Best of 2025- Queens - Phylicia Rashad Talks Respect, The Rhythm Of Acting, Chadwick Boseman's Brilliance. Recorded 2025.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club, Yes, Sister One, the most dangerous morning show
to Breakfast Club, charlamagnea God, just hilarious. DJ Envy's not in,
but Laura le Rossa is filling in for him, and
we got Royalty in the building. Man, we have a
woman who has represented you know, black people, especially black
women correctly forever.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Miss Felicia Rashad is here. How are you, queen?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I am good, good to see you.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm a little star strugg too.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I mean to keep staring at you, but I cannot
believe I'm sitting here across from you and just and
like it's.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Because we even watching you on TV. You always carry
yourself in such a regal.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Man. Then when you walk in the room you feel
it even more. It's like whoa.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I was telling him, all right, mama walking in the room,
straightening up, okay, clean, make sure everything all right?
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Yeah? Do you have and I know you have this
effect everywhere you go. Are you used to people acting
like this?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh? You all?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Or what?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Can I just say? We are as a people respectful
yeah to each other? Yes, yes, yes, ma'am, yes we are,
Yes we are, But not the others we are as
a people.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Absolutely absolutely, yes, And you're here for I mean, we're
gonna talk to you about a lot of stuff. You're
making your Broadway directorial debut and purpose. Yes, how did
that feel? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It was wonderful. It's not the first time I've directed.
This is the first time I'm directing in a Broadway theater.
But this play and this cast, it's a real gift.
You'll come and see. Yes, Yeah, yes, I hope you'll
come through. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins is the playwright. He received
(01:48):
the Tony Award last year for his play Appropriate And
This particular production originates in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater,
and the Steppenwolf has its own ethos, its own legacy
for theater as it was formed by actors. So it's
ensemble work, and that's the best work. Absolutely ensemble work.
(02:13):
But then that spirit I watched it move through the
cast into everybody, the designers, the production office and staff,
the theaters, we all, it's it's everybody. It's one. We
(02:33):
call it collective intention. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
When I think about the thing that you and your
your sister have done, ms. Debbie Allen, you know, I
just wonder what did y'all dream of when y'all was kids,
when y'all was just two little girls growing up? Like,
what did y'all play about? What did y'all think about?
What did y'all imagine?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
We We grew up in Houston, Texas. Our father, doctor
Andrew Allam's a dentist. Our mother, Vivianaires, is a poet.
We grew up with a poet. We grew up with
a visionary. And it was about freedom. It was about
(03:17):
pardon me, It was about realizing your full potential as
a human being. Can you imagine things like this? Teaching
dual children like this. She would teach us things like.
She have aphorisms, and she'd give them to us to say,
the universe bears no ill to me, I bear no
ill to it. And we repeat that the universe fair
(03:39):
is no ill to me. I bear no ill to it.
If we just go around the universe, fair is no
ill to me. I bet when you teach a child
like this, when you teach a child, be true, be beautiful,
be free. She would say things like this to us,
and she'd say things like thinking requires thought, Thinking requires thought.
(03:59):
We would say it, But these seeds were planted by
the time I was eleven years old. Yes, oh, Debbie.
Debbie was nine years old, and she said to my mother,
(04:19):
I did dance classes, and you're not doing a thing
about it. You're not doing a thing about it. Wow, Well,
you know legal segregation at that time. My mother took
(04:39):
the railing off the side of the stairs going upstairs.
She took the handrail and had it attached to a
wall in what was supposed to have been the dining room.
And she hired this teacher who had come from the
New York City Ballet, a Caucasian man, to come and
teach Debbie in the house. Her ballet classes were there.
(05:01):
This is this is how we grew. We grew like this.
And he gave Debrah a book about ballet with photographs
of all the famous dancers, and we would look at
that book all day. Every day. My mother would take
us to exhibitions, to lectures things we couldn't understand. She
(05:24):
knew we couldn't understand it. She told us later, I
knew you wouldn't understand what was being said, but you
were present and the seeds were being planted. When we
were growing up. She didn't want us scarred by the
ignorance of racism, and it was all around us. It
(05:44):
was legal at that time. But as little little children,
if there was somewhere we wanted to go and we
were restricted, she'd explain it like this. She'd say, oh, well,
that's a private club for members only, and we're not
(06:05):
members of that club. And then she'd do something else.
She'd invite all our friends into the living room. She'd
teach us music. She'd teach us to tumble, she'd teach
us things like this, she'd teach us coral speech. And
that's how we grew. And at that time, music education,
(06:25):
This is very interesting. In a time of legal segregation,
music education was free and in the schools, and the
schools had instruments that students could use. I studied viola.
Debbie played the bass violin, if you can believe it,
the littlest thing in the school. They had to sit
(06:47):
her up on a stool, had to sit that child
up on a stool, and her little fingers, her little hands.
Couldn't you know a bass player usually had big hands.
You should have seen Debbie up there. She never missed
a beat and she never played a sour note. She
played that thing like she had created in herself. This
(07:08):
is how we grew We grew up in surrounded by
a community that cared for its children. And I mean
we were safe. Yeah, we were safe. We felt safe.
We didn't I didn't feel fear as a child. Our
(07:33):
mother was a great example of that too. One night,
somebody tried to break in the house, and my mother
was awake and she heard the clamor. She went out
the back door and walked her way around to where
this man was trying to come through the window. And
she stood right there and she said, you could get
arrested for that. You know. He scared Jesus and read
(07:59):
we grew up to be fearless, but not to be stupid.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Expound on that, fearless but not stupid.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Well, I mean, look, if you see a rattlesnake in
front of you, come on, that's right, that's right, don't
be stupid. If you see a car come in your way,
don't be stupid.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Absolutely absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I love the story you just told, because as you
were talking about it, I'm like, man, how do you
teach freedom the black kids in the country that wasn't
providing you that freedom at the time.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I'll tell you how. I'll tell you how. A poet,
a visionary hmm. You have to look inside, and you
have to teach young people to look inside. There's nothing
(08:59):
but freedom. So much distraction today, one thing and then
another to make anybody, not just African American children, but
anybody feel separate from its creation, separate from the one
(09:21):
who created everything that is separate from one's own self.
