SHRI and JSU host 'Shalom Bollywood' film viewing in Eliot House
On Dec. 1, a cold Thursday night after Students of Hinduism Reaching Inwards’ weekly evening Puja, a group of students from SHRI and the Jewish Student Union gathered in Eliot House with warm tea, hot cocoa and a selection of Indian snacks to watch a documentary promising to tell “the untold story of Indian Cinema,” called “Shalom Bollywood: The untold story of Indian Cinema.”
‘The Sweet Science of Bruising’’s talented cast and crew pull no punches
Velma comes out as a lesbian in ‘Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!’
The Scooby-Doo franchise’s bright colors, wacky catchphrases, easily recognizable characters and supernatural hi jinks have wormed their way into millions of fans’ hearts. But as the franchise reimagined itself for a new generation of viewers in the 2000s, one question kept coming up: Would Warner Bros. allow gay characters into its beloved, nostalgic cartoon universe?
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum exhibition highlights the diversity of Indigenous experiences
Last Thursday, Sept. 22, the kickoff event for the annual Native American Indigenous Studies Association Northeast Gathering and Five College Native American Indigenous Studies Symposium was held at the Mount Holyoke College Art Museum. Attendees made up of Five College NAIS faculty, students and local NAIS academics ate Wampanoag cuisine from Sly Fox Den Restaurant & Bar and concentrated in the front gallery, where they examined one of the newest MHCAM exhibits, “Considering Indigeneity.”
‘Abbott Elementary’ breaks boundaries at the 74th Emmys, wins three accolades
Photo courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via Wikimedia Commons.
“Abbott Elementary,” a mockumentary-comedy in its second season, was awarded three Emmys.
By Oakley Marton ’25
Staff Writer
It’s rare that a show featuring a self-described “underfunded and poorly-managed public school in America” wins three Emmys. It’s even rarer that it’s a comedy show. Yet “Abbott Elementary” is quickly becoming one of America’s favorite shows, winning awards that have broken barriers for Black creators and actors last Monday, just before the show’s highly anticipated second season released on Wednesday, Sept. 21.
“Abbott Elementary” is a mockumentary-style workplace comedy about teachers at an underfunded, majority-Black elementary school in Philadelphia. The show has received rave reviews from critics like The Guardian and The New York Times, a 98 percent Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and an average of eight million viewers across all platforms.
The show’s large fan following from teachers has been particularly heartwarming to the cast and crew. This relationship is exemplified by a resolution from Helen Gym — a former teacher and current city council member of Philadelphia — to honor Brunson for the creation of the show, according to the Philadelphia City Council Twitter. This week, the cast and crew found themselves celebrated in a new arena — the 74th Primetime Emmy Awards.
Quinta Brunson — producer, lead actor and writer for “Abbott Elementary” — was nominated for three Emmys at the 74th Emmys on Sept. 12, becoming the first Black person to be nominated in three different comedy categories in the same year.
“She’s a triple threat,” Warner Bros. TV chairman Channing Dungey said of Brunson in an interview with Variety. “There are very few people I would consider her peers.”
Brunson was born in Philadelphia, where her mother worked as a teacher. She grew to internet fame by making viral comedy videos for Buzzfeed from 2014 to 2018. She then left to star on HBO’s “A Black Lady Sketch Show,” later beginning work on “Abbott Elementary.”
According to People, Brunson was inspired by her own experiences in her mother’s classroom and even named the show after Mrs. Abbott, her favorite teacher. The show’s majority-Black cast and its candid takes on public education are far from the norm in Hollywood, yet its authenticity and character-driven comedy put it among the most highly broadcast shows on television.
While its fanbase boomed, the show received seven Emmy nominations this year — including for Outstanding Comedy Series — and won for Outstanding Writing in A Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actress and Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series. Quinta Brunson was the second Black woman to win the writing category, the first being Lena Waithe in 2017 for Netflix’s “Master of None.” Sheryl Lee Ralph, the “Dreamgirls” star who plays the no-nonsense veteran teacher Barbara on “Abbott,” was the second Black woman to win in that category since Jackée Harry in 1987 for “227.” In her acceptance speech, Ralph sang an excerpt from “Endangered Species” by Dianne Reeves. “I’ve been singing that song for years because I think of myself as an artist, as a woman, especially as a woman of color — I’m an endangered species. I don’t sing any victim song. I’m a woman. I’m an artist and I know where my voice belongs,” she stated at the end of her speech. Harry tweeted to Ralph after her win, saying, “For 35 years I’ve been the only Black woman to win Outstanding Supporting Actresses in a Comedy Series. But that all changes tonight … and it’s come full circle!”
“I think of myself as an artist, as a woman, especially as a woman of color — I’m an endangered species. I don’t sing any victim song. I’m a woman. I’m an artist and I know where my voice belongs.”
In this emotionally-charged atmosphere that celebrated the talent of Black artists whom institutions like the Emmys rarely recognize, some were frustrated at Emmy host Jimmy Kimmel’s joke before Brunson’s win, wherein he pretended to be so inebriated that the category announcer had to drag him out from backstage. A controversy emerged, with concerned fans and stars, including Ralph, expressing that Brunson needing to step over his body to give her acceptance speech felt disrespectful and took away from the moment, according to HuffPost.
After the show, Brunson commented, “I think in that moment, I was just really happy that it was Jimmy up there,” who she has described as a “comedy godfather” and one of the first to watch “Abbott.” She continued, “I don’t know, tomorrow maybe I’ll be mad at him. I’m gonna be on his show on Wednesday, so I might punch him in the face,”she joked. “I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.”
That Wednesday, during his “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” monologue, Brunson “interrupted” Kimmel, walking onto the stage in a sparkling pink dress, Emmy in hand. “I have a little favor to ask, actually,” she said once the cheers for her had died down. “So you know how when you win an Emmy, you only have 45 seconds to do an acceptance speech, which is like, not that much time?” she asked him rhetorically, tampering down a grin. “Then you get less time, because someone does a dumb comedy bit that goes on a bit too long?”
“You know, I have heard of that happening in previous years,” Kimmel joked.
“Right, right. Well, I was wondering — or more, demanding — if I could I have a couple of extra minutes to thank a couple of extra people I didn’t get to on Monday night,” Brunson continued. The crowd burst into cheers again as Kimmel exited and Bruson recreated her acceptance speech, thanking different comedy writers that inspired her: Channing Dungey, the first Black American president of a major broadcast TV network, “the internet for raising me and to all my ‘Abbott Elementary’ writers watching, I wouldn’t have this without you. Now, please go to bed. We have work tomorrow — even though you’re adults and I have no jurisdiction over when you sleep,” she finished, ending with a smile wrapped in the glow of the gold trophy she carried.
Brunson’s comedic strengths and the power of her fans helped her steer the conversation back to the highly anticipated season two of Abbott Elementary, and the unique place it’s carving out on television right now. On the red carpet, the showrunner reflected on what it meant to her to write a show that resonated with so many, especially teachers. “My mom was a teacher. I was so close to it all my life. I was in my mom’s class. Schools like Abbott, with Black children and Black teachers who care about them, they’re very special places. Places of community and safety and morals and intense humor.”
Abbott Elementary is a love letter to teachers, filtered through the intense humor Brunson and the cast cultivate so well. This season, the show will be diving into new storylines of characters like Barbara, the oldest teacher, learning how to make her class accessible to a student who uses a wheelchair; Melissa, a veteran teacher managing high class sizes and, of course, many will be watching closely to see if Gregory and Janine’s will-they-won’t-they grows into something more. Season two, episode two of “Abbott Elementary” premieres on ABC Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 9 p.m. EST.