“I watched the World Trade Center go up and witnessed in horror its destruction from Los Angeles decades later,” she said. She grew up on the Hudson River with the New York skyline beckoning and “never yearned for the chirping of the birds, even though Jersey is The Garden State.” Blithely referring to herself as a “river rat,” she mentioned two urban landscapes that are home to her – New York and the city to which she moved, Los Angeles. “I have never been interested in living in the country or too far away from a city,” she mused. Lightheartedly calling herself a true “bridge and tunnel gal,” Marlene is a creature of the urban landscape. Watching her work is like drinking a truly good cup of tea.īorn in Santiago De Las Vegas (near Havana), Cuba, Marlene was raised right outside of New York City in West New York, New Jersey. She is an intelligent, no-nonsense, spirited human being. Marlene with middle sister Ivette, and twin cousins Elizabeth and William So, this is the name I state in this moment: Marlene Forte. It’s getting lip service now and hopefully those lips are gateways to true social change. Historically, it hasn’t been a part of the vocabulary.
How often have you stated the name of an artist of color and had a White person say, “Why didn’t she try to be like Meryl Streep?” You know while there may be many other reasons at play in the vagaries of such an equation, one of the issues is that mainstream arts and entertainment hasn’t made much space for actors, directors, or narratives about women and/or about people of color. When an artist is a person of color and a female carving out her career in a period of time in the United States when gender and racial bias (and marginalization) create overwhelming challenges, the fact the artist can rise above conventional male vanilla hurdles, and have the opportunity to be seen and heard is miraculous. There are times in life when you see an actor at work, and her power and ethereal earthiness confirms for you what you already know: that organic talent in living color doesn’t always find its way to leading articles in mainstream media or to global celebrity.
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