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A Martha’s Vineyard Retreat with Michelle & Justice Jackson
Michelle Obama and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson Take Summer Vacation on Martha’s Vineyard
Oh, August at Martha’s Vineyard. Sea air seasoned with salt, ambition, and fiscal impropriety. Take a mini imagination exercise: you’re extended an invitation back for the Black elite family reunion of the century with nary a your uncle’s char carbonized offerings of barbecue. This isn’t a retreat; it’s tradition, legacy, and jubilation all Locked up in one Afro-centric haven. These proceedings? On the tab of none other than former First Lady Michelle Obama and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Where does one even begin where these two walk the razor’s edge between profundity and humor on the side of being relatable?
Michelle Obama’s “Kitchen Table Wisdom”
The African American Film Festival on Martha’s Vineyard provided Michelle Obama the platform where she could once more convince all of us why she remains all of our favorite First Lady.Summer in Oak Bluffs isn’t exclusively hers, though it’s an oasis where Black people can unabashedly “enjoy being us.”Seriously? She didn’t just say the words; she embodied them while live-recording an episode of her podcast, The Light Podcast (best categorized as “a kitchen table conversation,” of course).
Sitting next to her also very charming brother Craig Robinson, sassy come-back ping-ponged like a spadeguge game between siblings back and forth. Even matchmaker Craig ventured into coupledom seating his guests. Rothwell’s response? “Oh, God is good! I’d love to be set up.” Well, Natasha, as it so happens God is good. And moments of connectiveness like these? Serotonin nirvana.
But not just the laughs and romances. Michelle and Craig also explored the more serious issues of mindset, relationships, and the largely forgotten Black narrative history. You couldn’t help but be impressed with Michelle’s skill at taking grave issues onto the same level as the inspiration speech you never knew you needed. The type that has you Googling self-help books you intended to read three years earlier.
Justice Jackson’s Historical Flexibility
As Justice Ketanji Brown worked in obscure reworking of Black history in lyrical prose, meanwhile back at the Black Book Festival she spoke of her memoir Lovely One, whose title so elegant it might also name a ballerine step. From the historical first journey of her family from Jim Crow South all the way through to the Supreme Court, she’s not so much writing her book as rewriting ours as a country.
If you’re trying to encapsulate a lifetime in a memoir, Justice Jackson boiled it all down in laughter, “Where I am now, I’m pretty much stuck. So I’m glad I got it all done.”
Translation: When you’re the first African American woman on the United States Supreme Court, there is no “next move.”
You’ve already changed the game. She’s not only a justice but a historical landmark of decorum and with words of eloquence.
Films, Grooming, and Flex
Naturally, these proceedings do not shudder from cultural touchstones. Spike Lee and Denzel Washington released their Highest 2 Lowest project, maintaining their unapologetic grip on Hollywood’s must-see list. Bemedial highlights included Issa Rae hosting an tear-filled panel on getting seen after Seen & Heard 2, which saw a film delving into Black screen presence. Tissue-to-popcorn ratio? Above average.
Lighter moment: Tracee Ellis Ross provided the humor at her travel documentary premiere (Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross), eliciting laughter in the room as she detailed TSA searching “through a nice little purse that has things on your bedside table.” Visualize a room full of Black women rolling on the floor in laughter. Same.
Even Ralph Lauren got on board with a documentary-and-fashion-line double feature, A Portrait of the American Dream, which borrowed its star from Oak Bluffs. When you mix fashion and Spelman and Morehouse College collaborations, you know bougie greatness is the absolute minimum you’re ever going to receive.
A Spirited Resistance
The weekend not only brimmed with cultural relevance but infused with politics. Representative Ayanna Pressley, Representative Jasmine Crockett, and Rev. Al Sharpton moderated proceedings under the umbrella of “Finding Joy in Bleak Times.” It segued into criticism of Donald Trump faster than a Rev. Sharpton one-liner on monies of civil rights causes being funded by Aretha Franklin.Political frustration and hope traded places on the microphone announcing to the world the strength of an act of resisting instead of an escape from it.
Martha’s Vineyard as a Love Note
What is difficult to grasp within the blur of these end-of-week celebrations is what binds them all: jubilation, camaraderie, and an unflinching will to celebrate Blackness in all of its multiplicity. Martha’s Vineyard is greater than a summer retreat; it is a cultural center where laughter overflows into lore and merriment is as much tale as it is tromp. Justice Jackson and Michelle Obama weren’t two of the A-list names that came through the doors. These women are all of what this group hopes to be – voice that matters, narrative that redefines how you live, and aunts/moms/grands that feel like homecoming. A weekend like this doesn’t end with leaving; it’s where a more whole story begins that you’re ready to tell yours. Martha’s Vineyard in August? Infectious doesn’t come anywhere close. Necessary does. Don’t worry about me either; I’ll just be over here “planning” next summer (read: throwing into cart but NOT clicking buy).
