Awkward Black Girl creators talk production

Tracey Oliver and Issa Rae came to Hopkins last Friday to discuss their hit web series, "The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl." Rae is the creator and star of the show and Oliver produces and acts in the show.
The event, which consisted of a discussion, screening and Q&A session, was hosted by the Women's History Month Committee and co-sponsored by the Black Student Union, the Multicultural Student Volunteers and the Dunbar Baldwin Hughes Theater Company.
The event was opened to Hopkins students and the public. About 130 people were in attendance.
"One really key thing was opening [the event] to the public," junior Kessie Alexandre, who is a member of the Women's History Month Committee and is the Community Relations Chair of the Black Student Union, said.
Rae came up with "The Mis-Adventures of Awkward Black Girl" because she wanted to create black comedy that depicted an awkward character. She was inspired by shows like The Office and Curb Your Enthusiasm but wanted to include more diverse characters. Rae had the idea in her head for two years but decided to implement it when she read an article about what the black Liz Lemon would be like.
"When I was reading this, I was like, oh my God, this is my idea, somebody's about to take it," Rae said during the discussion. "I wanted to show that we also can be quirky and mainstream just like The Office and also include color.
Oliver, who went to Stanford with Rae and plays Nina on the show, wanted to produce because she liked the unique portrayal of black women, especially Rae's character, J.
"The most notable aspect of the show for me is Issa. I think the reason why so many people respond to her is because she really embodies what a lot of us look like, [which] we don't see on television. The fact that she is dark and the fact that she does have short, natural hair is revolutionary. And it's something that reflects the changing times that we're in. Even looking around the room, I see so much natural hair," Oliver said. "You see a lot of women [on TV] that look a certain way, and here comes Issa, and she's awkward and black."
Freshman Amanda Nwaopara liked hearing the actresses talk about the production of the show.
"I really enjoyed their talk because you just see the show but . . . you never really knew what was intended, what wasn't intended," she said. "Now we have a lot of insight as to what went on behind the scenes."
When Rae started the show, she had no budget. The first episode premiered on Feb. 3, 2011, with a new episode coming out every month. She had to quit her job after the first few episodes because she was constantly working on the show. This meant that the quality of the sound and the filming was not as perfect as they would have liked it to be.
"I decided to shoot it guerilla style to just get my idea out there," Rae said.
This also meant that they had to do their own hair and buy their own clothes for each episode because they did not have a professional hair stylist on set. However, by the sixth episode, the pair was broke. They were reluctant to send a direct email to their fans begging for money. They had heard about a website called Kickstarter where anyone could contribute money. They had to set a goal, and if that goal was reached in 30 days, they would receive the money. Since they were averaging 60,000 views per episode, Oliver and Rae decided to make their goal $10,000. They received over $36,000.
Their goals for next year are to get picked up by a network like FX, where they would have creative control. They met with a major network producer, who they declined to name, who wanted to replace Rae with a celebrity like Lauren London. Both Oliver and Rae feel that this would completely take away the point of the show and the effort that Rae put into its conception. They also enjoy having the show online right now, as the screens can be filmed, edited and distributed in a short amount of time.
"If you want to create your own opportunity, now's the time to do it because of the Web," Oliver said. "You don't have to be a millionaire; you don't have to be from LA; you can do it from anywhere you want."
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