In 1992, acclaimed author Terry McMillan gave us four of the most alluring Black women characters we’ve encountered in fiction with ‘Waiting to Exhale,’ capturing perfectly imperfect women navigating friendship, love, loss, divorce, familial tensions, and personal awakenings ahead of the new year.
Three years later, the New York Times best selling novel was adapted into a culture-shifting film directed by Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, and featured a mega ensemble including Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine, Lela Rochon, and the late Whitney Houston. The onscreen story transformed their narratives into a visual language that resonated so deeply with many people’s real life experiences, ultimately achieving history-making success as both a novel and film.
Happy anniversary to McMillan, Whitaker, the ensemble, and all of the fans who’ve been waiting to exhale before getting to happy.
–Dominique Young // @heyyydommm
This made me think about Waiting to Exhale and how it framed women’s interior lives so tenderly—how rooms, conversations, and quiet moments carried just as much weight as the plot. Thank you for naming that feeling so clearly.