#RolandMartinUnfiltered honors the life and legacy of Chadwick Boseman

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and busking climat in baking and busied. Um um um

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um um um um um um um u um Today

(06:59):
is my Today, August thirty first, two thousand and twenty.
Coming up on Roland Martin unfiltered for the next two
hours will honor the life and legacy of Chadwick Boseman,
he major actor who died on Friday from colon cancer
at the age of forty three. We will talk with
folks he went to Howard with his professors. Will also
talk with a number of folks who worked with him

(07:22):
and also who appreciated his work in Hollywood. We have
numerous folks lined up, Will packer O, Marie Hart, with
Anthony Anderson, Keith, David Clark, Peters who start with him
in The Five Bloods, also Reggie who directed him in
the movie Marshall. Will also have great music tributes from
Fred Hammond, Brian Courtney Wilson, from so many different people,

(07:45):
Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalam and others. H folks. It is
going to be an amazing two hours as we celebrate
chlo Black panther brother who played James Brown, who played
Jackie Robinson, who played through Good Marshall. Chadwick Bowsman lost
him at the age of forty three. It's time for
us to bring the funk rolling mark untilter let's go.

(08:08):
He's whatever the miss, He's on it, whatever it is,
He's got the spook, the fact, the fine and when
it breaks he's right on time and it's rolling. Best belief.
He's going putting it down from he wants to use
to politics with entertainment, just for cakes. He's scolling roll

(08:31):
roll yall, it's rolling, Montell rolling with rolling. Now he's
spooky spressed. She's real question though he's rolling. Martell Martell

(09:30):
never prominent African American pass the way we often do
tribute shows right here on Roland Martin unfiltered. None of
us thought that we will be doing the tribute tote
year old Chadwick Boseman. It was late Friday night when
news hit social media that Bozeman passed away surrounded by
his wife family at his home in Los Angeles. They

(09:54):
had the age of forty three, due to colon cancer.
He was diagnosed four years ago with stay each three
colon cancer that progressed two stage four. We watched him
in the movie Black Panther. We watched him, of course,
take that role movie that went on to make more
than a billion dollars. We saw him in so many
other movies as well. This strong, virile figure, a warrior.

(10:20):
To lose him at such a young age, This was
the statement his family released. It is with immeasurable grief
that we confirmed the passing of Chadwick Boseman. Chadwick was
diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in two thousand and six.
In battle with it these last four years as it
progressed to stage four, a true fighter persevered through it
all and brought you many of the films you have

(10:40):
come to love so much, from Marshal to the Five Bloods,
August Wilson's My Rainey's Black Bottom, and several more. All
were performed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. It
was the honor of his career to bring King to
Chila to life in Black Panther. He died in his
home with his wife and his family, and the family
by his side. The family thanks you for your love

(11:02):
and prayers and asked that you continue to respect their
privacy during these difficult times, folks. Tributes to his life
have been pouring in from people for the last seventy
two hours. President Barack Obama posted this. Chadwick came to
the White House to work with kids. When he was
playing Jackie Robinson. You could tell right away he was

(11:22):
blessed to the young, gifted and black to use that
power to give them uh to give them heroes to
look up to, to do it all while in pain.
What a use of his years. But Schelle Obama, she
posted this, Only Chadwick could embody Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshal
and to Challah, he too knew what it meant to persevere,
to summon real strength, and he belongs right there with

(11:44):
them as a hero for black kids and for all
our kids. There's no better gift to give our world.
A jew Le Bassett, who plays his mom in Black Panthers,
said it was meant to be for Chadwick and me
to be connected, for us to be family. But what
many don't know was our story began long before his
historic turn as Black Panther. During the premier party for

(12:05):
Black Panther, Chadwick reminded me of something. He whispered that
when I received my honorary degree from Howard University, his
alma materate, he was the student assigned to escort me
that day, And here we were, years later, as friends
and colleagues, enjoying the most glorious night ever. Would spend
weeks prepperrting, working, sitting next to each other every morning

(12:27):
and makeup chairs, preparing for the day together as mother
and son. I am honored that we enjoyed that full
circle experience. This young man's dedication was all inspiring, his
smile contagious, his talent unreal. So I paid tribute to
a beautiful spirit, a consummate artist, a soulful brother. Thou
art now dead, but flown afar all you possessed, Chadwick,

(12:51):
you freely gave rest now, sweet Prince. They're also attributes
from Joe Biden, Martin with the King the Third's Raid,
Kamala Harris By, Ola Davis, Samuel Jackson, Oprah Winfrey, John Legend,
and so many more. We last saw him in person
at the end of the CP Image Awards that took

(13:13):
place in the month of March, where he won another
Image Award. This is what he said on that night. Yeah,
ain't you oh man? You know I had to do it. Uh.

(13:40):
You know they say black people always thank God when
they win, and I'm not gonna let you down. Uh.
They thank you, guy for not not just winning. Um,
thank you God for the trials and tribulations that you
allow us to go rule so that we can we

(14:01):
can appreciate these moments. We can appreciate the joy that
comes um from winning, because it's not just me. It's
winning right now. This the actors that I'm that I'm
even you know, nominated with, To be nominated with Denzel,
to be nominated with Michael V. Joy was my brother,
to be nominated with Stephanie James, I just didn't move

(14:23):
you with him, and and and to have your son
be nominated with you in a category it's a it's
a beautiful time in in in in black filmmaking that
that we are celebrating right now. It's not just it's
not just a normal time. We have to recognize that.
Um Uh, simone with me every day. I have to

(14:47):
acknowledge you right now. Love, you have to acknowledge my
acknowledge my parents. UM My team that's with me, a
green management, three sixties different, um My team that's with
me on set, Uh, Maurice Crump, Sean d um Uh,

(15:08):
Jesus Christ Addison, um everybody that's that's been there with me,
logan you with me every day. Thank you so much.
I don't care. Thank you so much because I can.
I can. I can do it to the musicum and

(15:29):
in the entire cast of Black Panther, My director, you
are a genius, So thank you so much for this award.
All right. None of us thought that would be the
last time we would actually see him grace the stage
to pick up one of the wards that he was
clearly destined to win. Uh in his career. Joining us

(15:53):
right down is Keith David. Uh. He starred with Chadwick
Boseman in the movie twenty one Bridges. Uh. He joins
us right now, Keith, glad to have you right here
on rolland Martin unfiltered. Hey man, I'm happy to be here.
I'm you know, sorry, it's on this occasion. Um, he
was again. I've talked to so many people, and people

(16:16):
say that they're just stunted one. Uh. Only those who
close to him were aware that he would suffer from
colon cancer. Ryan Coogler wrote that he did had no
idea when he did Black Panther. Other folks who have
acted with things that that had no idea. He was
going through this and doing his own stunts in these
movies battling colon cancer. Uh. Just talk about the two

(16:41):
of you on set with tween one of Bridges. Well,
I mean, of course, I had no idea but I
wasn't supposed to. I mean, and and I think that
he was a bigger hero all stage then he was

(17:04):
in any film, because you know, uh, to to be
able to walk through that journey with the grace and
dignity that he did, it's extraordinary. That's that's what we
should walk away with, is that, you know, you know,
when God is walking with you, there's nothing you can't do.

(17:29):
That that isn't actually a point, because the reality is
he was focused on the work, wanting us to see
the work. And when you look at these iconic figures
he played, but he also made clear that he wasn't
those figures. He played Thurgood Marshall, he played Jackie Robinson,

(17:50):
he played uh, he played uh, you know Challa. He said,
but that but that's not me. I'm simply, uh, that's
the art in which I'm operating. Yeah, yeah, well, I
mean that's what we do. You know, we were all

(18:11):
lucky and fortunate that m he was the vessel chosen
to play those parts because he did he you know,
he he was phenomenal. He did a phenomenal job. You
know what he you know, I mean, I saw, I
saw um it was a I think not Jimmy Kimmel,

(18:38):
but one of the late night talk show hosts Fallon.
He was on and um, people came to talk to
his statue, you know, telling him he enjoyed the film,
and then he came out and greeted them. Right. It
just shows to go you're the impact that that that

(19:04):
particular performance had on the world. You know, I mean
not every movie makes a billion dollars, but you know,
you know it makes a billion dollars because you have
the people who can fulfill the vision and don't disappoint

(19:26):
you know. So he I mean, he rose to that occasion,
you know, phenomenally, and you know that that will never
be able to be taken away from him. A lot
of people, a lot of people want long careers. There
are others who want to have, uh not quantity, but

(19:47):
they want to have a quality. He was involved in
acting for a very long time, but did not get
his first leading man role until he was thirty five
years old. He passes away at forty three. It's an
eight year time span, uh, but we will remember for
a very long time not someone's career that spanned five decades,

(20:07):
but somebody who did a hell of a whole lot
in those forty three years. And that's that's what's most important.
I mean, you know, like Martin Luther King said, longevity
has its place, but it really has to do with
the the quality of the time that you're here and

(20:31):
what you do with that. You know, how do you live,
how you live in the Dash, that's important. And he
you know has uh a phenomenal legacy in the Dash. Indeed, indeed,
I um we have a number of musical tributes, but

(20:55):
there's no way in the world I could go to
them and not give you an opportunity. Folks being not
realize you an amazing singer. Last hurt you when you
were singing it Dr Joseph Lowry's u Birthday celebration, and
so uh, just what's on you in your spirit too?
To honor the great chat with Bosman, let me give

(21:15):
you this little prayer. Yes, sir, Lord, dear Lord of
Bad God, a mighty God, Lord, please look down and

(21:40):
see my people through. Lord, dear Lord of Bad God,
a mighty God. O Lord, please look down and see

(22:08):
my people through. I believe that God puts sun and
moon up in the sky. I don't mind the gray
skies because they're just clothes passing by. Lord, Dear LORDA

(22:40):
bade God, Almighty God, Lord, please look down and see
my people through. Please looked dun and see my people through.

(23:20):
Keith David. We surely appreciate you joining us or thank
you very much. Thank you. Folks want to bring in
right down do the grag card her Department of African
American Studies at Howard University. We're gonna be chatted with
him all throughout the next two hours. We also have
a number of people who we are going to be
talking with, folks at Howard University. Greg, I keep going

(23:45):
back to the difference here, the difference in terms of
the number of people who have just been floored by
his passing. Obviously, I think for a lot of people
were similar to Kobe Bryant who was killing the helicopter
crash uh the age of forty one, not knowing that
Chadwick Boliman was sick, not knowing that he was battling

(24:07):
this then all of a sudden around ten pm on
Friday night, seeing this alert, Uh remember you you sent
me a task going is this true? Is this true?
But I think it's also hitting people a different way
because I would dare say, as someone who's fifty one, Uh,
this is like between you take Kobe and him. You know,

(24:29):
major stars who passed away um in their prime and
for many of us, for our generation, this is the
first time it has happened. We've lost all the people
who were older, but to lose someone at a young
age hits a lot different than somebody who's sevent nine
years old. It does, Roland, and thank you for inviting

(24:52):
me into this home, bowing that you convene with so
many of the people who were dear near and dear
to our brother. And of course we lost John Thompson
to day. He made transition, but he was seventy eight
years old, so it is different. Um. You know, it's
interesting we talk about celebrity when when a sports figure
makes transition, we tend to use sports figures to mark
our coming of age. We were young together, so we

(25:14):
get into arguments that people say, oh, well, Jordan, when
the best you never saw the big old Oscar Robinson.
What people are really saying is, I was fourteen at
a different age when you were fourteen. When we lose musicians,
when we lose musical figures and you've done tributes to
Prince Aretha, so many others. You know, their music is
the soundtrack of our lives. But when we lose a
film star, we often lose people who plant these indelible

(25:35):
archetypes in our minds, but the roles they portrayed. In
our brother's case, Chad Bozeman, he is unique in the
sense that he played other black icons. As you said,
in less than an eight years fan, he goes from
Jack Roosevelt Robinson to James Brown, the third good Marshal.
And I think the thing that really found his work
together was a deep spirituality. He didn't just portray these

(25:58):
guys that you know, I was very skeptical of the
Marshall role. He's not the pener type. But what he
inhabited was this ancestral plate. And I'm so glad you're
gonna have one of my former colleagues at Howard. He's
now an American University. Uh Sivil Roberts Williams, who was
a playwright. People are just now beginning to understand chat
Boseman came out of South Carolina to go to undergrad
to learn how to write play to learn how to

(26:20):
be a director. He was headed to the East coast
to New York, Hollywood became something that was almost the
second act. And so when we see the fact that
he his first three kind of produced plays Rhyme Deferred,
then hieroglypic Graffiti, then Deep Azure, these are plays that
played with African themes. Finally, as my brother U and
colleague uh uh to Stephen Burrows is at Seaton, Hall

(26:43):
often says, he says, what Black Panther did an imaginary
he wrote that he inhabited with the force of the
culture of Africa and a kind of African gloss. He says,
what Black Panther did was finished the job that Route started.
Route started having us back towards the continent of Africa
as our foundation, but slavery was still the frame. What

(27:05):
Black Panther did, what those young women did with Chad
Chad Boseman at the center, they made it okay cool,
necessary for us to understand that we are African people.
And I dare say that that might be his greatest
enduring gift as a symbol of the communities that raised him.
So I'm looking forward to these next two hours as

(27:25):
you convene this family to help the world understand who
Chad Boseman was before Black Panther, during Black Panther, After
Black Panther. Watch these folks, you see the next two hours,
You're gonna really get a glimpse of something you probably
won't see anywhere else. In fact, you won't see it anywhere.
One of the things that we wanted to do wasn't
just to talk to people in Hollywood who worked with him.