In the midst of majesty nature, in the midst of
presence distraction, pay attention to that.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
You're gonna be stealing your quotes.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
But the rest of the month, every day there is
a depositive note, and the Charlemagne is over there writing
down everything and his mind.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Going to you, be quoting you for the rest of
them month.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I know it.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, so you don't you know, we knew history. You
teach history, but you don't identify with the Middle Passage's
who you are. That's not who you are, That's not
who anyone is. That is what happened. But people survive
(10:25):
that because of who we are as human beings. Right now,
I'm just saying it. Right now, we need all the people. Yeah,
all the people.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, that's since the community you're talking about growing up
in Houston. You need that. You need to be able
to teach kids' freedom. You need to be able to
instill security and safety in kids. And that can only
come from come from It.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Comes from home and in teaching. You know, it's shared
with others. You know, children are not born into this
world fearful. No human being is born into this world
fearful or filled with hate. Nobody's born like that. You
(11:21):
have to learn that stuff. You know, there's a song
from a Broadway show. You have to be carefully taught,
carefully taught. Well, you can be carefully taught the right
way too.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
What was your mother's upbringing like? Because she seems like
she was so still and so short of herself. And
I'm sure she had, you know, experienced a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
My mother grew up in Chester, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Ay, I'm from Talk Carolina. I was born at Charleston
raith Inn, a small town called monst Corn.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
You the people, ye, okay? You the people? Okay. So
it was a small mill town, right. Her father was
a blacksmith, one of his brothers was a mortician, and
the other brother was a barber. And these businesses had
been owned by her grandfather. It was an agricultural community, right,
(12:20):
But there was a school there that had been founded
by the presbytery. There was such a number of such schools,
pardon me, that had been founded by the Presbytery for
the descendants of freed African people throughout the South. This
school was Brainerd Institute. And in this school there was
(12:43):
this classical education administered by black people. My mother was
always interested in music. Oh, she was quite the pianist.
She's described herself to me once as saying, she was
a little girl swinging high on the swing, looking up
(13:08):
at the sky and dreaming big dreams. That's how she grew.
Her mother passed away when she was When my mother
was nine, she lost her mother. And she said, as
she sat at her mother's funeral and listened to the
things that people were saying, she decided none of them
were intelligent enough to tell her anything to do. She
(13:31):
would chart her own course at nine, at nine at nine,
and she did, and she did. It was not an
easy life, but there was this spirit in her, living
in her, burning in her, that carried her through. Her
(13:57):
first publication is by this collection of porns. Her second
publication Hawk. If you read Hawk, you will understand how
I grew. This is an inner journey. This is an
allegory of freedom, which parallels flight through space without a vehicle.
(14:19):
It was published eleven weeks before the launch of sputnik Ie.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Wow, what did you learn from your your father, because
you said he was a dentist.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh, my father. My father was born on the back
porch of a farm in Lovedale, Louisiana. He was one
of nine children. His father worked on the railroad. He
was a fireman on the South Pacific Railroad. And his mother,
you know, was housekeeping. Right. My grandfather put great emphasis
(14:57):
on education, and he made sure that all of his
children went to college.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Imagine it, especially in that time.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Imagine it. So my father was a very kind and
generous man. He was what was called a man's man.
Men loved him and trusted him. He was always the
treasurer of the dental Association because they said, if text
(15:29):
takes care of the money, we're in good shape. He
was organized, he was very clean. He loved music, he
loved theater, he loved the arts. He came to see
any and everything we did, whatever it was. He was
very supportive. He was he was so handsome. He was
(15:56):
so handsome, and he was so good. He did things
that people didn't know he did. He was like that.
And in his office he dealt with people's pain and
(16:17):
anxiety every day, and they came to him and trusted him.
And when they couldn't pay, he'd work out a payment
plan for them that was convenient for them. They didn't
have to go anywhere and incur interest rates. He would
work that out for him. When my father passed away,
(16:41):
at his viewing, the line stretched out of the mortuary, wow,
all the way down the street, all the way round
the block. And when the last person came, he said,
he looked at and me. He said, you don't understand.
(17:03):
You don't understand. That's my dentist mmm. And that motiicaide as.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That motiicaid on the way to the cemetery, stretched as
far as the eye could see. He was so beloved.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Thank you, Joe, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So that's why I asked, just because you know when
you look like I said, you know you we look
at Felicia Shade and Wie Allen, two strong queens. Somebody
had to raise them. Somebody had them still that in
them and as a father raising four beautiful black girls.
You know, I'm just always thinking about you know what,
should me and my wife being stealing in them all
the time, just so they grow up to be.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Strong black women. When you love them, my mom says,
all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
When you love them, that's all you know. My father,
if I can remember one great instruction, my father gave
me two great instructions. He said, and I was a
little girl, he said, never let anybody run over you.
Who's five years old? And he told me that, never
let anyone run over you. And then later on in life,
(18:17):
he said, always know the balance of your bank account
and keep your own money.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
Yeah, what can you tell us about to start without
spoiling it?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
You know the Broadway?
Speaker 6 (18:35):
But what can you tell us about the story of
purpose without giving it all the way?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I know you don't want to.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Oh, this is wonderful family family drama, and there's humor
in it. A young man is recalling a visit to
his home and on this night of nights, so much
(19:03):
happens in one night, and so much is revealed in
one night, and some things are resolved. It's uh, That's
all I'm gonna tell you, except to tell you that
cast Harry Lennox mm hmmmm. Okay, the Tanya Richardson Jackson
(19:32):
mm hmm okay, Glenn Glenn Davis mm hmmm, Alana Arenas
and John Michael Hill. It's the most it's the most
incredible ensemble that I've ever witnessed. Each one is a master,
(19:54):
each one and the inimitable Caro Young, who was Louty
Bell in Pearly Victorious last season, that's her cast. People
come at the end of the play and have various reactions.
(20:15):
One woman said, ooh, that scene at the dining room table.
Who that was my family's thanksgiving for the past time?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Relatable?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Right, and she was not an African American woman. People
see themselves and that's when we know we are really
doing our best work. When you see yourself.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was gonna say, speaking of doing your best work,
I think you know, for a lot of us and
watching you on television, the iconic role of Claire Huxtable
and just what that image of you know, having a
mom that was just so graceful and so like everything
that you.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Were in that show. Do you like in real life?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Is there ever, sure was there at the time for
you to like upkeep like a certain like I don't know,
like an image or like just anything that people try
to house. No, like so not in your house, but
like in real life, like in Hollywood and other roles
you were taking in, like you know what I mean, Like,
did you ever feel like because I think for us
like you are like the perfect like image of like
(21:20):
a black woman. Like so I always wondered if you
felt that pressure.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
No, light is not heavy, M carry light, share light.
