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Speaker 1: Wake that ass up in the morning.

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Speaker 2: Breakfast Club, Yes, Sister One, the most dangerous morning show

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Speaker 2: to Breakfast Club, charlamagnea God, just hilarious. DJ Envy's not in,

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Speaker 2: but Laura le Rossa is filling in for him, and

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Speaker 2: we got Royalty in the building. Man, we have a

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Speaker 2: woman who has represented you know, black people, especially black

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Speaker 2: women correctly forever.

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Speaker 3: Miss Felicia Rashad is here. How are you, queen?

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Speaker 1: I am good, good to see you.

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Speaker 3: I'm a little star strugg too.

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Speaker 4: I mean to keep staring at you, but I cannot

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Speaker 4: believe I'm sitting here across from you and just and

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Speaker 4: like it's.

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Speaker 2: Because we even watching you on TV. You always carry

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Speaker 2: yourself in such a regal.

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Speaker 3: Man. Then when you walk in the room you feel

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Speaker 3: it even more. It's like whoa.

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Speaker 2: I was telling him, all right, mama walking in the room,

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Speaker 2: straightening up, okay, clean, make sure everything all right?

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Speaker 5: Yeah? Do you have and I know you have this

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Speaker 5: effect everywhere you go. Are you used to people acting

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Speaker 5: like this?

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Speaker 1: Oh? You all?

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Speaker 2: Or what?

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Speaker 1: Can I just say? We are as a people respectful

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Speaker 1: yeah to each other? Yes, yes, yes, ma'am, yes we are,

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Speaker 1: Yes we are, But not the others we are as

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Speaker 1: a people.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, yes, And you're here for I mean, we're

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Speaker 2: gonna talk to you about a lot of stuff. You're

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Speaker 2: making your Broadway directorial debut and purpose. Yes, how did

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Speaker 2: that feel? Well?

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Speaker 1: It was wonderful. It's not the first time I've directed.

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Speaker 1: This is the first time I'm directing in a Broadway theater.

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Speaker 1: But this play and this cast, it's a real gift.

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Speaker 1: You'll come and see. Yes, Yeah, yes, I hope you'll

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Speaker 1: come through. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins is the playwright. He received

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Speaker 1: the Tony Award last year for his play Appropriate And

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Speaker 1: This particular production originates in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater,

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Speaker 1: and the Steppenwolf has its own ethos, its own legacy

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Speaker 1: for theater as it was formed by actors. So it's

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Speaker 1: ensemble work, and that's the best work. Absolutely ensemble work.

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Speaker 1: But then that spirit I watched it move through the

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Speaker 1: cast into everybody, the designers, the production office and staff,

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Speaker 1: the theaters, we all, it's it's everybody. It's one. We

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Speaker 1: call it collective intention. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: When I think about the thing that you and your

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Speaker 2: your sister have done, ms. Debbie Allen, you know, I

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Speaker 2: just wonder what did y'all dream of when y'all was kids,

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Speaker 2: when y'all was just two little girls growing up? Like,

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Speaker 2: what did y'all play about? What did y'all think about?

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Speaker 2: What did y'all imagine?

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Speaker 1: We We grew up in Houston, Texas. Our father, doctor

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Speaker 1: Andrew Allam's a dentist. Our mother, Vivianaires, is a poet.

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Speaker 1: We grew up with a poet. We grew up with

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Speaker 1: a visionary. And it was about freedom. It was about

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Speaker 1: pardon me, It was about realizing your full potential as

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Speaker 1: a human being. Can you imagine things like this? Teaching

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Speaker 1: dual children like this. She would teach us things like.

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Speaker 1: She have aphorisms, and she'd give them to us to say,

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Speaker 1: the universe bears no ill to me, I bear no

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Speaker 1: ill to it. And we repeat that the universe fair

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Speaker 1: is no ill to me. I bear no ill to it.

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Speaker 1: If we just go around the universe, fair is no

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Speaker 1: ill to me. I bet when you teach a child

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Speaker 1: like this, when you teach a child, be true, be beautiful,

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Speaker 1: be free. She would say things like this to us,

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Speaker 1: and she'd say things like thinking requires thought, Thinking requires thought.

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Speaker 1: We would say it, But these seeds were planted by

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Speaker 1: the time I was eleven years old. Yes, oh, Debbie.

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Speaker 1: Debbie was nine years old, and she said to my mother,

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Speaker 1: I did dance classes, and you're not doing a thing

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Speaker 1: about it. You're not doing a thing about it. Wow, Well,

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Speaker 1: you know legal segregation at that time. My mother took

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Speaker 1: the railing off the side of the stairs going upstairs.

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Speaker 1: She took the handrail and had it attached to a

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Speaker 1: wall in what was supposed to have been the dining room.

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Speaker 1: And she hired this teacher who had come from the

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Speaker 1: New York City Ballet, a Caucasian man, to come and

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Speaker 1: teach Debbie in the house. Her ballet classes were there.

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Speaker 1: This is this is how we grew. We grew like this.

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Speaker 1: And he gave Debrah a book about ballet with photographs

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Speaker 1: of all the famous dancers, and we would look at

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Speaker 1: that book all day. Every day. My mother would take

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Speaker 1: us to exhibitions, to lectures things we couldn't understand. She

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Speaker 1: knew we couldn't understand it. She told us later, I

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Speaker 1: knew you wouldn't understand what was being said, but you

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Speaker 1: were present and the seeds were being planted. When we

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Speaker 1: were growing up. She didn't want us scarred by the

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Speaker 1: ignorance of racism, and it was all around us. It

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Speaker 1: was legal at that time. But as little little children,

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Speaker 1: if there was somewhere we wanted to go and we

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Speaker 1: were restricted, she'd explain it like this. She'd say, oh, well,

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Speaker 1: that's a private club for members only, and we're not

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Speaker 1: members of that club. And then she'd do something else.

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Speaker 1: She'd invite all our friends into the living room. She'd

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Speaker 1: teach us music. She'd teach us to tumble, she'd teach

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Speaker 1: us things like this, she'd teach us coral speech. And

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Speaker 1: that's how we grew. And at that time, music education,

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Speaker 1: This is very interesting. In a time of legal segregation,

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Speaker 1: music education was free and in the schools, and the

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Speaker 1: schools had instruments that students could use. I studied viola.

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Speaker 1: Debbie played the bass violin, if you can believe it,

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Speaker 1: the littlest thing in the school. They had to sit

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Speaker 1: her up on a stool, had to sit that child

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Speaker 1: up on a stool, and her little fingers, her little hands.

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Speaker 1: Couldn't you know a bass player usually had big hands.

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Speaker 1: You should have seen Debbie up there. She never missed

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Speaker 1: a beat and she never played a sour note. She

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Speaker 1: played that thing like she had created in herself. This

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Speaker 1: is how we grew We grew up in surrounded by

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Speaker 1: a community that cared for its children. And I mean

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Speaker 1: we were safe. Yeah, we were safe. We felt safe.

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Speaker 1: We didn't I didn't feel fear as a child. Our

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Speaker 1: mother was a great example of that too. One night,

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Speaker 1: somebody tried to break in the house, and my mother

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Speaker 1: was awake and she heard the clamor. She went out

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Speaker 1: the back door and walked her way around to where

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Speaker 1: this man was trying to come through the window. And

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Speaker 1: she stood right there and she said, you could get

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Speaker 1: arrested for that. You know. He scared Jesus and read

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Speaker 1: we grew up to be fearless, but not to be stupid.

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Speaker 3: Expound on that, fearless but not stupid.

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Speaker 1: Well, I mean, look, if you see a rattlesnake in

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Speaker 1: front of you, come on, that's right, that's right, don't

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Speaker 1: be stupid. If you see a car come in your way,

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Speaker 1: don't be stupid.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely absolutely, I love that.

