Jenifer Lewis In Sacramento — A NSFW Review

by Michael P Coleman

CAUTION: The words used in this review are almost as colorful as the artist’s own, in print and live on stage. Consider this your final warning!

Yesterday morning, at the request of the incomparable Jenifer Lewis, I got out of bed, brushed my teeth, looked myself in the mirror, straight in the eye, and repeated “I love myself.”

(I just caught how that sounds. No, I did not fuck Jenifer Lewis Saturday night. But I absolutely would have if she had let me.)

Then, I ruminated on how to describe Lewis’ brilliant, combustive performance Saturday evening at UC Davis.

So I asked a question that’s familiar to many: WWJD?

What would Jenny do?

Then I knew what to write:

You missed some serious shit! If you didn’t make time to see Jenifer Lewis… pardon me, Jenifer Muthafucking Lewis… last night, tough fucking shit. You missed your blessing!

(As you may have surmised, I’m going to have a hard time getting Lewis out of my system. Aw, hell… I don’t want to! I couldn’t get enough of her Saturday night!)

My pre-dawn post-teeth-brushing exercise was an assignment given to hundreds of Lewis’ fans Saturday night. The entertainer / author promised that, if we did it correctly, tears would flow.

She was right.

Lewis commanded the stage at the Mondavi Center from the second she stepped onto it. Contemporary audiences may know her best as “Ruby” on the hit ABC sitcom black-ish. Lewis is part preacher, part prophet, part Pied Piper, and all fabulous.

Saturday night, the woman sang, laughed, and provided a salve to hundreds of women and men who attended the 11th annual Exceptional Women Of Color Expo & Awards (EWOC). The theme of last night’s event was Women Helping Women: A Heritage Of Healing & Hope.

Lewis was that theme’s perfect messenger. But as informed fans might have expected, the evening wasn’t without controversy.

Click here to read MPC’s full review, including what Lewis had to say about Bill Cosby, Michael Jackson, and Donald Trump… and what she had to say to victims of sexual assault.