Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard is continuing its promising debut, and three of its stars are detailing what’s to come.
Preston Mitchum, Jordan Emanuel, and Amir Lancaster recently chatted with BOSSIP about the Bravo show that features them alongside fellow Black professionals who party, fellowship, and form bonds by the beach.
Source: Stephanie Diani / Bravo
In the season premiere, the group that will eventually reach 12 people, descended on a luxurious vacation home, and during dinner, they each shared what they were most excited to experience.
Amir said he was especially excited to visit the vineyard because he doesn’t get to explore his Blackness as a Black and Lebanese man living in Austin, Texas.
“Being in a house with people that look like me, that’s what I’m most excited about,” said Amir. “Just because in Austin, I don’t get it.”
Also during the conversation, fellow Summerhouse star Jasmine Cooper brought up the term “Black excellence” and Preston, who is a Black queer activist, balked against the term.
“I actually really hate the expression Black excellence I despise it,” said Preston while noting that the term would be more fitting for his mother who excelled despite tough circumstances. “I think our version of Black excellence is rooted in what white people deem successful.”
That conversation about Black excellence and representation came up again during a chat with BOSSIP ahead of episode 2 airing tonight at 9/8 c on Bravo.
Amir Lancaster, Preston Mitchum & Jordan Emanuel Talk Black Representation & Excellence On Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard
During the conversation, Amir expressed to Managing Editor Dani Canada that he finds it especially important to represent viewers with multiracial roots like him.
“I’m really excited for people to see the multilayers of Black excellence there are,” said Amir who embarked on the trip to learn abotu Martha’s Vineyard’s Black history. “We’ve got a bunch of different shades of Black and a bunch of different types of excellence. So I’m excited for each one of us to have the opportunity to reach out to a viewer that might not feel represented and show that there is some representation.”
“Like [for example] me, I’m a mixed Lebanese Black kid and I’m sure there’s tons of mixed kids nowadasys that are like, ‘Dude I don’t feel like I belong to one or the other,’” added Amir.”But it’s kind of me just being like, ‘Hey we belong to something, I’m just not sure what it is yet.’”
Source: Noam Galai / Bravo
As for Preston, he expressed his excitement for viewers to see all that this group has to offer, even the “beauty and mess” that can transpire among a large group of travelers.
“I’m most excited for viewers to see our organic friendships and relationships and all the beauty and mess that comes with it when you’re a vacation with your friends,” Preston told BOSSIP. “Even small things that you don’t think are gonna irritate you, irritate you. The things that you thought were gonna irritate you, don’t,” he added.
Source: Noam Galai / Bravo
He also echoed Amir’s comments about the multilayered Blackness of the Martha’s Vineyard cast and said that viewers will enjoy seeing their differences of opinions that are all ultimately respected.
“I think there’s a lot to be excited about!” said Preston.
As for Jordan, who coincidentally used to intern for BOSSIP, she weighed in on the multiple representations of Black excellence amongst the group and noted that it has nothing to do with education or pedigree.
Source: Noam Galai / Bravo
“There’s so many different representations of excellence,” said Jordan. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that you went to an Ivy League or that you were in the top fraternity or sorority or that you discovered how to cure cancer, we are just excellent in the fact that we stand for ourselves in our power and in our representation of our background and how we grew up.”
“And we all bring such different perspectives,” she added. “I think just learning from other and as Preston said, just respecting each other’s opinions, for the most part, is excellence. We’re going to display that and people are going to see a different view of what that term means.”
Later in the convo, the group admitted that things got a bit chaotic while filming with 12 different personalities—and a dog.
Source: Noam Galai / Bravo
“Honestly, I would use that exact word, chaotic,” said Preston. “The reality is, when you have a bunch of personalities in the house, many things will happen; friendships will blossom, clashes will happen, but I think we all got used to our personalities pretty quickly because we had to. You will see some of those dynamics play out for sure.”
A new episode of Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard airs TONIGHT, Sunday, May 14 at 9 p.m.ET/PT on Bravo.
Check out our video exclusive with the Summer House: Martha’s Vineyard crew up top.
Source: Noam Galai / Bravo