Light is not heavy.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Even in even in interviews. But I understand what you're saying.
Even in interviews back then, you would still have the
same deposition, the same grace when you know, outside of
that role.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
I'm gonna tell you the one that sticks with me.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
When you told uh Saundra's boyfriend Elvin that is iconic.
And then when Vanessa wanted to go to Baltimore, I'm
friend to.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
See the wretchet.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Oh my god, when I tell you those are my
two like key episodes. Right, Well yeah, because I'm from
Baltimore and I done snuck out the house. And you
know I don't done all that. You ain't knocked Vanessa out.
I got knocked out a few times.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
But.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Well yeah, right, that's it. Also I also want to
bring up the movie bee Keeper. Oh my god, how
is that working with Jason Stathum.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh he's such a good person. Yeah, oh yeah, so generous,
so kind, amazing to a fault. You know, that was
a great experience.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
That was a great movie because it also like talks
to what's going on these days. Like it's so I know,
y'all you probably didn't see it. So The Beekeep is
a movie about an older woman who is robbed of
her her retirement funds, everything cleared, her bank accounts, fraud
(23:10):
a lot of frauds. She took a phone call from
this company that acted as if they were trying to
like help her with some type of banking information, and
she like kind of fell forward and ended up now
and Beekeeper did? Is this the question I always have?
Did the woman kill herself? Or did she killed herself?
Not because she lost her money.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It was other people's money she lost, Okay, And do
you know that maybe six months after that filming, I
read of such a thing in the newspaper. Wow, oh wow,
this was a man. Yeah, and he was so embarrassed.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But the greater problem here is access, Yes, yeah, so
much access to people is all of that necessary? Is
it good?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
No?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
No it's not. No man, no it's not. And as
we see it moving towards more, think about that.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Yeah, how do how do you now a days like?
Because I mean you obviously pick and choose what you
want to do with your roles. Like I watched you
in dar from Detroit and I was like, the one
thing we all in the car and you were talking
about the temptations, all of them.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
I'm gonna tell you right now, I felt bad watching that.
I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to hear her.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, but it's so funny though.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
The first time I saw the clips, they didn't tell
me it was from a TV show.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Yeah, he thought that you were really reflecting all your life.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I said, damn she slept. No, No, that was a character, Darling.
That was a character. As actors, we play these roles.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
When you choose a character like that, where it's like
it's a lot different than how we've seen you or
how I've seen you anyway, and different things that you've done.
What's you're thinking behind it? Is it because you want
to you want people to see you in the different
lights or is it just I just want.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
To do see what she was doing. Yes, that's why
I chose the characters because of what she was doing. Yeah,
people get all caught up in funny stuff. Yeah, what
was that woman doing.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
She was rescuing people.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
She was rescuing people. She was living with the deepest
hurt that a mother can have, that she lost her
child because she was not paying attention, and in her
heart she felt that her child was alive somewhere. And
this is years later, but just in a moment of
(25:56):
being too tired and too annoyed and too you distracted
and wanting to do something else, she turned away and
in that instant, her child was taken from her.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And so she said about the saving people, she went
on saving people, open one day somebody would save her son.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
M hm.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So I choose people because I choose a character because
of what people are doing.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I want to go back to something just said.
She brought up the Elvin scene, right, because that was
a role.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Well, when you.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Schooled Elvin on I guess the marital, the marital, how
much input did you have on that scene and what
were you trying to convey when you saw it on paper?
What did you say to yourself, Oh, I know what
I can do in this scene to convey a larger message.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Oh, I didn't say anything. I just said I just
said the lines.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
It was just as it was there.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Oh, it was there, but it was the way you
deliver it, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So it was like battle rapping.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It was so, you know, it was this is this
is a part of your training as an actor. Language
and how you use it, you know, And there's rhythm
in this pace, and so much is conveyed in that way.
If you said it another way, it wouldn't be as effective.
If you tried to say it like you were singing
(27:23):
the lazy No, it wouldn't work.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
It wouldn't hit like a black mama.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
What would in writers' rooms like though, because it felt
like a black experience with black writers writers.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
The thing was to write a human story, to write
about human behavior, the truth of human behavior. That's what
makes comedy and theater real, the truth of human behavior.
You don't have to make something up. If you're writing
(27:58):
about something that's real.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can take a different perspective on it, and your
skills as a writer, you know, show up in your
language or your you know, those things that writers do.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yeah, what do you do to channel roles like your
role and fall from grace, like when you're the villain,
What do you do to channel those roles?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Everybody's a human being, right, Yeah, okay, m she's just
a nasty human. This is a person who is sick.
Her whole perspective is warped. You've got to be sick
to mistreat another person. I'm sorry. You cannot be sane
(28:48):
and do hurtful things to people. You just the sane
person won't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Do you agree that one of the four agreements is,
you know, don't don't take offense to things, don't take
things personal.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Because what you do.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
What somebody does to you is not a reflection to you,
is something that's going on internally with them. It's hard that,
you know, to put yourself in that position, but you
really got to.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Know that sometimes you want to just clutch somebody, shake
them real good.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
My daddy used to say, you'll stop taking everything personal
personal once you realize that it's a bunch of people
out here on cocaine, like people out here doing all
types of stuff that you have no idea about.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Where was your father from.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Monk's corner, South Carolina. All my family in South Carolina, Mama, daddy, everybody.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
It's the best because you know.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's like if you ever been to the International African
American Museum. Oh you were there, I'm bugging yes, you
were there for the grand opening. I didn't get to
meet you'll want to meet y'all was on the other side.
But yeah, it's right there on the port where, like
I think fifty percent of all enslaved Africans came through.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So that's like home for a lot of us.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
And don't know that's right, And don't.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Know another thing I want to ask you about when
you ran down on Vanessa, who are what were you
channeling in that moment, because I'm sure you, I'm sure
you and your sisters knuck out the house a couple
of times and Mama had to get on.
Speaker 7 (30:11):
You never snuck out.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I didn't have to sneak. Yeah, I didn't have to sneak.