(27:46):
We also wanted to bring uh a spiritual aspect. Chadwick
Boseman was a very spiritual brother. He was a praying brother.
Uh in April, Um in April when that was a
charter school here indece e. Uh, they wanted um, they
reached out to me, and they wanted uh folks to

(28:07):
speak at the graduation. And UM Chadwick was one of
those folks who uh we who we reached out to
um and uh and what I did, and what I
did was I hit him up and and he said
this is what he said. Uh, we'll meditate on this
in the morning. I decide everything that way. Uh, thank

(28:30):
you for thinking of me, brother, and and and that's
who he was. He was a he was a spiritual brother.
I'm gonna read later Ryan Coogler's letter uh that he
released and Greg he talked about in that in even
in making Black Panther, how Chadwick was focused on the

(28:50):
spiritual nature of Africans and and made that clear that
that was going to be a big major part of
this And it just and and it was interesting reading
it because it ran as if that Chadwick was the
director of the the soul center behind this project and

(29:11):
not not the folks who are behind it. I agree,
bro Um, you know it's interesting. Uh. I was interviewing
for the position at Howard the spring of the year
two thousand, when Chad Boseman was finishing up so had
a number of his friends. Uh. When I came in
the fall as my students, one of them in particularly
Jabari Zone Uh, Jolly Diaz. He called himself a master drummer,

(29:32):
really wonderful artist. Uh. Chad Bothman pulled him in and
he did. He helped with the choreography, a lot of
the drumming and music on the on the picture. And
they actually lived together during the filming of Black Fan
And one thing that you know struck me was I'm
racking my brain saying, you know what, I must have
met this young brother because we would come down from
Philly to go to Pyramid bookstore, Uh, Jewels of the Sun,

(29:54):
and then uh the bookstores that Chad and Jabbari him
worked at. So there was a brother there. Bobart the Hoodie,
UM Barbara raw Food. Chad Boseman was working in an
an African cynate bookstore, reading, studying, and so to read
and to understand that he was leading these conversations on set.
Not only does that not surprise me every time I

(30:16):
would see Chad Bowen when he would come to Howardy,
he screens, came to Graduate, he had an ark on
and you know that that that's a fashion statement for
a lot of people. But Chadwick Boseman was deeply rooted,
not just in terms of his spiritual practice, but in
terms of his study. And so this brother, no doubt
he had a calming, centering influence. And I think you

(30:36):
framed that perfectly. Brother. I think that brother, in many
ways was in fact the director of the insistence that
this work the grounded in African spirituality and African culture,
whether it be continental Afrian culture or the respect for ancestors,
Because no way that you would have it, Jackie Robinson,
James Brown, No way did you inhabit Third and Marshal

(30:58):
in ways that allow you to convey the spirit unless
you're in a spiritual conversation. Which is why I think
that people have responded to the movie in a totally
different way that that that that they felt it uh
that uh you know, I was watching the ABC broadcast
last night on you know no commercials and the and

(31:21):
the line from from Angela Bastard show him who you are,
and there are just so many other uh moments in
that that I think connected with black people in a
totally different way. And so even though Chadwick bosen will
not get an opportunity to be in Black Panther too,

(31:43):
actually he in the words of Andrew Young, Andrew Young said, Uh, physically,
a person may depart, but if we're still talking about them,
they are still here, no question, brother, That's the truth. Roland.
And I know you're a deeply spiritual man, you know,
you and him Dr Jackie Hood Martin, you your wife.

(32:03):
I mean, spiritual practice is at the center of everything
you do. To know that Chadwick Boseman's oldest brother is
a minister, To know that Chadwick Bozeman had spirituality not
only the center of his practice, but it embodied everything
he did to know that he trusts and s, I
mean one of his heroes with Muhammad Ali. I'm you

(32:23):
know it commenced, but he tells the speech and you
played it, you know where you know he says, I
meet Muhammad Ali there in the yard, and I'm doing
this ex because not for wa kinda although that's a
symbol of for Todd, that's a whole another conversation. Eight
Egyptian symbol and by set it's all in black panther.
But to meet him at that cross road of the
yard reinforces the idea of the Chad. But Bozeman seems
to always have been aware of himself in time and space.

(32:48):
Were for a short time. And by the way, brother brother,
brother David hitting a Duke Gallington comes Sunday. That's one
of my favorite brother. I do believe that guy hook
hook mun and moon up in the sky. So when
Clint Chad Boseman does that, he understands we're born to
leave here in our physical form, but our spirit echoes

(33:08):
through time and space forever. Chad Boseman didn't have to
make another film Pass forty two to be indelible in
our minds. But by elevating to Childa, he made it
not only okay to be African, he made it okay
for us to express our speeler spirituality as African people.
And that resonates in every frame of that film. I did.

(33:28):
People who wanted to um bless us. Uh Bishop has
a kai walker. Every praise we want to call, every

(33:57):
phrase to I got speaking to my God, honory, how
to our God, every praise, praise, every praise to go.

(34:21):
Y'all got it down? Help us get praise it's too.
I got every where the worse want quote every breath
if he breathe, it's true. I got everybody can speaking

(34:41):
how God, glory, Holly go about say every praise, say
every friend, It's true. I got, y'all. Don't help me
do it. You know. I praise it's gone. Every word,

(35:05):
worship's water, cardy praise, every pre I gone. I would
word God do I gone, Every praise, every praise, it's gone.

(35:35):
Let's take it up time everybody ever worship with card,
every praise, every prease. It's gone. All right, folk going

(35:57):
us right now? Is dtr Sibyl William. She is the
Director of African, Arican and African Diaspora Studies the Department
of Performing Arts at American University. She taught UH Chadwick
Boseman when he was at Howard University. UH doc how
you doing, Hey? How are you? Um? Greg Carr said
something that was really important. Chadwick Boseman talked about this.
He did not come to Howard to be an actor.

(36:20):
No he didn't. He didn't. He came to be a
director and a playwright. And he was just one of
those triple threats. He was good at everything he did.
But I was listening a bit to Dr Current and
I think part of the reason why he was able
to be so versatile with his artistry is because it
was rooted in a very deep spirituality. And it was

(36:43):
that idea, that sort of African artistry that we all
are rooted in for those of us who practice, that
we are the voice of our ancestors and our people,
and we use whatever means necessary to move our ancestors forward.
And he always worked with idea that he was advancing
something and someone spiritually. So I think that is why

(37:05):
he was able to do the kind of work he
was able to do even though his concentration was specifically
was directing, and in fact, when he returned to Howard
University in two thousand and seventeen, I moderated the Q
and A there from Marshall. We went out to dinner
after that, uh, and we talked about that very point

(37:26):
of how he looked at at acting totally they're different
because he started off want to be a director and
so uh, he's sort of embodied that mindset, which actually
is a different one than someone who is an actor.
You look at it totally different from a director as
supposed to an actor. You do you do as a director,

(37:48):
you're looking at communicating an entire story and a concept
visually as well as through language. So you're looking at
language the visual concept, and you're looking at spatial design
and physical movement. So with an actor, you're focusing on
building a character. With directing, your focusing on building an experience.
And so it's a very different thing. But the best

(38:12):
actors make the best directors and vice versa, because they
understand from very different perspectives that at the end of
the day, what you want to do is connect to
an audience. And so the tools and the and their
arsenal are actually, they can activate any of them at
any time. Actors have a rich, rich body of tools

(38:36):
that they draw from to tell a story. They communicate.
That is their job at the end of the day.
It is just to communicate. And while they may not
be directly engaged in the larger conceptual picture, they are
certainly instrumental in making that whole picture come together. And
Chad did something else when he was a playwriting student
of mine. He wrote his senior project, Hieroglyphic Graffiti, and

(38:59):
he worked on another hip hop musical called Rhyme Deferred,
and he began what would ultimately be anthologized the play
called Deep Azure. So he started working on all of
those things while he was there with me, and he
directed his Hieroglyphic Graffiti, his senior project, which ultimately went
on to be staged in Chicago and Pittsburgh and everywhere.

(39:19):
And I was reluctant to let him director was a chat.
It's not a good idea to write and direct because
as a writer, you're engaged in the business of creating
language and you're engaged to work on the page. As
a director, that's a separate You're engaged in a separate
point in the process. You're engaged once the words have

(39:40):
been put down. What you're trying to do is oftentimes
writers who direct will start to direct the piece that
they haven't written, and so much of it remains in
their head like it's not on paper. So if this
goes anywhere else besides you, other directors can't handle it
as well because you haven't gotten a complete picture down.

(40:00):
And he proved me wrong. He absolutely proved me wrong.
He had a masterful work on paper and he directed
it masterfully, so he had that gift. Obviously. For those
of us who say he had a short career, the
reality is that was a career for Chadwick Boseman. Before

(40:21):
forty two. He was in theater. He was in New York,
so he had a body of work, uh that existed
before he hit the big screen in a major way.
Absolutely um. He was one of the founding writers, directors,
actors for Hip Hop Theater Junction, which ultimately became High
Arts and it it sort of morphed into a larger

(40:41):
hip hop universe theater universe. Hip hop theater was a
burgeoning theme when Chad started writing Hieroglyphic Graffiti, which is
his hip hop theater piece, and Camilla Forbes, who now
was the Apollo Theater in New York was real. Ryan
DeFord so hip hop Hyerogufy Graffiti and hip Hop Excuse

(41:02):
Me and Rhyme Deferred, two of the classic hip hop
theater pieces, were written by Howard students. When I was
there and they were talking to me, they were so hyped, like,
we're gonna do this hip hop theater thing. We're gonna
do it, and it was he and then Danny Hawks
started doing it in a whole hoolet of other people
started doing it, but they were already onto and thinking

(41:26):
through the aesthetics of a hip hop theater. What would
a hip hop theater look like, what would it do?
How would that work move the crowd? And Chad had
an extra piece because he was dealing with hyard Graffiti
talks about Kimitic mythology, so he was already blending the
mythology of kim It into this whole hip hop universe,

(41:49):
and that was something that hadn't been done. It was
this idea that language, the power of the nomo, the
power of the spoken world, creates, and it can just
as well create as it can destroy and how do
we as a people really protect what we create? What

(42:10):
kinds of rituals are necessary to protect it? So both
Bryan Deferd and hip Hieroglyphic Graffiti are hip hop ritual
plays that use African centered myths to talk about the
sacredness of hip hop, the sacredness of the cipher, and
why it's so important. And they were doing that, like
I said, their senior year here at Howard and then

(42:32):
they went to the National Black Theater Festival, and then
they went to Harlem and to Chicago. So they were
really forging ahead to try and move that kind of
idea forward. So when we talk about hip hop theater,
we can't talk about it without talking about Chad Bozeman
and Camilla Forbes and San Goo, Glen Gordon, all of
these Howard students who were doing that work. Last question

(42:54):
for you, what should uh any student, but especially like
a how university student, take away from the work ethic
of Chadwick ban I think any student who really wants
to follow in the footsteps of Chad Boseman needs to

(43:16):
understand that the greatest gift you can give to yourself
and to others is generosity and humility. As I said,
um in an earlier statement I was making about Chad.
He was a true intellectual in the Abramkindy sense of
the word, in that he had a zest for learning,

(43:36):
a love for learning. And when I say intellectual, I
mean again true at anybody can teach us anything. Chad
would be across the street at the Blue Nile, sitting
in front of Blue Nile talking to people about committic
science when he wanted to learn it he was, I mean,
that's what he went anywhere people had knowledge, and so
he had this girth, this breath of knowledge that was

(43:58):
tremendous because he was a true intellectual. He loved to learn,
and that makes you generous, and that makes you humble,
and if you want to be a good artist, that's
where you begin. I think Dr Sibyl Williams, which really
appreciate you joining us for this tribute to Chaddie Boseman.
Thank you all right, Thank you so very much, folks.

(44:20):
Pastor John Peaky, and I thank my nephew Roland forgiving
me this an opportunity. As I look at the many
people who have been devastated in the last few days
by the loss of this amazing young black man and
made me pause and try to reflect on what made
him so different. I called him home, and not because

(44:41):
I knew him, but because he was a fellow Carolinian
and he was born approximately two hours from where I
live right now. But I would hear and speak. I
wouldn't hear what other people heard. Although many felt his
pause and his grace came from the years of being
such an educated man, I always knew it came from
an humble beginning. In every interview I saw, from his

(45:03):
thank you to the amazing Denzel Washington to the MTV
a ward that he gave to Mr James Shaw for
having so much courage, it was never about him. It
appeared that he always took the time to thank others,
if it was an accomplishment or a dream or vision
that hadn't taken place yet. It always came from a
humble place. So tonight we celebrate him, not just for

(45:26):
the many movies, not just for the heroes he played,
but the hero that he will always be. He was
a son, He was a brother, He was a nephew,
he was a cousin. He was a loyal friend. Uh
that we all wish we were acquainted with to endure
all that he did those years and never say a

(45:46):
mumbling word took unimaginable courage. So instead of asking God tonight, Lord,
why did you take him so young? Why did he
have to go? Why did he have to leave us? Tonight,
we say to God, I thank you for allowing all
of us to grace his presence rest in paradise. Mr Boshman,

(46:08):
job well done. I offer this see you again. I'll
see you again, very in the chair chambing. One day

(46:31):
we'll all rain, oh so glad and the Lord allowing
you to be sun, brother, husband and free role. I
will see you. We will see you, Yes, we well

(47:02):
see you, Well see you. Johnny goes Down is one
of the classmates of Chadwick Boseman at Howard University. Inga
willis inga. Welcome to Roland Martin unfiltered Greetings, thank you

(47:25):
for having me so um, y'all in a moment you're
gonna be having a fine arts tribute the Chadwick. Just um,
just share with our audience, uh, the Chadwick that no
one had any idea about when he was walking the yard. Um,
I don't think that there's I think you do know
I think that an artisan that's a master of craft.