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Speaker 2: I love the story you just told, because as you

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Speaker 2: were talking about it, I'm like, man, how do you

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Speaker 2: teach freedom the black kids in the country that wasn't

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Speaker 2: providing you that freedom at the time.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you how. I'll tell you how. A poet,

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Speaker 1: a visionary hmm. You have to look inside, and you

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Speaker 1: have to teach young people to look inside. There's nothing

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Speaker 1: but freedom. So much distraction today, one thing and then

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Speaker 1: another to make anybody, not just African American children, but

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Speaker 1: anybody feel separate from its creation, separate from the one

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Speaker 1: who created everything that is separate from one's own self.

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Speaker 1: In the midst of majesty nature, in the midst of

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Speaker 1: presence distraction, pay attention to that.

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Speaker 5: You're gonna be stealing your quotes.

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Speaker 6: But the rest of the month, every day there is

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Speaker 6: a depositive note, and the Charlemagne is over there writing

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Speaker 6: down everything and his mind.

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Speaker 5: Going to you, be quoting you for the rest of

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Speaker 5: them month.

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Speaker 3: I know it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so you don't you know, we knew history. You

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Speaker 1: teach history, but you don't identify with the Middle Passage's

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Speaker 1: who you are. That's not who you are, That's not

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Speaker 1: who anyone is. That is what happened. But people survive

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Speaker 1: that because of who we are as human beings. Right now,

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying it. Right now, we need all the people. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: all the people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's since the community you're talking about growing up

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Speaker 2: in Houston. You need that. You need to be able

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Speaker 2: to teach kids' freedom. You need to be able to

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Speaker 2: instill security and safety in kids. And that can only

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Speaker 2: come from come from It.

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Speaker 1: Comes from home and in teaching. You know, it's shared

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Speaker 1: with others. You know, children are not born into this

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Speaker 1: world fearful. No human being is born into this world

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Speaker 1: fearful or filled with hate. Nobody's born like that. You

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Speaker 1: have to learn that stuff. You know, there's a song

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Speaker 1: from a Broadway show. You have to be carefully taught,

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Speaker 1: carefully taught. Well, you can be carefully taught the right

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Speaker 1: way too.

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Speaker 4: What was your mother's upbringing like? Because she seems like

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Speaker 4: she was so still and so short of herself. And

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Speaker 4: I'm sure she had, you know, experienced a lot.

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Speaker 1: My mother grew up in Chester, South Carolina.

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Speaker 2: Ay, I'm from Talk Carolina. I was born at Charleston

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Speaker 2: raith Inn, a small town called monst Corn.

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Speaker 1: You the people, ye, okay? You the people? Okay. So

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Speaker 1: it was a small mill town, right. Her father was

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Speaker 1: a blacksmith, one of his brothers was a mortician, and

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Speaker 1: the other brother was a barber. And these businesses had

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Speaker 1: been owned by her grandfather. It was an agricultural community, right,

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Speaker 1: But there was a school there that had been founded

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Speaker 1: by the presbytery. There was such a number of such schools,

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Speaker 1: pardon me, that had been founded by the Presbytery for

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Speaker 1: the descendants of freed African people throughout the South. This

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Speaker 1: school was Brainerd Institute. And in this school there was

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Speaker 1: this classical education administered by black people. My mother was

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Speaker 1: always interested in music. Oh, she was quite the pianist.

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Speaker 1: She's described herself to me once as saying, she was

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Speaker 1: a little girl swinging high on the swing, looking up

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Speaker 1: at the sky and dreaming big dreams. That's how she grew.

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Speaker 1: Her mother passed away when she was When my mother

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Speaker 1: was nine, she lost her mother. And she said, as

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Speaker 1: she sat at her mother's funeral and listened to the

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Speaker 1: things that people were saying, she decided none of them

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Speaker 1: were intelligent enough to tell her anything to do. She

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Speaker 1: would chart her own course at nine, at nine at nine,

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Speaker 1: and she did, and she did. It was not an

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Speaker 1: easy life, but there was this spirit in her, living

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Speaker 1: in her, burning in her, that carried her through. Her

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Speaker 1: first publication is by this collection of porns. Her second

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Speaker 1: publication Hawk. If you read Hawk, you will understand how

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Speaker 1: I grew. This is an inner journey. This is an

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Speaker 1: allegory of freedom, which parallels flight through space without a vehicle.

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Speaker 1: It was published eleven weeks before the launch of sputnik Ie.

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Speaker 3: Wow, what did you learn from your your father, because

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Speaker 3: you said he was a dentist.

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Speaker 1: Oh, my father. My father was born on the back

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Speaker 1: porch of a farm in Lovedale, Louisiana. He was one

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Speaker 1: of nine children. His father worked on the railroad. He

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Speaker 1: was a fireman on the South Pacific Railroad. And his mother,

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Speaker 1: you know, was housekeeping. Right. My grandfather put great emphasis

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Speaker 1: on education, and he made sure that all of his

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Speaker 1: children went to college.

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Speaker 3: Imagine it, especially in that time.

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Speaker 1: Imagine it. So my father was a very kind and

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Speaker 1: generous man. He was what was called a man's man.

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Speaker 1: Men loved him and trusted him. He was always the

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Speaker 1: treasurer of the dental Association because they said, if text

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Speaker 1: takes care of the money, we're in good shape. He

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Speaker 1: was organized, he was very clean. He loved music, he

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Speaker 1: loved theater, he loved the arts. He came to see

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Speaker 1: any and everything we did, whatever it was. He was

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Speaker 1: very supportive. He was he was so handsome. He was

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Speaker 1: so handsome, and he was so good. He did things

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Speaker 1: that people didn't know he did. He was like that.

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Speaker 1: And in his office he dealt with people's pain and

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Speaker 1: anxiety every day, and they came to him and trusted him.

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Speaker 1: And when they couldn't pay, he'd work out a payment

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Speaker 1: plan for them that was convenient for them. They didn't

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Speaker 1: have to go anywhere and incur interest rates. He would

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Speaker 1: work that out for him. When my father passed away,

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Speaker 1: at his viewing, the line stretched out of the mortuary, wow,

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Speaker 1: all the way down the street, all the way round

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Speaker 1: the block. And when the last person came, he said,

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Speaker 1: he looked at and me. He said, you don't understand.

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Speaker 1: You don't understand. That's my dentist mmm. And that motiicaide as.

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Speaker 5: I remember.

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Speaker 1: That motiicaid on the way to the cemetery, stretched as

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Speaker 1: far as the eye could see. He was so beloved.

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Speaker 3: Thank you, Joe, thank you.

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Speaker 2: So that's why I asked, just because you know when

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Speaker 2: you look like I said, you know you we look

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Speaker 2: at Felicia Shade and Wie Allen, two strong queens. Somebody

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Speaker 2: had to raise them. Somebody had them still that in

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Speaker 2: them and as a father raising four beautiful black girls.

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Speaker 2: You know, I'm just always thinking about you know what,

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Speaker 2: should me and my wife being stealing in them all

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Speaker 2: the time, just so they grow up to be.

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Speaker 3: Strong black women. When you love them, my mom says,

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Speaker 3: all the time.

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Speaker 1: When you love them, that's all you know. My father,

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Speaker 1: if I can remember one great instruction, my father gave

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Speaker 1: me two great instructions. He said, and I was a

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Speaker 1: little girl, he said, never let anybody run over you.

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Speaker 1: Who's five years old? And he told me that, never

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Speaker 1: let anyone run over you. And then later on in life,

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Speaker 1: he said, always know the balance of your bank account

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Speaker 1: and keep your own money.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, what can you tell us about to start without

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Speaker 6: spoiling it?

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Speaker 5: You know the Broadway?

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Speaker 6: But what can you tell us about the story of

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Speaker 6: purpose without giving it all the way?

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Speaker 5: I know you don't want to.

