March 24th marks what would’ve been Erica Kennedy’s 52nd birthday. The promising author, who published two novels entrenched in media and entertainment through two multicultural female characters, died in 2012. Ten years after her untimely death, her novels Bling and Feminista remain pillars in the modern-day establishment of the “chick lit” and “bitch lit” genres for Black and multicultural readers that shouldn’t be forgotten.
Born in 1970, Queens native Erica Kennedy Johnson worked in entertainment and fashion journalism with writing clips for New York Daily News, Vibe, and InStyle. She blogged at the now-defunct xoJane and other sites that dominated the female-centric blogosphere in the mid-2000s. Writing and commenting on entertainment gave her a platform as she amassed over 4,000 followers on her personal Twitter—a number in 2012 that would’ve paved the path for Black Twitter stardom. Her last tweets defend President Barack Obama against conservative attacks and give us a play-by-play of Scandal episodes. Famous film critic Roger Ebert even listed Erica as a tweeter to follow and tweeted about her death, directing users to Erica’s writer-friend and memoirist Bassey Ikpi’s now-private blog.
Erica’s writing chops sprouted from her fashion publicity résumé working at Tommy Hilfiger and from her upbringing in what she coined the “hip-hop glitterati” with mogul Russell Simmons and Puff Daddy before leaping into the literary world with her 2004 debut novel that reportedly earned her a $500,000 advance.
Bling follows Mimi, a half-Haitian and half-Italian twenty-year-old from Ohio who arrives in New York City with her two best friends as they audition as their R&B girl group Heartsong. Looking beyond the poorly named group that was Mimi’s brainchild, fortysomething record label executive Lamont Jackson only sees Mimi as the answer to his prayers of climbing to the top of Triple Large Entertainment, known for churning out rappers. Mimi meets with Lamont alone and gets signed to the label as a solo star.
To give her the industry-standard look, Lamont assigns her the ultimate glam squad: He introduces her to Lena, an entertainment lawyer’s spoiled daughter; Kendra, Lamont’s on-and-off girlfriend who happens to be a supermodel; and Mama Jackson, Lamont’s mother who adores Kendra and treats her as the daughter she never had because she’s ready for a daughter-in-law. But the magnetization between Mimi and Lamont makes them the hottest couple in the industry. Mimi, also known as the “Haitian Mami,” begins work on her album while Lamont tries to clean house in preparation for their meteoric rise that may not look the way they expect.
“I’m not all decked out in bling. I recognize the absurdity of driving around in a powder blue Bentley. I do have to worry about paying bills.”
Erica Kennedy, “Black Writers Seize Glamorous Ground Around ‘Chick Lit’“
The satirical novel has 500 pages of deliciousness where the reader is transported behind the scenes watching characters who resemble real R&B and hip-hop stars of yesterday and today. Each section of the novel is titled as a disc with chapters named after hip-hop hits. More details even include the naming of Mimi’s debut album track list complete with the namedropping of real-life producers like Rodney “Darkchild” Jerkins as contributors.
The main character, whose birth name is Marie-Jean Castiglione, goes by a nickname that R&B-infused pop diva Mariah Carey adopted publicly a year later during her The Emancipation of Mimi reign. Having the stark age difference also feels Mariah-like since she was twenty-years-old when she fell for the record label executive Tommy Mottola after a similar Cinderellaesque discovery.
Coincidences make the book feel authentic in its world-building and character-building, which are points of difficulty for every writer: trying to make the world they’re describing in words feel as real as possible that the reader easily transports there mentally and lives in the world seeing the action from the outside.
Bling was published by Miramax Books, a publisher created by brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein to turn books into movies through their film production company Miramax Films. The book’s film rights had been sold to Miramax Films, according to the book’s original printing. Miramax had been affiliated with The Walt Disney Company until 2005, leaving Miramax Books to be folded into Disney’s publishing arm Hyperion.
Of course, Miramax experienced its downfall when co-owner Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault allegations came to light in 2017, with two allegations evolving into convictions. Miramax is now owned by beIN Media Group and Paramount Company. The Weinstein brothers had created their own imprint again after Miramax Books’ sale, called Weinstein Books, which had been dissolved by Hachette Book Group in 2017 again after Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault allegations ignited the #MeToo revolution.
“The thing I admired so much about Erica is that she deferred to no one. Shortly after Miramax optioned her first novel Bling, she called me at The Hollywood Reporter, and we were talking about the deal’s press coverage. I was able to get a photo of Erica in the paper—a beautiful one, natch. But she was outraged that Variety ran a photo of Harvey Weinstein instead of her. ‘It’s not like he wrote the book,’ she deadpanned. And I just had to laugh. She was right, of course. Most people would have been satisfied to take second billing to an Oscar winner. But not Erica. And that was the kind of hutzpah that so defined her for me.”
