Sterling K. Brown & Ernest Kingsley Jr. Lead A Joyful Rebellion In Washington Black

Washington Black is about joy. That may come as a surprise, since the story (based on the novel by Esi Edugyan) starts on a Barbados plantation where we find the titular character enslaved and shackled by his surroundings. “Joy” isn’t often a word associated with Black period pieces from this era. But Washington Black, affectionately known as “Wash” (played at different ages by the equally impressive Ernest Kingsley Jr. and Eddie Karanja), is a boy who dares to wonder, to dream, and to soar in spite of the captivity of his circumstances. His defiant curiosity leads him from Barbados to a journey of international escapades where he finds community, love, and freedom. 

“It’s a globe-trotting exhilarating adventure of a story that is based on the power of the imagination of a young Black boy who finds himself in the worst of circumstances but doesn’t allow those circumstances to dictate his possibilities,” executive producer and star Sterling K. Brown said of the series during a day-long Washington Black-themed activation last month. At the Grove Hotel in London, the cast (including Brown, Kingsley Jr., Karanja, plus scene stealers Iola Evans and Edward Bluemel) gathered for an immersive event that conveyed the spirit of Washington Black. There were hot air balloon installations (if you know the story, you know the significance), a spice market, a hand-drawn portrait studio, and themed drinks that all tied back to the whimsy and wonder that pulse through the heart of the series.

One of the things I loved about the event — and about the miniseries as a whole — is that it felt like we stepped back in time, transported to a magical world of hope and possibility, one that feels less bleak than our current timelines. But no matter how many “Ignited Sky” margaritas and “Ember Isle” old fashioneds Hulu generously offered the journalists and influencers who attended the London trip for Washington Black, the only thing that mattered was this: is the show any good? 

The good thing is that it is. Washington Black follows the story of Wash, a boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation. When a harrowing incident forces Wash to flee with his “mentor” abolitionist Titch (Tom Ellis), he is thrust into decades-spanning adventure that challenges and reshapes his understanding of family and liberation. When our timelines are as depressing as they are, filled with news of history being erased, banned, and challenged, a story like this — which is fictional but rooted in real events — is more urgent and necessary than ever. 

“It's important to continue to tell our stories, no matter what year it is or what we're going through,” showrunner and executive producer Kimberly Ann Harrison tells me over Zoom. “Our stories are important. And this entire series was a history lesson for me.” Harrison was joined by creator, showrunner, and executive producer, Selwyn Seyfu Hinds, who echoed her sentiments. “The show's about truth [and] authenticity,” he said. “The show is about living in the skin of who you are versus who the world is trying to tell you you are. That's the writer's job, that's the artist's job, to do the best we can, to put our truth into the world, and the world takes it as it does.” 

It’s not just Wash who is fighting to hold onto who he is while the world tries to dictate who he should be. His love interest, Tanna (played with searing emotional depth by Evans), a biracial woman who refuses to pass for white, is navigating her own journey of self discovery. And for Evans, it was personal: “I was doing a lot of real-time processing,” Evans says with a laugh, sitting beside Bluemel (who plays McGee, the man Tanna is reluctantly supposed to marry).

“There are challenges and privileges that come with being  racially ambiguous [or] light skinned. It kind of depends what race people think I am sometimes, and that can be advantageous,” she continues. “Tanna has the privilege of pretending to be white and everything that goes with that, but also it's so important to have a sense of home and where you feel like you can be your authentic self and like a grounded sense of your own identity so it was nice that Tanna gets to discover more of that as the story goes on.” 

As the story goes on, Tanna and Wash fall for each other and running right alongside joy in their narrative is love. The romance plays out quite beautifully and even though the high stakes of a young man coming of age while on the run dominates the tale, the love story is just as important.

“They find relief and joy and hope of a better life [in each other],” Evans explains that when Tanna first meets Wash, he is the first to see her for who she is, and conversely, she gives her the space to be who she is, since “she's been squashed into being this white person, a Victorian privileged woman, all confined by society.” The restrictions placed on Tanna are different than the ones Wash faces, but they are reinforced by the same system of white supremacy. And as Wash and Tanna fall in love, the grip of those expectations loosen and we see two joyous young people finally being their truest selves. 

