Syreeta McFadden will be reading at the DTN holiday spectacular on Dec. 10
What's your favorite thing about the holiday season?
I hate holiday songs... so I made a playlist that sounds like holiday music so that I can block out all the schmaltz blaring through speakers in retail stores for the next insufferable four weeks till the end of the year. So Jem's "They" is probably as close to a holiday song as I can get. Everything else I mock, or yelp "Bah Humbug.
What's your favorite holiday movie?
I do love holiday movies which is weird, but I can't abide the music. Hmmm... A Christmas Story is the GOAT. But favorite? It's A Wonderful Life. I don't care what anyone says. It's A Wonderful Life was like the woke-est movie of it's day. Love, family, class struggle, affordable housing, gentrification... reconciling/coming to terms/making peace with your life choices? What?! It's Orson Wells level of woke for a Christmas flick of 1946. You ever see the Magnificent Ambersons? That's another woke flick from the 40s but not a holiday flick. My point is: each viewing of It's A Wonderful Life resonates the older I get and can really see all the nuances it presented. It bombed at the box office but it's shelf life since has proven crucial to social and cultural narrative of American life. You know what? It's A Wonderful Life is the GOAT.
What can people expect from your reading?
My culture is Black, my faith is a variant of Judaism. Kwanzaa I semi-respect, but is also not my jam. So a mashup? Callolloo? Gumbo? Perhaps a gorgeousmosaic? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