(47:47):
It is very serious and intense um from the beginning,
and I was a theater minor. I saw my play
analysis professival for me uh speaking with you. And to
see individuals like Chadwick and Kamila Forbes Uh and Susan
and so many greats so intensified and inspired by learning

(48:11):
and mastery at the age of eighteen nineteen was just phenomenal.
And that was consistent and constant. And the College of
Fine Arts, to Howard University is a world of its
own and a culture within a culture. He very few
people other than those who were very close to him,
knew that he was suffering from colon cancer. But I

(48:34):
talked to others, but they said that was his natural self.
He was extremely um quiet, uh reserved, what wasn't the
most gregarious person, and really kept a lot of things
close to the vest I think it's called dignity, and

(48:55):
I think that certain spirits come onto this earth for reason,
and Chadwick had a dignified grace that was undeniable, and
even in his transition, he chose to do it his way.
And I believe that is to be respected and duly noted.
I think that when you expose everything that's going on

(49:16):
with you in the era we live in, people can
tear you apart. But what he has left us with
is the work. And I think that, um, it speaks
varas because that's the one thing, uh frankly, that if
you are an actor, if you're a musician, that's how
you want to be judged, not not uh, what you

(49:36):
were frankly personally, not what you endured, but what you
actually produced. And I think that's the question that we
now have to ask ourselves, Um, how do you desire
to be remembered? What will your work leave for the future.
And Chad was able to accomplish what most people want

(50:00):
in sixty or seventy years and in such a short
span of time, uh, and fulfill that's purpose. And so
this evening, um, the Fine Arts family will celebrate him
in Howard style. And it is an honor and privilege
to be trained and molded at Howard University where iron
sharpens iron, and it's Howard Forever, unfiltered family. They're going

(50:26):
to have that tribute and we're going to after they're done,
get that foul and then we'll actually stream it. So
everyone else would be able to enjoy that inga. We
certainly appreciate you joining us. Thank you so very much.
Thank you, my brother, Thank you folks. Other Howard University
graduates and current students took time to stop by the
Fine Arts Building at the university Today. Memorial was created

(50:46):
this weekend by alumna and actress Lauren Ebanks. She took
time to speak with us about her experience watching Chadwick
Boseman on the set of Black Panther. As a student,
all you heard about was Chadwick and his work ethic. UM.
You heard about, how I mean, when he would come
to campus, you saw the pride and the professors, and I,

(51:07):
as a student, felt the hope that he gave us students. UM.
He was operating at the top of his game, UM
and over and over and over. And I knew that
was only because of the work ethic that so many
professors spoke about UM. As a student in grad school
UH at the Yale Drama School, I had a teacher

(51:29):
who was the dialects coach for Black Panther, so I
was able to shadow UH the whole production for about
a week during the spree break of Fine and I
watched Shadwick work. I watched in particular those big ritual
scenes at the Waterfall, and he took on a ritual
before every take. And his attention to detail, um, his

(51:53):
honoring again of the ancestors, his his cultivation of community
were all permiating full force through that work and and
the set itself. The people that he invited from Howard
that he went to school with to be on set,
um honoring, you know, allow that I was able to
be there and that I mean, they had a huge impact.
And to see that set, to see him work, to

(52:16):
see Hollywood set that was unprecedented in that way that
so many people of the diaspora came together to make
that story happen. UM was critical to to my education
in my overall um cultivation as an Artist's one thing
that there were other students who all should share their
thoughts and perspectives about Chadwick Boseman. These are like tears

(52:37):
of sun. That's but like oh school joy, because I'm
really blessed that we got to them in a time
where someone like Chadwick got to bust industry with his
integrity to create change for the black community. And that's
why I so much that he's gone because for me personally,

(52:59):
he was a part of me when I Howard, because
that panther came out and I was a transfer student,
so it was really um vibrant. I don't even know
if that's even the right word, but it was just
a lot to take in to go to the school
where this man who did a big thing for the
culture came through. So he knows like what we all

(53:21):
go through when we come here, um, the struggles and
where we come out on the other side, and how
vibrant and lively life can be. I don't know, because
we have the tools, but it takes to change the
world because we went here and we're at the mecca.
And when I think about his career, it was all

(53:41):
about purpose and it was all about changing how we're
seeing in the media. And that's a big part of
what I want to do going into the entertainment industry
as a director, as a writer is and as an actress.
And for that he was a blueprint. He was an icon,
and he was a role model and his like Sheep
will never Die and as Howard a Bison and the Spison,

(54:04):
we're gonna look that like and people truly be missed.
But the thing I really really appreciate with Chadwick you
think about it, he gave dignity to the roles. If
you think about the people he portrayed, and just to
think of some of them like James Brown, Third Good
Marshaw Um and and just the Jackie Robinson. These were

(54:27):
people who had dignity. And what he was able to do,
which I think was magical. He was able to take
the energy of these characters, bring him through him, and
then send it to you. And that's amazing when you
can take that positive energy from one source to another source,
to a third source. He was on the yard and
Muhammad Ali was walking on the yard and it reminded

(54:48):
me all the time that I've seen somebody walking on
the yard that I recognize, you know. He talked about
how you know when he saw him, like like made
eye protected for me. I imagine that being right there
there by the sun dial because I'm a cute So
I was like, all right, it's just like really like
brought it to life from me and what that experience
will look like. And he said that like him and

(55:09):
Mohammad Ali, that Muhammad Ali put this up right here
and said how he like transferred that energy and through that,
like you're gonna have to fight a lot, Like there's
a lot of struggle that's left to come, and so
like you gave him like the strength through that to
fight on. I feel like through that speech you passed
that on to me. So you know when I look
at him, when I think about like what he represents,

(55:30):
and I think about like king to childhood, you know,
like that they don't die with him. You know, like
he really brought that to life, and I feel like
everything within him, he kind of passed that forward to me.
I was right there on my commencement, man, listening to
him speak. I remember I was right there, like you know,
like as far as we are from each other, looking
at him, and I look at that video and it's
just like, man, like when you go when when when

(55:52):
you passed song and it's just a transition, like he said,
it's not a it's not the end. Let's go back
to doctor Greg. Card Greg, it matters. It matters to
have a graduates alumni, uh, to inspire the next generation
to be come back into in part wisdom. Brother, you know,

(56:14):
it's really we didn't playing this and you know y'all
watching this. You know Roland did what Roland does. He
called you the magic put the pieces together, and he's rolling.
I did not realize until I saw uh one of
my former students and dear sister Lauren Banks, We're gonna
hear a lot more from Lauren in the future. Um.
He didn't realize you're gonna interview her until I saw her. Uh.

(56:36):
Lauren made the students that you've just seen, and alum
like Inga Willis and others. She mentioned, uh Miller Forbes.
You know, these students are attractive to a certain energy.
They come with that person. And so we think about
alumni Howard and you know, I'm I was a theater
major in Tennessee State. So when I first got to
Howard al Freeman was still on faculty. He's since now

(56:57):
an ancestor um Henry Henry at Men, whose father was
a huge and black drama back in the thirties and forties,
when the man who shaped Tennessee State's program, the great
um Thomas that were poled, was there, she was still
on faculty. She's now answers. Those young people then come
into that space and they are transformed by those elders
on the faculty, because the university is really the faculty

(57:18):
and the students. And then as they are molded, they
mold with each other. So the ritual of remembers tonight
fine artist is gonna have will reflect the family they build.
And the only other thing I said this moment is
when we saw and we keep coming back to Black Panther,
and and you know, I've been collecting complix since I
was nine years old. So folks are worried about what's

(57:38):
gonna happen in the Black Panther art. If you read
the comic including the art now is written by Tanahase Coach,
another Howard alum who is overlapping during that time at
Howard the chair with both of us there, you understand
that the the ensemble that made the film Black Panther
was transformed in making that work. The Niagaria of course,

(57:59):
Lupetea and on Gara Jersey's own, Michael B. Jordan's when
you see those young people, you know, when you see
them together, they are fused together with the spirituality and
all of the alumnus is whether it be of a
university or a common project, they are people who have
gone through a similar experience and built a community. So
I'm so glad that you captured just the tiny tape

(58:21):
of not only what happens at Howard, but what happens
in the theater program at Texas Southern and North Carolina
A and t what happens in the theater programs across
the country. Tennessee State, Florida A and m Are brother
down there giving money after working with the Great Debaters
and Birth of a Nation um to give money to
revitalize not only the debate program, but the theater program

(58:42):
and the Texas HBC's That's what happens in black colleges,
in drama departments, and that's why they continue to produce
the times the types of young genius, young genius that
shaped the culture. As we just heard the scud Pedrick
is a president of Howard University, about chat with Bowsman
not just at but he's also a medical doctor and
we talked about colon cancer. Frederick It it really has

(59:07):
to be a huge loss for the Howard University community.
A young man forty three years old who really was
just about to go higher and higher in his career. Yeah,
certainly a tremendous loss. Um and I think obviously the
time that he spent with us will always be regarded

(59:29):
as short. But I hope that as a community would
also recognize that the quality of a life lived is
not measured in time, but it's really measured in terms
of impact. It is measured in terms of love, and
he embodied those things, and I hope that we would
all be appreciative of the time, regardless of our perspective

(59:50):
of our short it was, but recognized that it was
so impactful. He was so personable. Ah, he was so
committed to his craft and committed to social justice US.
A lot of folks may not realize, but you also
are a medical doctor, is it Is it shocking to
you that he did all of these things, doing lots

(01:00:13):
of his own stunts, Uh, shooting these movies in between
surgeries and chemo after being diagnosed with colon cancer four
years ago. Stage three colon cancer can advanced the stage. Yeah,
absolutely right. I'm a g I sid On College. Just
as a matter of fact, ironically, on Friday, I saw
one of my patients who was diagnosed with stage four

(01:00:34):
colon cancer back in two thousand and eight. A gentleman
I operated on. He's had chemotherapy. UM. I've done three
operations on him. Right now, he's kinds of free and
he's doing well. But it brings him the point that
I am very familiar with the tool that that takes
on your buddy, h the tool that takes on your

(01:00:55):
emotional stage as well. Uh, you know sometimes going through
that and it think to get tests. All of those
things cause anxiety and and cause concern. And at his
age as well. UM, it's a daunting diagnosis to have,
and unfortunately it's happening to too many younger African Americans.
But for him to do all the things that he

(01:01:16):
was doing to never once complain, and I cite the
fact that he came here for commencement and made the eighteen,
participated in a significant number of activities. UM was physically
in appearance, UM in pretty good condition. But at the
same time didn't use that platform to tell his own story,

(01:01:38):
which in and of itself would have been a large
story to tell. But he didn't do that. He didn't
make it about himself. He told a story that the
graduates needed to hear. And then that I think also
speaks to his character and his courage as well. He
I was there when I was there in September when
we did the Q and A for the movie Marshall. Uh.

(01:02:02):
And it was the first time he had come back
to Howard since he had graduated seventeen years previously. Uh
and UH he was blown away by by the student
reaction UH to that, and it was it was just
amazing to witness that and just to see uh and

(01:02:23):
feel his joy at the love of students gave him. Yeah,
he absolutely appreciated that. You know. The morning of commencement,
he was nervous. Um. We were sitting in the car
under way to the finance building where we do all
the prep and gning and so on, and Uh. He
was in his phone reviewing his his speech, his last

(01:02:44):
uh notes, checking on things. And I mean that he
was really so focused and I was I myself actually
was a bit taken aback that somebody who had been
on such live stages. Um, it was so important for
him to be back at home and I could EO,
it's really impacted him. And as he got out the car,
I have a picture actually taken with a cell phone

(01:03:06):
of him doing the kind of with the graduates in
the back any ready to do their prossession and you
could just see it on his face, you know, the
joy and the pride, and so you're absolutely right. He
was very um I think moved by being at how
It's campus on that day. And and and when when
you when you think about again, uh, you talked about

(01:03:28):
the quality of that work, you know, really getting his
first leading role at thirty five, and that was just
eight years ago. UM. What is it also say to
Howard University students that he is in a long line
of African Americans who have achieved success uh in acting

(01:03:49):
in that chosen profession. What that says about the education
they're receiving it? Yeah, I think that education is excellent.
I mean the legacy that he uh is a part
to actually be a p henson uh Felicia with shot,
Debbie Allen. You look contemporarily at Susan COLLECTI Watson Kamilla Forbes,

(01:04:10):
who's the executive director the Apollo. I mean, they really
have a strong legacy. And so when I made the
decision to bring the College of Fine Arts back, um,
it was predicated on the fact that I felt the
education that was being received there was excellent, and what
we needed to do was actually to invest um, in

(01:04:30):
the school and the faculty and the students and staff
more and that that would certainly exponentially, UM bring those
these types of rewards, and so it does speak volumes
to what they do. And I think I'm glad that
you made the point that his first major rule, pretty
good rule, was at the age of thirty five, because
that's what he spoke about when he came. He spoke
about failures and how you get through that and the

(01:04:53):
good and resilience and finding your purpose and sticking to it.
And he's written a screenplay for a long while that
he's dedicated to and you know, things like that always
remind me that he was really dedicated to the craft.
I do want to go back to something you said
with regards to younger African afri Americans getting colon cancer. Why,

(01:05:16):
what's what's going on? Yeah, you know, this is something
that we have to study more closely. UM. When I
was in medical school back in the early nineties, always
screening guidelines were that you've got your foot screening colonoscopy
at the age of fifty. And that was because the
majority of people who would develop a colon cancer unless
they had some genetic predisposition would get that cool on cancer.

(01:05:38):
Subsequent to that, what we're beginning to see now is
increasing numbers of people with cool on cancers in their
late twenties, in their thirties, and certainly in the early forties.
And that is absolutely mind boggling. Just over the period
of time that I have been ulto medical school. So
if you think of a twenty five year period, the
average agent that African American commu tea in particular has dropped.

