other people of multiple industries, whether it's music, sports, entertainment,
and put them in the role of the curator. So kind of like you said, Lauren, taking something that we all know in love within our culture and then bring it into find our in the galleries and putting a contemporary towist on something that we all know and love. So I'm super excited to be talking about this with you all, but also to be bringing this to life with so many incredible black women artists. That's what it's really about, That's what's connecting us. So I'm excited to get into it.
Hi, everybody in the live I'm so excited to be a part of this project. My name is Brandan Bird, and I am a multi high far artists and creative and I am exhibiting a piece in the show and I'm just like heartful.
Oh gosh, Hi you guys. I'm Golden Brooks.
Aka my Denise Wilks. I just I I was asked to, you know, sort of come along this journey and help curate and just pick some amazing art pieces from some of these you know, these artists, and.
To work with the d C d G, it's just it feels like such an honor.
I feel I feel very honored, and I'm I still get really emotional when we were talking about any girlfriends and just knowing.
That the show is still is still moving and and and being.
Celebrated and empowering communities, and it's being used to to as the muse for for this particular art exhibition.
It's mind blowing all of us.
Tracy, Jill Persia and I we're just blown away at the amount of just love and support and still the train is moving, and I think it just shows that we need more of this, We need more representation and just girlfriends to be able to be in the art space, which I love. I'm a huge art lover. I feel very honored, So thank you for having me.
This is a show that we all know and love and all girls, but now to be taking it from the screen and putting it on canvas or gallery wall, I think that's something that everybody can relate to. So even if you're a person that's not traditionally trained harder, you're not into it all the time. I think this show is going to bring something for everyone to be involved in.
It really is a collection about what sisterhood looks like.
Yes, and the pieces are.
Beautiful, and I mean I think that girlfriend and what it represents to me is the whole culture of what it is to be and not just a brown woman, but but female womanhood, from our hair to our skin to how we connect physically metaphysically. I mean some of the art pieces were so metaphorical and and you know what, I feel like, art is kind of like a really good dish. Like some people, you may not know what
you're eating. You may not know all ingredients and sometimes intimidating when you go to, you know, a certain restaurant, you're like, oh, what is it? But once you eat it, it's texture, it's feeling. You just you just know when you know, and and you don't always have to have the right terminology. But when you look at something and it moved you and it evokes an emotion, that's when you know that that piece is for you.
You know it's all feeling true.
Yeah, and Golden, this is kind of like another full circle woman for you, because you guys are The African American Museum.
In DC we we were, We absolutely were our art. It's just it's you know, I think because Girlfriends was so iconic, I feel so.
Old when I say that, I'm like iconic.
But I think because it was one of the first shows that actually celebrated or you know, maur bucka kill, you know, hats off to her showing black women doing yoga and eating sushi and.
Wearing fly clothes designer.
I think that was the first time I ever heard about, you know, the well, not really the Burken Bag, because Sex and the City did it, but you had women of women of color wearing designer.
You know. We talked about it, and.
I just think that on so many levels it showcased us in a way that we hadn't seen ourselves and all of our flaws, you know. And I think that that's something that I think women of color it was. It opened up a whole new conversation piece on the black woman and what that looks like, you know, and I think museums. I think it should be celebrated, and I think Girlfriends really was sort of the catalyst for a lot of other amazing shows that have that have
come after it. So I feel very proud to be to be part of that.
Well, Golden kind of talked a little bit about what the show meant to her, but for everyone else here, I would love to know the first time you watched this is like an Icebregger, first time you watched Girlfriends? What, like what did it represent like right away to you? And like, I feel like there's a version of us who watched.
It now as we're older, But try.
And think back to like the very first time you watched the series.
I'm like, I think I want to say it might have been like around like maybe two thousand and.
Three or four.
My mom used to religiously watch Girlfriends like get a and then tune in and like we would literally sit in front of tea together. So in a way, Girlfriends represents like a motherly bond for me because that's.
Something that my mom did together.
Like that was we ate our dinner watch Girlfriends, and my mom would literally cold Maya's like, oh hell no all the time, she's probably watching this get in here, clean this rip.
Exactly.
So I mean that was definitely a bonding moment for me and my mom, Like so early early two thousands for sure. And then it's like when I when I saw just the imagery of these black women. I me being that age, I didn't really get to Laura digest like all of like the drama and the serious. Yeah, but they were just so beautiful and like fabulous in the fashion in a stop. Like every single episode, everybody was on point Tony with all of her designer and
her product. Like I was crazy because, like I mean, growing up in New Orleans, like I, we just did not see that type of caliber of black women. And I think you said, like that golden like that didn't just expose, you know, that exposed to everyone.
To like the fact that this is what we can be.
These black women do exist, and that was like my first occurrences with it. It was inspiring to see that, but also it was a bonding moment for me and my mom.
I love that so amazing.
I think I started watching it and maybe like two thousand or two thousand and one, I was definitely like in elementary school, but it was just like always on in my house, and it was like, wait a minute, they're owning homes and miracle miles.
Right in the cities. They were, like y'all were.
Because when I was thirty, I was like, wait, because in Girlfriends they were like twenty nine, thirty thirty one, right.
Right, yeah, and like growing up it's like, oh wait, twenty eight with real jobs, law firms.
Yeah, that was cool for me to see.
Because it definitely gave me like inspiration, like you can be out landishly loud, you can be yourself, you can be exceptionally beautiful.
So yeah, it was a lot of for me. Yeah.
