Category Archives: Oprah Winfrey

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RCA Inspiration and Lionsgate to Release ‘Greenleaf Soundtrack: Volume 2’ FRIDAY!

Hello World,

Today, September 7, is my birthday so I took the night off from recapping OWN’s Greenleaf, but I will be back in formation next week (and last night’s episode was Campbell Soup Good…mm, mm, GOOD too)! But I still have some Greenleaf news!

RCA Inspiration and Lionsgate, a global content leader, announced Greenleaf Soundtrack: Volume 2 will be released on Friday, September 8, 2017 with pre-order sales available right now!

The soundtrack features music from Season 2 of the acclaimed OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network original series, Greenleaf, which stars Keith David, Lynn Whitfield and Merle Dandridge.

Greenleaf Soundtrack: Volume 2 features both emerging and iconic artists performing original songs such as “Won’t He Do It” (Koryn Hawthorne), “Shine The Light” (cast member Deborah Joy Winans) and “Rise Up” (Roshon Fegan) and previously released music including, “1, 2, 3 Victory” (Kirk Franklin), “Heaven” (Mary Mary) and “Better Days” (Le’Andria Johnson). The soundtrack also includes a remix to “The Root,” the show’s title theme, performed by the legendary Mavis Staples.

The full list of tracks is as follows:

  1. Kayce Grogan-Wallace – “The Judgement”
  2. Jekalyn Carr – “Hold Me Close” (She was featured on last night’s episode. Remember that scene with Charity and Jabari? That was a kiss last night, right?)
  3. Kirk Franklin – “123 Victory”
  4. Roshon Fegan – “Well Done”
  5. Deborah Joy Winans and Sean Dominic – “Been Saved”
  6. Mary Mary – “Heaven”
  7. Deborah Joy Winans – “Shine The Light”
  8. Roshon Fegan – “Rise Up”
  9. Koryn Hawthorne (feat. Roshon Fegan) – “Won’t He Do It” (Did y’all see that Gospel Chris Brown singing that last night? smh…)
  10. Joshua Nelson and Asia’h Epperson – “How I Got Over”
  11. Le’Andria Johnson – “Better Days”
  12. Mavis Staples – “The Root – Main Title (Remix)”

Greenleaf Soundtrack: Volume 2 is currently available for pre-order via all major digital retailers:

smarturl.it/GreenleafS2-Pre

Any thoughts?

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Greenleaf Recap Season 2 Episode 12: House Rules…

Hello World,

Basie Skanks brought in this eventful episode with a sermon that has got everyone in Memphis talking about it…And you will understand it by and by if you keep reading my “Greenleaf Recap Season 2 Episode 12.”

House of Cards…

While he may no longer be playing poker (for the moment), Basie is still using his pulpit to run game. In his explosive sermon calling out pastors who refuse to address homosexuality and homophobia, Basie says, “It’s not enough to say God is love. It’s time to say God loves gays.” While he may wholeheartedly believe his message, I’m sure we all know by now that Basie has an ulterior motive for everything. Meanwhile, Darius the journalist and Gigi’s boyfriend, is steady scribbling notes in the sanctuary as Basie “spits game.”

At the breakfast table, the Greenleafs dissect Basie’s words via the newspaper article that Darius has written about Basie and the topic of homosexuality and homophobia in the black church. Bishop believes that this article is directed to addressing the city’s bathroom bill. Grace makes sure to tell her parents that she only agrees with Basie on “one issue.” However, it does trouble her that Calvary was mentioned in the article but she knew nothing about the piece beforehand. Lady Mae says, “He’s tugging at the threads that hold this family together” in reference to Basie. Bishop says, “It’s time for me and Jesus to pay a call on Basie Skanks.”

Over at the parsonage, which seems to be held together by threads as well, Kerissa complains about the home’s electrical wiring. “This whole house needs to be rewired.” Jacob tells her he cannot afford to pay for that at the moment and asks her to stop getting so upset about it. She responds with, “I will be done when this house stops twitching like a person possessed.” She ends her tirade with, “Get a job.” She further explains that all pastors with small churches have an additional job. My father has been the pastor of a small church for most of my life and didn’t have a second job most of the time (Sometimes, he worked as a college professor). But on the other hand, my childhood home wasn’t prone to random explosions either. LOL.