(01:06:01):
And that's very it's something for us to watch right now.
The screening guidelines that you get screened at forty five,
that's still wouldn't have caught his cancer. I think that
that's lost on many people. UM, there may be genetic uh,
it'sues that he may have had that that's inherited. And
therefore screening of families, especially of African Americans, they're less

(01:06:21):
likely to get genetic counseling, They're less likely to be
referred to get those genetic tests, and those are the
things that we have to raise and I remind people
as well. Another dear friend, Ibraham Kendy, whose story has
been well told UM, was also diagnosed with colon cancer
at an advantage and he's been writing, you know, and
and doing his work. But that's a part of his

(01:06:43):
story that he has also been open about and spoken
about publicly as well. And his diagnosis as well, I
believe was at AGA thirty six. So these are young
African American man productive who are being stricten with a
very deadly disease and something that we as a community
really have to to think about how we're addressing and

(01:07:03):
to move it forward. Doing him in two thousand and fifteen,
and so he was diagnosed a year later. Are there
any particular signs that we should be paying attention to, uh,
anything with physically or anything in our stool? I mean,
what what what should we be looking for? We talked

(01:07:24):
about colure. We should be looking for things like blood
in the stool. Um, it's one of the things we
should look at. Sometimes people present with some abdominal pain
that's a little bit unusual. Unfortunately, weight loss is one
of those things, or significant change in bold habits. People
presented anything from constipation too. Sometimes they may have loose

(01:07:44):
tools as getting around an area of obstruction is different.
So all of those are things, um that should we
should pay attention to. Another important thing is our family history.
How many of us have aunts and uncles that we're
not sure what they died of, etcetera. Those are things
that we should be having conversations with the elders in
our family about. And sometimes you hear people say, well,

(01:08:07):
he had a bowel problem, and those maybe things that
tip us off that we do have some type of
genetic um linkage that may need to be investigated. I know,
so may pumped you to get a cool in oscope
earlier at the age of thirty five or so as well, Yeah,
well I'll tell you this here. I before, right before

(01:08:28):
COVID really hit, I had visited with my doctor, we
had gone through my yearly exam and literally sitting on
the counter right there is uh. The UH is the
referral to actually get a called oscarly done. Uh because
being fifty one years old and so of course they
shut everything down. When when when COVID hit, And so

(01:08:49):
now that we're sort of out of that um really
really you know, tough dangerous space. Uh at phone calls,
certainly we'll be made and so I certainly hope other
brothers supposed to do the exact same. I encourage you
to do that. I had minded last year out early
as well. And yes the prep isn't great ettide of it,

(01:09:09):
but yeah, I definitely is a strong piece of mind
to have had it done and to know at least
that at this point, um, that that cool and is clean.
And so that's something that I simply admire you for
making sure. Did you stick to getting done as well?
All right? Dr Wade Frederick was certainly appreciated Chadwick. Chadwick
was a hell of a guy. Uh and uh did

(01:09:32):
indeed love him somehow, you know, absolutely, and we sidly
loved him back as well. All right, thanks, thank you,
all right, folks. One of Chadwick Boseman's last films was
the movie The Five Bloods, directed by Spike Lee. Clark
Peters was one of the actors in that movie. He
joins us right now across the pond, Clark, glad to

(01:09:54):
have you back on roller Mart unfiltered sad say so
under these circumstances it's devastating their own person of all,
thank you for having me having me. It's good to
touch base with you again. I was listening to the
to the previous the previous speaker, and there's really not
a lot that one can add to what what he

(01:10:15):
said except to maybe augment, you know, the aspect of
the role human has to play when they come to
this plane. Yeah, and the purpose that one should be living.
And I saw a talk that I guess it was

(01:10:35):
at Howard that he was giving the commencement talk where
he talked about purpose, you know, and he didn't just
talk the talk. He was walking the walk, you know.
And the blessing of being on that set was the
blessing of just having that little brother with you. Really
and in hindsight, how beautiful those moments were. Yeah. So

(01:10:59):
it was a moment there where y'all were joking around,
uh with Spike, had fun with the water gun and
the heat chat would posted this on his twitter feed. Guys,
go to my iPad. Please just the trigger when we

(01:11:33):
um when we talked about the movie, Uh, we talked
about the tremendous heat. Uh, y'all are in what y'all
the gear y'all are packing and so so for you
to find out now that this this young brother was
was back at this point likely having stage four colon

(01:11:54):
cancer within st stage through the stage four, it's just
that he was fighting through all of that. Yes, Yes,
I don't know how to how to put this. It's
it's really celebrating the spirit that that a person can

(01:12:16):
tap into. It was a hundred and four degrees rolling
on a lot of days that were out there, and
we were running like young men, where we were trying
to run like young man, you know. And if you
look at what Chad was doing in that in that
in that scene when the helicopter lands, you know, he's running,
He's running half the half the half the length of

(01:12:37):
of of a football pitch from that helicopter to the
first place that he has to that he has to land,
you know, and then zig zag across that field, which
is as long as the football pitch to get to
the to get to the airplane, you know. And it's
not just you know, take one and you're done. No,
you're doing that two, three, four or five times, you know.

(01:12:59):
So in mindsight, I just found myself earlier today just
just completely overwhelmed with with uh, with emotion that this
child was going through all this, you know. And yes
there were times when then Chad did look tired, you know,
but we were all tired. You know. It wasn't unusual,

(01:13:20):
you know, we you know, we're not used to that.
We're not used to but to working like this, you know,
and everyone's given and that brother was right there with us,
right there, you know, leading us. You know, you gave
an interview, you gave an interview earlier where you talked
about that none of y'all had any idea and and

(01:13:41):
and when we showed the Image Awards video at the outset,
he thanked his whole team. And we know a lot
of people have teams, they have publicists, they have personal chefs, whatever,
but he actually had a whole team who was trying
to take care of his body. And you saw that

(01:14:03):
and thought it was one thing, but now we know
it was something else. You know. There were times when
he would coming off and he would sit down and
Bruce would be there massaging him. Somebody else would be
uh rubbing his feet, you know, Um there was another

(01:14:25):
person who was just doing like an an energetic thing
around his aura. And and and at first, you know,
we thought, you know, he's being there, you know, he's
being a little precious here. That's exactly what we were thinking,
I promise you you know. And how wrong we were.
They were being precious, because he was precious he was

(01:14:50):
precious and they were really looking after that gem and
we had no idea. You know. It's that And that's
what got me this morning because my wife and had
asked me, you know, what was he like? And I
was looking forward to working with him, you know, and
that just that moment is how how how wrong can
you be, you know, when you don't give a person

(01:15:13):
a chance, you know, when you come upon somebody with
some prejudgment, you know. And that's what piss me off.
Excuse my language, you know, for for not for letting
something like that get under my skin. You know, I'm thinking, like,
we're here to work and you're sitting over there getting pampered. Well,
you were supposed to be pampered, you know, and you

(01:15:35):
were supposed to be treated like that. And he was
right to applaud his team for doing that because as
a witness, they looked after him like to the point
we didn't know what was happening, We did not know,
and they supported him through that hundred and four degree
heat to do the things that he had done, and
he would not have been able to do it without
that treatment, you know, And that was absolutely accurate for

(01:15:58):
that to have been like that, and I was a
fool not to not to to to look at in
some other way, you know. But this is what Hollywood
does the people. This is what you know. This is
this these these are the trappings of of our business,
you know. And it's very rarely that you come across
an actor who understands their craft, who understands the power

(01:16:22):
of storytelling, and aligns themselves accurately and their lives accurately
with the best way to use this God given gift.
And there's one, you know, there's one who did that.
You know, very few of us do that. That was
a there was a video that he did. Um. It

(01:16:50):
was he had posted on Instagram. Um. And it was
a video that he did back in April that showed
a significant am of weight loss. And there were a
lot of people who were commenting on that video. There

(01:17:11):
are people who said they were concerned about his weight loss. Uh,
and they were just really they were just really really
they were talking about it. It's very concerned. And at
the time, UM, I was like, god, guys, look this
is what actors. Dot did a movie and lost a

(01:17:32):
ton of weight. Um. Christian Bale put on sixty pounds.
Robert de Niro. These things happened actors all the time.
And I and I I text um chat with chat
with about that, and we we and I said I
was gonna do a video, say yo, y'all need to
chill out. And what happened was we we had a

(01:17:55):
conversation and he asked me not to reveal it at
that time. Um, but you, being an actor, I would
love for you to speak to this because this is
actually what he said. As an artist and a human,
I shared my feelings with you. But in the public realm,
I can't explain myself. That takes away from the art

(01:18:19):
and the way of the artist. I would rather be
misunderstood than go explaining away the reasons for my actions.
You will see it on the screen. There's just a
certain code that you live by when you do this
for real. People don't understand our craft or our way

(01:18:44):
of life. Both things feed each other. He he thank
me for the for doing the video. He never revealed
what he was going through and when when he passed.
When he passed away, I got the news and I
sat at my kitchen take for two hours, and I
didn't move. Clark. You there, Clark, Clark, we still got you, Clark,

(01:19:08):
we still got you. Know we had we got you. Clark.
You're there, Clark, we still got you. Guys. I don't
know why he can't hear me, so but let him
know that he's we still got him. Uh all right,
hold type one second, Uh guys, letting Clarke you here now, Clark,

(01:19:31):
can you hear me? All right? So let me all right,
let me know ye if y'all could close it out.
And so I saw I wanted to explain this, folks.
You understand there was somebody who went to my Instagram
page and he said, ah see, rolling you were wrong.

(01:19:51):
I wasn't wrong. Clarkey here now, Yes, I'm with you, okay,
And and so I read the full quote and I
and I sat at my kitchen table for two hours, Clark,
and all I could do was just go back and
and read this text ex change that we had okay,

(01:20:11):
and not when when we when we lost when we
lost connection? There, Sure I lost what you were saying
that The last thing I heard you say this is
this got it? This is what he said. Yes, um,
as an artist and a human, I shared my feelings
with you, but not in the public. Ram. I can't
explain myself. That takes away from the art and the

(01:20:33):
way of the artist. I would rather be misunderstood than
go explaining away the reasons for my actions. You will
see it on the screen. There's just a certain code
that you live by when you do this for real.
People don't understand our craft or our way of life.
Both things feed each other. Yes, And I sat at
my kitchen table. I just kept reading and I was

(01:20:53):
I was moved to tears reading this exchange that we
had because he never he never ever said to me
what he was dealing with. But as I read this
in light of his death and knowing what he was experiencing,
what Chadwick Boseman was saying was I need you to

(01:21:13):
see the character and not me. I need you to
feel the character and not feel sorry for me. And
that that was I just sat there, man, and I
just kept reading it, and I was like, wow, Yeah, yeah,
you know it's it's acting, is um? Is it powerful

(01:21:44):
trade to be in um? If you work on stage
and you're discerning, you see the effect that you have
on human beings who are observing your performance. Yeah, this
isn't a real calling to theater to become an actor

(01:22:06):
is not the calling to I want to be a star.
It is not the calling to I want to have
the big car, the big house. The calling is how
best can I tell the story that carries some truth
that can alter the observer's life. This is a responsibility.

(01:22:41):
Looks like we lost Clark Peters there um, we try
to get them back, folks. Right now, I want to
go to Reverend Dr William J. Barber repairs of the
Breach Poor People's Campaign with his eulogy for Chadwick Boseman.
Thank you so much on Roland. Gracious God help us
remember properly that we might live faithfully. Amen. There's a

(01:23:06):
scripture rolling in all of your listeners and Hebrews chapter ten,
verses thirty thirty nine that says, but we do not
belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but
to those who have faith and are saved. And then
it says in chapter eleven of Hebrews, and our faith
is the confidence of what we hope for and the

(01:23:30):
assurance of the evidence about the things we do not see.
I've been thinking about this, and distribute eulogy to Chadwick
Boseman and rolling in a real sense, he didn't shrink back,
and neither can we. As I've listened to the last
thirty minutes, he didn't shrink back, and neither can we.

(01:23:55):
One rendering of his name, Shadwick literally means the warrior's
town m M. The name Chadwick literally means the warriors town.
So his very name, before he ever played Black Panther,
was to be named a warrior, and as a warrior,

(01:24:16):
a righteous warrior, a committed warrior. He didn't shrink back
from disease if you look at it. Sety nine years old,
four years diagnosed, and for four years battling. He did
not shrink back from the disease. He kept moving, kept producing,

(01:24:41):
kept believing, kept living, kept acting, kept being a thespian,
kept moving in the theater. He did not shrink back
from the disease. We are not of those who shrank back.
He didn't shrink back from his destiny. From his destiny.

(01:25:02):
You know, life is really about destiny. Coming to a
place where you know you've been born for such a
time as this, You've been born for this role, You've
been born to do this in life. When you understand
that it's not really about how long, but committing an
assignment and being faithful to that assignment. And when you

(01:25:25):
do that, and it is coupled with not just being
for yourself but for others, then indeed our living, our
living is not in vain. And brother Boseman's living was
not in vain. He didn't shrink back from this disease.
He did not got to dominate him, and he did
not shrink back from his destiny. But then, and and

(01:25:48):
you're just previous speaker, Brother Clark helped solidify this in
my spirit. He did not shrink back from his dedication
to deliver uh a message dramatically. When you look at
brother Chadwick Boseman's life and look at how he took

(01:26:11):
on black male figures both historically and fictional, every one
of them had a message not just for the movie,
but literally for the movement. Every one of them had
something to say, not just on the screen, but something

(01:26:34):
to say that literally can save us as a people.
I want to remind us of some of those in
these last few minutes. Can you hear Brother Boseman when
he embodied Third Good Marshall And in that movie, one
of the lines he he dramatically presented was the Constitution

(01:26:57):
was not written for us. We know that, but no
matter what it takes, we're gonna make it work for us,
and from now on we claim it as our own.
That wasn't just a line for moving He brought that
line to life in such a way that we need
to hear it right now in the movement. Maybe the

(01:27:18):
Constitution wasn't written for us. Maybe a lot of things
that have been done in this country weren't done for us.
But we're gonna make it work for us, and we're
gonna claim it for our owns. Thank you, brother Boseman
for bringing that to life. You know that other line
in the movement, Marshall, when he said I wouldn't be
here if I didn't think we could win. There was

(01:27:38):
a dialogue between him and the Jewish law that was
wondering what was going on and why would he come
there just him by himself? Do you think we can win?
He said, I wouldn't be here, and then there was
this conversation between him and the man who had been
falsely accused. I wouldn't be here if I didn't think

(01:27:58):
I could win. By how we need to hear that
when we're standing for struggle and we're standing for for us, right,
there's nothing there's no need to fight if we're already
believed were defeated. But brother Chad, we brought this to life.
I would not be here if I didn't think we
could win. That's why BLM is in the streets. That's
why people are marching because they think they believe, they believe,

(01:28:22):
they believe we can win. And then some of the
lines that were said to him, and like Black Panther,
I'm sure my brother Frederick Hayes will deal with this one.
Show them who you are, show them who you are.
There comes the time that you have to do that.
And then that other one when in the movie Black Panther,

(01:28:43):
the sister says to him, you get to choose what
kind of king you want to be. Hm. We need
to hear that. In our lives. You get to choose
rolling and I get to choose, we all get to
choose what kind of king we're going to be, what
kind of person we're going to be, what we're gonna
do with our lives. And then you know, we have

(01:29:06):
to hear how he brought the King King to Tula
to life. And I thought about these last three lines.
One Wakanda will no longer live in the shadows. We cannot,
we must not. We will work to be an example
of how we must work to be brothers and sisters
on the earth, on the earth, and how we should
treat each other. My God, we need that example. We need.