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Speaker 1: Oh, this is wonderful family family drama, and there's humor

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Speaker 1: in it. A young man is recalling a visit to

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Speaker 1: his home and on this night of nights, so much

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Speaker 1: happens in one night, and so much is revealed in

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Speaker 1: one night, and some things are resolved. It's uh, That's

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Speaker 1: all I'm gonna tell you, except to tell you that

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Speaker 1: cast Harry Lennox mm hmmmm. Okay, the Tanya Richardson Jackson

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Speaker 1: mm hmm okay, Glenn Glenn Davis mm hmmm, Alana Arenas

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Speaker 1: and John Michael Hill. It's the most it's the most

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Speaker 1: incredible ensemble that I've ever witnessed. Each one is a master,

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Speaker 1: each one and the inimitable Caro Young, who was Louty

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Speaker 1: Bell in Pearly Victorious last season, that's her cast. People

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Speaker 1: come at the end of the play and have various reactions.

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Speaker 1: One woman said, ooh, that scene at the dining room table.

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Speaker 1: Who that was my family's thanksgiving for the past time?

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Speaker 5: Relatable?

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Speaker 1: Right, and she was not an African American woman. People

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Speaker 1: see themselves and that's when we know we are really

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Speaker 1: doing our best work. When you see yourself.

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Speaker 4: I was gonna say, speaking of doing your best work,

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Speaker 4: I think you know, for a lot of us and

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Speaker 4: watching you on television, the iconic role of Claire Huxtable

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Speaker 4: and just what that image of you know, having a

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Speaker 4: mom that was just so graceful and so like everything

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Speaker 4: that you.

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Speaker 7: Were in that show. Do you like in real life?

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Speaker 4: Is there ever, sure was there at the time for

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Speaker 4: you to like upkeep like a certain like I don't know,

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Speaker 4: like an image or like just anything that people try

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Speaker 4: to house. No, like so not in your house, but

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Speaker 4: like in real life, like in Hollywood and other roles

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Speaker 4: you were taking in, like you know what I mean, Like,

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Speaker 4: did you ever feel like because I think for us

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Speaker 4: like you are like the perfect like image of like

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Speaker 4: a black woman. Like so I always wondered if you

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Speaker 4: felt that pressure.

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Speaker 1: No, light is not heavy, M carry light, share light.

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Speaker 1: Light is not heavy.

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Speaker 6: Even in even in interviews. But I understand what you're saying.

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Speaker 6: Even in interviews back then, you would still have the

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Speaker 6: same deposition, the same grace when you know, outside of

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Speaker 6: that role.

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Speaker 5: I'm gonna tell you the one that sticks with me.

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Speaker 6: When you told uh Saundra's boyfriend Elvin that is iconic.

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Speaker 6: And then when Vanessa wanted to go to Baltimore, I'm

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Speaker 6: friend to.

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Speaker 1: See the wretchet.

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Speaker 6: Oh my god, when I tell you those are my

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Speaker 6: two like key episodes. Right, Well yeah, because I'm from

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Speaker 6: Baltimore and I done snuck out the house. And you

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Speaker 6: know I don't done all that. You ain't knocked Vanessa out.

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Speaker 6: I got knocked out a few times.

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Speaker 3: But.

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Speaker 6: Well yeah, right, that's it. Also I also want to

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Speaker 6: bring up the movie bee Keeper. Oh my god, how

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Speaker 6: is that working with Jason Stathum.

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Speaker 1: Oh he's such a good person. Yeah, oh yeah, so generous,

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Speaker 1: so kind, amazing to a fault. You know, that was

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Speaker 1: a great experience.

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Speaker 6: That was a great movie because it also like talks

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Speaker 6: to what's going on these days. Like it's so I know,

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Speaker 6: y'all you probably didn't see it. So The Beekeep is

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Speaker 6: a movie about an older woman who is robbed of

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Speaker 6: her her retirement funds, everything cleared, her bank accounts, fraud

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Speaker 6: a lot of frauds. She took a phone call from

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Speaker 6: this company that acted as if they were trying to

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Speaker 6: like help her with some type of banking information, and

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Speaker 6: she like kind of fell forward and ended up now

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Speaker 6: and Beekeeper did? Is this the question I always have?

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Speaker 6: Did the woman kill herself? Or did she killed herself?

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Speaker 6: Not because she lost her money.

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Speaker 1: It was other people's money she lost, Okay, And do

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Speaker 1: you know that maybe six months after that filming, I

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Speaker 1: read of such a thing in the newspaper. Wow, oh wow,

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Speaker 1: this was a man. Yeah, and he was so embarrassed.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: But the greater problem here is access, Yes, yeah, so

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Speaker 1: much access to people is all of that necessary? Is

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Speaker 1: it good?

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Speaker 3: No?

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Speaker 1: No it's not. No man, no it's not. And as

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Speaker 1: we see it moving towards more, think about that.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, how do how do you now a days like?

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Speaker 4: Because I mean you obviously pick and choose what you

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Speaker 4: want to do with your roles. Like I watched you

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Speaker 4: in dar from Detroit and I was like, the one

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Speaker 4: thing we all in the car and you were talking

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Speaker 4: about the temptations, all of them.

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Speaker 7: I'm gonna tell you right now, I felt bad watching that.

353
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Speaker 7: I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to hear her.

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Speaker 3: Yes, but it's so funny though.

355
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Speaker 2: The first time I saw the clips, they didn't tell

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Speaker 2: me it was from a TV show.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, he thought that you were really reflecting all your life.

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Speaker 1: I said, damn she slept. No, No, that was a character, Darling.

359
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:07,560
Speaker 1: That was a character. As actors, we play these roles.

360
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Speaker 4: When you choose a character like that, where it's like

361
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Speaker 4: it's a lot different than how we've seen you or

362
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Speaker 4: how I've seen you anyway, and different things that you've done.

363
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Speaker 4: What's you're thinking behind it? Is it because you want

364
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Speaker 4: to you want people to see you in the different

365
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Speaker 4: lights or is it just I just want.

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Speaker 1: To do see what she was doing. Yes, that's why

367
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Speaker 1: I chose the characters because of what she was doing. Yeah,

368
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Speaker 1: people get all caught up in funny stuff. Yeah, what

369
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Speaker 1: was that woman doing.

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Speaker 7: She was rescuing people.

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Speaker 1: She was rescuing people. She was living with the deepest

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Speaker 1: hurt that a mother can have, that she lost her

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Speaker 1: child because she was not paying attention, and in her

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Speaker 1: heart she felt that her child was alive somewhere. And

375
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Speaker 1: this is years later, but just in a moment of

376
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Speaker 1: being too tired and too annoyed and too you distracted

377
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Speaker 1: and wanting to do something else, she turned away and

378
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Speaker 1: in that instant, her child was taken from her.

379
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Speaker 5: Yeah.

380
00:26:11,080 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: And so she said about the saving people, she went

381
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Speaker 1: on saving people, open one day somebody would save her son.

382
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Speaker 2: M hm.

383
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Speaker 1: So I choose people because I choose a character because

384
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Speaker 1: of what people are doing.

385
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to go back to something just said.

386
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Speaker 2: She brought up the Elvin scene, right, because that was

387
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Speaker 2: a role.

388
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:32,240
Speaker 3: Well, when you.

389
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:36,119
Speaker 2: Schooled Elvin on I guess the marital, the marital, how

390
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:38,919
Speaker 2: much input did you have on that scene and what

391
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:41,200
Speaker 2: were you trying to convey when you saw it on paper?

392
00:26:41,240 --> 00:26:43,040
Speaker 2: What did you say to yourself, Oh, I know what

393
00:26:43,080 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 2: I can do in this scene to convey a larger message.

394
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Speaker 1: Oh, I didn't say anything. I just said I just

395
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Speaker 1: said the lines.

396
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Speaker 3: It was just as it was there.

397
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Speaker 6: Oh, it was there, but it was the way you

398
00:26:52,440 --> 00:26:53,760
Speaker 6: deliver it, you know.

399
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Speaker 3: So it was like battle rapping.

400
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:05,920
Speaker 1: It was so, you know, it was this is this

401
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:08,360
Speaker 1: is a part of your training as an actor. Language

402
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 1: and how you use it, you know, And there's rhythm

403
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:16,000
Speaker 1: in this pace, and so much is conveyed in that way.

