Age: 39
male
Jonathan Michael Batiste (born November 11, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, composer, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Stevie Wonder, Prince, Willie Nelson, Lenny Kravitz, Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Roy Hargrove, Juvenile, and Mavis Staples. Batiste, with his band Stay Human, appeared nightly as bandleader and musical director on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert from 2015 to 2022. Batiste also serves as the music director of The Atlantic and the Creative Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. In 2020, he co-composed the score for the Pixar animated film Soul, for which he received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA Film Award (all shared with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross). Batiste has garnered 5 Grammy Awards from 14 nominations, including an Album of the Year win for his album We Are (2021). In 2023, Batiste featured in the documentary film American Symphony which records the process of Batiste composing his first symphony.
Celie never had it easy; with an abusive father who gave her two children, her land owning husband who beats her black and blue, and step-children who do not respect her. The only light in her life was her younger sister Nettie, but after a fight with her husband Mister she was sent away. Thinking that nothing is going right in her life suddenly a new light comes in the form of promiscuous, beer swigging, foul mouthed, and warm-hearted Shug Avery, her husbands mistress. With the help of Shug, Celie becomes more confident in her sexuality, her life, and more importantly in herself. This series is meant to look at the wider aspects of the book that haven’t been portrayed in other media.