(01:29:30):
We cannot stay in the shadows. Those of us who
know us right cannot stay in the shadows. And he
brought that line. Brother, brother, brother Bosman brought that line.
Brother Chadwick brought that line to life, playing a fictional character,
but saying to us what we need to have in
this real life. Then he said one line, he said today,

(01:29:51):
we don't just fight for one life, We fight for
them all. Can you hear that? Can you hear that,
those of you that there listening when we're in the street,
whether it's fighting for brother Blake, or whether it's fighting
for the person that died because they did not have
what they needed on a on a job that was
made lethal because of COVID and inept responsibility to deal

(01:30:11):
with those things that should have been dealt with. When
we stand, we're not just standing for one life. We
fight for them all. And then the King said, came
to toil in times of crisis, the wise bill bridges,
while the food build barriers. Oh goodness, if we could

(01:30:32):
just lift that up as brother brother brother Chadwick did
and put that before the nations. The fools be all walls,
the fools be all barriers. Don't follow the fools. The
fools try to keep us one from another. The fools
try to separate us black and white. The fools, the fools.
But the King when he lifted it up, when he

(01:30:54):
dramatically presented that said, in times of crisis, the wise
be a ridges, are the fools be a barrier? The
last one, as you know in the movie, when he's
thrown over the cliff, it looks like the new king
has come. He has a lot of bitterness. And then

(01:31:16):
Chula finds his way back. A fisherman picks him up,
and then they are able to revive him, and he
comes back for that second battle, and he says, I
never yielded. The guy says, no, you know, King, you're
no longer king. But he says, I never yielded. And
all of us need to hear that, all of us
need to say that sometimes we don't know what we're

(01:31:38):
gonna face, Like him, cancer, we don't know hot issues.
We don't know racism, we don't know what. But but
there's something about living when you say, but I never
yield and they have been knocked down, but I never yeld.
Weathers may be informed against me, but they didn't prosper
I have not yielded. I still walked by faith. I
am not of those who shrink back into destruction. Thank you,

(01:32:00):
Brother Poston. Even in that fictional character to path to
remind us that there's a place in life where we
must say, I've never yielded, beaten, broken, knockdown, but I've
never yielded, and you never yield it. He never yield it,
and so he's gone from us now, but his spirit

(01:32:22):
is yet with us. And while all of those that
I just spoke were lines in in in, in, on screen,
lines in dramatic production, here's one that was not on
the lips of a character, but on his own. Brother
Chadwick said, when I stand before God m hm at

(01:32:47):
the end of my life, I would hope that I
would not have a single bit of talent left and
I could say I used everything you gave me. Let
what he said and did be a be what we
say and do when we stand before God at the

(01:33:10):
end of our lives, let us hope that we don't
have a single talent left, that we've spent it all
in the cause of love and justice and humanity, that
we used everything God gave us. And you know what, Lorland,
that's the best way to honor. That's the best way
to honor somebody that you love that died, that lived
a powerful life. It's imitation. It's imitation, and so let

(01:33:35):
us imitate him. Let us imitate him and give it all.
Give everything we have, every bit of talent we have
while we're here to make this world better. Enrolling our
clothes here with this something you and I know where
and I can hear it in the life of brother
brother Chadwick. Out of the night that covers me black

(01:33:57):
as a pit, from pole to pole, I, whatever gods
may be for my unconquerable soul and the fair clutches
of circumstances, I have not went ton cryed aloud under
the blooding ens of chance. My head is blooded, but
I'm bound beyond this place of wrath and tears looms.
But the horrors of the shade, and yet the minutace

(01:34:18):
of the years, whatever that menace is fines and shalla
fan being. I'm afraid it matters not how straight the gate,
how charge with punishment this throw. I am the master
of my fate, and I am the captain of my soul.
Of my soul, rest sweet prints, and we'll see you

(01:34:41):
in the morning. God bless you. Revd Dr William J. Bober.
We certainly appreciate it, Sir. I thank you so very much.
Journal us right now is Joe Taka Dy. She is
was a close friend of the Boatman family. She's from
South Carolina. He was a native Anderson, South Carolina. Grew
up they want to play basketball. What until it was
until a friend who was shot and killed that he

(01:35:01):
then wrote a play that put him on this current path.
You'll take a glad to have you hear this, your
thoughts about knowing uh Chabot Bosman and his family. You know,
I think, um, it's been a very heavy last couple
of days for many people. But I think also it's
been a moment of reflection for not only people of

(01:35:23):
South Carolina, but just people everywhere. Because I do you
reflect on Chad's life, Chat's contribution to this world, it
makes you stop and think about what it means to
have a purpose driven life, and that is, I believe,
what would be one of his greatest contributions to this world. Um,

(01:35:47):
we all marveled in Black Panther, what it means, what
it meant, what it will always mean to us, that
embodiment of Black Panther, how his his craftsmanship made us feel.
But I think also it's just how he lived his
life and the honor in which he lives his life.

(01:36:08):
How he chose to use his craft and to walk
in purpose, how he chose to uplift his people and
to remain committed to justice. I think that is in
itself something that we all can learn from. As Rebend
Barber said, the best way to honor someone is to
imitate them. And I believe that if we can all

(01:36:29):
be a bit more like Chad, then we will all
be better. Um, he was proud to be from South Carolina.
In fact, there's already a petition there to get rid
of a Confederate statue there to anas to South Carolina
to replace that with a statue or Chadwick Boseman. I'm
a hundred percent in agreement with that, and I'm gonna

(01:36:49):
do everything in my power roling. You know, I will
make every phone call and do everything to support the
honoring of Chad Boseman. What I can say is being
from South Carolina and Chadwick in so many ways. You know,
James Brown for his generation put South Carolina on the map,

(01:37:11):
and for my generation, Chadwick put South Carolina on the map.
No matter you know who you were, no matter where
you were from in South Carolina, you were so proud
of the fact that Chadwick Boseman was from South Carolina,
and you wore proud and it's and it was before
Black Panther because he embodied James Brown, he embodied Thirgood Marshal,

(01:37:35):
he embodied Jackie Robinson, and the fact that he was
playing the significant roles of historical figures in our world,
it meant a lot, not only that he was this
superstar actor, but that he also was someone that was
using his craftsmanship to speak volumes to the times and

(01:37:58):
to uplift legacy of the experience in America. And so
you're just proud. Um, I'm from a small town, Johnsonville,
South Carolina. Chad is from a town Anderson, South Carolina,
very small town. And so if anyone knows about Anderson,
South Carolina. What you know is their two roads. There's
Groves Road, there's Bowsman Road. And on both of those roads,

(01:38:19):
UH lived Chadwick's family and they are just the most
amazing UM, most beautiful people, hard working, loving um people.
And when you think about the life that Chad live
and you think about his family, what I could say
is that when your foundation and your roots are strong

(01:38:45):
as a result the tree and the flowers that will blossom,
they have no other choice but to be bright and
bold um and to give light to the world. And
I believe very strongly that Chad and the way that
he lives as a direct result of the family that
he grew up in, the family that he you know,

(01:39:08):
spent his life in this small town of Anderson. But
these wonderful people, loving people. And I was having a
conversation with Chad's uh family UH this afternoon and they
were just sharing. You know, Chad was loving. Chad was
someone that was a protector, He was a jokester UM
And every time I would often see Chad at the

(01:39:30):
Image Awards, and he never had an air about himself.
He was always someone that was very down the earth,
very much humble in the biggest movie of all time.
Very humble UM always just kind um, and I think
that speaks volume to just the type of person that

(01:39:51):
he was, but more so the family in which he
was raised. Uh. Family friend of Chadwick Boseman. We appreciate
you sharing your thoughts with us. We appreciate it. Thanks
a lot. Thank you, folks. Right now we've left by
the singer Brian Courtney Wilson family. Hey, this is Brian

(01:40:12):
Courtney Wilson. I just want to do um send this
offering out in the memory of Chadwick Boseman and and
comfort to his friends and his family and all of
his supporters, and to say thank you for holding on
long enough for us to see something we had never
seen before. Hi. Founder, We will to keep going. When

(01:40:54):
the road gets hard and everything's dock and the storm
winds are blowing, I encourage myself mhm to hold on
and I won't let go. I won't let go. I

(01:41:21):
found the gray grace so amazing, and every morning I
see it following me even when my world is crazy.

(01:41:42):
I encourage myself to hold on and I won't let go.
Where I won't let go, holding oldness never easy. It

(01:42:13):
takes a strength and the courage that comes from a
bull from a bull, but the Lord gives us power
to make it. By his might. We can fight if

(01:42:38):
we stand, if we stand in his love. Found Oh,
we in the middle of a weed land. It keeps on,

(01:43:05):
turn and turn and turn and turning, keeping me step.
I encourage myself to hold on. Come what made oh

(01:43:29):
hold on through the storm, through the rain, flood waters
all around me? Key, reaching for you to hold on,

(01:43:52):
And I won't let go, let gone, because as happen,
see and he is having her. There is so much more,

(01:44:16):
so much more. And that's why I'm pressing towards the monk,
because the calling on my life is worth fighting for.
I keep my mind stayed on my key because the

(01:44:38):
peace it brings is worth fighting for. I gotta maagine
Oh burr and glory and my new home is worth
fighting for. See, it's worth it. South, there is so

(01:45:07):
much more, still wears battingful. Thank you so very much,
Brian Courtney Wilson. Folks their number of people in Hollywood

(01:45:30):
who offered their reflections of Blair Underwood. Excuse me of
Chammick Boseman, and he was Blair Underwood. Hey, everybody, it's
Blair Underwood. I just wanted to to add my voice
to the condolences and and all of the comments and
perspectives on the passing of our young King, Chadwick Boseman.

(01:45:53):
You know, I didn't know Chadwick um well at all.
We met once or twice, and I always gave him
much respect for the success he was having in his
career and representing us as a community and as a culture.
Of all the iconic figures he played, I e. Jackie
Robinson and James Brown, and they're good Marshall and of
course the the monumental King to Challa and in Black Panther.

(01:46:19):
You know, oftentimes people can underestimate the power of entertainment
or the portrayal of characters and historical figures, but it is.
It is a phenomenal thing, and it inspires people and
encourages people, and it gives people hope. And that's what
That's what you did for us, young King. So rest
in power of Young King, and God bless you and

(01:46:41):
your family and your loved ones. Piece actors nor Vittoria
study at the same school as Chadmick did in the UK.
Here's her tribute. Chadwick Boseman attended the British American Drama
Academy I attended in ten but the way his name

(01:47:01):
was spoken on that campus every single day, it was
like he was right there with us. We knew Chadwick
was a presence beyond the screen. We saw him channel
the stories of our ancestors with such ease. And yes
he had the training, yes he put in the hard work,
but the way those stories chose him, the way they

(01:47:23):
went through him with such power and purpose, it was
as if he knew he was already close to being
an ancestor, and now we know that he actually was.
So I just want to exalt him for being the
highest example of having one foot in the spirit world

(01:47:43):
and one foot in a human body, and still bringing
all the work ethic, still bringing all the talent, still
bringing all the humanity we can only hope to be
so saintly. Thank you, mister Bosman, for what you've given
us during your time on earth, and thank you for

(01:48:03):
watching over us as an ancestor now, as I'm certain
you knew you'd be. We love you, yesterday, today forever.
Here's actor Dandre Whitfield, so saddened by the loss of

(01:48:24):
our brother chadwick Um. Many people are gonna talk about
the loss of another great icon in our industry. Some
people are going to talk about the loss of of
a powerful black person in our community. I just want

(01:48:47):
to talk about the loss of your manhood, my brother.
I wrote a book on manhood, but you embodied it.
You didn't lead with your struggle. You just kept moving,
kept doing what was necessary for you, for your family,
for your community. I often say that acting is my passion,

(01:49:13):
but activation is my purpose. Activation was certainly your purpose.
You have activated all of us through your work and
through your wisdom, and even more and the dignity of
your death, we honor you, brother, rest and power. Here

(01:49:39):
for another eulogy of having Bozeman is Pastor Jamal Bryant Roland.
Thank you so much for giving me the honor and
the distinct privilege to memorialize a icon of this age
and considered, without any contesting, the greatest sence to being
of this generation. Wildly considered the White Viola Davis. Meryl

(01:50:05):
street One said, acting is not about being someone different,
it's finding the similarity and what is apparently different than
finding yourself in it. Michael Scher Live and what's described
as Sacred text for actors wrote a book entitled The Audition.

(01:50:31):
Michael describes acting as this acting is standing up naked
and then turning around slowly. James Lipton, who for one
seasons hosted The Venerated Inside the Actor's Studio, which were

(01:50:55):
intensive interviews with some of the greatest actors of this error,
from Denzel Washington to Sydney Portier, frequently frequently asked of
the guests, how do you prepare to be in character?
For the countless Sunday afternoons that I viewed, I was

(01:51:19):
arrested with intrigue, and never once do I ever remember
the question being posed, how do you get out of character?
As always how do you get into character? But never
how does an actor and actress get out of character?

(01:51:44):
I always wondered, because there's so many writers who posit
that the life of my childhood comrade at Tupac Shakoor
eternally changed after he played the role of defying violent
thug named Bishop in the urban classic Juice. It was

(01:52:08):
after that that he signed with death Row Records and
he never came out of character. Chadwick Boseman, a consummate
gentleman hewn out of the soil of Anderson, South Carolina,
had a meteorc rise after graduating from the very same

(01:52:31):
institution that produced Kamala Harris. Chadwick only had one flaw,
and that flaw is that he took pieces of himself
into the next role. Whatever he was in previously, he

(01:52:52):
took it into the next thing. His breakaway role was
playing Jackie Robinson in four two. It is in that
role that he learned the indignities that are attached to
being a trailblazer. One year later, after Jackie Robinson and

(01:53:16):
forty two, he then starred and played as James Brown
and Get On Up, which Chadwick acknowledged that he didn't
even know how to dance until he got the part,
and from playing in that role he figured out how

(01:53:36):
to dance to the beat of your own drum, even
if nobody else knows the tune. Three years later, he
morphed into Third Good Marshal, who litigated for those who
weren't on stage but deserved a level playing field. All

(01:54:00):
of us know him from the iconic role of Black Panther,
where he introduced into mainstream the undercarrent of afrofuturism, described
by Tony Morrison as the thought of the future without
permission of European consent, He found himself. Chadwick did playing

(01:54:29):
a legend, and after he got tired of playing a legend,
he played a hero. And after he was done playing
a hero, he played a superhero. And now Chadwick Boseman
is playing the role of an ancestor and doing all

(01:54:51):
of that before ever coming to forty four. William Shakespeare,
considered to be one of the great just play rights
of theater, said it tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow creep into
petty pace from day to day, and life is just
a poor player that struts and frets. It's our upon

(01:55:12):
the stage, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. The
Bible tried to warn us by declaring that life is
but a vapor. He came on the stage, crashing fast
in an acquiet, dignified way, exited without ever complaining. Tonight

(01:55:39):
we have heard snapshots my favorite roles, our favorite lines,
our favorite portrayals, our favorite films, our favorite memories, and
we're all agast at how it is that he could
play one with the same high quality and caliber and

(01:55:59):
played the next without any deficiency. Maybe it's because of
his time as a member of One Way Church in
Los Angeles under the pastorate of Torrey Roberts, that Chadwick
reminded himself what he learned early in life while going

(01:56:19):
to a small church in Anderson, South Carolina, that Jesus
is not an actor. According to Hebrews thirteen and eight,
Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But the
amazing thing about God, he takes things from our past,

(01:56:43):
he deposits them in our present, and then he prepares
them for our future. All things work together for good?
Can it amazing that Chadwick knew all of his lines
and followed all of his cues because he sat under
the tutelage of the Galaxy's great director, who knew how

(01:57:06):
to set the stage, knew that the sun belonged here,
that the moon can only come out at the appropriate time,
that the birds are to fly south only during the winter,
that the roses are to come into full bloom. And
while Chadwick were still in his mother's womb, God snapped

(01:57:30):
his finger and new labor was to begin. You ought
to be glad that we now have another scene to play.
That no matter what it is that you did yesterday,
it does not forfeit the role you're going to play tomorrow.
In the book Auditions, it says to every up and

(01:57:54):
coming embryonic actor and actress be prepared for rejection. It
doesn't mean that you are not right. It just means
that the script is not right for you. In this
what Prince calls this electric stage called life, we discovered

(01:58:14):
that our rejection was not a rejection of who we are.
It was a rejection of who we are getting ready
to become. I know all of us are finding ourselves
amist and speechless at this moment. But if you've ever
been to theater, if you've ever seen a great actor

(01:58:35):
a great actress, you know that after they have given
the performance of their life, the curtain closes, and then
those who were in attendance and found themselves enraptured in
the imagination of a real reality, they cry out, encore, bravo.