Make Yours a Happy Home…

Since Kevin is still MIA, Grace has been named the new director of outreach at Calvary. Grace’s secretary Darlene asks Grace if she will still continue to preach since she has a new position. (When was the last time she preached?) Grace tells her she doesn’t know and says it may be just as well since she doesn’t exactly fit the preacher prototype. Wisely, Darlene says, “Some folks never fit in no matter how hard they try” and explains that may be a good thing anyway. I agree. Too many houses of God seem to have cookie-cutter people.

As he said he would, Bishop pays a visit to Basie’s house of God. He walks into Basie’s office where this big dude in a black leather jacket is telling Basie that he is owed money. Before Bishop is able to hear everything, Basie sees him and rushes the man out of his office. Bishop says,”Stay away from my family.” He specifically mentions Gigi. “I won’t part with her easily.” “You said the judgment is coming. It is. It’s coming for you,” Bishop goes on to say.

Later on, back at Calvary, Bishop boasts it about with Lady Mae. “I called the man a fool in his own church. I told the man he is flailing.” Lady Mae tells Bishop she believes there is more to the story about what went down with Basie and Jacob. They decide to visit Jacob and Kerissa in their home.

Just then, the couple is interrupted by a call from Miss Cross. Of course. Bishop is prepared to not take the call, but Lady Mae tells him to take it as she has a meeting with Jacinta Butler. Bishop asks her what she has going on with Ms. Butler. “Is there no ragged part of the world that you’re not knitting together?” Just as Lady Mae is leaving her husband’s office, Bishop says to Miss Cross. “You were just on my mind. Please call me James.” Something tells me that Miss Cross is well on her way to breaking up a happy home.

After Bishop’s conversation with Miss Cross, Grace confronts her father with news she discovered about Kevin after looking through his files. She discovered that he was attending for Fortitude for Families meetings and referred to the program as “self-flagellation.” She asks Bishop when he is going to address the issue directly in church. He tells her she needs to be patient and not press the issue. ” Only God knows when homosexuals will be as welcome as anyone else, but I’m prepared to practice patience.” Grace is not satisfied with his stance to which Bishop responds he will pray on it.

The House Always Wins…

In another part of Calvary, Charity is applying makeup when Jabari comes into her office. “I’ve never seen a face that needs less powder and paint than yours,” he says. Apparently, they are working together on a song for Nicole Mullen and he brings her some sort of device ( I don’t know what it is exactly) that she can use to make music. “So you don’t want me to come to Nashville anymore,” Charity asks Jabari. He tells her that is not the case…Hmmm….Let’s move on for now…

The eldest “Greenleaf girl” Lady Mae meets with Jacinta Butler, president of the St. Josephine Society from last week’s episode. She runs the debutante program in which Zora and Sophia are now able to participate in courtesy of Rochelle Cross. Speaking of Rochelle, Jacinta reveals that Rochelle is a “wizard with money” and handles Jacinta’s finances. (I guess that is why she was able to make such a large donation to Calvary. Also, I had once thought Rochelle was connected to Basie, but if that was true, wouldn’t Rochelle have helped out the cash-strapped Basie by now?) Lady Mae tells her that Rochelle told her what happened at her previous church, Greater Redeemer. Jacinta seems shocked that Lady Mae knows about what happened and refers to it as a “terrible situation.” “As if the man has to have no self-control.” Say what? That aine what Rochelle said happened at Greater Redeemer. But I’m not worried. Lady Mae wasn’t born yesterday and Rochelle doesn’t know who she’s messing with…but she gon learn…I will bet on Lady Mae over Rochelle any day. Y’all know the house always wins.

Speaking of she gon learn, Zora and her little boyfriend Isaiah or Gospel Chris Brown as I like to call him are up in her bedroom taking “study breaks” when her daddy discovers them. “He’s helping me with biology,” she tells her father. LOL…Sho is…Jacob kicks Isaiah out of the house before telling him he is violating house rules.

