Oprah Winfrey, Mara Brock Akil And Michele Weaver On 'Love Is__,' Heartache And Lessons Learned

Black women aren’t often given the opportunity to tell our love stories publicly. Instead, our courtships, regrets, and lustful encounters are whispered about amongst our girlfriends. Epic love stories -- the ones that we see in movie theaters or on TV screens are typically reserved for white women, while advice from male “relationship experts,” and unfounded statistics are strewn across social media platforms and news sites telling Black women all the reasons we can't find love. With her new romance series, Love Is__ writer/showrunner Mara Brock Akil is reclaiming the romance genre for Black women by sharing her own very intimate story – a tale of how she and her husband, writer/director Salim Akil fell deeply in love. Love Is__ follows Nuri (portrayed by Michele Weaver) a rising writer in '90s Black Hollywood whose settling into her career in LA, making a name or herself, and furnishing her newly purchased home. Her life collides with Yasir (portrayed by Will Catlett), an aspiring writer-director without two nickels to rub together. Told from the perspective of the couple 20 years in the future, with music from everyone from Brownstone to Lauryn Hill contributing to the soundtrack, Akil invites you into this exhilarating time in her life, one that was full of romance, heartache, and so much magic. At the Love Is__ premiere in Los Angeles, I chatted with Akil, OWN CEO Oprah Winfrey and Weaver about the series, the power of Black love, and what can grasp from heartache.

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Mara Brock Akil And Salim Akil Talk Their Seductive New Show 'Love Is ___' With Series Leads Will Catlett & Michele Weaver

Love stories were made for the screen. There is a magic that comes with falling, diving in head first, and allowing yourself to become connected and enraptured with another soul. In romance films, the audience is pulled under quickly, caught up in the first mesmerizing moments of desire and lust. However, television allows artists and audiences to unpack the nuances of love. We are able to suss out the grit and imperfections that come with entangling two lives together. The enchantment is still there obviously, but there is also space for the reality of it all, the past relationships, finances, and the grind of daily life. Set in Los Angeles in the 1990’s, married Hollywood dream team Mara Brock Akil and Salim Akil -- who've brought us series like, Girlfriends, The Game, and Black Lightning, present Love Is__. A love story based loosely off of their relationship, the gorgeously shot drama follows Nuri (portrayed by Michele Weaver) and Yasir (portrayed by Will Catlett). Told from the perspective of the couple twenty years into the future, wiser Nuri (Wendy Davis) and Yasir (Clarke Peters) reflect on their initial spark. At different points in the lives and careers when they first meet, the pair sees something special in one another. When they first connect Nuri is a new homeowner with a coveted position in the writer’s room on a new black sitcom, Marvin. Yasir, on the other hand, is struggling in LA. A recent transplant from the Bay – he's an aspiring writer/director who is trying to make his last two unemployment checks stretch as far as possible. A week before the Love Is__ series premiere, I sat in the OWN offices in Los Angeles to chat with the Akils, Catlett, and Weaver about bringing the sexy and rich love story to the big screen, what it was like to reflect back on the ‘90s, and why seeing Black love on screen is so healing.

https://youtu.be/ZgRXkypO5_Y

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