(01:58:59):
I'm course simply means I want to see it again.
For those of us who have a relationship with God,
you ought to be crying out loud from Howard's dormitory,
from shanties in South Carolina, from Condole's in Los Angeles
from empty movie theaters in Milwaukee. Encore, and you're only

(01:59:25):
declaring encore because you know we're going to see Chadwick again,
and you don't have to wait for Netflix or Hulu.
A MC is closed into a further notice, HBO is
playing reruns because they don't have new content. When will
I see them again? It's because you forgot that God

(01:59:47):
is the ultimate director, he said. When the trumpet sounds,
the dead in Christ like CT Vivian, Joseph Lowry, m,
John Thompson, John Lewis, and God's actor Chadwick Boseman will

(02:00:10):
come and take a bow, and they will not bow
because of the works they've done. They will power at
the feet of our Lord and Savior, hoping that he
will clap loud enough just to declare well done, our
good and faithful servant. Let us all play our role,

(02:00:34):
remember our lines, and take the same seriously, knowing this
will be the performance of our lives. Thank you, Pastor
Jamal Bryant, which will appreciate it. Sir, I thank us
so very much. Now I will be blessed by my
buddy Fred Hammond. No against main Sham Prasper. He eat

(02:01:07):
font fine fine against me, shap prasper, he eat pont
wer no fun bar daging, shas get for work? I

(02:01:37):
go can we what he said? He we? He will
stand my war eating fa f afraid of the air

(02:02:11):
from the l I stay my grown with the love
of my side for the smears and attempings A well
not six come on say like you mean it? Yeah

(02:02:47):
shame sha't like mean f now two thousand twenty men

(02:03:08):
a minute time. But you're still here, sha gress and

(02:03:30):
you still win. Just staying with that, just still one,
just staying that, just staying, just stand like that, just stealing.

(02:03:52):
They'll just stand with How may to say? Just stay?
How many is it say? Then? Justine? Win? You still
on that? You she when? Just don't know? Just still

(02:04:20):
what if you lose your chime? That just stay. Don't
see how you're gonna make you Just stay with God
has got your back and it's gonna stew up, gonna
hoot you up again, Put me up. Jeez eat jee,

(02:04:44):
eat your jee he jeers. If your mother and father
for sake, that just stay. Your friends talking about you
like a dirty dog. You don't matter. Just say do

(02:05:21):
you believe it? You believe it just so standing on
the word of God, count on the word of God.
Trust in the word of God, It's impossible to fail.

(02:05:42):
We're down drawn by entertainment journalist Jasmine Simpkins. Jasmine, Welcome
to Rolling Martin Unfiltered. Hey Roland, how are you doing.
I'm sure quite like you. There are a lot of opportunities.
You had opportunity to sit down and talk with a
chat with Bozeman, your thoughts, well, your remembrances. Oh my gosh, um,
you know, I feel like my career was evolving as

(02:06:04):
his career was evolving. Um, some of his earlier work
even once we you know, I heard you say earlier.
His career didn't start at forty two, so we had films.
You know, he was doing soap operas before, he was
doing theater and along the way, I was doing print journalism,
and you know, got a chance to chat with him
even in the early days as Hollywood was starting to
take notice. But as his star rose, he never changed.

(02:06:26):
So one of the things I will remember most is
that he didn't treat me any differently. His smile was
the same, his laugh was the same, his banter was
the same. We joked every time before we started interviews,
and so I will remember that because you don't have
a lot of um and you know this, uh, interviewing

(02:06:46):
people who kind of have that connection and that spirit,
you know, and who loved the work that they do
would love talking about it as well. One of the
things though, that a lot of people we interview that
they're not necessarily folks you actually wanted me again, but
but but Chat was someone who again he was very
he was very uh personable, someone who had that had

(02:07:09):
that a huge smile when you would meet him, he
would certainly remember uh and was always a pleasure to
be around. Yeah, for sure, that was definitely and it
was something that you know, you also hear his co
stars say about him as well. His energy never changed
and to know that that energy was consistent while he
was on this four year battle with cancer, it's just

(02:07:33):
it's inspiring, but it's also sad to know. And as
I look back at interviews, knowing that as I was
sitting across from him just in November, um and his
appearance was definitely different. He appeared a little bit more
frail than normal. I chalked it up to perhaps he
was getting ready for another role because of an artist
like him is gonna dive deep, He's gonna do what

(02:07:53):
he has to do to become the character. He was
that type of thespian um. And he told me that
he did lose weight for were the role for twenty
one Bridges. But now looking back, I could see in
his eyes that there was definitely a struggle to even
say those words, because I'm sure for him, um, he
knew that he definitely was on a battle much bigger
than he was letting on. The last question for you,

(02:08:17):
and that is I said this earlier, uh that we
I think people are responding in such a different way
because one, obviously no one knew, totally unexpected, but also
he was one of one of the first artists of
our generation. For us to lose yeah, and for young

(02:08:41):
kids to have a black superhero. Um, if you read
the comic books, if you were a Marvel fan, you
knew that that to child existed. But for him to be,
you know, live and on the big screen, and for
the film to have done a billion dollars worldwide. Men
think he resonated with not only young black boys, but

(02:09:04):
young children in general. And I think that's why this
also hurts because they found and had a superhero that
looked like them. Um, little boys had something to look
up to. When they put that mask and that and
that costume on, it took on a whole different meaning.
And so I think this one hurts deep because it
was a long time coming. We've we've been waiting for

(02:09:26):
our King, We've been waiting for our Black Panther and
for him to arrive. In the anticipation even of a
second film, you know, people were excited for that. And
to know that he's now passed, you know, it just stings.
It really hurts, and it will hurt for quite some time. Indeed,
Jasmine Simpkins, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you so very much.
Thank you Roland. Bring back Great Car, Great Car um again.

(02:09:53):
People touch us in different ways. That is the power
of art and how we read. Remember somebody uh certainly
speaks to that green still there. Um, let's say very quickly,
first of all, for the folks worried about Black Panther.
As somebody who's been collecting comboos, like I said, for

(02:10:15):
forty years. If you know the comic arc in Marvel,
sureI becomes the Black Panther. In recent years Um, I'm
expecting Letitia, right. I mean, we don't know what's gonna happen,
but I think this is an opportunity, even in the
Marvel universe, to introduce even another level of African spirituality.
They could very well continue to have Brother Chad's image,

(02:10:36):
Brother Chad existing in the ancestral realm with his father
and all all the previous Panthers, and if it follows
the ark of the comic, sure he will become the
Black Panther. But in terms of where he fits, I
think Jackson summed it up beautiful, brother. Um. The thing
about film actors is they occupy imagination long after they've transitioned,
whether it be Paul Robeson, whether it be you know,

(02:10:57):
City Partia, who's still with us. But from Arta to
Denzel Washington, now we have all the Davis. We can
think about all of the great iconic figure, Chadwick Boseman's
ability to channel the channel the spirit of iconic black figure.
And then in his kind of I don't know Valedictory

(02:11:18):
return really, even though he did the Five Bloods, We're
waiting on my raised black bottom, which really tells you
as well about the choices he made as an artist,
I mean to do. August Wilson's piece is very important
with the wife's producing, but for for him to give
a validictory of sorts with the childa really and then
make transition in the way that he has with us.
As just and said, anticipating the future really opens the

(02:11:42):
way for us to consider the nature and role of
spirituality from African perspective. You've curated that for us tonight
with the eulogies, with the music. African people have never
believed that the thing you see with your eye is
even the principal thing. It is the thing you cannot see.
It is the aspiration to connect to the thing you

(02:12:04):
cannot see. Our ancestors always with us as the creators,
always with us. And the life of Chatmick Chadwick Boseman,
not only in his what he played, but how he
lived is a testament to that. Brother. It's a beautiful thing.
Actor laz Alonso, a fellow Howard University graduates as a

(02:12:26):
fellow Howard University, Bison UH and an actor in this business.
I want to say that Chadwick Boseman not only made
me tremendously proud, but I never expected his loss to
hurt me and impact me the way that it did,
and when I can say that it has been a
unanimous pain within our community, very rarely does everyone feel

(02:12:49):
this pain the same way we did lose our king.
And I just want to say that the class that
he exhibited, the quiet strength and security and honor that
he brought to our business and our profession is something
that is not easily replaceable. And on behalf of one

(02:13:10):
of the many that are still feeling his loss. I
want to say thank you to him, thank you to
his family for sharing him with us, thank you to
God for giving him that talent. And I know that
he is in a better place now. And to know

(02:13:31):
that he did everything that he did battling the fights
that he was dealing with in his personal life makes
me respect him just that much more. Thank you, Chadwick.
You are loved, You are honored, and I shave brother.
We all remember Sherry Shepherd given chat with that big

(02:13:51):
that hug from behind when he was on the view.
Uh she shared her thoughts with us, Hi, everybody, I'm
sure Shepherd. I got the pleasure of meeting Chadwick Boseman
when he came on the View and we got to
interview him. I just remember a very kind and humble man.
Chadwick had a wicked sense of humor, which really made

(02:14:15):
me feel like I could run up to him and
hug him. It was something about wanting to go and
hug him that hit me, and I ran up behind
Chadwick and I hugged him. And what I remember is
he squeezed my hand so tightly against his chest, and
I kept thinking he's gonna break my reading glasses. But
he squeezed my hands and I thought, Wow, he made

(02:14:38):
me feel so special. But now I think about it,
maybe he needed that hug too. So thank you for
being a superhero for me and especially for my son,
who's never seen a superhero before. I'm so inspired by Chadwick,
and I love you forever. Next up, Ruben Santiago Hudson,

(02:14:59):
who's core Us spent lots of time in the theater world,
a place where Chadwick first got to start. When I
think about Chadwick Boseman, I'd rather deal with his contributions
than the loss, because for a man to contribute to
the world, to culture, to African American people, to humanity

(02:15:23):
the way he did in such a short such a
brief time, such a dynamic time, is truly a gift.
The way he walked in strength and dignity and grace, generosity, power,
it was just a beautiful thing to behold. So we
will miss you, Chadwick, but we will never forget the
impact that you have had on all of us. Thank you,

(02:15:46):
Thank you so much. There's voice you here is Reverend
Freddie Haines. But before before we hear from him a
selection from Gerald Albright. Greetings, Gerald Albright here here celebrating
the life of the incredible, the incomparable Chadwick Boseman. I
didn't get a chance to meet him while he was here,

(02:16:09):
but I felt like I knew him through his work
as a phenomenal actor, and we have a whole legacy
of his work to remember him by. I'd like to
sing condolences and prayers to his family, and I also
liked to at this time dedicate a song that I
wrote a few years back, and it's very close to

(02:16:31):
my heart. This is entitled the Gospel M boy O

(02:17:19):
Heart O belaved a fund to boost up over the

(02:18:33):
food bob the phone to the dat I do T

(02:20:50):
T T too, M M. Thank you so much. Roland

(02:21:48):
for giving us an opportunity as a community to come
together to celebrate the life, light, legacy, and liberating love
of Chadwick Bozeman, an amazing gift to our time who
presented his life in such a way that all of

(02:22:08):
us are the richer because he passed our way. Thank
you Roland for blessing us so that somehow we are
able to gain even from this loss as we ponder
and reflect upon his life and his legacy. There's a
wonderful passage of scripture found in the Book of Jeremiah,

(02:22:32):
and they're in the fifteenth chapter. In the middle of
the ninth verse, it simply says that her son has
gone down while it is yet day. What an appropriate scripture,
a scripture that speaks of a terrible experience of one
who had so much potential and possibility, and yet in

(02:22:54):
the midst of life, death came rudely interrupting. I think
all of us will agree that has been a year
from hell. And yet the other day, when we received
the shocking, sad news of the loss of Chadwick Boseman,
it became more helified and heart breaking. After all, how

(02:23:19):
could one who gave us so much life as he
brought to life iconic inspiring heroes Jackie Robinson, Third Good
Marshal the Godfather was sold James Brown, and now he
has been snatched from us by death. One who gave

(02:23:41):
life to characters and gave us life in the process,
has been suddenly snatched from us by this ugly thing
called death. Shadwick Boseman is no longer with us in body,
and yet the beautiful thing is, as the text says,

(02:24:03):
her son has gone down, her s u n has
gone down, while it is yet day. That that's a
terrible thing right there, because it simply says that the Sun,
in the midst of doing what it was gifted to do,
the scintillating Sun, with all events radiants, bringing light and

(02:24:23):
life to all who benefit from the presence of the sun,
suddenly is overcome by a darkness, a a darkness that
has snatched the light away from us and and my
sisters and brothers. I testified to you that's exactly how
I felt when I got news that Chadwick Boseman, the

(02:24:46):
age of forty three, had been snatched from us, And
of course that left us in the darkness of heartbreak,
and the darkness of grief and sorrow added to the
darkness of what a twenty has already been. You'll agree
with me, this has been one dark year. Has been