404
00:27:16,320 --> 00:27:19,040
Speaker 1: If you said it another way, it wouldn't be as effective.

405
00:27:21,480 --> 00:27:23,119
Speaker 1: If you tried to say it like you were singing

406
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,720
Speaker 1: the lazy No, it wouldn't work.

407
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:29,879
Speaker 5: It wouldn't hit like a black mama.

408
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 2: What would in writers' rooms like though, because it felt

409
00:27:32,960 --> 00:27:37,399
Speaker 2: like a black experience with black writers writers.

410
00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:43,760
Speaker 1: The thing was to write a human story, to write

411
00:27:43,760 --> 00:27:48,280
Speaker 1: about human behavior, the truth of human behavior. That's what

412
00:27:48,640 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 1: makes comedy and theater real, the truth of human behavior.

413
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: You don't have to make something up. If you're writing

414
00:27:58,800 --> 00:27:59,920
Speaker 1: about something that's real.

415
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:00,560
Speaker 3: Mm hmm.

416
00:28:01,160 --> 00:28:04,520
Speaker 1: You can take a different perspective on it, and your

417
00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 1: skills as a writer, you know, show up in your

418
00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:12,600
Speaker 1: language or your you know, those things that writers do.

419
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Speaker 6: Yeah, what do you do to channel roles like your

420
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:21,399
Speaker 6: role and fall from grace, like when you're the villain,

421
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:23,879
Speaker 6: What do you do to channel those roles?

422
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:31,639
Speaker 1: Everybody's a human being, right, Yeah, okay, m she's just

423
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:37,240
Speaker 1: a nasty human. This is a person who is sick.

424
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: Her whole perspective is warped. You've got to be sick

425
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:47,719
Speaker 1: to mistreat another person. I'm sorry. You cannot be sane

426
00:28:48,160 --> 00:28:52,800
Speaker 1: and do hurtful things to people. You just the sane

427
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:54,120
Speaker 1: person won't do that.

428
00:28:54,640 --> 00:28:59,920
Speaker 2: Do you agree that one of the four agreements is,

429
00:28:59,920 --> 00:29:02,680
Speaker 2: you know, don't don't take offense to things, don't take

430
00:29:02,720 --> 00:29:03,600
Speaker 2: things personal.

431
00:29:03,360 --> 00:29:04,160
Speaker 3: Because what you do.

432
00:29:04,360 --> 00:29:06,280
Speaker 2: What somebody does to you is not a reflection to you,

433
00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 2: is something that's going on internally with them. It's hard that,

434
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:12,840
Speaker 2: you know, to put yourself in that position, but you

435
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:13,440
Speaker 2: really got to.

436
00:29:13,360 --> 00:29:16,800
Speaker 1: Know that sometimes you want to just clutch somebody, shake

437
00:29:16,840 --> 00:29:17,480
Speaker 1: them real good.

438
00:29:17,720 --> 00:29:20,000
Speaker 2: My daddy used to say, you'll stop taking everything personal

439
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:21,760
Speaker 2: personal once you realize that it's a bunch of people

440
00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:29,080
Speaker 2: out here on cocaine, like people out here doing all

441
00:29:29,120 --> 00:29:30,680
Speaker 2: types of stuff that you have no idea about.

442
00:29:30,800 --> 00:29:32,320
Speaker 1: Where was your father from.

443
00:29:32,200 --> 00:29:36,480
Speaker 2: Monk's corner, South Carolina. All my family in South Carolina, Mama, daddy, everybody.

444
00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:39,160
Speaker 3: It's the best because you know.

445
00:29:39,120 --> 00:29:41,200
Speaker 2: It's like if you ever been to the International African

446
00:29:41,240 --> 00:29:43,960
Speaker 2: American Museum. Oh you were there, I'm bugging yes, you

447
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:45,840
Speaker 2: were there for the grand opening. I didn't get to

448
00:29:45,840 --> 00:29:47,360
Speaker 2: meet you'll want to meet y'all was on the other side.

449
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:51,280
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's right there on the port where, like

450
00:29:51,320 --> 00:29:53,800
Speaker 2: I think fifty percent of all enslaved Africans came through.

451
00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:56,200
Speaker 3: So that's like home for a lot of us.

452
00:29:57,040 --> 00:29:59,520
Speaker 1: And don't know that's right, And don't.

453
00:29:59,320 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 2: Know another thing I want to ask you about when

454
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:04,640
Speaker 2: you ran down on Vanessa, who are what were you

455
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 2: channeling in that moment, because I'm sure you, I'm sure

456
00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:09,960
Speaker 2: you and your sisters knuck out the house a couple

457
00:30:09,920 --> 00:30:11,320
Speaker 2: of times and Mama had to get on.

458
00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:12,400
Speaker 7: You never snuck out.

459
00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 1: I didn't have to sneak. Yeah, I didn't have to sneak.

460
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 1: Yeah it was good. I didn't have to. But it

461
00:30:19,040 --> 00:30:21,680
Speaker 1: was good not to have to do that. Yeah, you know,

462
00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:25,440
Speaker 1: sometimes it might have stayed a little too long or

463
00:30:25,480 --> 00:30:28,800
Speaker 1: we didn't have to sneak. It was it was, it

464
00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:31,719
Speaker 1: was fun. It was you know, it was an actor,

465
00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 1: and you understand human behavior, you understand feelings. It's it's

466
00:30:41,280 --> 00:30:43,880
Speaker 1: the way you develop yourself. This is the craft. This

467
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:48,280
Speaker 1: is what we do. And uh, I guess if you

468
00:30:48,360 --> 00:30:51,440
Speaker 1: do it in a certain way, people think it's you.

469
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:53,880
Speaker 2: Yes, that's why they can't see you playing a role

470
00:30:53,920 --> 00:30:57,000
Speaker 2: like in a Fall from Grades, like mister Shott is

471
00:30:57,040 --> 00:30:57,480
Speaker 2: a villain.

472
00:30:58,560 --> 00:31:00,520
Speaker 1: No, it's she was.

473
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:07,360
Speaker 5: We have to detach the actress from the character.

474
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you know. And as an artist, you don't

475
00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,520
Speaker 1: want to sing the same song or play the same tube. Yeah,

476
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:21,200
Speaker 1: you don't want to paint the same picture forever. You've

477
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 1: got a paint box. You want to use those paints

478
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,360
Speaker 1: and do a different scenes because we have range. Well, yeah,

479
00:31:30,480 --> 00:31:34,000
Speaker 1: and you want to express humanity in whatever you do

480
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: at least I do.

481
00:31:37,120 --> 00:31:37,640
Speaker 3: You know you can't.

482
00:31:38,440 --> 00:31:40,280
Speaker 7: I was going to say your time at at Howard.

483
00:31:40,320 --> 00:31:42,200
Speaker 7: I'm on HBC. You graded went to Delaware State?

484
00:31:42,360 --> 00:31:43,160
Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of it?

485
00:31:43,720 --> 00:31:43,960
Speaker 1: Yes?

486
00:31:44,160 --> 00:31:44,480
Speaker 3: Wow?

487
00:31:46,920 --> 00:31:49,160
Speaker 7: The police thing next exactly right.

488
00:31:50,360 --> 00:31:52,880
Speaker 4: But the freedom that you were talking about earlier, I remember,

489
00:31:52,960 --> 00:31:54,520
Speaker 4: like I was raised in the household where my mom

490
00:31:54,640 --> 00:31:57,040
Speaker 4: was very much like that. But going to an HBCU,

491
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,400
Speaker 4: I remember that being the first time where I was like, oh, okay,

492
00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:03,640
Speaker 4: the world like really needs me. And it was because

493
00:32:03,680 --> 00:32:06,400
Speaker 4: of like teachers and counselors and stuff that kind of

494
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:08,680
Speaker 4: had the same spirit that you have. I wonder, like,

495
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 4: for you, what was like one of your favorite things

496
00:32:10,720 --> 00:32:13,360
Speaker 4: about walking on campus every day with those students as

497
00:32:13,400 --> 00:32:13,960
Speaker 4: a dean.