Yeah it was good. I didn't have to. But it
was good not to have to do that. Yeah, you know,
sometimes it might have stayed a little too long or
we didn't have to sneak. It was it was, it
was fun. It was you know, it was an actor,
(30:33):
and you understand human behavior, you understand feelings. It's it's
the way you develop yourself. This is the craft. This
is what we do. And uh, I guess if you
do it in a certain way, people think it's you.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes, that's why they can't see you playing a role
like in a Fall from Grades, like mister Shott is
a villain.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, it's she was.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
We have to detach the actress from the character.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh yeah, you know. And as an artist, you don't
want to sing the same song or play the same tube. Yeah,
you don't want to paint the same picture forever. You've
got a paint box. You want to use those paints
and do a different scenes because we have range. Well, yeah,
(31:30):
and you want to express humanity in whatever you do
at least I do.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
You know you can't.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
I was going to say your time at at Howard.
I'm on HBC. You graded went to Delaware State?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Have you ever heard of it?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (31:46):
The police thing next exactly right.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
But the freedom that you were talking about earlier, I remember,
like I was raised in the household where my mom
was very much like that. But going to an HBCU,
I remember that being the first time where I was like, oh, okay,
the world like really needs me. And it was because
of like teachers and counselors and stuff that kind of
had the same spirit that you have. I wonder, like,
for you, what was like one of your favorite things
(32:10):
about walking on campus every day with those students as
a dean.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
As the dean ooh, walking on campus. Everywhere I looked,
I was reminded of my time there as a student,
and I was reminded of my friends, and I was
reminded of the things that we did and the time
(32:34):
in which we were living as students. It was an
important time. Doctor King was assassinated in my sophomore year.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, I watched these things happen. So much unfolded on
that campus. I remember when Muhammad Ali came and spoke
on the steps of Frederick Douglas Hall mm hmm. And
I remember him standing there and he said, look at me.
Can't you see that I'm free? And you could. Oh.
(33:13):
They were great people. There were great. Oh. The instructors.
When I tell you about instructors I had at Howard University.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
You know, yeah, they feeling they pour in like you
never forget that, like they pouring into you in a
different way.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And they're so well developed. They are deep, they are deep.
So there was a time, you know, I was just
referencing back to my father's area dentistry. There was a
time when African Americans were trained, could be trained at Harvard,
(33:50):
but they wouldn't hire them to teach. So these people
who were trained in these great quote great institutions went
to HBCUs to teach. You were receiving that education there,
that discipline, those demands. They were serious about it. They
(34:14):
were so serious about it. There was there was an
instructor at Howard down in medical school, doctor Montague J.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Cobb.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
They talked about this man. He was legendary. My father's
friend said, oh, no, you don't understand. If we failed
the test, he would say, meet me in the lab tonight,
And they'd all show up in the lab and while
they were going around doing what they were supposed to
be doing, he would pull out his viola and play
(34:45):
as he walked up and down the aisle. And my
father's friend said, you wanted him to play that viola
because that meant that he was pleased with what you
would do. I mean, they came, you know, people we
came through in a time that we should remember.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
I feel like that's a level of village. I don't
know if we have anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Well, we can have it if we wanted, and we
can expand it. We can expand it to it include
our Hispanic family. We can expand it to include our
Asian family. We can expand it to include our Caucasian family.
We can expand it because we need all the people.
That's a line from August Wilson's play Gim of the
(35:26):
Ocean on Esther who on Essa says, I'm going to
show you what happened when all the people call on
God in the one voice. God got beautiful splendors, and
God got room for everybody.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Were you when you when you decided not to return
back to Howard did you feel like you didn't return
because your work was done there? Or was it just
like a personal decision because like business reasons, Like I
just felt like people like you, what we need you.
Speaker 7 (36:00):
On campuses every day.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
But I know it's probably it's a lot to do
well at once, But like, what was that like for you,
that decision not to go back?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, I will always be connected. I will always be
connected to Howard University. As a matter of fact, next
week I will be in Washington, d C. For the
one night only reading of Chadwick A. Boseman's Deep Azure.
He wrote that, So he was one of my students
(36:28):
early early on, when Al Freeman Jr. Invited me to
come and teach for a semester. So we were in
the studio doing the show Monday through Thursday and Friday morning,
I'd get up and fly down and I'd teach. And
he was one of my students. Collecchi Susan Collecchi Watson
was one of the students. Camilla Fors one of the students.
(36:53):
He was He was fearless, he was brave South Carolina,
and and he was also very respectful. It's why I say,
as a people, we are respectful people. We are naturally
you know. So anyway, he kept in contact with me,
(37:17):
and after he had graduated, one day I received this call,
I'm sending you something. Mister Shady would always call me
that I'm sending you something. Even after he had attained
fame and notoriety, he still called me mister always. So
he said okay, And what he sent was a copy
(37:37):
of the script that he had written hip Hop Theater.
Hip Hop Theater was born on the campus of Howard University,
and he was one of the progenitors. He was one
of the innovators. And it's how can I say hip
hop language and rhythm through the voice and experience of
(37:59):
a class that.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
It is grand, that's like the essence of an HBCU.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
Like when you're saying it, it's like, okay, that's what
it's like when you go to like the cave for
like you and the parties, or it's literally like everybody
is so like astute, but like you, it's a vibe
like you can't describe it.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
You got to just be there and it's real.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
It's real, and people are taking their education seriously right
But now with this AI business, I don't know, children
trying not to write their own papers to try to
do this what do they call it? This chet thing?
And who excuse me for stammering, but it puts me
at a loss for words like darling, don't you understand
(38:43):
why you're here now? If you wanted to do that,
you could stay home. You should stay home because you're
taking up room that somebody else could be occupying. Who
really wants to.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Do the work.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, who really wants to develop? What about your intellect? Baby?
Do you have no care or thought for your intellect
for expanding that? What about that? What about your worldview? Darling?
Do you not care for that?
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Okay, you're gonna give that to the chap too. All right,
Well let's see where you lad, Let's see where you
end up. So purpose the play. Yes, one of the
things that's said in this play by the patriarch, he said,
he feels he feels that he has lost a communion
(39:40):
with God. He said, ancestors were in such close communion
with God and his creation. They knew how to do
things and how to take care of things, he says,
And I think that I have I think that we
all have lost that. He says. Well, maybe it's old age.
I don't know, But he says, he's very interested in
(40:02):
the things we used to do back home down in
the country, fishing and hunting and bee keeping and growing.
