CELEBRITY EVENT PRODUCER YAZ QUILES TRIBUTES MLK ON HGTV’S EXTREME TABLETOP AND SPECIAL EVENT DESIGN COMPETITION SERIES ‘TABLE WARS’
Table Wars, HGTV’s colorful new special event design competition series, celebrating the unrestrained imagination and breathtaking creativity displayed by eight top designers, is now streaming on Discovery+.
Party planning goes extreme as table designers compete to create extravagantly immersive event tables. Host Tamera Mowry-Housley joins judges Chris Hessney and Martha Stewart to decide which contender will win $50,000 and be named the Table Wars Champion.
Last week, judges tasked the Table Warriors to create a design inspired by a decade.
Contestants paired up for a “Quickscape” challenge to demonstrate finesse, precision, and teamwork. Then, the designers create a tablescape inspired by a specific decade, but a surprise twist pits former partners against each other.
Artistic visionary Yaz Quiles was assigned the sixties.
“The history and soul of the Civil Rights movement have always inspired me, which is why I highlighted the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic speech.” said Yaz Quiles.
“Dinner parties can often feel like an ostentatious display of gluttony, but at the core, being seated at any style table to break bread for peace is worth a celebration,” added Quiles.
King’s table reference in his iconic speech echoed on the set of Table Wars, rousing emotions through Yaz’s design.
“It’s all about bringing people together for me,” added Quiles.
Yaz used place cards to honor each member of the “Big Six,” a term used to describe the six most prominent Black civil rights leaders during the 1960––John Lewis, Whitney Young Jr., A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer Jr., and Roy Wilkin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Quiles specifically chose to illustrate the ways entertainers use their art and platforms to create positive change.
Two unsung women heroes of this momentous time in history, singers Mahalia Jackson and boundary-shattering Josephine Baker, were also symbolically seated.
Jackson prompted Dr. King, Jr. to speak on visions referenced in his “I Have a Dream” speech, and at the age of 57, Baker appeared before the largest audience in her career at the 1963 march.
Baker was also a muse for fellow Table Wars castmate Carlton Lee Jr. of Atlanta, Georgia, who entirely dedicated his riveting 1920s theatre-themed installation to Baker, who also just became the first Black woman to enter France’s Pantheon.
The seven-episode series, produced by Leftfield Pictures and Xpedition Media, will feature innovative exhibitions that must pass muster with lead judges.
On each episode Quiles proves her tenacity by utilizing her arsenal of skills, honed over two decades, producing dream celebrity weddings, disruptive consumer events, and luxury experiences under her award-winning Pop! By Yaz agency.
For show updates on Table Wars, fans can visit HGTV.com and follow @HGTV and #TableWars on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok.