Zola receives standing ovation from Black Twitter for twisted tale of sex, drugs and murder
Sex, suspense, sugar daddies, violence, strippers, kidnapping and Florida night light life. Sounds like all of the elements for a fast-paced film or a good beach read, but for now, it’s just a story told in a series of tweets by a woman who goes by the name Zola.
Sex, suspense, sugar daddies, violence, strippers, kidnapping and Florida night light life.
Sounds like all of the elements for a fast-paced film or a good beach read, but for now, it’s just a story told in a series of tweets by a woman who goes by the name Zola aka @_zolarmoon on Twitter.
Replete with “colorful” language, Zola’s tale of a strippers’ trip to Florida gone horribly bad is the stuff of Internet legend.
In about 150 tweets, Zola takes readers from her first interaction with a woman named Jess at a Detroit area Hooters to their trip to Florida together, which turns out to be a couple days from hell thanks to a gun-toting pimp, Zola becoming an impromptu madam, a man prone to punching himself and a brief if not terrifying kidnapping situation.
Zola has a way with words. When you read her story, you feel like she’s your “crazy” girlfriend who manages to always have a good story on deck.
She has some choice quotes, such as:
So we vibing over our hoeism or whatever. & we exchange numbers!!
Now I’m skeptical like DAMN bitch we just met and we already taking hoe trips together????
So I had to f*ck him calm, & then I left.
I said ‘jess, u sellin p*ss for $100???? P*ssy is worth thousands. U trippin
I said ‘jarrett calm down. Please’ this white n*gga starts PUNCHING HIMSELF!!!! Like crazy people do dawg!! I was like OH HELLLL NAWLLL
The spelling and grammar are non-traditional (though certainly understandable, especially for social media) and many of the tweets are bit too raw to be published outright on theGrio.com, but it’s a well-told story.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Some people have taken to clutching their virtual pearls because of the cursing, the sex work and the sheer griminess of the tale.
Zola has some supporters, though, most notably from critically acclaimed filmmaker Ava DuVernay.
https://twitter.com/AVAETC/status/659522199091474432
https://twitter.com/AVAETC/status/659525061796229120
https://twitter.com/_zolarmoon/status/659525428915347457
And actress Keke Palmer seems eager to star in any future big screen version.
https://twitter.com/KekePalmer/status/659574058980257792
For those who are ashamed or mortified by Zola’s story or caught up in whether or not the story is 100 percent accurate, get over it.
Whether every bit or any part of the story is factual is beside the point, and some sex workers do live a life of grime and crime on the edges of “visible” society.
Not every story has a hero to save the day, and in real life, an “After School Special” type of moral tied up neatly in a bow at the end isn’t always a possibility either.
Also, though every person may not have first-hand experience with the sex work, Zola is very relatable.
When intense situations with guns and violence arise, Zola does what most of us would do…she runs!
There’s no Kill Bill or Foxy Brown type of hand-to-hand combat moment for her. It’s that kind of no-nonsense style that makes Zola’s tale a hit.
Not to mention the fact that Zola is a great storyteller via the medium of Twitter. It takes skill to keep the attention of readers throughout an almost 150-tweet narrative. Most people are apologizing after five tweets for a story being too long.
Yet Zola manages to hold interest in her story and expertly injects humor, horror and drama to boot. Quality creative writing is not restricted to prestigious MFA programs. Sometimes you can look to your local Hooters or strip club for the next generation of canon work.
As for Zora’s future, she told Twitter that this story is not even her craziest and that she might debut a sequel sometime soon.
Twitter (and Ava DuVernay) will be waiting.
Follow Demetria Irwin on Twitter at @Love_Is_Dope and connect with her on Facebook.