“In the majority of narratives we've seen about slavery in mainstream cinema, you see a lot of the Black suffering, a lot of it is from the white oppressor’s gaze,” Evans says. “[You rarely see] a more fully rounded, human experience of the people who were enslaved at that time. That's one of the things I really like about the show. You see the different enslaved people's religious practices, you see love, and then obviously you get to see Wash and his excellence and his brilliance as it's realized throughout the story.” 

Washington Black teeters closely into the territory of placing Wash on a pedestal built by his excellence, explaining away his travels with the caveat of his intelligence, but it never tips over into the magical negro or talented tenth tropes. And one of the main reasons it doesn’t is because of the richness of the story Hinds and Harrison have laid out (via Edugyan’s brilliant novel), but also because of Medwin (played by Brown), a man who becomes like a father figure to Wash while he’s in hiding as Jack Crawford. Medwin and Miss Angie (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) provide a safe haven for Wash and other Black folks of the Underground Railroad freedom route in Nova Scotia, and they also give him the thing he’s been missing his whole life: a real sense of community and connectivity.

Watching the series, it’s comforting to see not just Caribbean, African and American Black history on display throughout Washington Black, but the Canadian influence too. As a Canadian, the Black history of Halifax is something I’ve been fascinated by, and well versed in, for years. It’s a reminder that even when the Diaspora Wars are popping off on social media, we need to remember how intertwined our histories are. So as I sit in a hotel room in London — across from Kingsley Jr., who is British and Brown, an American — I have to ask them about the interconnectedness of the Black diaspora and the ways in which the show displays that connectivity. 

“Thank you for asking that,” Brown responds. “It was one of the things that really drew me to the story. We spend so much time thinking, they're not like us, right?” Brown laughs at his own nod to Kendrick Lamar’s takedown of Canadian rapper, Drake. “But we’ve got a little bit more in common than one would think. There's a shared history — we’re all part of the transatlantic slave trade. There is a connective tissue to us that, I think, if we start to embrace that connection rather than seeing each other separate and distinct, there's power in coming together and recognizing the continuity and continuum that is Blackness and that is the motherland, instead of trying to make each other feel less than, or separate, or subjugated.” 

Kingsley Jr. agrees: “We have that shared experience of going through so much hardship and pain, but there are multiple stories throughout history that show the excellence we've achieved in spite of that, and how we've overcome and persevered.” 

In the series, Medwin delivers a line that I loved and that can sum up the ethos of Washington Black: “Only way Black folk ‘gon climb this mountain is if we pull each other along.” This is said after an epic betrayal, and with the context the audience has of knowing Wash’s coming-of-age was tethered to a man (Titch) he never knew if he could trust, with the line between enslaver and mentor getting blurrier and blurrier. Wash’s real family is Kit, the woman who raised him, and Medwin and Miss Angie. It’s under their protection and through their love that he is able to be free to imagine, to create, and to defy the odds that were never in his favor. Wash’s rebellion is in his joy, and it was clear through spending time with the cast and team behind Washington Black, that the joyful rebellion was shared in the creation of this epic action adventure. 

Sterling K. Brown is an Emmy winner (securing his latest nomination just last week for Paradise) and an Oscar nominee. He could be doing a lot of things with his influence and star power. He chose to adapt a Black Canadian woman’s novel about Black boy joy. He has chosen throughout this press run to platform Kingsley Jr. and make sure the world is aware of his excellence and talent. Sterling K. Brown has climbed his mountain and now he’s pulling along the next generation, as well as ushering in exhilarating storytelling we rarely get to see on TV. Come to Washington Black for Brown, stay for the limitless, magical world he helped build and the captivating young stars he has given his blessing to. Their joy is just beginning. 

Washington Black premieres on Hulu tomorrow, Wednesday, July 23.