Also in violation of house rules, Rochelle is in the house of God continuing to spit game (this time in person) to Bishop. He tells her what happened with Basie. I guess telling all of this to his wife didn’t garner enough stroking of his ego. Men can be so funny this way. Always looking to have their egos stroked. “I told him the next time my name passes his lips, it should be in the context of praise.” Rochelle responds with, “This just reinforces my decision to make Calvary my church home.” Smh…

I’ll House You…

Charity asks Grace to watch Nathan for her while she is on a date with Jabari. Although Grace has a date with Darius as well, she agrees to do so and hopes Darius won’t mind watching her nephew since they will be just be at the Greenleaf estate anyway.

Bishop and Lady Mae, however, ventured from the estate and to Jacob and Kerissa’s home. While there, Bishop tells the couple that as he was building Calvary, he worked a two jobs in addition to being a pastor. He sold Bibles door to door and worked in maintenance and groundskeeping. Bishop also tries to get more information about Basie from Jacob and tells him about the man he saw in Basie’s office. He describes him as “rough-hewn” and the kind of “man that hangs around a pool hall.” “Is he doing prison ministry these days?” Jacob doesn’t reveal the full truth and instead quotes 1 John 2:5. Lady Mae calls Basie “Nebuchadnezzar.” LOL. Kerissa tries to tell Lady Mae and Bishop what is going on with electrical wiring in their home, but Jacob stops her from telling that information too.

Charity is getting nowhere fast either. At the end of her date with Jabari, he kisses her on the cheek after she smacked him on the lips last week! What’s up with that?

And Grace’s date doesn’t turn out much better. She asks him Darius did he interview Carlton for this article and why didn’t he tell her about it. She also mentions that her father wasn’t approached about the article. I agree. As a journalist, you should always strive to get both sides or all sides of every story if possible. Darius blows up and says that Grace is always finding a way to push him away. She responds with asking him why he doesn’t go to church. Before he leaves, he says, “I’ve never gotten so little from someone and stuck around.”

Later on, Charity and Grace discuss their dudes and dates. Charity says, “I don’t think he’s gay. I don’t what he is.” I don’t think Charity should be dating right now anyway. The divorce papers haven’t even cooled down yet, and the father of her child could be anywhere on God’s green earth!

Back at Jacob’s house, Kerissa pushes the electrical wiring issue with Jacob and he blows up. He tells he is finally the man that she prayed for him to be all of those years that he was creeping! (You have to wonder why she stayed with him while he was doing that.) “I have the moral authority that you prayed for me to have. Trust me and trust Him. Wait.” Alright, the man has spoken. I think I agree with him. I think…He also tells her to pay more attention to their daughter, who gets up hung up on by Isaiah later in the episode when she couldn’t take his call because of debutante duties. What a jerk!

Much later on, Darius shows back up at the Greenleaf estate to tell her why he is so salty with the church. Apparently, his wife died in a car accident and when he asked the pastor to help him understand why God would allow that happen, the pastor told him, “It’s best we don’t question God.” So, Darius is suffering from church hurt. “I was holding back and that was why.”

Likely in violation of Jacob’s house rules, Kerissa seems to be like “I’ll house you” or “I’ll show you.” She meets with Bishop and Lady Mae and tells it all – how they used their savings to pay for the Triumph land and parsonage. “We’ve got the land and the house but we should have gotten Triumph .” “That would beat that two-acre soup kitchen you’ve got right now,” Lady Mae says. Leave it Lady Mae with the one-liners! Bwwaaaa! She also tells how Basie still owes over $250,000 of the church’s money! After all of this, she asks them not to tell Jacob. They promise not to do so…

Below is a snippet from “House Rules.”

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap, Season 2 Episode 12 and my other recaps so far.
If you would like to keep up with OWN’s “Greenleaf,” and my recaps, please click on this link to subscribe to my blog 🙂!

Any thoughts?

 

 

 

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Greenleaf Recap Season 2 Episode 11: Changing Season…

Hello World,

When I was in high school, I wanted to take part in a debutante cotillion and wear an antebellum-like white dress, but I didn’t know how to get involved in a community that hosted these types of functions back then. But that’s not Zora and Sophia’s problem as you will find out if you keep reading my “Greenleaf Recap Season 2 Episode 11.”