498
00:32:14,400 --> 00:32:22,600
Speaker 1: As the dean ooh, walking on campus. Everywhere I looked,

499
00:32:23,280 --> 00:32:25,760
Speaker 1: I was reminded of my time there as a student,

500
00:32:26,640 --> 00:32:31,000
Speaker 1: and I was reminded of my friends, and I was

501
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:34,640
Speaker 1: reminded of the things that we did and the time

502
00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:39,560
Speaker 1: in which we were living as students. It was an

503
00:32:39,600 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: important time. Doctor King was assassinated in my sophomore year.

504
00:32:45,440 --> 00:32:46,040
Speaker 3: Wow.

505
00:32:47,560 --> 00:32:53,120
Speaker 1: Yeah, I watched these things happen. So much unfolded on

506
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,640
Speaker 1: that campus. I remember when Muhammad Ali came and spoke

507
00:32:56,680 --> 00:33:01,200
Speaker 1: on the steps of Frederick Douglas Hall mm hmm. And

508
00:33:01,240 --> 00:33:05,400
Speaker 1: I remember him standing there and he said, look at me.

509
00:33:06,720 --> 00:33:13,560
Speaker 1: Can't you see that I'm free? And you could. Oh.

510
00:33:13,600 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: They were great people. There were great. Oh. The instructors.

511
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,680
Speaker 1: When I tell you about instructors I had at Howard University.

512
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:26,800
Speaker 4: You know, yeah, they feeling they pour in like you

513
00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 4: never forget that, like they pouring into you in a

514
00:33:29,400 --> 00:33:29,920
Speaker 4: different way.

515
00:33:30,280 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: And they're so well developed. They are deep, they are deep.

516
00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:40,480
Speaker 1: So there was a time, you know, I was just

517
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:45,120
Speaker 1: referencing back to my father's area dentistry. There was a

518
00:33:45,160 --> 00:33:49,960
Speaker 1: time when African Americans were trained, could be trained at Harvard,

519
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:55,240
Speaker 1: but they wouldn't hire them to teach. So these people

520
00:33:55,280 --> 00:34:00,440
Speaker 1: who were trained in these great quote great institutions went

521
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:07,400
Speaker 1: to HBCUs to teach. You were receiving that education there,

522
00:34:08,360 --> 00:34:14,600
Speaker 1: that discipline, those demands. They were serious about it. They

523
00:34:14,600 --> 00:34:17,799
Speaker 1: were so serious about it. There was there was an

524
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:21,160
Speaker 1: instructor at Howard down in medical school, doctor Montague J.

525
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:21,680
Speaker 2: Cobb.

526
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 1: They talked about this man. He was legendary. My father's

527
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:30,880
Speaker 1: friend said, oh, no, you don't understand. If we failed

528
00:34:30,920 --> 00:34:35,440
Speaker 1: the test, he would say, meet me in the lab tonight,

529
00:34:36,600 --> 00:34:38,759
Speaker 1: And they'd all show up in the lab and while

530
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:40,880
Speaker 1: they were going around doing what they were supposed to

531
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 1: be doing, he would pull out his viola and play

532
00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,000
Speaker 1: as he walked up and down the aisle. And my

533
00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 1: father's friend said, you wanted him to play that viola

534
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,480
Speaker 1: because that meant that he was pleased with what you

535
00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,800
Speaker 1: would do. I mean, they came, you know, people we

536
00:34:56,920 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 1: came through in a time that we should remember.

537
00:35:00,920 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 3: I feel like that's a level of village. I don't

538
00:35:02,360 --> 00:35:03,240
Speaker 3: know if we have anymore.

539
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,200
Speaker 1: Well, we can have it if we wanted, and we

540
00:35:06,239 --> 00:35:09,279
Speaker 1: can expand it. We can expand it to it include

541
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:13,640
Speaker 1: our Hispanic family. We can expand it to include our

542
00:35:13,680 --> 00:35:17,680
Speaker 1: Asian family. We can expand it to include our Caucasian family.

543
00:35:17,920 --> 00:35:21,280
Speaker 1: We can expand it because we need all the people.

544
00:35:23,040 --> 00:35:26,360
Speaker 1: That's a line from August Wilson's play Gim of the

545
00:35:26,400 --> 00:35:33,800
Speaker 1: Ocean on Esther who on Essa says, I'm going to

546
00:35:33,840 --> 00:35:37,000
Speaker 1: show you what happened when all the people call on

547
00:35:37,160 --> 00:35:43,279
Speaker 1: God in the one voice. God got beautiful splendors, and

548
00:35:43,360 --> 00:35:47,920
Speaker 1: God got room for everybody.

549
00:35:48,800 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 4: Were you when you when you decided not to return

550
00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,400
Speaker 4: back to Howard did you feel like you didn't return

551
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:55,719
Speaker 4: because your work was done there? Or was it just

552
00:35:55,760 --> 00:35:58,040
Speaker 4: like a personal decision because like business reasons, Like I

553
00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,280
Speaker 4: just felt like people like you, what we need you.

554
00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:01,279
Speaker 7: On campuses every day.

555
00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:03,719
Speaker 4: But I know it's probably it's a lot to do

556
00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,279
Speaker 4: well at once, But like, what was that like for you,

557
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:07,439
Speaker 4: that decision not to go back?

558
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,480
Speaker 1: Well, I will always be connected. I will always be

559
00:36:12,520 --> 00:36:15,600
Speaker 1: connected to Howard University. As a matter of fact, next

560
00:36:15,680 --> 00:36:19,960
Speaker 1: week I will be in Washington, d C. For the

561
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:25,840
Speaker 1: one night only reading of Chadwick A. Boseman's Deep Azure.

562
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 1: He wrote that, So he was one of my students

563
00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:32,360
Speaker 1: early early on, when Al Freeman Jr. Invited me to

564
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: come and teach for a semester. So we were in

565
00:36:36,239 --> 00:36:40,160
Speaker 1: the studio doing the show Monday through Thursday and Friday morning,

566
00:36:40,200 --> 00:36:44,839
Speaker 1: I'd get up and fly down and I'd teach. And

567
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:48,360
Speaker 1: he was one of my students. Collecchi Susan Collecchi Watson

568
00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:52,120
Speaker 1: was one of the students. Camilla Fors one of the students.

569
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:57,080
Speaker 1: He was He was fearless, he was brave South Carolina,

570
00:36:57,840 --> 00:37:03,839
Speaker 1: and and he was also very respectful. It's why I say,

571
00:37:03,840 --> 00:37:09,440
Speaker 1: as a people, we are respectful people. We are naturally

572
00:37:10,280 --> 00:37:15,239
Speaker 1: you know. So anyway, he kept in contact with me,

573
00:37:17,080 --> 00:37:20,359
Speaker 1: and after he had graduated, one day I received this call,

574
00:37:20,400 --> 00:37:23,560
Speaker 1: I'm sending you something. Mister Shady would always call me

575
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:27,759
Speaker 1: that I'm sending you something. Even after he had attained

576
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:34,840
Speaker 1: fame and notoriety, he still called me mister always. So

577
00:37:34,880 --> 00:37:37,400
Speaker 1: he said okay, And what he sent was a copy

578
00:37:37,480 --> 00:37:40,360
Speaker 1: of the script that he had written hip Hop Theater.

579
00:37:41,239 --> 00:37:43,960
Speaker 1: Hip Hop Theater was born on the campus of Howard University,

580
00:37:44,280 --> 00:37:47,640
Speaker 1: and he was one of the progenitors. He was one

581
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:54,200
Speaker 1: of the innovators. And it's how can I say hip

582
00:37:54,239 --> 00:37:59,600
Speaker 1: hop language and rhythm through the voice and experience of

583
00:37:59,640 --> 00:38:00,840
Speaker 1: a class that.

584
00:38:02,960 --> 00:38:06,960
Speaker 7: It is grand, that's like the essence of an HBCU.

