sweet peas

Mahershala Ali photographed by Erik Madigan Heck for GQ

Janelle Monáe photographed by Tony Duran for LA Confidential

Hannah John-Kamen for Interview Magazine

Natalia Dyer photographed by Dario Catellani for Dazed Magazine, Winter 2016.

Thandie Newton, photographed by Hasse Nielsen for The Edit, Jan 26, 2017.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, photographed by Markus Pritzi for Madame Figaro, Jan 27, 2017.

La signora senza camelie (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1953)

Ruth Negga for AnOther Magazine

Ruth Negga for AnOther Magazine

As a minority, no sooner do you learn to polish and cherish one chip on your shoulder than it’s taken off you and swapped for another. The jewelry of your struggles is forever on loan, like the Koh-i-Noor diamond in the crown jewels. You are intermittently handed a necklace of labels to hang around your neck, neither of your choosing nor making, both constricting and decorative. Part of the reason I became an actor was the promise that I might be able to help stretch these necklaces, and that the teenage version of myself might breathe a little easier as a result.

Photography Vanina Sorrenti, Styling Delphine Danhier

I think traditionally people wait for permission to be empowered and I think what is changing now is that women are empowering themselves and that is really a key change in the world today. We don’t have to wait for permission.

Catherine Deneuve in 8 femmes, 2002.