Blame It…

Although the Greenleaf girls have always been accepted as debutantes in the St. Josephine Society, this year the Greenleaf girls have been omitted from the invitation list even as Grace’s self-defense killing of her uncle Mac, Man of the Year in Memphis, is front page news. Although Grace gave the goods to journalist boyfriend Darius, she is now worried that the story killed her daughter’s and niece’s chance to be debutantes. “It’s all because of me” she says once Sophia announces the bad news at breakfast. Lady Mae, however, wants to put the blame on Jacinta Butler, president of the St. Josephine Society. “There must be a mistake,” she says before promising to fix the blunder. Curiously, she asks Marisol the maid to retrieve a wooden box with a gun in it. Lady Mae is such a character!

Lady Mae takes the gun directly to Jacinta, who apparently is an art and artifact collector. Once Jacinta appraises the gun, which Lady Mae found at the Greenleaf home after they moved into the estate, Lady Mae asks her about why her granddaughters were not invited to the cotillion this year. So the implicit message in this exchange is, “You better let my granddaughters in this shindig or somebody’s ’bout to get shot.” Jacinta is surprised about Lady Mae’s question as she never received nominations for the girls from Lady Mae and furthermore, First Lady Tasha Skanks, board secretary, was responsible for forwarding the nominations to her. That’s all Lady Mae needs to hear! Now, she can lay the blame at the feet of Tasha, her husband’s arch nemesis!

Speaking of Skanks, the Metro Memphis Council of Churches is meeting at Triumph. Bishop, Jacob and Grace attend despite their drama with Skanks. While there, Jacob announces that his church is named “The Real Church of Memphis,” a church without walls through which he will be ministering to the homeless and helpless. Also, at the meeting, a Father Alvarado tells the ministers about a local 16-year-old who attempted to kill himself by asphyxiation as he sat in a running car in a garage. “He thought God couldn’t love him because he was gay.” After Father Alvarado’s speech, Basie says, “We’ve got to do something about this” and encourages the ministers to address homosexuality and homophobia in the church.

Bishop and Jacob seem to be kind of “meh” about Basie’s pronouncement with Bishop stating that you can’t “sound off too loudly about anything other than the cross.” Grace, however, is pleased that Basie wants the ministers to address this issue and feels she may have wrongly discounted the man. She likely thinks ministers are to blame for what the 16-year-old thought.

Eat the Cake, Anna Mae…

Although Carlton is at another church, Gethsemane Baptist Church (where Rochelle Cross used to be a member…hmmm…), Charity still considers the banished gay choir director a friend. She reaches out to him so that he can help her compose a song that she needs to turn into Jabari, and she hopes he can comfort her since Kevin is still MIA. Carlton is glad to to hear from his friend, but first he asks her why he is just now hearing from her after all of this time. “You really hurt my feelings. You’re too busy for me until need something from me,” he tells her. Folks do tend to get all sweet when they want something, particularly when they have ignored you. She explains to him that since they’ve last communicated, she and Kevin have gotten a divorce. “There’s so much I couldn’t talk about, especially with you.”

Charity has found a real empathetic confidante in Carlton. For the first time since before her miscarriage, she mentions Nathan’s twin sister Eden Brook. “We never had a chance to grieve our little girl.” Charity says she feels like her daughter, who she still thinks about every day, is a “out there like a kite, floating.”

In another part of Calvary, the mysterious Miss Cross is cloistered in Bishop’s office and serves the man of God a slice of pineapple upside down cake. He raves about the taste and she tells him the tantalizing taste is because she used young pineapples. “The old ones get all watery and sour.” Say what? As if on cue, Lady Mae, who seems to be an older version of Miss Cross walks in, to see her holy hubby hovering over the cake with the Miss Cross hovering over him as she sits on his desk! He introduces his wife to Miss Cross and tells her she made the cake. She is not happy about that at all. Y’all know homemade cake is a tool in Lady Mae’s arsenal! Remember when she served grapefruit pound cake to Aaron?!Although Miss Cross is a huge donor, Lady Mae loses a bit of her trademark decorum and storms out. “Enjoy your cake, Bishop.”

Rochelle Cross is not the only one on Lady Mae’s list. She confronts Tasha about why her granddaughters weren’t included on the invitation list for the cotillion. Tasha checks into the dilemma but not before checking Lady Mae about approaching her like she is less than a First Lady. “I may not be on the pages of ‘Southern Decor’ magazine, but I will be, and you will never be again.” She says this after Lady Mae notices artwork by an artist that she appreciates hanging on Tasha’s wall. Tasha tells her she got a painting by the artist after seeing his artwork in Lady Mae’s home as it was featured in the magazine before. Lady Mae discovers that she sent in the nominations for her granddaughters to the wrong e-mail address. Lady Mae is rightfully embarrassed by her blunder.