Same, I agree with both of you guys sentiments. For me, I think the first time I watched it younger, it was just like it reminded me of like my group of friends and like my family, like theirs, Like you always have the aunt who has a great job and you can tell her lifestyle. You go to her house and it's like, oh my god, and then you got
your homework like it. There were so many different people in one show, but they all were together, and I don't think I've ever seen that, cause I think other than that, a show that sits out to me is like a Mosha. But it was different because she was younger, she was figuring things out. She was you know, like there was a certain unapologeticness in Girlfriends for each character in different ways, And I was young, like, wait, hold on because she just wait because yeah.
So figuring all those things out as I was.
Learning and growing.
Now I'm like, oh.
They rewatch it different. The rewatch it's crazy.
I was like, wait, this is actually unhinged activities.
So do you guys feel like now you guys are still so young, and I mean, and I know you watched it with your mom's when you look at it now, even for me when I look at it now, you know, twenty five years later, and I sometimes I see so many memes now online like.
Who was the most toxic friend?
Or you know, but looking at it now, now that you guys are older, more mature, does it resonate in a way that do you feel something different? Do you feel like you're more connected to one or the other now that you're in a space of living your full, flushed out lives.
Hell, yeah, oh my god, I'll be watching that. I'll rewatched it a few years ago with my mom and then I've just rewatched it on my own, just and moving to New York and wanting to you know, you have that girlfriend's like I want to take over the city, to take over the world wide, and I feel like it depends on what I'm going through in the week I'm having. I might identify with a different character for a different reason, and I might need like I might need to be Then and just be like free spirited
things are going to work out. I might need to be Maya and be like I'm on, fuck this, this is not happening. I might need to be Joan. I might need to be Deal and be like hold on cause from me, I deserve that, like you know what I'm saying, Like, it just depends on what I'm going through. But Mark brock Iki, I think what it's so genius about the show is that I've never I could really watch it a thousand times and find a different reason why I need it to watch it like the art,
the story doesn't get old. You watch it like I need to see it again, girl.
That right.
Definitely timeless for sure, because like a lot of I primarily work in fashion and art, but like a lot of the fashion girls, they're like, oh it's touch sex in the City, no shade, great show, but I resonate more with like the characters of Girlfriends.
Oh Man, thank you.
It's differing for me too, because it's like I think watching it as an adult, like the ages twenty eight through like thirty one, thirty two. It's like it makes you like they're still going through so many things that you would like imagine people not go through. And it's like, wow, these are grown women around my age that's going.
Through the same thing.
It's just like it's okay to still be figuring out. Like Girlfriends just showed such a spectrum of different types of Black women, Like they were all different in their way, but it's like their situations happen to all of us, Like we're not you know, opposed to going.
Through an that.
So I feel like it's really for me to be like you can be a career woman, can be like on your stuff, but you're still going to have like reality happen.
So I feel like Girlfriends is kind of like that's.
A hug that you need to be like, girl, like you're okay, like you're figuring out and that's okay too.
Yeah, yeah, that's you. Guys are so on it. I love it.
I love it.
It's it really is crazy how it still holds up, you know, and we're all still so very close and uh, I mean the fashion we always talk about, you know, what I would take this from Joe, you know, oh you know, Lynn, let me let me get that little black sashet or for real estate dresses and my little sassy jeans. And I loved it. I love that we're having this conversation. And I think we're all I mean,
as black women. I really think we're all those women, right, I think we're all that, And I think we we
have to code switch. That's what we do as as women of color, women in the arts, women in if you know, if you're in the professional space, we you know, we're a little bit of Maya when we're with our friends, you know, the sister girl where and sometimes we have to put on that hat when like Joan in the boardroom, and and sometimes we're the perennial student where we're constantly wanting to learn, like like Lynn, and I think we wear so many hats as women of color that we
have to. And so I'm so proud of all three of you for, you know, being in the space that you are. And I think people underestimate how art really can inspire you, whether it's TV or an actual art piece or.
Because we're removed by by what.
Is us and and something that's familiar and something that gives us, you know, legiency to.
To be that and to explore that and to express that.
So I just think conversations like this are really important, especially for you know, you guys and and even younger generations, so that they know it's okay, it's okay to to to be you, you know, and I know that that we're living in a space right now where we're kind of told who we need to be. And social that's another thing we always talk about. Girlfriends was around at
a time, but there was no social media. You know, there was no Instagram, there was no I mean, I think Facebook was just starting, but it.
Was a space maybe yeah, yeah, it was my space.
Right, but like you only found out about girlfriends by word of mouth, like if you was you know.
A.
Yeah, definitely was like a talking point and like it was that every point of black women lineage. I can definitely say, from like grandparents to like my parents.
Right, I mean it was sort of like you had to go to your local Sunday dinner or to church or to a friend's house to talk about that episode.
Oh did you say when Joon did this?
Because you know that's also how you know that it was the power of us, because you know, it was really like we'd have to get fan mail to hear what people were thinking.
It was like wow.
So they would sit there and open up envelopes, you know, and it's it's very interesting. We're in a different time. So the fact that we're still having this conversation, it just it really takes me a little bit emotional.
So all right, y'all, So that has been the sit down with Golden Brooks. Now make sure again if you have not heard it enough throughout this conversation, you will hear right now that you come out. If you were in la on June twenty eighth and June twenty ninth to visit the exhibition, it will be open to the public. You can go out, take a look at all the art pieces, and you know, Golden will be there. It's
going to be a great time. It's going to be a day full of creativity and conversation through the lens of black women creators, which, of course, again, girlfriends, you know, it was tea for that is that's what they gave.
Even though they weren't all artists. You know, they were.
Painting this campus of what real life looks like for us as black women. It's twenty five years later, we still celebrate it. So at the end of the today, like I always tell you guys, y'all could be anywhere with anybody having these conversations, but you choose to be right here with me. I appreciate you guys so much, Lowriders, and I will see you guys in my next episode.