You know, I was shocked, shocked to know that they
are children who don't understand that French fries come from
(40:25):
potatoes that are alone.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
And those weren't the children that how it was okay,
but I'm shocked, but I'm shocked to know.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I'm shocked to know from two pediatricians in two different cities. Right,
they have books, you know, in their waiting rooms for
the young children. Young children come in and pick up
a book and try to scan it.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
M M.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Because the parents aren't giving them books, they're giving them
these little things. These things.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
Yeah, it's like, m.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
So, so here we go back to parenting. You will
leave that in the hands of somebody else and think
it's gonna come out right. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
The dramatic pause, I don't know this is a dramatic
pause that you'll be stopping. That's why i'd be just like,
speaking of dramatic pause, you call it a dramatic I'm
trying to figure out sometimes it's dramatic, Paul, but then
sometimes you really are done. So I'm just trying to
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
She's speak.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
We're in conversation.
Speaker 7 (41:35):
That's right. The I had a question about the Deep Azure.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
So the proceeds from the One Night Only are going
back to the College of Finding Arts at Howard. Yes,
what like today if Chadwick could see kind of like
you know, how the final product has come along and
everybody that's involved, Like what would his sentiments be?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Like?
Speaker 4 (41:59):
How happy would he b two see all of this
coming to fruition from that first phone call that you
guys had about I'll.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Tell you his wife is very and he's producing partner
who was his best friend in college. They're very happy,
and I'm very happy because it's happening, and it's happening
with a great cast of actors. I don't know if
you have that.
Speaker 7 (42:21):
List, I can look it up.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't know if we have the list. You look
it up, Mark, Yeah, I got it.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Oh, you should look at it.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
It's it's Isaiah Johnson, Yes, Amber Emmon, who plays as
your Greg. Alvarez Reed plays Tone, Joshua Boone plays Rod.
Lauren Banks the Street Knowledge good. Yeah, I'm gonna mess
this one up. At a sola isa Colo Aska Looming,
(42:53):
she said, what what you say?
Speaker 7 (42:55):
Okay, knew I wasnna mess it up. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Is the Street Knowledge evil? Jess Washington? Uh is stage directions?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
These are all professionals.
Speaker 7 (43:06):
Yes, and uh.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
God, we're so honored. Mm hmm, We're so honored and
our and our our honorary host committee. H I mean
you know who's on that mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (43:23):
You can look it up.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Look it up and see. I mean, these are people
supporting this.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
So the Honorary Host Committee, Ryan Coogler is the honorary chair,
Common Susan Khalichi Watson, don Cheto, uh Tony see Coats.
I'm sorry, tannahissee Coats, Camilla Forbes, Reginald Hudlington, Kenny Leon
and Terrell, Alvin McCraney.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yes, that's a whole universe, Yes, all to support Yeah,
to support his legacy. Chadwick was he was really amazing.
Chadwick was an actor. Yes, Chadwick was a writer. Chadwick
was a director. Chadwick was a scholar. He studied many things.
(44:16):
The etymology of words, oh, he was deep into that,
into names and the meanings of them. He studied the Bible,
not to Bible thump, but to understand its origins really
and its deeper meanings. And then he combined all of
(44:39):
that with you know, I hate to say it like this,
but I'll say it like this with African cosmology. Why
do I hate to say it like that, Because Africa
is a huge continent and it is not a monolithic proposition,
but there is a certain ethos that runs through all.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
He was brilliant, very he was brilliant.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
There was nobody else to play back Black Panther.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
But mm hmm, Chadwick, see how big we got him
on the door.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Oh yeah, And you know what he really cared about.
He called me one day and this was after graduation.
He was living in New York and he was so
excited and he wanted me to know what he was
doing and to come and see. And I was thinking, Okay, now,
let's see what premiere is this, what film is this?
(45:33):
What play is this? It was none of that. He
was working with young people in the Schomberg Library and
he was so excited about that. M wow, yes he was.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You know, you came up in an aramister, Shadwick, where
dignity and grace were everything. So do you have a
look at how wild Hollywood is now? You think to yourself, boy,
y'all got it easy. Y'all wouldn't have got away with
that my day.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You have to look at Hollywood. I could look at
the way young ladies dress. What's the pan I'm not
talking about I'm talking about you know, the young ladies
are so beautiful. They're so beautiful, and something has happened
(46:31):
in popular culture, you know. And I don't mean to
be critical, and I hope young ladies listening don't take
this as personal criticism because I don't mean.
Speaker 7 (46:43):
It that way.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
But you're young queens, beautiful and smart and brilliant and right,
and it really I know I'm taken aback when I
see on a college campus young women dressed in strips
of clothing. I mean, male instructors don't like it. But
(47:13):
more importantly than that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, sir,
No man wants his woman to be out like that
right now.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
I grew up on method man saying wearing three fourths
of cloth and that was showing your stuff off boo.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
You know, it's like there's today's designers. I mean, there's ways,
you know, there's there are other things.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
And I just leave something to the imagination. It would
be nice some things for my eyes only, you know.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
And like you said, there are always of being sexy
without showing so much, please, and that's really not sexy.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I mean one of the most sexy is most beautiful pictures.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
As you I forgot what year it was, but you
got on like a basketball jersey, like and some popcorn.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
That is.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That iconic white jersey. Yes, that was Yeah, that was
a beautiful picture. That's like that is the epitome of sexy.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Oh well, it's it's I think it has to do
with I think it has a lot to do with
what they're what they see, what they're emulating what they see. See.
We we grew up in a time where you know,
the the singers, these ladies were dressed down, these women
(48:41):
who they were wearing robes and gowns and dew right.
Well it's a little different today. Yeah, so they're really
just emulating.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
What they mhmm.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
I thought it was from nineteen eighty seven. Madison Square
Guarden was jersey, it was, yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I'm talking about yes, oh yes, what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
I was there with Malcolm Jamal Warner.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
To be here before you got here.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Yes, congratulation, you know, try to give your icons they
flowers and celebrate them while they're still here.
Speaker 7 (49:22):
Absolutely, whoa got her balloon.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Flowers?
Speaker 3 (49:31):
We don't never do that.
Speaker 5 (49:32):
Nobody here.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
You've been so gracious with your time, So I've just
got a couple more questions. What's the lesson you learned
way too late in life that you wish you figured
out sooner and you would teach the next generation.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Now, this is gonna sound weird to you after everything
I've told you. The lesson that I learned later in
life was that I'm enough as a young girl growing up,
(50:12):
you know, and young girls go through this. You'll know,
you go through a period where you feel like because
and it's because you're looking outside yourself. You compare yourself
to everyone else you see, and you're not enough because
(50:33):
you don't dressed like that one, or you don't have
hair like that one, or you don't have legs like
that one. You can think of any number of things.
