GEORGE T. JACKSON STRAUSS is a light-skinned bi-racial African-American author and journalist in his early 30s. Think a young Barack. Yes! Mr. Obama. Reach across the aisle kinda guy. George has made a name for himself writing about all things race in America and the multi-faceted Black experience. His view is widely appreciated and a particular one as he was raised by two wealthy elderly Jewish sisters and his grandmother, an immigrant from Jamaica, W.I. George's mother died from a brain aneurysm when he was a child. He is a Yale graduate and a Howard alum. He recently married his college sweetheart Hedda and... oh yeah! Recently received a MacArthur Genius Award.
HEDDA GURLEY, is George’s African-American wife, in her early 30s. She is her father's daughter and comes from a long line of self-made and wealthy entrepreneurs (Black Wall Street) from Tulsa Oklahoma. Her family’s wealth started in Greenwood with a series of boarding houses, banking, and real estate development. Hedda is a force to be reckoned with. Think Beyoncé. Hedda is no people pleaser. Nicely put, she is eccentric. Really put, she is a victim of covert incest. But let's leave that for now. She is also a Yale grad and met George at Howard. Early on, right out of Yale, Hedda opened her niche consulting boutique and addictive blog Gurley PR that highlights fashion, design, creative culture, cool stuff, influencers, tastemakers, and people who stand out. George T. Jackson, her husband, is her now biggest client and focus.
MS. JULIANNE STRAUSS (IMMA JUJU), is a handsome Jewish woman in her 70s. She and her sister Rena (The Strauss Sisters) are daughters of a Holocaust survivor. They were political and social influencers in New York City, back in the day. They still are, really, as they sit on several boards and put their money behind quite a few humanitarian causes. They live together on the Upper Westside overlooking Central Park and are George's adopted Immas (mothers).
PORTIA BENNETT (MAMA P) The Observer. An Afro-Caribbean woman in her 70s. She is George's maternal grandmother. She has been housekeeper and family to Julianne and Rena Strauss for more than 30 years. She is their confidante and feels she owes them much as they gave her a job when she was fresh off the boat, a home, and adopted George when her daughter suddenly died and she had nothing. She now lives with
George and Hedda in Harlem, and needs to remember she is no one’s housemaid. She speaks with a Caribbean accent.
MRS. GRACIE ELVSTED, is a young white woman in her early 30s married to an older finance guy and councilman, living in Rochester, NY. She is a petite attractive Julia Garner type (Ozark), with untamed, curly hair - hair she is just starting to appreciate, with intense blue eyes. Gracie keeps her cards close. Some may call her introverted. It's the quiet ones you gotta look out for. Gracie is a writer, looking for purpose. She knows George and Hedda from Yale.
JASON BRACK (JB): 50s. White. Dangerous... okay, mercurial. The Strauss family’s financial advisor/lawyer, go-to guy. His father originally took care of the Strauss family. JB has been married a few times and decided for everyone’s sanity, he’s happier being single. He and Hedda were lovers. Okay, maybe they still are.
ELLIOT LOVE is an early 30’s chocolate African-American short story writer and novelist, writing about race and what it really means to be Black in America - even with money. A Taneheisi Coates meets Marcus Garvey meets... Lenny Kravitz kinda guy. Elliot stutters. The brotha is haunted. I’ll get to that. Just know, he is the OPPOSITE of George T. Jackson Strauss. Elliot is a descendant of A.J. Smitherman, a publisher whose family founded the Tulsa Star, a black newspaper headquartered in Greenwood that became instrumental in establishing the district’s socially-conscious mindset. Writing socially political commentary is in Elliot’s blood. He came through Howard and Yale with George and Hedda. They were the tri-facta, even though there was a competitive spirit amongst them, at times, not healthy. Elliot is brilliant but he suffers deeply and certainly not always disciplined. It’s hard to be disciplined when you are in and out of rehab and your parents are always threatening to cut the purse strings. Let's say he struggles with addiction, identity, and sexuality.
