My Black History Month Journey of Celebrating Women in the Arts: Anika Noni Rose

• You may know her as Yasmine from her fierce role in For Colored Girls, or you could even remember hearing her lovely voice in Disney's first animated movie featuring an African American princess (remember Tiana?!?), you might also remember her role as Lorrell Robinson in Dreamgirls
• What would I ask her?  How can we, as moviegoers and Broadway supporters, strengthen the demand for leading roles for black actresses?
• One of the clearest memories from For Colored Girls is Yasmine's monologut in the hospital scene.  Take a look at an interview done by Cinemablend.com:

That hospital monologue is where you see the change, with the camera that just pushes in on you. Were you more prepared for that because of your theater background, and how did you prepare it?


I prepared it the same way I prepare theater, absolutely. I think the words are so poignant and so strong, I wanted them to be heard. I wanted them to be heard for every single woman who has gone through something when they're had their spirit stripped from them. So that was my focus point, deep within those words, to find out where she's coming from, and to make sure that I understood it as strongly as I could.