Young girls go through. This kind of thing usually happens
around adolescence, where you feel like you're not enough. Part
(50:57):
of that had to do with my mother being so beautiful,
my father being so handsome, and my sister being so cute,
my brother being so whatever, And I just thought, well,
when I was born, the Lord was doing something else.
Speaker 7 (51:16):
I'm serious, What age was this that you felt like that?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
And I was.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
When I was young, when I was oh ten, eleven, twelve.
And that's a subtle thing that you'll carry with you
until you look inside yourself and you start looking inside yourself,
(51:45):
and that thinking vanishes and goes away, because is only
when we look inside ourselves that we see what beauty
really is.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
So when did you get to that place of worthy?
Speaker 1 (51:59):
When did I get to this? Please?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
I think I was about thirty I want to say
I was about thirty four thirty five years old?
Speaker 3 (52:22):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (52:26):
And now I look back at those pictures of myself
and I say, what did.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
You feel like that?
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah? The mind? Oh yeah, the mind. That's why it's
important to teach young people to look inside the mind,
the state of mind. And there's too much going on
right now that's so distracting for them. I don't know
(52:52):
how young people feel. If they listen to news reports today,
they can't feel empowered. It's not meant to do that
for us, for anybody, but.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
It never has though.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I mean they always say if it bleeds, it leads,
like they especially for black people, it never would telling
us anything to make us feel uplifted and empowered.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
All of humanity is in the same boat, my friend,
nobody feels empowered by that.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
None really.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
I was taught a very great thing. I heard a
very great thing from a great being some years ago.
Make yourself great by making others greater. M m mhm.
And that's what I would teach a young.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Person, make yourself great by making others greater.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
M yes.
Speaker 7 (53:49):
Man, Well, thank you, not just for the interview, but
for your career things.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Thank you, Thank you for being you like you know that.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
It is not every day you get to meet people
that you you know, you grew up on and watched
and you know said to yourself, man, that person right
there is a pillar of our community and what we
need to be as a people.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
And then you meet them and you're just as gracious
and regal in person. So just thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Thank you to your mother and your father for raising
such a beautiful, strong woman, and I hope I can
do the same for my daughters.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
I think you are I think when they look at you,
they know that they're loved and they're protected. That's all
they need.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Absolutely, absolutely make sure y'all go check out Purposes running
through on Broadway through July sixth.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
It is Queen Felicia Rashad. Thank you for joining us
Wakens Up in the Morning Breakfast Club
Wake that ass up in the morning.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
Breakfast Club, Yes, Sister One, the most dangerous morning show
to Breakfast Club, charlamagnea God, just hilarious. DJ Envy's not in,
but Laura le Rossa is filling in for him, and
we got Royalty in the building. Man, we have a
woman who has represented you know, black people, especially black
women correctly forever.
Speaker 3 (00:18):
Miss Felicia Rashad is here. How are you, queen?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
I am good, good to see you.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm a little star strugg too.
Speaker 4 (00:27):
I mean to keep staring at you, but I cannot
believe I'm sitting here across from you and just and
like it's.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Because we even watching you on TV. You always carry
yourself in such a regal.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Man. Then when you walk in the room you feel
it even more. It's like whoa.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
I was telling him, all right, mama walking in the room,
straightening up, okay, clean, make sure everything all right?
Speaker 5 (00:49):
Yeah? Do you have and I know you have this
effect everywhere you go. Are you used to people acting
like this?
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Oh? You all?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Or what?
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Can I just say? We are as a people respectful
yeah to each other? Yes, yes, yes, ma'am, yes we are,
Yes we are, But not the others we are as
a people.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Absolutely absolutely, yes, And you're here for I mean, we're
gonna talk to you about a lot of stuff. You're
making your Broadway directorial debut and purpose. Yes, how did
that feel? Well?
Speaker 1 (01:28):
It was wonderful. It's not the first time I've directed.
This is the first time I'm directing in a Broadway theater.
But this play and this cast, it's a real gift.
You'll come and see. Yes, Yeah, yes, I hope you'll
come through. Brandon Jacobs Jenkins is the playwright. He received
(01:48):
the Tony Award last year for his play Appropriate And
This particular production originates in Chicago at the Steppenwolf Theater,
and the Steppenwolf has its own ethos, its own legacy
for theater as it was formed by actors. So it's
ensemble work, and that's the best work. Absolutely ensemble work.
(02:13):
But then that spirit I watched it move through the
cast into everybody, the designers, the production office and staff,
the theaters, we all, it's it's everybody. It's one. We
(02:33):
call it collective intention. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
When I think about the thing that you and your
your sister have done, ms. Debbie Allen, you know, I
just wonder what did y'all dream of when y'all was kids,
when y'all was just two little girls growing up? Like,
what did y'all play about? What did y'all think about?
What did y'all imagine?
Speaker 1 (02:54):
We We grew up in Houston, Texas. Our father, doctor
Andrew Allam's a dentist. Our mother, Vivianaires, is a poet.
We grew up with a poet. We grew up with
a visionary. And it was about freedom. It was about
(03:17):
pardon me, It was about realizing your full potential as
a human being. Can you imagine things like this? Teaching
dual children like this. She would teach us things like.
She have aphorisms, and she'd give them to us to say,
the universe bears no ill to me, I bear no
ill to it. And we repeat that the universe fair
(03:39):
is no ill to me. I bear no ill to it.
If we just go around the universe, fair is no
ill to me. I bet when you teach a child
like this, when you teach a child, be true, be beautiful,
be free. She would say things like this to us,
and she'd say things like thinking requires thought, Thinking requires thought.
(03:59):
We would say it, But these seeds were planted by
the time I was eleven years old. Yes, oh, Debbie.
Debbie was nine years old, and she said to my mother,
(04:19):
I did dance classes, and you're not doing a thing
about it. You're not doing a thing about it. Wow, Well,
you know legal segregation at that time. My mother took
(04:39):
the railing off the side of the stairs going upstairs.
She took the handrail and had it attached to a
wall in what was supposed to have been the dining room.
And she hired this teacher who had come from the
New York City Ballet, a Caucasian man, to come and
teach Debbie in the house. Her ballet classes were there.
(05:01):
This is this is how we grew. We grew like this.
And he gave Debrah a book about ballet with photographs
of all the famous dancers, and we would look at
that book all day. Every day. My mother would take
us to exhibitions, to lectures things we couldn't understand. She
(05:24):
knew we couldn't understand it. She told us later, I
knew you wouldn't understand what was being said, but you
were present and the seeds were being planted. When we
were growing up. She didn't want us scarred by the
ignorance of racism, and it was all around us. It
(05:44):
was legal at that time. But as little little children,
if there was somewhere we wanted to go and we
were restricted, she'd explain it like this. She'd say, oh, well,
that's a private club for members only, and we're not
(06:05):
members of that club. And then she'd do something else.