585
00:38:07,719 --> 00:38:09,360
Speaker 4: Like when you're saying it, it's like, okay, that's what

586
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:11,840
Speaker 4: it's like when you go to like the cave for

587
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:14,480
Speaker 4: like you and the parties, or it's literally like everybody

588
00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 4: is so like astute, but like you, it's a vibe

589
00:38:18,400 --> 00:38:19,279
Speaker 4: like you can't describe it.

590
00:38:19,680 --> 00:38:21,399
Speaker 7: You got to just be there and it's real.

591
00:38:22,960 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 1: It's real, and people are taking their education seriously right

592
00:38:26,640 --> 00:38:30,760
Speaker 1: But now with this AI business, I don't know, children

593
00:38:30,840 --> 00:38:32,520
Speaker 1: trying not to write their own papers to try to

594
00:38:32,560 --> 00:38:34,799
Speaker 1: do this what do they call it? This chet thing?

595
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:39,759
Speaker 1: And who excuse me for stammering, but it puts me

596
00:38:39,800 --> 00:38:43,080
Speaker 1: at a loss for words like darling, don't you understand

597
00:38:43,120 --> 00:38:45,560
Speaker 1: why you're here now? If you wanted to do that,

598
00:38:45,680 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 1: you could stay home. You should stay home because you're

599
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:52,759
Speaker 1: taking up room that somebody else could be occupying. Who

600
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:53,920
Speaker 1: really wants to.

601
00:38:55,719 --> 00:38:56,239
Speaker 5: Do the work.

602
00:38:56,880 --> 00:39:00,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, who really wants to develop? What about your intellect? Baby?

603
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:04,320
Speaker 1: Do you have no care or thought for your intellect

604
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:11,800
Speaker 1: for expanding that? What about that? What about your worldview? Darling?

605
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:13,920
Speaker 1: Do you not care for that?

606
00:39:15,440 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 3: Oh?

607
00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:18,160
Speaker 1: Okay, you're gonna give that to the chap too. All right,

608
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:20,360
Speaker 1: Well let's see where you lad, Let's see where you

609
00:39:20,520 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 1: end up. So purpose the play. Yes, one of the

610
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:31,959
Speaker 1: things that's said in this play by the patriarch, he said,

611
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:38,960
Speaker 1: he feels he feels that he has lost a communion

612
00:39:40,960 --> 00:39:46,320
Speaker 1: with God. He said, ancestors were in such close communion

613
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:49,480
Speaker 1: with God and his creation. They knew how to do

614
00:39:49,680 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 1: things and how to take care of things, he says,

615
00:39:53,040 --> 00:39:54,680
Speaker 1: And I think that I have I think that we

616
00:39:54,800 --> 00:39:58,680
Speaker 1: all have lost that. He says. Well, maybe it's old age.

617
00:39:58,719 --> 00:40:02,759
Speaker 1: I don't know, But he says, he's very interested in

618
00:40:02,840 --> 00:40:06,840
Speaker 1: the things we used to do back home down in

619
00:40:06,920 --> 00:40:10,720
Speaker 1: the country, fishing and hunting and bee keeping and growing.

620
00:40:11,120 --> 00:40:20,799
Speaker 1: You know, I was shocked, shocked to know that they

621
00:40:20,840 --> 00:40:25,640
Speaker 1: are children who don't understand that French fries come from

622
00:40:25,719 --> 00:40:27,200
Speaker 1: potatoes that are alone.

623
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:32,200
Speaker 4: And those weren't the children that how it was okay,

624
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,920
Speaker 4: but I'm shocked, but I'm shocked to know.

625
00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:42,000
Speaker 1: I'm shocked to know from two pediatricians in two different cities. Right,

626
00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:45,400
Speaker 1: they have books, you know, in their waiting rooms for

627
00:40:45,480 --> 00:40:48,360
Speaker 1: the young children. Young children come in and pick up

628
00:40:48,360 --> 00:40:49,600
Speaker 1: a book and try to scan it.

629
00:40:50,800 --> 00:40:51,160
Speaker 3: M M.

630
00:40:51,680 --> 00:40:53,719
Speaker 1: Because the parents aren't giving them books, they're giving them

631
00:40:53,800 --> 00:40:56,600
Speaker 1: these little things. These things.

632
00:40:57,960 --> 00:40:59,520
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like, m.

633
00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:06,239
Speaker 1: So, so here we go back to parenting. You will

634
00:41:06,280 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 1: leave that in the hands of somebody else and think

635
00:41:09,160 --> 00:41:11,759
Speaker 1: it's gonna come out right. I don't think so.

636
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:16,760
Speaker 2: The dramatic pause, I don't know this is a dramatic

637
00:41:16,800 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 2: pause that you'll be stopping. That's why i'd be just like,

638
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:26,239
Speaker 2: speaking of dramatic pause, you call it a dramatic I'm

639
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:28,000
Speaker 2: trying to figure out sometimes it's dramatic, Paul, but then

640
00:41:28,040 --> 00:41:30,160
Speaker 2: sometimes you really are done. So I'm just trying to

641
00:41:30,160 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 2: figure it out.

642
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:32,560
Speaker 1: She's speak.

643
00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:35,480
Speaker 3: We're in conversation.

644
00:41:35,640 --> 00:41:41,440
Speaker 7: That's right. The I had a question about the Deep Azure.

645
00:41:42,239 --> 00:41:44,560
Speaker 4: So the proceeds from the One Night Only are going

646
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:49,160
Speaker 4: back to the College of Finding Arts at Howard. Yes,

647
00:41:50,520 --> 00:41:53,080
Speaker 4: what like today if Chadwick could see kind of like

648
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:55,239
Speaker 4: you know, how the final product has come along and

649
00:41:55,360 --> 00:41:59,120
Speaker 4: everybody that's involved, Like what would his sentiments be?

650
00:41:59,239 --> 00:41:59,279
Speaker 2: Like?

651
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:00,880
Speaker 4: How happy would he b two see all of this

652
00:42:01,040 --> 00:42:03,239
Speaker 4: coming to fruition from that first phone call that you

653
00:42:03,280 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 4: guys had about I'll.

654
00:42:04,080 --> 00:42:08,520
Speaker 1: Tell you his wife is very and he's producing partner

655
00:42:08,719 --> 00:42:11,400
Speaker 1: who was his best friend in college. They're very happy,

656
00:42:13,120 --> 00:42:17,680
Speaker 1: and I'm very happy because it's happening, and it's happening

657
00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: with a great cast of actors. I don't know if

658
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:21,440
Speaker 1: you have that.

659
00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:23,640
Speaker 7: List, I can look it up.

660
00:42:24,280 --> 00:42:26,040
Speaker 3: I don't know if we have the list. You look

661
00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:27,040
Speaker 3: it up, Mark, Yeah, I got it.

662
00:42:27,160 --> 00:42:28,520
Speaker 1: Oh, you should look at it.

663
00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:36,520
Speaker 4: It's it's Isaiah Johnson, Yes, Amber Emmon, who plays as

664
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:41,320
Speaker 4: your Greg. Alvarez Reed plays Tone, Joshua Boone plays Rod.

665
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 4: Lauren Banks the Street Knowledge good. Yeah, I'm gonna mess

666
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:51,160
Speaker 4: this one up. At a sola isa Colo Aska Looming,

667
00:42:53,480 --> 00:42:54,399
Speaker 4: she said, what what you say?

668
00:42:55,239 --> 00:42:57,239
Speaker 7: Okay, knew I wasnna mess it up. I'm sorry.

669
00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 4: Is the Street Knowledge evil? Jess Washington? Uh is stage directions?

670
00:43:04,840 --> 00:43:06,080
Speaker 1: These are all professionals.

671
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:07,799
Speaker 7: Yes, and uh.

672
00:43:11,800 --> 00:43:15,640
Speaker 1: God, we're so honored. Mm hmm, We're so honored and

673
00:43:15,760 --> 00:43:21,080
Speaker 1: our and our our honorary host committee. H I mean

674
00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,759
Speaker 1: you know who's on that mm hmm.