Meanwhile, Grace meets with Basie. “You’re more than I thought,” she tells him. She wants more insight into the man as he surprised her with his call to address homosexuality and homophobia in the black church. Like Zacchaeus, the tax collector in the Bible or George Jefferson on “The Jeffersons” in the ’80s or Deacon Ernest Frye on “Amen” in the ’90s (Both George and Deacon Frye were portrayed by Sherman Hemsley), he explains that he is bold and brash because of his short stature. “I’m a little fellow” with a “big, troublesome mouth,” and the only entity big enough to handle Basie was and is Jesus, he says.

Isaiah and Zora meet up in her bedroom. With Childish Gambino crooning “Redbone” in the background (I know the song is a hit, but me no likey), the gospel version of Chris Brown and Zora canoodle on her bed. He tells her,”Let’s do it.” (A tip from Ms. Jackie: If you describe sex as “doing it,” you’re too young or immature to do it.) I guess Isaiah hasn’t come across the verse that says, “Flee fornication.” And since Zora is feeling down after not being invited to the cotillion, her defenses aren’t the only things that go down. If that chile comes up preggers…

Nicety…

Maybe as a result of being humbled by the fact that she is to blame for the cotillion blunder or the fact that she remembered that Miss Cross comes with a lot of cash, she asks Bishop to invite Miss Cross over for dinner with the family. “I feel terrible about the way I behaved at church,” she says to Miss Cross in that nicety (nice and nasty) way that we love. She invites Miss Cross to tell the Greenleafs about herself. Rochelle explains that she was once a member at Greater Redeemer. (I guess that was after she was a member at Gethsemane Baptist Church which she mentioned last week.)  “I had breast cancer. It’s in remission, but I didn’t think I was going to pull through.” Apparently, the pastor of the church didn’t support her through her sickness and she left that church. I agree. That is one of the main duties of a shepherd – to see about the sick. My father has always been excellent about seeing members of our church when they are sick. I wonder how large churches handle it when members are sick. Does the main pastor visit them or are other leaders responsible for that duty?

While the adults are around the dinner table, Sophia and Zora catch up in Sophia’s quarters. Sophia had no idea that Zora and Isaiah have gotten back together and not only that. “We did it,” Zora tells her cousin. “You had sex?” Sophia exclaims. Zora describes the deed as “weird” and “different.” Okaaay.

Speaking of adjectives, Rochelle describes Basie Skanks as “off” when the diminutive dynamo and or deceiver comes up in conversation back at dinner. Grace says she appreciates his “firm stand” against homophobia. Lady Mae asks why does anyone “need to have a conversation about these things.”

But it also comes up in conversation that Jacinta Butler is a client of Miss Cross, and she volunteers to fix the situation so that the girls will be included in this year’s cotillion. Once Lady Mae receives notification that the girls have been invited after all, she tells Grace! (Random fact: Did you know that Lynn Whitfield, who portrays Lady Mae, also has a daughter named Grace, and Grace, starred as Faith Evans in the Tupac biopic that came out earlier this summer?) Anywho, Grace is glad the debutante debacle  is behind them but does tell her mother that Rochelle seems a little shady to her. Lady Mae agrees but shuts it down for now. “We’ll fight that fight when it comes.” And in another nicety move, Lady Mae sends all of the artwork by the artist (I think the name was Mikalene) that Tasha admired to a gallery. “It’s time for a change.” In other words, if Tasha can afford artwork by the artist, then it’s time for Lady Mae to upgrade.

Speaking of upgrade, Charity seems she wants to upgrade her relationship with Jabari from friends to lovers as she kisses him in the final scene! Everything is nice between the two right now, but will they be doing “the nasty?”

Check out a snippet from “Changing Season” below…

Thank you sooo much for reading my Greenleaf Recap, Season 2 Episode 11 and my other recaps so far.
If you would like to keep up with OWN’s “Greenleaf,” and my recaps, please click on this link to subscribe to my blog 🙂!

Any thoughts?