She'd invite all our friends into the living room. She'd
teach us music. She'd teach us to tumble, she'd teach
us things like this, she'd teach us coral speech. And
that's how we grew. And at that time, music education,
(06:25):
This is very interesting. In a time of legal segregation,
music education was free and in the schools, and the
schools had instruments that students could use. I studied viola.
Debbie played the bass violin, if you can believe it,
the littlest thing in the school. They had to sit
(06:47):
her up on a stool, had to sit that child
up on a stool, and her little fingers, her little hands.
Couldn't you know a bass player usually had big hands.
You should have seen Debbie up there. She never missed
a beat and she never played a sour note. She
played that thing like she had created in herself. This
(07:08):
is how we grew We grew up in surrounded by
a community that cared for its children. And I mean
we were safe. Yeah, we were safe. We felt safe.
We didn't I didn't feel fear as a child. Our
(07:33):
mother was a great example of that too. One night,
somebody tried to break in the house, and my mother
was awake and she heard the clamor. She went out
the back door and walked her way around to where
this man was trying to come through the window. And
she stood right there and she said, you could get
arrested for that. You know. He scared Jesus and read
(07:59):
we grew up to be fearless, but not to be stupid.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
Expound on that, fearless but not stupid.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Well, I mean, look, if you see a rattlesnake in
front of you, come on, that's right, that's right, don't
be stupid. If you see a car come in your way,
don't be stupid.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Absolutely absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
I love the story you just told, because as you
were talking about it, I'm like, man, how do you
teach freedom the black kids in the country that wasn't
providing you that freedom at the time.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
I'll tell you how. I'll tell you how. A poet,
a visionary hmm. You have to look inside, and you
have to teach young people to look inside. There's nothing
(08:59):
but freedom. So much distraction today, one thing and then
another to make anybody, not just African American children, but
anybody feel separate from its creation, separate from the one
(09:21):
who created everything that is separate from one's own self.
In the midst of majesty nature, in the midst of
presence distraction, pay attention to that.
Speaker 5 (09:45):
You're gonna be stealing your quotes.
Speaker 6 (09:47):
But the rest of the month, every day there is
a depositive note, and the Charlemagne is over there writing
down everything and his mind.
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Going to you, be quoting you for the rest of
them month.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
I know it.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
Yeah, so you don't you know, we knew history. You
teach history, but you don't identify with the Middle Passage's
who you are. That's not who you are, That's not
who anyone is. That is what happened. But people survive
(10:25):
that because of who we are as human beings. Right now,
I'm just saying it. Right now, we need all the people. Yeah,
all the people.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, that's since the community you're talking about growing up
in Houston. You need that. You need to be able
to teach kids' freedom. You need to be able to
instill security and safety in kids. And that can only
come from come from It.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Comes from home and in teaching. You know, it's shared
with others. You know, children are not born into this
world fearful. No human being is born into this world
fearful or filled with hate. Nobody's born like that. You
(11:21):
have to learn that stuff. You know, there's a song
from a Broadway show. You have to be carefully taught,
carefully taught. Well, you can be carefully taught the right
way too.
Speaker 4 (11:37):
What was your mother's upbringing like? Because she seems like
she was so still and so short of herself. And
I'm sure she had, you know, experienced a lot.
Speaker 1 (11:46):
My mother grew up in Chester, South Carolina.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Ay, I'm from Talk Carolina. I was born at Charleston
raith Inn, a small town called monst Corn.
Speaker 1 (11:55):
You the people, ye, okay? You the people? Okay. So
it was a small mill town, right. Her father was
a blacksmith, one of his brothers was a mortician, and
the other brother was a barber. And these businesses had
been owned by her grandfather. It was an agricultural community, right,
(12:20):
But there was a school there that had been founded
by the presbytery. There was such a number of such schools,
pardon me, that had been founded by the Presbytery for
the descendants of freed African people throughout the South. This
school was Brainerd Institute. And in this school there was
(12:43):
this classical education administered by black people. My mother was
always interested in music. Oh, she was quite the pianist.
She's described herself to me once as saying, she was
a little girl swinging high on the swing, looking up
(13:08):
at the sky and dreaming big dreams. That's how she grew.
Her mother passed away when she was When my mother
was nine, she lost her mother. And she said, as
she sat at her mother's funeral and listened to the
things that people were saying, she decided none of them
were intelligent enough to tell her anything to do. She
(13:31):
would chart her own course at nine, at nine at nine,
and she did, and she did. It was not an
easy life, but there was this spirit in her, living
in her, burning in her, that carried her through. Her
(13:57):
first publication is by this collection of porns. Her second
publication Hawk. If you read Hawk, you will understand how
I grew. This is an inner journey. This is an
allegory of freedom, which parallels flight through space without a vehicle.
(14:19):
It was published eleven weeks before the launch of sputnik Ie.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
Wow, what did you learn from your your father, because
you said he was a dentist.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Oh, my father. My father was born on the back
porch of a farm in Lovedale, Louisiana. He was one
of nine children. His father worked on the railroad. He
was a fireman on the South Pacific Railroad. And his mother,
you know, was housekeeping. Right. My grandfather put great emphasis
(14:57):
on education, and he made sure that all of his
children went to college.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Imagine it, especially in that time.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Imagine it. So my father was a very kind and
generous man. He was what was called a man's man.
Men loved him and trusted him. He was always the
treasurer of the dental Association because they said, if text
(15:29):
takes care of the money, we're in good shape. He
was organized, he was very clean. He loved music, he
loved theater, he loved the arts. He came to see
any and everything we did, whatever it was. He was
very supportive. He was he was so handsome. He was
(15:56):
so handsome, and he was so good. He did things
that people didn't know he did. He was like that.
And in his office he dealt with people's pain and
(16:17):
anxiety every day, and they came to him and trusted him.
And when they couldn't pay, he'd work out a payment
plan for them that was convenient for them. They didn't
have to go anywhere and incur interest rates. He would
work that out for him. When my father passed away,
(16:41):
at his viewing, the line stretched out of the mortuary, wow,
all the way down the street, all the way round
the block. And when the last person came, he said,
he looked at and me. He said, you don't understand.
