{"id":7171,"date":"2016-03-04T16:20:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=7171"},"modified":"2016-03-04T16:20:20","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T16:20:20","slug":"cast-of-upcoming-series-underground-visits-jsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2016\/03\/04\/cast-of-upcoming-series-underground-visits-jsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Cast of upcoming series \u201cUnderground\u201d visits JSU"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
(Left to Right): Alano Miller, Amirah Vann, and Theodus Crane during the Q&A portion held after the special screening of \u201cUnderground\u201d. Photo: William H. Kelly III<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

William H. Kelly III
\n<\/strong>Associate Editor\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Black History Month festivities at Jackson State University ended with a historical bang on Feb. 29 with a special screening of WGN America series, \u201cUnderground\u201d.<\/p>\n

The screening, hosted by the Gamma Rho Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., featured three of the cast members:\u00a0 Alano Miller, Amirah Vann, and Theodus Crane.<\/p>\n

Immediately following the thrilling screening of the movie, the stars held a question and answer session as part of their Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCU) tour.<\/p>\n

Miller and Vann each shared why they accepted the roles dealing with the touchy subject of slavery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I took it (the role as Cato) because it was sensitive to society. I like to do art that isn\u2019t comfortable, when I can. These opportunities come very few and far in between and so for me it is partly about my legacy as an artist and the impact that we can have on the world,\u201d said Miller. \u201cThis isn\u2019t just a black and white issue; this is a human issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vann stated that she accepted the role to honor the pioneers of freedom during that time period in American history.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s about the revolution and about celebrating the heroes of the time. So that, I felt was necessary, right now for us to celebrate ourselves and celebrate just as a nation as the first integrated civil rights movement; blacks and whites on a whole working together,\u201d Vann said.<\/p>\n

The series was written by Misha Green and Joe Pokaski, two veterans of the TV film industry.<\/p>\n

Green has written and produced for many popular series, including: \u201cSons of Anarchy\u201d, \u201cHeroes\u201d, \u201cHelix\u201d, and many more.<\/p>\n

Pokaski has written and produced for \u201cHeroes\u201d, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation\u201d, and \u201cDaredevil\u201d, to name just a few.<\/p>\n

\u201cMisha and Joe, their writing is really exquisite and really intricate. There are no heroes, there are no villains. All the characters are three dimensional so that makes the work exciting and makes it very honest,\u201d said Vann.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderground\u201d is set in the 1800s during the era of slavery and details the journey of a group of slaves who are determined to escape a Macon, Ga. plantation.<\/p>\n

The cast also includes actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell, who plays house slave Rosalee; actor Aldis Hodge, who plays Noah, a blacksmith slave; and Christopher Meloni, as August Pullman, a man whose identity is currently mysterious.<\/p>\n

While many slave based films portray the gruesome ordeals of slaves, the cast says that \u201cUnderground\u201d has a different approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur people are vast, our people are interesting. The stories are numerous and so to be able to have a series and be able to kind of delve into all the various stories and define the pain, and find the joy, and find the heroism, and the love, and the strength, and the intelligence. I mean its just really glorious to be able to explore all of those sides of us,\u201d said Vann.<\/p>\n

Crane stated that the series is relevant to the issues of today.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, because of the contemporary take on it, the parallels between what\u2019s going on now and what happened then are way more apparent. They\u2019re readily available for people to make notice and it\u2019s not a history lesson, as much anyway,\u201d said Crane.<\/p>\n

Miller stated the music featured in the series, which includes rock, country, R&B, and hip-hop, also helps to put a contemporary twist on the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe music is huge with the show; it is the beat of the show. In the first episode, the first scene its Kanye West, which they don\u2019t do. John Legend who is executive producer and also works on the music, they all wanted it to be bold and for it to push the envelope,\u201d said Miller. \u201cThis music is instilled in this because we\u2019re still telling the same stories, unfortunately. We may not be enslaved physically but we are enslaved in many other ways and how we break free is what the show, I think, is centered on doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnderground\u201d will premiere on Wednesday, March 9 on WGN America. Fans can use the hashtags #breakfree and #undergroundwgn, to stay up to date with posts related to the series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William H. Kelly III Associate Editor\u00a0 Black History Month festivities at Jackson State University ended with a historical bang on Feb. 29 with a special screening of WGN America series, \u201cUnderground\u201d. The screening, hosted by the Gamma Rho Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., featured three of the cast members:\u00a0 Alano Miller, Amirah Vann, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-events","7":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7171\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}