Tiffany Pollard “New York” “Vagina Monologues” Performance
Aspiring actress Tiffany “New York” Pollard, of a Flavor of Love and I Love New York fame, has landed a role in the all-Black Atlanta production of The Vagina Monologues, written to raise awareness of the impact of violence and abuse toward women and girls.
“I’m very excited. It’s a great piece and a great thing to be a part of,” New York told EUR’s Lee Bailey in an interview on Tuesday. “Just to be able to take part in this is a really big deal to me.”
“It’s kind of a serious actress type thingy and that’s what I’m striving to be. I really want to lend my voice and let people see that I’m there and I’m focused and I want to be a part of it.”
“It’s more of a personal stake in this,” she said. “I’m a woman and I come from a family with a large number of women in it and I heard all the stories of boyfriends cheating, of guys being verbally abusive and I myself, unfortunately, had a few guys verbally abuse me. I just want to be there and lend my voice and take part in this. It’s a celebration for women and we need to be liberated every day. So I’m definitely excited to be a part of the ‘Vagina Monologs’. It’s an important thing for me to do.”
The play will feature an all African American cast in Washington, DC on Friday-Saturday, February 6&7, 2009, Dallas, TX on Saturday, March 7, 2009, in Los Angeles, CA on Saturday, March 21, 2009, and in Atlanta on April 4 GA and Houston, TX.
The tour also features Ella Joyce (“Roc,” “Set It Off”), SWV’s Taj Johnson George, Yvette Wilson (“Moesha,” “The Parkers”), and Wendy Raquel Robinson (“The Game,” “Steve Harvey Show,”), and former“Flavor of Love” star London “Deelishis” Charles.
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On February 24th 2009, Isaac Ahn wrote:
I am glad to read that Tiffany Pollard will be acting in The Vagina Monologues, a play that is about female empowerment. Ms. Pollard, or “New York” as her nickname goes, has made a name for herself though the bevy shows she has starred in on the VH1 cable channel. Although she started out as a plaything Flavor Flav on the dating show Flavor of Love, she managed to portray herself as an unruly woman on all five reality shows she starred in. By enabling her disruptive power, she managed to highlight how people are constructed into gendered subjects. In her shows I Love New York and I Love New York 2, both in which a group of men compete against each other for Pollard’s heart, she triggered an unease about her that the men were very much aware of. By carrying this air of unease and being at ease with this, Pollard expressed a sort of indifference to objectifying gaze of the men and the audience. This indifference can be translated into power, one that breaks the social norm of women being the objects of mens’ satisfactions. She expanded the repertoire of how women can act, giving power to female watchers at home. In being the unruly woman on her show, Pollard is defying what it means to be the “perfect” woman, and shattering the idea that there should be a “perfect” woman.
Pollard’s role in “The Vagina Monologues” fits in perfectly with the work she has done in her reality shows. I think it is emblematic of her belief in female empowerment. As she said, the show is a “celebration for women and we need to be liberated every day.” She has done a good job so far with ensuring that she portrays a woman who is liberated and strong. Acting in the show just seems like a natural progression. However, despite all that she has done, I cannot speak for her acting skills. Judging from what I saw on New York Goes To Hollywood, she might not have the chops.