675
00:43:23,800 --> 00:43:24,520
Speaker 7: You can look it up.

676
00:43:24,640 --> 00:43:27,359
Speaker 1: Look it up and see. I mean, these are people

677
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: supporting this.

678
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,279
Speaker 4: So the Honorary Host Committee, Ryan Coogler is the honorary chair,

679
00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:43,720
Speaker 4: Common Susan Khalichi Watson, don Cheto, uh Tony see Coats.

680
00:43:44,520 --> 00:43:50,360
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, tannahissee Coats, Camilla Forbes, Reginald Hudlington, Kenny Leon

681
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,360
Speaker 4: and Terrell, Alvin McCraney.

682
00:43:55,120 --> 00:44:00,960
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a whole universe, Yes, all to support Yeah,

683
00:44:01,440 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 1: to support his legacy. Chadwick was he was really amazing.

684
00:44:06,480 --> 00:44:11,200
Speaker 1: Chadwick was an actor. Yes, Chadwick was a writer. Chadwick

685
00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,160
Speaker 1: was a director. Chadwick was a scholar. He studied many things.

686
00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:21,239
Speaker 1: The etymology of words, oh, he was deep into that,

687
00:44:22,160 --> 00:44:27,080
Speaker 1: into names and the meanings of them. He studied the Bible,

688
00:44:28,719 --> 00:44:34,400
Speaker 1: not to Bible thump, but to understand its origins really

689
00:44:34,680 --> 00:44:39,080
Speaker 1: and its deeper meanings. And then he combined all of

690
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:43,080
Speaker 1: that with you know, I hate to say it like this,

691
00:44:43,239 --> 00:44:46,799
Speaker 1: but I'll say it like this with African cosmology. Why

692
00:44:46,840 --> 00:44:48,320
Speaker 1: do I hate to say it like that, Because Africa

693
00:44:48,400 --> 00:44:54,400
Speaker 1: is a huge continent and it is not a monolithic proposition,

694
00:44:55,200 --> 00:44:58,440
Speaker 1: but there is a certain ethos that runs through all.

695
00:45:00,280 --> 00:45:04,200
Speaker 3: He was brilliant, very he was brilliant.

696
00:45:05,000 --> 00:45:07,280
Speaker 1: There was nobody else to play back Black Panther.

697
00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:10,520
Speaker 3: But mm hmm, Chadwick, see how big we got him

698
00:45:10,560 --> 00:45:11,439
Speaker 3: on the door.

699
00:45:12,160 --> 00:45:15,760
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, And you know what he really cared about.

700
00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:21,200
Speaker 1: He called me one day and this was after graduation.

701
00:45:21,400 --> 00:45:23,960
Speaker 1: He was living in New York and he was so

702
00:45:24,480 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: excited and he wanted me to know what he was

703
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:29,480
Speaker 1: doing and to come and see. And I was thinking, Okay, now,

704
00:45:29,600 --> 00:45:33,000
Speaker 1: let's see what premiere is this, what film is this?

705
00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:35,920
Speaker 1: What play is this? It was none of that. He

706
00:45:36,120 --> 00:45:41,920
Speaker 1: was working with young people in the Schomberg Library and

707
00:45:42,120 --> 00:45:51,680
Speaker 1: he was so excited about that. M wow, yes he was.

708
00:45:52,360 --> 00:45:54,560
Speaker 2: You know, you came up in an aramister, Shadwick, where

709
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:58,000
Speaker 2: dignity and grace were everything. So do you have a

710
00:45:58,080 --> 00:46:01,160
Speaker 2: look at how wild Hollywood is now? You think to yourself, boy,

711
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:04,440
Speaker 2: y'all got it easy. Y'all wouldn't have got away with

712
00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:05,040
Speaker 2: that my day.

713
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:05,960
Speaker 5: Mm hmm.

714
00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:06,680
Speaker 2: Yeah.

715
00:46:06,920 --> 00:46:08,759
Speaker 1: You have to look at Hollywood. I could look at

716
00:46:08,800 --> 00:46:16,400
Speaker 1: the way young ladies dress. What's the pan I'm not

717
00:46:16,560 --> 00:46:24,200
Speaker 1: talking about I'm talking about you know, the young ladies

718
00:46:24,239 --> 00:46:31,400
Speaker 1: are so beautiful. They're so beautiful, and something has happened

719
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:37,239
Speaker 1: in popular culture, you know. And I don't mean to

720
00:46:37,280 --> 00:46:40,879
Speaker 1: be critical, and I hope young ladies listening don't take

721
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:43,120
Speaker 1: this as personal criticism because I don't mean.

722
00:46:43,080 --> 00:46:43,520
Speaker 7: It that way.

723
00:46:45,080 --> 00:46:52,359
Speaker 1: But you're young queens, beautiful and smart and brilliant and right,

724
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:57,680
Speaker 1: and it really I know I'm taken aback when I

725
00:46:57,880 --> 00:47:03,280
Speaker 1: see on a college campus young women dressed in strips

726
00:47:03,320 --> 00:47:13,279
Speaker 1: of clothing. I mean, male instructors don't like it. But

727
00:47:13,480 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: more importantly than that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, sir,

728
00:47:21,760 --> 00:47:25,320
Speaker 1: No man wants his woman to be out like that

729
00:47:27,280 --> 00:47:28,359
Speaker 1: right now.

730
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,280
Speaker 2: I grew up on method man saying wearing three fourths

731
00:47:31,320 --> 00:47:33,480
Speaker 2: of cloth and that was showing your stuff off boo.

732
00:47:37,719 --> 00:47:41,960
Speaker 1: You know, it's like there's today's designers. I mean, there's ways,

733
00:47:43,080 --> 00:47:45,399
Speaker 1: you know, there's there are other things.

734
00:47:45,160 --> 00:47:48,959
Speaker 3: And I just leave something to the imagination. It would

735
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:50,960
Speaker 3: be nice some things for my eyes only, you know.

736
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:53,160
Speaker 6: And like you said, there are always of being sexy

737
00:47:53,200 --> 00:47:57,800
Speaker 6: without showing so much, please, and that's really not sexy.

738
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 3: I mean one of the most sexy is most beautiful pictures.

739
00:48:00,440 --> 00:48:02,560
Speaker 2: As you I forgot what year it was, but you

740
00:48:02,640 --> 00:48:09,320
Speaker 2: got on like a basketball jersey, like and some popcorn.

741
00:48:09,480 --> 00:48:09,840
Speaker 1: That is.

742
00:48:12,080 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 3: That iconic white jersey. Yes, that was Yeah, that was

743
00:48:16,239 --> 00:48:19,000
Speaker 3: a beautiful picture. That's like that is the epitome of sexy.

744
00:48:19,560 --> 00:48:22,520
Speaker 1: Oh well, it's it's I think it has to do

745
00:48:22,719 --> 00:48:26,040
Speaker 1: with I think it has a lot to do with

746
00:48:26,160 --> 00:48:31,600
Speaker 1: what they're what they see, what they're emulating what they see. See.

747
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:33,719
Speaker 1: We we grew up in a time where you know,

748
00:48:33,880 --> 00:48:40,960
Speaker 1: the the singers, these ladies were dressed down, these women

749
00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:46,879
Speaker 1: who they were wearing robes and gowns and dew right.

750
00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:51,200
Speaker 1: Well it's a little different today. Yeah, so they're really

751
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:52,480
Speaker 1: just emulating.

752
00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:53,240
Speaker 5: What they mhmm.

753
00:48:53,920 --> 00:48:57,000
Speaker 4: I thought it was from nineteen eighty seven. Madison Square

754
00:48:57,000 --> 00:49:00,920
Speaker 4: Guarden was jersey, it was, yeah.

755
00:49:01,600 --> 00:49:07,239
Speaker 3: I'm talking about yes, oh yes, what you were doing.

756
00:49:07,600 --> 00:49:09,759
Speaker 1: I was there with Malcolm Jamal Warner.