Tatiana Siegel, “Eisa Ulen Remembers Her Friend, Erica Kennedy“
That being said, will we ever get the Bling movie? Will Gabrielle Union or another book-to-screen lover adapt the novel to film, especially after living in a post-Empire world? Bling‘s film rights are still owned by Erica and Miramax, the U.S. Copyright Office record shows.
The book itself looks like it hasn’t been published on a large scale since its hardcover and paperback releases in 2004 and 2005, respectively.
Erica’s author profile hasn’t been updated by Macmillan, which published her 2010 sophomore novel that earned the certification of “bitch lit” highlighting a female character wanting it all and pushing whoever and whatever out the way.
Published by Macmillan‘s imprint St. Martin’s Griffin, Feminista, from its title, is meant to stretch out the typical “chick lit” mold featuring a character in her thirties vying for career elevation and trying to ignore the biological clock yearning for a man.
Sydney Zamora is an entertainment journalist for Cachet looking for a promotion as her publication underpays her. Like Mimi in Bling, Sydney identifies as biracial with a White mother and an Afro-Cuban father. Sydney drops thousands for matchmaker Mitzi Berman, but her hard shell repels potential matches. While on assignment, she meets Max Cooper, a department store heir who wants to prove himself as an executive. They butt heads, and their aspirations get tangled into each other. The fact that he’s an eligible bachelor that Mitzi tries to rein in doesn’t phase Sydney. But in a happily-ever-after, Sydney and Max eventually fall for each other.
What makes Feminista a different type of “chick lit” romance novel in general is the character is fighting with herself to stabilize her career and lifestyle only to yearn for the male partner that female professionals can’t dream of because they’re too busy taking over the world. That’s the definition of being a feminist many women take on, so Sydney struggles to figure out if she’s losing her feminist status if she conforms to societal pressure even if that pressure could translate into love and happiness that will enhance her life.
“Female ambition was something I really wanted to explore. Even in 2009, there are so many women who are not comfortable being the boss. I got a lot of money for my first book and I remember a male friend said, “Wow, you must have a great agent!” I said, “Yes, that’s why I hired him.” But I still felt guilty about having the money. I’m loathe to even admit that but it’s true.”
Erica Kennedy, “Frisky Q&A: Erica Kennedy, Author Of “Bitch Lit” Novel “Feminista”“
Seeing these Black, multiracial, multicultural female characters at pivotal ages striving in realistic Manhattan while pushing toward their career and love goals invited a more diverse readership. These books came out in the mid-2000s when novels by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus of The Nanny Diaries fame, Lauren Weisberger of The Devil Wears Prada fame, and Plum Sykes of Bergdorf Blondes fame reigned supreme on the best-sellers’ lists by White women featuring fictional White women.
In a Q&A with The Frisky, Erica says she decided to make her starring ladies multiracial, “so anyone could see what they wanted to see in her,” in reference to Sydney from Feminista. The novel has an illustrated cover depicting characters that can be misconstrued as White, Erica says, but it came from a black-and-white illustration with a splash of color.
Erica wasn’t alone in drawing non-White readers into the “chick lit” audience. At the time, Tonya Lewis Lee and Crystal McCrary Anthony co-wrote the Gotham Diaries following the intersection of circles within the Black elite of Harlem. They shared the spotlight with Erica of being on The New York Times best-seller’s list. Another writing duo, Charlotte Burley and Lyah Beth LeFlore, wrote Cosmopolitan Girls about two Black women who think each live an enviable life under the lights of New York City. All the authors posed for a photo at the Bling launch party at the now-closed NYC nightclub Lotus in June 2004.
Danyel Smith, also an entertainment journalist and former Vibe editor, wrote Bliss in 2005, a music-themed novel like Bling with Mariah Carey, now an author herself, contributing a review on the front of the book. And lastly Tia Williams had her first novel The Accidental Diva debut in 2004 but last year’s runaway hit Seven Days in June made her a rising literary star.
Authors like Tia Williams and Danyel Smith, whose successful podcast Black Girl Songbook will be translated into a nonfiction book called Shine Bright: A Very Personal History of Black Women in Pop coming out April 19, are finally receiving their flowers with their newer work.
When Erica died in 2012, Black female writers who knew her as a friend and an acquaintance wrote moving tributes, hinting at her mental health struggle possibly being the reason for her demise. The sisterhood of support in recognizing her unique creativity but also recognizing her and their own depression created a strong presence online. There wasn’t a cause of death announced, her family asking for privacy.
“My hope is that the next black author gets six figures for this kind of book. I just want to be home in sweats and glasses, writing.”
Erica Kennedy, “Erica Kennedy, a Music Writer Who Satirized the Hip-Hop World, Dies at 42”
Our ever-evolving literary landscape brings to mind how Erica was eligible in having the same accolades such as having her book seen on screen or selected by a celebrity book club. But leaving her work behind, we can only spread the word on what she gave us—whether her books are considered likable enough with their range of online reviews—since they’re worth reading and imagining pieces of ourselves within the pages she wrote.
