FosterEnt; DIARY OF A BEAUTIFUL AND CLASSY BLACK WOMAN! Nyongo was born in Mexico City, Mexico, to Dorothy and Peter Anyang Nyongo, a politician in Kenya. It is a Luo tradition to name a child after the events of the day, so her parents named her Lupita (a diminutive of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Guadalupe). She is of completely Luo descent on both sides of her family, and is the second of six children. Her father was the former Kenyan Minister for Medical Services. At the time of Lupitas birth, he was a visiting lecturer in political science at El Colegio de Mexico in Mexico City and her family had been living in Mexico for three years. Nyongo moved back to Kenya with her parents when she was less than one year old, when her father was appointed a professor at the University of Nairobi. She grew up primarily in Kenya, and describes her upbringing as middle class, suburban. At age sixteen, her parents sent her back to Mexico for seven months to learn Spanish. During those seven months, Nyongo lived in Taxco, Mexico, and took classes at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexicos Learning Center for Foreigners. In 2013, her father was elected to represent Kisumu County in the Kenyan Senate. Nyongos mother is currently the managing director of the Africa Cancer Foundation and her own communications company. Her cousin Tavia Nyongo is a scholar and professor at New York University. In 2012, her older cousin, Isis Nyongo, was named one of Africas most powerful women by Forbes magazine. Her uncle, Aggrey Nyongo, was a prominent Kenyan physician, killed in a road accident in 2002. Nyongo currently resides in Brooklyn. She is fluent in her native Luo, Spanish, Swahili and English . On February 27, 2014, at the Essence Black Women In Hollywood luncheon in Beverly Hills, Lupita gave a speech on black beauty. Lupita talked about a letter she received from a young fan who stated she was unhappy with herself until she saw the actress on the cover of a magazine. In her speech Lupita talked about the insecurities she had about herself as a teenager; growing up as a dark skinned black girl, women that looked like her were barely portrayed in the media and when they were, they were not deemed as being beautiful. She said her views about herself changed when she saw South Sudanese supermodel Alek Wek become successful. If you were asked to choose the most jubilant, invigorating, and universally popular actress, you couldn’t do much better than the moment at the 2014 Ocar Awards, after Christoph Waltz announced the winner of Best Supporting Actress. Its recipient, the 31-year-old Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong’o, is familiar by now for two reasons, and two alone: for her unforgettable, scalding performance in Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, and her presence on the red carpet circuit all season, justifiably winning a clutch of awards for it. The performance is her debut, following an apprenticeship on the drama stages of both Nairobi and Yale. One of the most remarkable things about Nyong’o’s portrayal of Patsey is how she comes to us whole, as a fully formed, self-exposing and fearless actress, not a tentative ingenue or putty in her director’s hands. Her star potential may be even greater than this performance alone suggests. Her grace, poise and astonishing style sense – memorialised with this graphic of her all-the-colours-of-the-rainbow gown choices – suggest someone with inbuilt, uncynical media savvy and an instinctive understanding of how the celebrity game works. She’s exquisite, the cover girl of 2014, bar none.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Mar 2014 19:33:41 +0000
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