All hail! N.J. native Queen Latifah comes back to Newark to get COVID vaccine. – NJ.com

While the rest of the world hangs off the words of a 94-year-old royal with a penchant for showy hats, in Newark, there’s only one Queen who matters.

That would be Queen Latifah, who was born in Newark and grew up in nearby East Orange. The actress-rapper-extraordinaire volunteered Tuesday to receive her COVID-19 vaccination as part of a public information campaign.

“You hear a lot of things out there in the media, and they are very concerning and very frightening and very scary but being in a hospital on a ventilator is much more frightening than what’s going to happen getting a shot in the arm that is here to prepare our bodies to fight this thing,” Latifah said in the Essex County College gymnasium, before receiving her first dose of the shot.

City and county officials hope skeptical residents seeing one of Newark’s favorite daughters receive the shot will convince them to roll up their sleeves.

“People love her,” Mayor Ras Baraka told NJ Advance Media. “They trust her, she’s from this area. They figure, nobody’s forcing her, she don’t have to do it, she’s rich. They feel like if she’s gonna do it, it gives people the strength to get up and do it themselves.”

Latifah reached out to Baraka’s office, asking whether she could receive the vaccine while she films in the area, Baraka said. He asked if they could use the moment as part of their information campaign and contacted Essex County Executive Joseph N. DiVincenzo, Jr.’s office to set it up.

Latifah currently stars in “The Equalizer,” a reboot of the 1980s series, which has been shooting in Newark, as well as Paterson and Jersey City. Coming from the Meadowlands after a day of production, Latifah brought along a handful of family and crew members to receive their first shot of the Moderna vaccine, too.

Despite being a Grammy, Emmy and Golden Globe winner, Latifah had to fill out a form just like everyone else receiving a vaccine at one of Essex County’s five vaccination sites. She then entered a curtained booth and emerged a few minutes later, to sit in the waiting area for 15 minutes.

With a dramatic flourish, Latifah, clad in a checkered jacket emblazoned with the words “it seemed to be the end until the next beginning,” stepped up to the microphone and delivered a spritz of sanitizer before explaining her purpose for being there.

“I wanna knock it out,” she said. “I’m here to step up to the plate, handle my business, get this done, get on with the business of living life, and I hope that that will be the decision for many of us — that we will come and take advantage of this opportunity.”

The city’s been engaged in a campaign to reach vaccine skeptics, hosting Facebook Live sessions with Black doctors and experts, like immunologist Kizzmekia Corbett, who helped design the Moderna vaccine. Baraka also highlighted efforts to bring the vaccine into the community with pop-up clinics, and the use of community messengers called vaccinating ministers to spread the word.

Vaccine hesitancy runs large in the Black community, with a December Pew Research Center survey showing only 42% of Black adults willing to receive the vaccine. That skepticism derives from a historic racism in the healthcare system, inequity in modern-day treatment and lack of access to health care, experts say, among a host of other reasons.

“Queen Latifah being here just helps us,” DiVincenzo said. “For her to be here, the person that she is, always giving back. This is going to help us draw people out to make sure that they get vaccinated.”

News broke Tuesday that Latifah’s show, “The Equalizer,” was renewed for a second season.

“Thank you to our amazing fans for supporting and watching us every week, we can’t wait for you to see what we have coming up,” Latifah posted on Instagram after the news.

“I think Black women have been equalizing for years and years and years,” Latifah said at a virtual press conference inside the former Izod Center, where the show’s production is based, ahead of the show’s premiere. “And that’s from Hatshepsut to Stacey Abrams to Kamala Harris to my mother to my grandmother. So, for me, seeing a Black woman equalize is not a new thing. I think seeing it on network TV once every week may be a little newer.”

Latifah, who serves as executive producer of the series, also has a $15 million mixed-use construction project underway in Newark.

Staff reporter Amy Kuperinsky contributed to this report.

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Josh Axelrod may be reached at jaxelrod@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.