757
00:49:13,320 --> 00:49:14,600
Speaker 3: To be here before you got here.

758
00:49:14,760 --> 00:49:20,319
Speaker 2: Yes, congratulation, you know, try to give your icons they

759
00:49:20,400 --> 00:49:22,359
Speaker 2: flowers and celebrate them while they're still here.

760
00:49:22,520 --> 00:49:28,640
Speaker 7: Absolutely, whoa got her balloon.

761
00:49:29,880 --> 00:49:30,440
Speaker 5: Flowers?

762
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:32,080
Speaker 3: We don't never do that.

763
00:49:32,239 --> 00:49:32,799
Speaker 5: Nobody here.

764
00:49:37,280 --> 00:49:39,800
Speaker 2: You've been so gracious with your time, So I've just

765
00:49:39,840 --> 00:49:42,200
Speaker 2: got a couple more questions. What's the lesson you learned

766
00:49:42,880 --> 00:49:44,880
Speaker 2: way too late in life that you wish you figured

767
00:49:44,880 --> 00:49:47,120
Speaker 2: out sooner and you would teach the next generation.

768
00:49:48,920 --> 00:49:53,680
Speaker 1: Now, this is gonna sound weird to you after everything

769
00:49:53,760 --> 00:50:01,960
Speaker 1: I've told you. The lesson that I learned later in

770
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:11,960
Speaker 1: life was that I'm enough as a young girl growing up,

771
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 1: you know, and young girls go through this. You'll know,

772
00:50:15,080 --> 00:50:19,280
Speaker 1: you go through a period where you feel like because

773
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:27,760
Speaker 1: and it's because you're looking outside yourself. You compare yourself

774
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:32,920
Speaker 1: to everyone else you see, and you're not enough because

775
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:38,200
Speaker 1: you don't dressed like that one, or you don't have

776
00:50:38,400 --> 00:50:42,400
Speaker 1: hair like that one, or you don't have legs like

777
00:50:42,480 --> 00:50:45,200
Speaker 1: that one. You can think of any number of things.

778
00:50:46,080 --> 00:50:50,400
Speaker 1: Young girls go through. This kind of thing usually happens

779
00:50:50,480 --> 00:50:57,680
Speaker 1: around adolescence, where you feel like you're not enough. Part

780
00:50:57,719 --> 00:50:59,960
Speaker 1: of that had to do with my mother being so beautiful,

781
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,280
Speaker 1: my father being so handsome, and my sister being so cute,

782
00:51:03,680 --> 00:51:08,759
Speaker 1: my brother being so whatever, And I just thought, well,

783
00:51:09,000 --> 00:51:12,359
Speaker 1: when I was born, the Lord was doing something else.

784
00:51:16,160 --> 00:51:18,800
Speaker 7: I'm serious, What age was this that you felt like that?

785
00:51:19,400 --> 00:51:19,880
Speaker 2: And I was.

786
00:51:23,400 --> 00:51:31,680
Speaker 1: When I was young, when I was oh ten, eleven, twelve.

787
00:51:31,800 --> 00:51:36,160
Speaker 1: And that's a subtle thing that you'll carry with you

788
00:51:36,640 --> 00:51:43,080
Speaker 1: until you look inside yourself and you start looking inside yourself,

789
00:51:45,120 --> 00:51:52,480
Speaker 1: and that thinking vanishes and goes away, because is only

790
00:51:52,520 --> 00:51:55,560
Speaker 1: when we look inside ourselves that we see what beauty

791
00:51:55,680 --> 00:51:56,080
Speaker 1: really is.

792
00:51:56,760 --> 00:51:58,240
Speaker 3: So when did you get to that place of worthy?

793
00:51:59,160 --> 00:52:00,359
Speaker 1: When did I get to this? Please?

794
00:52:00,480 --> 00:52:00,680
Speaker 3: Yeah?

795
00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:10,200
Speaker 1: I think I was about thirty I want to say

796
00:52:16,960 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 1: I was about thirty four thirty five years old?

797
00:52:22,120 --> 00:52:22,359
Speaker 3: Wow?

798
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:29,000
Speaker 1: And now I look back at those pictures of myself

799
00:52:29,040 --> 00:52:30,399
Speaker 1: and I say, what did.

800
00:52:30,320 --> 00:52:31,040
Speaker 3: You feel like that?

801
00:52:32,239 --> 00:52:38,879
Speaker 1: Yeah? The mind? Oh yeah, the mind. That's why it's

802
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:43,720
Speaker 1: important to teach young people to look inside the mind,

803
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:49,320
Speaker 1: the state of mind. And there's too much going on

804
00:52:49,520 --> 00:52:52,279
Speaker 1: right now that's so distracting for them. I don't know

805
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:55,840
Speaker 1: how young people feel. If they listen to news reports today,

806
00:52:56,960 --> 00:53:01,480
Speaker 1: they can't feel empowered. It's not meant to do that

807
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:03,120
Speaker 1: for us, for anybody, but.

808
00:53:03,200 --> 00:53:04,000
Speaker 3: It never has though.

809
00:53:04,280 --> 00:53:06,279
Speaker 2: I mean they always say if it bleeds, it leads,

810
00:53:06,360 --> 00:53:09,479
Speaker 2: like they especially for black people, it never would telling

811
00:53:09,560 --> 00:53:12,320
Speaker 2: us anything to make us feel uplifted and empowered.

812
00:53:13,080 --> 00:53:16,080
Speaker 1: All of humanity is in the same boat, my friend,

813
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:19,400
Speaker 1: nobody feels empowered by that.

814
00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:20,560
Speaker 3: None really.

815
00:53:22,880 --> 00:53:26,160
Speaker 1: I was taught a very great thing. I heard a

816
00:53:26,280 --> 00:53:30,879
Speaker 1: very great thing from a great being some years ago.

817
00:53:32,280 --> 00:53:39,320
Speaker 1: Make yourself great by making others greater. M m mhm.

818
00:53:40,239 --> 00:53:42,280
Speaker 1: And that's what I would teach a young.

819
00:53:42,360 --> 00:53:46,120
Speaker 3: Person, make yourself great by making others greater.

820
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:49,040
Speaker 1: M yes.

821
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:51,759
Speaker 7: Man, Well, thank you, not just for the interview, but

822
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:53,720
Speaker 7: for your career things.

823
00:53:54,520 --> 00:53:57,560
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for being you like you know that.

824
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:01,520
Speaker 2: It is not every day you get to meet people

825
00:54:01,600 --> 00:54:04,040
Speaker 2: that you you know, you grew up on and watched

826
00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 2: and you know said to yourself, man, that person right

827
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:08,800
Speaker 2: there is a pillar of our community and what we

828
00:54:08,920 --> 00:54:09,759
Speaker 2: need to be as a people.

829
00:54:09,840 --> 00:54:12,000
Speaker 3: And then you meet them and you're just as gracious

830
00:54:12,040 --> 00:54:14,640
Speaker 3: and regal in person. So just thank you.

831
00:54:14,760 --> 00:54:17,360
Speaker 2: Thank you to your mother and your father for raising

832
00:54:17,440 --> 00:54:21,160
Speaker 2: such a beautiful, strong woman, and I hope I can

833
00:54:21,360 --> 00:54:22,520
Speaker 2: do the same for my daughters.

834
00:54:22,960 --> 00:54:26,279
Speaker 1: I think you are I think when they look at you,

835
00:54:26,680 --> 00:54:30,759
Speaker 1: they know that they're loved and they're protected. That's all

836
00:54:30,800 --> 00:54:31,120
Speaker 1: they need.

837
00:54:31,600 --> 00:54:36,280
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely make sure y'all go check out Purposes running

838
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:38,080
Speaker 2: through on Broadway through July sixth.

839
00:54:38,360 --> 00:54:40,520
Speaker 3: It is Queen Felicia Rashad. Thank you for joining us

840
00:54:41,280 --> 00:54:44,439
Speaker 3: Wakens Up in the Morning Breakfast Club