FLOWERING GENIUS: ARETHA FRANKLIN AND SUZAN-LORI PARKS - Jasmin Pittman Morrell
National Geographic’s GENIUS is a critically acclaimed anthology series depicting the lives of the world’s most iconic and brilliant innovators. GENIUS: Aretha explores the musical prodigy of the universally-hailed “Queen of Soul,” Aretha Franklin. Franklin’s rich, far-reaching legacy includes an award-winning career in the music industry which spanned over 50 years. As a socially-conscious artist, Franklin was also an ardent supporter of the Civil Rights movement and left a lasting impact on American culture at large. Starring Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet,” “The Color Purple”) and Courtney B. Vance, GENIUS: Aretha premieres Sunday, March 21st at 9/8c on The National Geographic Channel, with episodes available for streaming on Hulu the next day.
What do Aretha Franklin and Suzan-Lori Parks share in common? Genius. Suzan-Lori Parks is the MacArthur “Genius” Award recipient and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright behind GENIUS: Aretha. Serving as the show’s writer and executive producer, Parks and I had a chance to chat about what it’s like crafting narrative, her creative process, and some of the artists who’ve influenced her over the years.
Jasmin Pittman Morrell: Can you tell me about what it’s like to construct the narrative of a legend like Aretha Franklin and what it meant to you to be able to do so?
Suzan Lori-Parks: It started out as an honor. I was so grateful to be able to join the GENIUS franchise and more importantly, tell the story of Aretha Franklin. As a Black American woman, I really value the lives of my sisters. I did everything I could to put up on the screen a viscerally meaningful story to show evidence and repeated demonstrations of Aretha Franklin’s genius. And also to have a really equitable and beautiful scene behind the camera, so we could have that loving genius inform everything we did. It was a huge learning process, and COVID made it more difficult…It was the first time in the GENIUS franchise that we had a Black person, a woman, an American, and songs…It raises the level of difficulty tremendously…There were of lot of balls to keep in the air and a lot of hearts in this.
JPM: You’re a musician yourself. How did that knowledge translate to the writing of Aretha?
SLP: That’s a great question. As a musician myself, I play guitar and harmonica, and I sing some. Granted, it’s on a much more modest scale than Aretha, but I know what it is to be in the studio working with musicians, I know what it is to be on stage and having to get the song right in a live environment. I know how hard it is to write a song. I know a lot of folks in the music business in Aretha’s day were men, and in our time, there are still a lot of men in the business. I know how you have to be assertive as a woman in the music business, and still stay in touch with your muse, with your soul…I very much understand the dedication to your craft. I brought everything I know about being a musician to this show.
Also, the musicality of language and the way music works—it doesn’t hold onto narrative as tightly as other forms, so there’s a freedom in that…Music is all about time, and it is such a character in this series. We let it inform the way we told the story. So, we were a little more emotional with chronology. We allow chronology to move you and allow you to be moved by the emotion of what’s happening instead of just “A-B-C” marching through time like a more traditional form.
JPM: There’s a real lyricism in the way you describe that process.
SLP: Exactly. I feel like when Aretha Franklin was called by the Spirit she answered, and she answered in song. When I’m called by [executive producer] Brian Grazer, on a real practical level, I answer, and bring all the lyrical quality of my writing. I also have a very strong dramatic arm, so I know how to put a scene together…but I know how to listen to the Muse, to the Queen. In the writers’ room, we were always serving something larger than ourselves.
JPM: Can you speak to the significance of gospel music on American culture?
SLP: Black gospel music, spirituals, are the songs we started singing in order to keep going through the atrocities being committed on our tribe. Maybe even before we formed a Church, gospel music, for me started in the mother country, Africa. It grew through the middle passage, and then we put a roof on it, and it was the communication with the Spirit we were “allowed” to have. These were the gatherings we were “allowed” to have. It was our lifeline to the Spirit, but it was also permissible. I think Black folks are very aware of that. It gave us a way to call out to God. Whatever you believe in…it allows you to call out to that thing that is bigger than you, that will continually sustain you. You can carry the song into the field, you can carry it anywhere you need it. It can ring across the field, across the water, across generations. It’s a very powerful gift we continue to give ourselves. And Aretha Franklin would grow up in that cradle.
Genius doesn’t just flower all by itself. It evolves in context. And Aretha Franklin’s genius flowered in the context of the Church, with her mother and father standing by, encouraging her as they could. That’s where her genius took root. We’re all born with a little something. And it’s the context, the world we live in which can encourage that genius to flower and grow, or not.
JPM: Do you have a creative practice? How do you nurture yourself as an artist?
SLP: Thank you for asking. A lot of times I just go, go, go. A friend in the writers’ room just said to me, “SLP, you’re so disciplined, you just work all the time.” I get up in the morning around 6am, I do my meditation, I do any journaling I want to do. And then I make a list, I always make a list of stuff I’ve got to get through. And then I really try to devote as much time as I can to writing. It’s tricky because I don’t have an office. I write at our dining room table. I work every day. Sometimes on more than one project. I seek encouragement from friends and colleagues, and I give encouragement. I have a daily show, “Watch Me Work” which is an online, free, writing workshop…I’m really into supporting other people in the community.
And I just write all the time. I’ve got piles of papers and notebooks and records and vinyl and the occasional unicorn.
JPM: Who are some of the artists that are important to your creative life?
SLP: James Baldwin. He was my creative writing teacher when I was in college. He’s number one. All the greats. I find Lorraine Hansberry’s life so moving. I learn a lot from folks who’ve come before…people I work with, too, like Spike Lee. He’s inspiring to me. How he’s been tenacious, consistent, and outspoken. It’s a beautiful thing to watch. And you know, there are dead, white men who inspire me too, like William Shakespeare. He’s a great writer, we can all learn a lot from people who do their jobs with excellence.
But really, James Baldwin’s the one…He said in my evaluation that I would become a great artist, and I didn’t have the heart to prove him wrong.
When people believe in me, I really endeavor to do a good job. When Brian Grazer called me to be the showrunner for Aretha, I said, “Okay!” and worked every day since 2019 to do the very best job, and bring respect to Aretha Franklin’s name.
The world doesn’t give Black American women enough props. We’re not doing it all, but we are doing our share. We’re contributing beautiful things to this world. And the opportunity to show that through the genius of Aretha Franklin…I’m so proud to be a part of the project.
Jasmin Pittman Morrell is the co-editor of The Porch Magazine. You can also find her writing featured in The Bitter Southerner and Meeting At The Table: African-American Women Write On Race, Culture and Community (2020). When she’s not surrounded by words, she’s probably getting lost in the woods.