(02:25:07):
the year from Hell, which has become more helified and
heartbreaking with this devastating news about the loss of Chadwick Bozeman.
It is devastating after all when you think of the
fact it's loss on top of loss. We have lost
so many giants who have blessed our lives during this year,

(02:25:28):
and we've heard their names called even tonight, from John
Lewis to John Thompson, not to mention Kobe Bryant, we
can call the role of those whose lives have been
snatched by police misconduct. This has been a very dark year.
After all. We've had to deal with COVID nineteen being

(02:25:51):
mismanaged by COVID forty five, and then all of that
has been magnified by our experience as a p for
who deal with the consistent virus of COVID sixteen nineteen.
COVID sixteen nineteen reminds us that we live in the
darkness of a nation that was to remix scripture, born

(02:26:14):
in a white supremacy and shaped by racism. This is
a dark time in which we find ourselves. And yet,
my sisters and brothers, as we think of the darkness
that we are now experiencing, of sorrow and Greek, don't forget.
The text says that her son, her s u n

(02:26:35):
has gone down while it is yet day. And if
you've ever seen a sunset, you recognize it, even a
premature sunset. After you no longer can see the beauty
of the radiant, sintillating sun, yet a glow remains the sky.
The sky is still a glow though you cannot see

(02:26:57):
the sun. And so that is the good news I
leave all of us with. And that is, even though
his son has set far too early, if you look
into the sky of eternity, I promise you, and the
sky of his legacy, the good news is you can
see a glow, his legacy of light and love and liberation,

(02:27:22):
a glow his legacy of knowing exactly who he was.
Thank you, Bis your Barbera, for leaving this for me,
because you recognize that. In that iconic and moving matchless
movie The Black Panther, one of the themes is the
power of identity, because when you know who you are,

(02:27:43):
no one else can tell you who you are. And
at the end of the movie, when when they are
in the hood in Oakland and and to Challah is
talking about how he is going to invest in the
community and as a consequence, transform met a young brother
walks up to t Challah and listen to what the

(02:28:04):
young brother says, he raises the question who are you?
Of course, to Challa already had that answer because earlier
in the movie you recall after his dad to Chaka
had been killed, that he was not automatically given the throne,
that he had to endure it challenges in order to

(02:28:24):
receive the throne. That that's a sermon right there. No
throne just comes to you. You have to endure what
challenges to get to your throne. And of course he
is challenged by Embaku. And when Embaku comes to challenge
him at one point during the fight, all of us
know Embaku is winning the fight and he has to

(02:28:47):
Challah in a bear hug, the vice like grip of
a bear hug. It looks like to Challah is about
to lose. When all of a sudden, his mother, played
by the regal and resplendent Angela Bassett, yells out show
him who you are, And of course he responds by saying,

(02:29:08):
I am Tachalla, son of Tachaka. And that was the breakthrough,
at his breaking point, that set him on the path
to the purpose that he had been divinely designed for
by the ancestors and by our great God. He becomes
the Black Panther, he becomes king of Wakanda. Why because

(02:29:31):
he heard his mama and responded to her admonition when
she said, show him who you are. That is exactly
what Chadwick is saying to us as we deal with
the darkness of this time. Yes, his legacy has left
a glow the skyline of our lives if we just

(02:29:54):
remember to show this nation who we are, to show
each of though who we are, to show white supremacy
who we are. If we do that, we'll discover that
we learn these lessons from T'Challa, we learn less than
number one, and that is the measure of your life
is never its duration, but it's donation. You see, It's

(02:30:17):
not about the quantity of your years, but the quality
of your years. Our beloved late brother, Martin Luther King Jr.
Put it like this in his last speech. Longevity has
its place, but I'm not concerned about that now. I
just want to do God's will. Here Martin King in
essence saying that in this life that it's not how

(02:30:38):
long you live, but how well you live. And think
about it, We've lost some great ones this year. They
did not live long, but they did live well. As
a consequence of living well. We can say we lost
Kobe and Chadwick in their forties. We lost both. We
not only lost Kobe and Shagwood in their forties, we

(02:31:01):
lost Martin and Mautholm in their thirties. Not to mention
our messiah, Jesus Christ at the age of thirty three,
but all of them. Let us know that in this life,
a long life is not good enough, but a good
life is always long enough. And so the measure of
your life is not how long you live, it's how
well you live. It's not its duration, but it's donation.

(02:31:25):
But then, also, Chadwick says to all of us, as
I see the sky a glow with his legacy and
lessons from his legacy, he shares with us that you
can hear it is overcome your private battles off stage,
as long as you keep fighting for your community and

(02:31:45):
giving life on stage. Is that not what he did
for us? We did not know that he was fighting
a death, dealing disease. We did not know that he
was he had been captured by cancer, because he kept
on fighting anyhow. And of course he testified during that
majestic oration when he gave the commencement speech at Howard

(02:32:10):
University in eighteen that while walking across the campus of
h U watch it, he ran into Mohammed Ali. He's
just a student, he's having a hard day. But listen
to what he says. Ali gave him that look of
wanting to fight. Put his fist up in and and

(02:32:30):
and Chadwick did the same thing. But he interpreted that moment,
that experience by saying that Mohammed Ali was transferring to me,
fight in me. I like that because he recognized that
all of us have a responsibility to fight if we
are going to win. He fought a private battle in

(02:32:53):
order for us to experience public victories as a community.
All of us have that responsibility because all of us
are going to fight some private battles. All of us
are going to have our own difficult days, no wonder
our beloved Lengthston Hughes incarnated the wisdom and ungrammatical profundi

(02:33:16):
of a profundity of a mother. As she says to
her son, well, son, I tell you, life for me
ain't been no crystal stare. It's attacks and its splinters,
board's torn up places with no carpet on the floor. Bear.
But all the while I's been a climbing on reaching landing's,
turning corners, and sometimes going in the dark where there

(02:33:37):
ain't been no lights of Boy, don't you quit now,
don't you sit down on them steps, because you find
it's kind of hard. I still climbing, I still going
in life for me ain't been no crystal stare. If
y'all didn't feel lengthston hused, then maybe you can feel Shakespeare,
since we're talking about a great Thesbian. When Hamlet says

(02:33:59):
to be or not to be, that is the question
whether it's nobler in the mind to suffer from the
slings and arrows about rageous fortune, or to take arms
against the sea of troubles. And by opposing in them,
what are they saying. They're saying, you've got to overcome
your private battles in order for the community to experience

(02:34:22):
a public victory. We've got public victories that we've got
to fight for. We've got to fight for victories during
this election. We've got to fight for victories that will
economically empower our community. After all. I guess the last
thing I'll say about Shadwick, and that is, when you

(02:34:42):
are here, it is captivated by your conscience. It will
make you conscious so you never will never compromise your
convictions and it will always benefit your community. That's the
last thing I'll say about my man Shadwick, because he's
testify right there at Howard during that commencement speech that

(02:35:04):
he had already won a role on a soap opera.
He did not give away the soup proper and and
they gave him a role that was somewhat stereotypical. But
guess what Chadwick said. He went in to talk about
that role, and he spoke about that role to the
persons in power and and gave them some insight as

(02:35:26):
to how they could enhance the role and make the
role better than next day he got word that they
were going in another direction. And because they went in
another direction, and he discovered that sometimes God used this
other folks rejecting us to redirect us I'll give it
to you like this. Their rejection is for our redirection.

(02:35:50):
I'm glad that he was rejected, because if he had
not been rejected, he may have been lost in a
stereotypical role right air that had demeaned his talent, and
he may have been stuck in soap opera land. But
because he was rejected, he was redirected, and that put

(02:36:10):
him on a path toward purpose, and that path led
him to play third Good Marshal James Brown, Jackie Robinson.
It's set him up to play no to become our
super he wrote, both on screen and on screen and
off stage. Why because he simply had convictions. And one

(02:36:33):
poet puts it like this, many of somebody who fell
into line became a nobody and almost no time anyone
can follow what the crowds do. But I'm somebody, how
about you? Everybody's doing it now, I'm not yet. I'm somebody.
Don't you forget anyone with courage to see what's true.
It's bound to be somebody, how about you. Shadowick had

(02:36:54):
convictions because he was a man with a conscience who
was conscious and would not compromise his convictions, not alone,
his community and he was redirected on a path towards
a higher purpose. And the good news is, even though
his son has set too early, please recognize when the

(02:37:16):
sun sets over here, it gives way to a sunrise
on the other side. What is sunset on our side
of the world, That is a sunrise on the other
side of the world. And we all know that sunrise
is greater than sunset. And because of this hook up
with the sun of God, the good news is the

(02:37:40):
other day, when he made his exit from Earth to eternity,
it was not death. It was simply a transition to transition,
a triumphant transition to the other side. His son has
gone down while it is yet day. But the good
news is our lives, the skyline of our lives are

(02:38:04):
aglow with the lessons from his liberating lights and legacy,
and those lessons let us know in the final analysis,
and that is sunset on this side gives way to
sunrise on the other side. God rest the soul and
the spirit of Chadwick Boseman. He closed out by saying,

(02:38:28):
what condor forever, I gotta remix it, Chadwick Boseman, forever,
every not to Fredder Douglas Haynes the third were still
appreciate it, Sir, I think it's so very much. Uh
jeral Lowbright Alpha Fredy Haynes Alpha might as well play
Will Packer his recollection of Chadwick Boseman. Having a chance

(02:38:49):
to to sit down and get to know Chadwick. I'll
tell you one of the things that stands out is
is what you see is what you get. There wasn't
a lot of pretense with the brother, and that was
refreshing in an industry that is all about superficiality and
all about pretense. He was. He was a good brother.
He was somebody that was gonna work hard. And it's

(02:39:11):
inspirational to look at how as he played some of
the biggest black icons in our history, he is now
transcended to becoming an icon himself. And this is a
town that's all about what have you done now today?
Not your last success, is not what you did yesterday,

(02:39:35):
what have you done today? That can be very drained.
If you're not in Hollywood, you may not realize the
toll that it takes on folks in the industry, especially
on actors. And so now as we know everything that
he was going through, but to watch him go through
that with a focus and determination and very often a smile.
It makes me think that we could all learn a

(02:39:57):
lot from him the way he lived this life, many
of us that aren't going through the same thing that
he was going through. Could we treat people a little
bit differently? Can we live our lives in a better way?
I think we certainly could, and there without question, that's
a big part of his legacy. Thank you, my brother.

(02:40:19):
Here's a comedian, Sinbad. Hey, my name is sin Bad,
and I'm doing this in honor my friend chat with
Boseman when I said, my friends, I've only met him
twice in my life. It's not like we had a relationship,
but he's one of those brothers. Even though he's like
twenty years longer than me, twenty one years longer than me.

(02:40:41):
That had an influence on me. So we end up
calling a friend even though you don't really know him
that way, but you feel like you know him because
of what he brought to you, not just not just
from the movies, and movies is one aspect of his life.
That's what I love about when the entertainer is at
another level, whereas beyond making movies is what you say,
it's your statements of life like lebron j for sports,
but the statement he makes in life when he builds

(02:41:03):
high schools and schools. I mean it's like that. Um,
I'm so impressed with this young man. I feel cheated.
I feel has cheated us out of so much. But
I really feel cheated on this young man because we
were he was man. He was at the beginning of
the mountain. Well, he was about to bring us what
he's about to do for us, the influence he was

(02:41:25):
gonna have. I mean, Black Panther, let's go with everybody.
Black Panther changed the world. As for us, so how
a black movie could be perceived? Like he once said,
white kids wanted to be the Black Panther. That's when
you've gone to the next level. You're going to the
next level. Um. But for me is my favorite movie
was James Brown Man. He he made me feel I said,

(02:41:45):
Jesus he caught James Brown. But if you guys are
feeling like I'm feeling, all I can say is, um,
God must have a plan. I don't understand. Well we
don't really understand God, do we. But he he really
got me on that one. He's got you taking the
best ones. You're taking the best ones. So his family,

(02:42:08):
his wife, kids, all those that loved him. You. We
say this so much, but you will be sorely missed,
my brother. But thank you for having been here, and
thank you Howard University for educating this man. And thank
you Denzel Washington for sending him. And thank you Felicia
Rasha for calling Denzel Washington. Thank you, thank you Marvel

(02:42:30):
for taking a chance on this movie. Thank you, thank
you Ryan Coogler, thank everybody that was in that path,
and thank everybody that's gonna do great things because of
meeting him and being touched by him. Man, MISSI bro
mission brother, like you said, Howard University Forever, and I'd

(02:42:52):
even go there. That's how much you affected me. Howard
University Forever. Take care. Last week Chadwick Boseman sent out
was on August eleven, and that was a tweet emphasizing
folks to vote for fellow Howard Bison. Kamala Kamala Harris,
hashtag when we all vote, hashtag vote and so was

(02:43:14):
fitting to uh here word or hear a song from
Latasha Brown. Of course, she is the co founder of
Black Voters Matter. She Jones right now, Latasha take it away,
high rolling, thank you. I just want to you know,
we have um we are in shock with what what
has happened as brother transitioning. But I think about not

(02:43:35):
just what he was doing, but who he was being.
You know, watch those interviews where he was going into
the hospital and ministering to other cancer patients, knowing he
himself was battling that Like that takes something that's some
kind of spirit of a man, you know. And all
weekend I was thinking about it. I was thinking about
it because even in my own life, cancer took my mother,

(02:43:58):
um uh four years ago, and so I'm I'm you know,
I felt like I was reliving some of that in
terms of this man being so young. But what he
brought forth the interesting thing about him. And as I
get ready to share this song, something came to me,
when there's this one scene in The Black Panther that
I saw all of this stuff because I loved him,

(02:44:19):
you know, but I loved him not just because of
his acting skills. That's a certain kind of spirit. There's
a certain kind of spirit that people bring to not
just even the character, but you know who they are,
Like they embody that and he was an embodiment of
that spirit. And so there's a scene in The Black
Panther when he crosses over and he's actually gone to
meet the ancestors. He's walking with the ancestors. And so

(02:44:39):
I thought about this that this weekend. And so there's
a song that my grandmother used to sing that I
want to share a tribute to him. Some of you
all have heard this, quite sure of you the deep South.

(02:45:01):
Mm hmmm, Walk with me, Lord? Won't you walk with me?

(02:45:34):
Walk with me? Walk with me all the Lord? This
chee just day. I want Jesus Us to walk with me.

