No./10 The beauty pageant with a difference
Sundance hit MISS JUNETEENTH introduces the world to a contest that’s about far more than fancy gowns
GROWING UP IN Texas, Juneteenth was part of life for Channing Godfrey Peoples. That date, 19 June, commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Texas learned they were free, two years after Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. The celebrations led to Miss Juneteenth, a beauty pageant for young African-american women and the subject of Peoples’ directorial debut. In the film, Turquoise (Nicole Beharie), a single mother and former Miss Juneteenth winner, enrols her teenage daughter Kai (Alexis Chikaeze) in the pageant as a route into a better life. Here, Peoples breaks down how this unique American tradition plays out in her film.
THE HISTORY
“As a kid, I was enamoured with Juneteenth,” Peoples says. “But I was truly able to appreciate the meaning of it as an adult. It’s really about the Black community in Texas commemorating that our ancestors’ freedom was kept hidden from them.” The pageant, too, was about freedom of another kind. “Miss Juneteenth was formative for me because I saw so many young Black women who looked like me on stage. They seemed so excited, but mostly hopeful about the future.”
THE PRIZE
The winner of the pageant gets a scholarship to a historically Black college; for Turquoise, it offers Kai the promise of a better life. “The film deals with the theme of what happens when good things come too late,” says Peoples. “That’s what happened to our ancestors with Juneteenth. So I wanted to examine what freedom means for each character. For Kai it’s dance; for Turquoise it’s her hopes for her daughter — but also for herself.” Turquoise, it’s hinted at, quit college to have Kai, and never realised her dreams. “She had her dream deferred and is still reconciling the past.”
THE DRESS
No beauty contest is complete without a big, frilly dress. Miss Juneteenth opens with Turquoise dusting off her canary-yellow number, thinking back to her win. “The dress holds so much importance to Turquoise because she’s navigating her past when she was on stage in a thrift-shop dress.” Though garish, the dress is symbolic of something more. “The dress becomes attached to Turquoise: wanting Kai to have a better life.”
THE SHOW
Peoples immersed herself in every aspect of the pageant while researching the film. She was struck by the “aspirational idea” that seemed to go far beyond typical beauty contests. “They’re preparing young Black women for the world, often in a society that doesn’t support them,” Peoples says. “So there are etiquette courses, an essay, the talent competition, even a handbook.” In the film, Kai reads Maya Angelou’s stirring 1978 poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’ as her talent; Kai chooses to set it to a dance. “They’re reconciling their dreams in that moment,” Peoples explains. “Kai gets to be herself and Turquoise sees Kai for who she is. It’s hopeful for the future.” MISS JUNETEENTH IS IN CINEMAS AND ON DIGITAL FROM 18 SEPTEMBER