Cat Lady Lupita Nyong'o for Harper's Bazaar UK November 2024 by Alexi Lubomirski
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No, beloved actor Lupita Nyong’o has not taken up painting. But today’s Harper’s Bazaar UK [IG] November 2024 cover story reminds us that not all fashion photography sets are created equal. Nyong’o covers Bazaar UK’s ‘The Art Issue: a celebration of colour, craftsmanship, pattern and print.’
Typically, the New York skyline always catches our collective attention. But Lupita playing an artist in her cover story ‘Portrait of the Artist?’ sitting high over New York City streets? Superb! Sublime! Nice set, Jack Flanagan
Photographer Alexi Lubomirski [IG] hits all the high notes in a fashion story styled by Miranda Almond for Chanel’s newest global ambassador. Gorgeous and right on the money in terms of a huge trend emerging./ Hair by Nai’vasha Johnson; makeup by Nick Barose
Bookmark words Met Gala 2025 ‘dandy’ theme; America’s Harlem Renaissance in New York City; Charleston — home of Britain’s Bloomsbury artists close to London; and Anne will add Charleston, SC. as an incubator of American artists — including women — who headed for Paris during the same time period.
Many Charleston, SC artists were human rights activists in advance of their time on race, gender and sexual ID issues. Having researched this topic a year ago, the synergy between Charleston, SC and Harlem, NYC was extensive during the Bloomsbury years.
Ultimately, though, all roads and seafaring routes led to Paris. From the standpoint of the arts and artists, we’re talking one of the most progressive and collectively international periods in modern world history.
Boundless Love for Yoyo
AOC chooses to focus on Lupita Nyong’o: cat lady. Yes, all the Apple News headlines focus on the kaput between Lupita and Joshua Jackson. In her opening interview comments with Bazaar UK’s Teresa Fitzherbert, the actor says:
“My love for my cat is singular. If I'm ever so lucky to be in a romantic relationship again, it'll be because of him,” she says. “I was ready to shut that door and lock it and bolt it. He has ensured that my heart remains open.”
With that comment, Lupita moves on with her interview — and so are we. She has experienced a complete transformation of her life from a year ago — from the betrayal of Selema Masekela to the arrival of Yoyo at a time when she was terrified of cats.
Read other life update stories on Lupita Nyong’o at end of this article to refresh your memory.
An Exceptional Family Loving the Cat Lady
Now age 40, Lupita says she remains in a period of great transition. Speaking of her move out of Brooklyn and into LA about two years ago, the actor says:
“A lot of the things that have defined my life have faded away or changed. A big move like that involves seeking a new rhythm of life, a new community, a new lifestyle.”
To refresh our minds, Lupita’s family originated in Kenya’s Luo tribe. She was born in 1983 in Mexico City, as one of five children of her father Peter Anyang’ Nyong’o and her mother Dorothy Nyong’o. It’s believed that Lupita’s paternal uncle was murdered to intimidate her father, who was a vocal critic of the Kenyan government.
In a family of talented people who excel at every level, Lupita’s father is today the governor of Kismu County and its subdivisions.
AOC snapped a map to help ground this fact in relation to Nairobi, a place the majority of us can find on a map. Kismu is the third-largest city in Kenya after Nairobi and Mombasa, and a Columbia University Millennium City. With its progressive environmental goals, Kismu is a top business hub in Kenya — proving that the two goals are not mutually exclusive.
Lupita Nyong’o proudly wears the childless cat lady crown as a recent American citizen.
For Yoyo’s birthday Nyong’o posted photos of them both with the caption #ChildlessCatLady. Taylor Swift followed suit hours after the presidential debate with a picture of herself with her kitty Benjamin Button. “It’s a movement! I love it!” laughs Nyong’o. “The fact that what was meant as a slight has become a badge of honour. I love being a member of the childless cat ladies.”
The star is working hard to elect Kamala Harris and doesn’t miss a dance step being consciously derailed by disparaging remarks from Republican candidates Donald J. Trump and J.D.Vance.
White Skin Does NOT Reflect God’s Will
On a separate note — Lupita again speaks of the issue of skin color — one we’ve written about many times, along with featuring her mind-changing interview with Alek Wek.
The actor has frequently told the stories of praying to God as a young woman, beseeching the divine to make her skin lighter.
Wanting to put a different spin on this torturous state of mind for Lupita and so many others haunted by this outrageous set of beliefs, Anne has done a lot of research on this topic.
For AOC, we have true clarity on this topic today. Historically — with a special emphasis on the history of cooperation, competition and war between the Nubians and the Egyptians — the anthropological and archaeological record is quite clear.
The obvious differences in skin color are well-documented between these two great powers in history. The historical record in early societies is clear regarding awareness of skin color differences. But it’s only with the rise of monotheism, colonial exploration and specifically the financing of the first slave ships by the Vatican that the association of dark skin with inferiority emerged.
Christian leaders assuaged their own collective conscience about their embrace of the most radical form of slavery by saying it was God’s will — and God’s way of bringing salvation to dark-skin people. This history cannot be undone or forgotten — especially when Donald J. Trump savagely attacks Kamala Harris and all dark-skin people, as he has done for years now.
AOC feels strongly about removing God from the light skin/dark skin conversation. It is a salve and delusion for white Christians. A wondrous person like Lupita Nyong’o, a daughter in an esteemed African family, should not be haunted as a young girl by this savage mission of Christianity. There is nothing Christian or Godly about this deliberate perpetration of self-doubt by White people on Black people. The hierarchy of skin color was invented by the Vatican to justify the worst example of human slavery ever among humans. The Vatican and other Christian sects rewrote the book on enslavement. But non-Catholic denominations also fought against it — even here in America.
Factually speaking, Christian nationalism is again in ascendancy. We cannot stop it, but we can talk about its history and uses to divide us. And we can work to pull the stool of God’s approval out from under these bigots, who haven’t advanced beyond the years of armed human battle over God that raged through Europe and the Arab world for centuries.
This idea is very much on my mind these days. ~ Anne
