'A League Of Their Own': Chanté Adams, Abbi Jacobson And More Talk Intersecting Truth With Joy In This New Take On Classic

A robust reimagining of the 1992 film of the same name, A League of Their Own, tells the stories of a women’s professional baseball league amid World War II.

While the classic Penny Marshall film mostly centered on the sexism and injustices that the ladies faced during the time, this Prime Video series, co-created by Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson, unpacks the women’s personal lives. 

Across the first season, the series dives into the personal lives of the women playing on the AAGPBL’s Rockford Peaches team as they contend with the era’s sexism, misogyny, racism, and homophobia. However, the series also carefully highlights the women’s joys and passions. 

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Why 'A League Of Their Own' Is A Throwback For Today: 7 Things To Know About Upcoming Show [ABFF 2022]

Penny Marshall's 1992 classic, A League Of Their Own, is getting an updated TV adaptation, inviting a new generation of women to lean into the beloved story. Like the film, the Prime Video series is set amid the Second World War and centers on several women with aspirations of playing for the Rockford, Illinois Peaches, an All-American Women Professional Baseball team.

However, the television version of A League of Their Own explores the women's lives well beyond the field. Chanté Adams and Abbi Jacobson lead the series as Maxine and Carson. The first two episodes of the series were screened at the American Black Film Festival (ABFF) and Shadow and Act was on hand for the screening and discussion with Adams and co-creator Will Graham. 

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Chanté Adams Doesn't Want To Be Labeled

“What is to give light must endure burning” is one of Chanté Adams’s favorite sayings. Reflecting on this quote from Austrian philosopher Viktor Frankl, the actress says, “It means that the struggle is worth it. I always have to remind myself that the light is there and it’s going to come. It’s not going to come on my time, but it’s going to come when it should.” 

In 2017, just one year out of drama school, Adams, 26, was cast as the lead in Netflix’s Roxanne Roxanne, portraying hip-hop pioneer Roxanne Shanté. From that moment forward, her career has blazed. Historically, Black women have worked for decades in Hollywood before they’re afforded the title “leading lady.” And love stories that center Black women are still a rarity. “We still have some ways to go, but I feel like we’re on the right path,” Adams says. “We’re not allowing ourselves to be put off to the side anymore. I’m not saying the generation before us did so, but I feel like we’re at a place now where we can start demanding what we want, and what we want to see.” 

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Photography | Joyanne Panton 

Stylist | Shameelah Hicks

Hair | Sean Fears

Manicurist | Alex Jachno

Nail Design | Aja Walton, Maho Tanaka

'The Photograph' Is The Soft Romance Film That Black People Deserve

There has been such a void in Black Romance dramas that we didn't realize how much we were craving one until The Photograph hit us in the face.

Though we still cling to our favorites, such as 1997's Love Jones and 2000's Love & Basketball, Black romance on screen is nearly as old as cinema itself. The earliest surviving movie depicting Black intimacy is 1898's Something Good — Negro Kiss, a 29-second silent film. Since then, the romance drama category has taken off in Hollywood with timeless films like Casablanca and Titanic. Still, seeing Black people in these kinds of narratives is a rarity. 

In 1964, Nothing But a Man, though not widely seen, made a powerful impact on cinema. Set in Birmingham, Alabama, it follows the romance of a railroad worker and a preacher’s daughter, played by Ivan Dixon and Abbey Lincoln. The film showcases a Black romantic drama in a way that isn’t packaged for the white masses, as has been implied of 1943's Stormy Weather or 1954's Carmen Jones. Following Nothing But a Man, films like Mahogany came to be in the 1970's. However, it wasn’t until the 1990's that a slew of romantic dramas, including The Best Man and Waiting to Exhale, or romantic comedy Boomerang began to take center stage. Yet, in the past 20 years, there have been only sprinklings of Black intimacy, sex and relationships on screen, heteronormative or otherwise, especially in mainstream cinema. 

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