Don't lie to you: honest conversations to build bridges
Schelby Jean-Baptiste hosts, with Keithy Antoine and Irdens Exantus, a magazine aimed at deconstructing received ideas about black communities.
“So you have really nice hair, can I touch it?” This sentence, the actress Schelby Jean-Baptiste has heard it often. And she's not the only one. This is why it is one of the themes covered in the magazine Pa t’mentir, which she sees as a safe spaceto address sensitive issues within black communities, and beyond.
The one we saw in particular in L'échappée joins forces with Keithy Antoine and Irdens Exantus to address as many themes in eight episodes; afro hair, yes, but also racial profiling, mental health, feminism, toxic masculinity, representativeness in hip-hop, colorism and interracial relationships.
Whatever the subject, the members of the trio do not hesitate to echo their personal experiences before going to meet artists and experts to deepen the conversation.
“It's born of a desire to create a safe space to talk about our experiences, explains Schelby Jean-Baptiste. It concerns more specifically the black community, but I believe that people from several communities will be able to recognize themselves in what we are experiencing.”
Open to build bridges
The idea had been germinating in the mind of the actress for a few years.
In 2020, the death of Georges Floyd, killed in broad daylight by a police officer in North Carolina, in the United States, the pushed to put her project in acceleration mode.
“For me, this is the expression of the dehumanization of people in black communities at its peak. There are so many layers to this. I said to myself: one of the ways to humanize someone is to get to know them,” she explains.
Each episode is therefore not only a safe space, but also an opportunity for everyone to learn more about the issues of black communities and, therefore, the people who are part of them.
We open up, we make ourselves vulnerable in front of you to give space to honest, frank and heated conversations at times. Without lying.
Schelby Jean-Baptiste, designer and host of the magazine Pa t'mentir
En toute franchise
Don't lie to you. This expression, in the Haitian community, is a guarantee of frankness, and Schelby Jean-Baptiste is keen on it. She does not hesitate, over the episodes, to be vulnerable. Ditto for his accomplices.
“These are conversations that people have been waiting for for a long time. It goes beyond me. Yes, I'm vulnerable, but I tell myself that's how we move forward.”
Pa t'mentir will be available sur Tout. tv from February 2.