(02:46:04):
M m Lord, walk with me, beat my friend, Lord, Oh,
to be my friend, be my friend, word, be my preder,

(02:46:32):
all the Lord things. Gee, just day, I won't just
to walk with me, m m lord m. And we

(02:47:00):
even take this moment now in the spirit of our
brother Chadwick to the others that we've lost that are
also walking with the ancestors, that those of us that
are care in his family, I just pray for that
peace and their comfort in this moment, that as we
don't walcome on these tegious journeys that we learned from

(02:47:22):
the legacy of what he left behind, to leave everything
that God has given us, I give to inspire the
world and move the world. Oh h walker with me, lot,

(02:47:50):
Oh walker within me. Yeah, walker with me, Low Brd.
I need you to walk with me as I this

(02:48:12):
teers shah day. I want Jesus to walk with be
and I'm mad, I world, Lord, walk with me, hm

(02:48:38):
wo with me, Walcome with me, Lord m hmin be
in that spiel. I just want to share thank you
Robing for allowing me to be a part um of

(02:49:00):
this tribute. I hope that we walk just as that
brother walked, that we walked with God lock the Lord.
That we walk in this space of our power, remembering
who we are, and that this election we were talking
about vooting, that we're voting not necessarily just for our candidate,
but we're voting for us. We're voting for our ancestors.
That we are literally voting that our community can get

(02:49:24):
what it means, that we can literally reduce the harm
in our community. That we stand in that space, are
remembering who we are, and yes it is important because
we do have power. Thank you, Roland, we surely appreciate it.
Latasha Brown, thank you so very much, folks. I told
you earlier when we were at Howard University. When we
were there UH in two thousand and seventeen, when Marshall

(02:49:48):
uh with it was a Q and A. It was
a Q and A from Marshall and it was the
first time that Chadwick Boseman had returned to Howard University
since he had graduated UH in two thousand and he
was absolutely blown away by the reaction. So I just
want to show y'all uh the reaction. But also I
was going through my video archives and totally forgot. I

(02:50:10):
didn't even realize the video captured us backstage, him talking
about how those students made him feel. Watch this. That

(02:50:40):
was crazy. It was. It was literally insane. I was like,
which happening? They were bad? I'm like, hello, that was
way more than I wouldn't do. I would never do that. Yeah,
that was crazy, and so don't go back, go back.

(02:51:05):
This one more piece to it. Good with the baby
always good. Oh man. It was just that was that
was and we recorded we got it. I see I
see it link. And after that we went to a

(02:51:27):
great dinner here in d C. I want to thank
Demanti Brewington as well. As Rachel Etler. They sent us
a couple of those videos. We had our camera, but
they shot a couple of different scenes as well. Uh.
And so folks were almost done with this Chadwick Boseman tribute. Uh.
So many different people have been, of course, su just
sharing their thoughts and perspectives with regards to him. One

(02:51:51):
of the folks who sent us a video I want
to go ahead and play that right now was actor
Brian White. Uh. Let me know if guys, if you
see the video, if you see it right now, he
shared his thoughts. Brian as well as Omari Hartwick. We're
gonna play those for you right now. I read a
quote and I'm not sure if Chadwick said it, but

(02:52:13):
it it was about him standing before God on his
judgment day having no talent left because he used everything
that God gave him. And for me, that crystallized why
I appreciated him as a human being so much, Because

(02:52:38):
he lived every single moment of his life without fear,
because he knew his purpose, his God given purpose UM
and in his own words, wanted to empty his vessel
before the end of his journey. Uh, to fulfill that

(02:52:59):
play seeing which is life and UM, that just really
motivates me. This is a squeeze every moment out of
this this thing. This it's time, this limited time that

(02:53:19):
we all have. Thank you, Chadwick for sharing yourself, for
making us, UM be able to connect with the characters
you played in a very uncommon and very powerful and
very effortless way that transcended even what they were able

(02:53:40):
to accomplish in their lives by the way you were
able to tell their story. And thank you for showing
us what real living can be all about when you
recognize the gifts that God has given you and that
rest and empower. King saxophonist Mike Phillips, Hey, UM, what

(02:54:07):
can what can I say? Um? Two thousand and twenty
has been kind of like this guy right here, This
is what I considered two thousand and twenty panels, And
we've had some people kind of like snapped away, but
now you look at this right here. UM influenced all

(02:54:32):
of my sons, you know, and that our at a
point where we didn't have UM Black six superheroes and
too kind of like show the power of the Marvel
universe and making sure that these images are out here.
It's extremely important. So man, you look at my son's

(02:54:57):
comeingre Tyson, why come here? This is what Black panthers about,
reuniting and uniting the black family, so we can understand
the power of something that's gonna be so iconic for
years to come. So rolland UM, thank you for this forum.

(02:55:18):
Also thank you for um, you know, letting us know
the greatness of Chadwick and also how much it can
influence these young guys right here to be superhero themselves,
whether it's going to be the superhero, athlete, doctor, lawyer,
pediatrician them seeing these images of black power and strength,

(02:55:43):
it's going to be something that's gonna shape their lives forever.
I certainly appreciated my brother, great words. Brother, Thank you
so very much. Another good friend of Cherry Boseman was
a Mari Hartwick, and he shared these words with us.

(02:56:06):
There are these moments, these moments in your in your
life and your journey, no matter your age, no matter
your gender, ethnicity, cre religious beliefs, political beliefs, social status,
socio economic status, it doesn't matter. Um, these these moments, um,
they make up your life and how you learn to

(02:56:27):
deal with life and adversity or um. The reception of
joy or beautiful news, moments of metaphorical or or symbolic
inspiration or actual inspiration. And I never, I never try

(02:56:48):
to lock onto the moments too much, because you can
get stuck in those moments and find yourself not really
uh navigating beyond them. But one that did sort of
freeze me and maybe all of the above forementioned. UM,
I felt pain first and foremost anger, confusion, loneliness, you know,

(02:57:16):
a coldness when on the twenty of August, in this
year of where seemingly the only power of vision or
essence has been that of God, because none of us
can quite put together in a mathematical equation or any

(02:57:36):
kind of summation UM or hypotheses what the heck is
going on in this year that will undoubtedly go down
in history as a year we've never had prior UM.
And in this one moment within that year, of learning
of the passing of a dear friend, a brother who
happened to be a king UM born as such in

(02:57:59):
the beautiful South where I was born, he being from
South Carolina from a beautiful parent base and his mother
and father UM and me being born in Georgia, and
then learning UM that he was as much as he
was born into beauty and into purpose and high high

(02:58:19):
level or dam it, much of which we can't even
comprehend in the mortal space. Um, he was now leaving
us in the flesh. And again that moment rocked me
and and it made me immediately equally celebrate what we
got as a people, um, as a respective colleague and

(02:58:43):
peer and and brother, a friend of his within our
industry um of filmmaking, what we got equally being around him,
being able to learn from him, learn with him, um,
share with him and it. And it made me feel
a sense of pride enjoy that that our pass had crossed,

(02:59:05):
that path crossed, and a lot of parts of two
thousand and seven excuse me two thousand young two thousand
and seven when Chadwick auditioned me um for an independent
film of which never went But upon the ending or
the completion of the audition, when he asked me, you
know who my agent was? Of course, as an actor

(02:59:27):
being auditioned by this young filmmaker fresh out of film
school Howard University, I was um under the assumption he
was asking in terms of just sort of shouting me
out in the audition or liking enough of whatever I
did in the audition to ask who rapped me? And
soon come uh. Within a year that that question, I

(02:59:49):
learned that he was an actor and in and in
fact the hellified actor um and took all my agent. Actually,
as I left that agent, Chadwick went to the agent
UM almost like clockwork, and so I felt forever connected
to him. Whenever we would see each other, there was
a bond immediately UM and it and it and it

(03:00:11):
maintained itself. Ah. I always count myself lucky and stated
such in my honoring honoring of him UM the morning
after he passed away, in stating that you know, I
was simply honored, can't say it beyond that word. I
was honored to be a competitor, and of course I
met um that of of being able to compete for

(03:00:36):
roles with him or in that pool of small number
of African American actors our age who are competing for
a very minuscule or minimized number of roles UM, because
of Chadwick being who he was and in his power
that he was able to exemplify within this space of
characters portrayed that actually lived in an iconic manner that

(03:00:59):
be and Jackie Robinson, Thurgood Marshall, James Brown, and then
of course King Techalla and and Ryan Coogler and Marvel's
beautiful turn of Black Panther, which his performance, of course
was nothing short of brilliant. UM. I was simply honored
to be in the conversation whenever there was a conversation
UM at the tables and talking about the genius that

(03:01:22):
this man possessed in a very similar way to lebron
James staying the same when the untimely death of Kobe
Bryant in a very similar tragic way UM occurred and
lebron Man said, I honored the fact that I was
able to compete with you analogous the sport which our
objective world of art is not that of sport. But equally,

(03:01:42):
it was such an honor man to be able to
UM be in the same room even and mentioned, even
if not literally, just to mention or utterance with a
guy like Chad, who again I love from the moment
I met him. I felt his power is nobility UM
from the moment we met, and he was able to
beautifully insert that surplanet implemented in every single role he played.

(03:02:07):
UM to the t speaking of the tea seven years
number of completion, from the moment that the film Jackie
Robinson came out, where he beautifully got down and honored
Jackie Robinson, and then ironically passing on Jackie Robinson's day
um of honor and getting down on that film with

(03:02:28):
our mutual friend and sister in that being the Koba
harre in it gets released and in and flesh, he
gets released and brought back to the heavens where God
is smiling and crowning him a new crown and even
bigger crown, a brighter crown for the King, Um of
all kings. And and that being my brother, Um, I
just gotta say, honor you, Jadwick, Honor your parents, man,

(03:02:54):
Honor youth, Simone, Um the beloved wife and partner in
art and in love and in timeless nature to your King.
Meant that being Chadwick, honor you, Simone, and whatever you
would ever need from me and my tribe. Um, I
had the honor of meeting you that night, of course,
at the New York premier of Black Panther. And whatever

(03:03:15):
you would ever need from us, please don't hesitate to
to just ask um by the phone call away um,
And of course I honor you, Chadwick. What you did man, again,
there's nothing short of genius in seven years. Again, the
number of completion, what you created in art, an indelible
mark left and footprint like dinosaurs leaving footprint on this earth. Bro,

(03:03:38):
you just did it. You did it like no other.
And the explosion of what God can create in such
a brevity of moment and then call it Chadwick Boseman
in his career and for us I all to be
able to celebrate that forever. I mean, you are just immortalized.
And I'm just super honored to be asked by TV one,
by Roland Martin and by Philip producers to just lend

(03:04:01):
whatever I have to to share and what my experiences,
um are, and having known Chad and having honored him,
and having walked, you know, next to him, side by side,
and being a colleague appear again a fellow African American
male actor who was able to say, you know, Chadwick
across my path and and I was honored and crossing

(03:04:23):
his and so we were tight and we always, uh,
we always acknowledged each other. And I appreciate that, you know,
I think about this movie, that. Ironically, I just watched
last night and one character asked the other character, am
I gonna die? And of course the character was asked
the question. Um. He looked at the character asked the question,
and he said, absolutely sure you of course. But that's

(03:04:45):
not the question. The question is will they tell great
stories about you when you die? And Chadwick, brother, some
of the best stories and forty three very brief, but
very long, powerful, potent and comparable years on this thing
called earth yours are the stories of legend of iconic proportion.

(03:05:13):
And I'm just super super honored again, humble and proud
to be a part of your journey to have been
asked to speak a bit on it again, Um, and
such an honor. Chadwick, rest in peace, you king, Um,
your man, your husband, your son, your uncle, your friend,

(03:05:33):
your cousin, your grandson, your colleague, your brother, God bless
you man, peace, guys, all your final thoughts. Thank you
brother putting this together, Thank you for allowing me to

(03:05:57):
bear witness and be here with you. Yeah, I leave
with this, you know. When I asked Ryan Coogley was asked,
where did y'all get this? What? Conda solute? And he
said you know, we got it from the pharaohs of Africa,
and we got it because the cross symbol in American
sign language means either hug or love. So brother Chadwick Boseman,

(03:06:19):
a scholar, a student of Africa and African people on
the continent and the diaspe who brought all of that
crab out of South Carolina with his strong family ties,
and Bruce who then learned the craft with some of
the great master teachers of the Black College tradition and
alongside women and men who grew with him, bonded with him,

(03:06:41):
and then who as we heard earlier, the ancestors guided
to channel them iconic figures. When we see him across there,
that's not just what conda forever in the movement. That
is a symbol of ancestor to report this is the
way the pharaohs will bury. This is a symbol that

(03:07:04):
means life. And when I saw him there with you
Roland backstage in that green room at Crampton, been in
many times and he had that on on. Chad Boseman
often wore the UN. But un is a symbol a
n k H or a n H in in hard lives,
it simply means life. He will live on bro. Thank

(03:07:24):
you for doing this Roman. It was one hell of
life four to three years. Chadwick Boseman. It was always great,
uh to be able to meet him. We had so
many tributes. I didn't even play my interviews. Will play
them the rest of the week, the Jackie Robinson forty
two interview, uh, the Q and as we did with
Marshall as well as to get him get on up interview.

(03:07:47):
But of course I remember somebody reminded me and I
was on this week with ABC and I mentioned Black
Panther and I hit them with this here on the airs. Folks.
Folks love that. Uh. It was it was great to
know him, great to see him. Uh. That night after
we left Crampton, we went to dinner Reggie Hutlin, um, uh,

(03:08:10):
Chadwick and other folks, and we had an unbelievable conversation
and it really was the only long conversation. People don't
realize this. Very few times in this business we really
get to spend time with people and have deep conversations.
We normally have passed each other in backstages or in
airports and have very short conversations. Uh. It was great
to have an opportunity to communicate with chat We were

(03:08:32):
text back and forth, uh, and he was simply a
great brother. And I was UH contemplating how we wanted
to end this, and so I reached out uh to
my dear friend kirk Walum and he is an amazing
rendition of Precious Lord, and he gave us permission to
use this. And so we're gonna close this tribute to Chatwick.

(03:08:53):
Boseman out with this, Precious Lord, take my hand, by
Kirk Walum. Chatwick, we love you, you miss you, and
prayers for your family as they move on without you.

(03:09:26):
Happy fa yet by and by waiting and the no

(03:14:01):
no no no no no no no no no no
no no no no no no no no no y

(03:15:37):
y

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Roland Martin

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#RolandMartinUnfiltered honors the life and legacy of Chadwick Boseman