(17:03):
You don't understand. That's my dentist mmm. And that motiicaide as.
Speaker 5 (17:12):
I remember.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
That motiicaid on the way to the cemetery, stretched as
far as the eye could see. He was so beloved.
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Thank you, Joe, thank you.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
So that's why I asked, just because you know when
you look like I said, you know you we look
at Felicia Shade and Wie Allen, two strong queens. Somebody
had to raise them. Somebody had them still that in
them and as a father raising four beautiful black girls.
You know, I'm just always thinking about you know what,
should me and my wife being stealing in them all
the time, just so they grow up to be.
Speaker 3 (17:49):
Strong black women. When you love them, my mom says,
all the time.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
When you love them, that's all you know. My father,
if I can remember one great instruction, my father gave
me two great instructions. He said, and I was a
little girl, he said, never let anybody run over you.
Who's five years old? And he told me that, never
let anyone run over you. And then later on in life,
(18:17):
he said, always know the balance of your bank account
and keep your own money.
Speaker 6 (18:24):
Yeah, what can you tell us about to start without
spoiling it?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
You know the Broadway?
Speaker 6 (18:35):
But what can you tell us about the story of
purpose without giving it all the way?
Speaker 5 (18:39):
I know you don't want to.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Oh, this is wonderful family family drama, and there's humor
in it. A young man is recalling a visit to
his home and on this night of nights, so much
(19:03):
happens in one night, and so much is revealed in
one night, and some things are resolved. It's uh, That's
all I'm gonna tell you, except to tell you that
cast Harry Lennox mm hmmmm. Okay, the Tanya Richardson Jackson
(19:32):
mm hmm okay, Glenn Glenn Davis mm hmmm, Alana Arenas
and John Michael Hill. It's the most it's the most
incredible ensemble that I've ever witnessed. Each one is a master,
(19:54):
each one and the inimitable Caro Young, who was Louty
Bell in Pearly Victorious last season, that's her cast. People
come at the end of the play and have various reactions.
(20:15):
One woman said, ooh, that scene at the dining room table.
Who that was my family's thanksgiving for the past time?
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Relatable?
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Right, and she was not an African American woman. People
see themselves and that's when we know we are really
doing our best work. When you see yourself.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
I was gonna say, speaking of doing your best work,
I think you know, for a lot of us and
watching you on television, the iconic role of Claire Huxtable
and just what that image of you know, having a
mom that was just so graceful and so like everything
that you.
Speaker 7 (20:55):
Were in that show. Do you like in real life?
Speaker 4 (20:59):
Is there ever, sure was there at the time for
you to like upkeep like a certain like I don't know,
like an image or like just anything that people try
to house. No, like so not in your house, but
like in real life, like in Hollywood and other roles
you were taking in, like you know what I mean, Like,
did you ever feel like because I think for us
like you are like the perfect like image of like
(21:20):
a black woman. Like so I always wondered if you
felt that pressure.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
No, light is not heavy, M carry light, share light.
Light is not heavy.
Speaker 6 (21:38):
Even in even in interviews. But I understand what you're saying.
Even in interviews back then, you would still have the
same deposition, the same grace when you know, outside of
that role.
Speaker 5 (21:53):
I'm gonna tell you the one that sticks with me.
Speaker 6 (21:55):
When you told uh Saundra's boyfriend Elvin that is iconic.
And then when Vanessa wanted to go to Baltimore, I'm
friend to.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
See the wretchet.
Speaker 6 (22:08):
Oh my god, when I tell you those are my
two like key episodes. Right, Well yeah, because I'm from
Baltimore and I done snuck out the house. And you
know I don't done all that. You ain't knocked Vanessa out.
I got knocked out a few times.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
But.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Well yeah, right, that's it. Also I also want to
bring up the movie bee Keeper. Oh my god, how
is that working with Jason Stathum.
Speaker 1 (22:39):
Oh he's such a good person. Yeah, oh yeah, so generous,
so kind, amazing to a fault. You know, that was
a great experience.
Speaker 6 (22:50):
That was a great movie because it also like talks
to what's going on these days. Like it's so I know,
y'all you probably didn't see it. So The Beekeep is
a movie about an older woman who is robbed of
her her retirement funds, everything cleared, her bank accounts, fraud
(23:10):
a lot of frauds. She took a phone call from
this company that acted as if they were trying to
like help her with some type of banking information, and
she like kind of fell forward and ended up now
and Beekeeper did? Is this the question I always have?
Did the woman kill herself? Or did she killed herself?
Not because she lost her money.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
It was other people's money she lost, Okay, And do
you know that maybe six months after that filming, I
read of such a thing in the newspaper. Wow, oh wow,
this was a man. Yeah, and he was so embarrassed.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
But the greater problem here is access, Yes, yeah, so
much access to people is all of that necessary? Is
it good?
Speaker 3 (24:06):
No?
Speaker 1 (24:06):
No it's not. No man, no it's not. And as
we see it moving towards more, think about that.
Speaker 4 (24:15):
Yeah, how do how do you now a days like?
Because I mean you obviously pick and choose what you
want to do with your roles. Like I watched you
in dar from Detroit and I was like, the one
thing we all in the car and you were talking
about the temptations, all of them.
Speaker 7 (24:34):
I'm gonna tell you right now, I felt bad watching that.
I'm like, I don't think I'm supposed to hear her.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yes, but it's so funny though.
Speaker 2 (24:45):
The first time I saw the clips, they didn't tell
me it was from a TV show.
Speaker 6 (24:48):
Yeah, he thought that you were really reflecting all your life.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
I said, damn she slept. No, No, that was a character, Darling.
That was a character. As actors, we play these roles.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
When you choose a character like that, where it's like
it's a lot different than how we've seen you or
how I've seen you anyway, and different things that you've done.
What's you're thinking behind it? Is it because you want
to you want people to see you in the different
lights or is it just I just want.
Speaker 1 (25:20):
To do see what she was doing. Yes, that's why
I chose the characters because of what she was doing. Yeah,
people get all caught up in funny stuff. Yeah, what
was that woman doing.
Speaker 7 (25:32):
She was rescuing people.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
She was rescuing people. She was living with the deepest
hurt that a mother can have, that she lost her
child because she was not paying attention, and in her
heart she felt that her child was alive somewhere. And
this is years later, but just in a moment of
(25:56):
being too tired and too annoyed and too you distracted
and wanting to do something else, she turned away and
in that instant, her child was taken from her.
Speaker 5 (26:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:11):
And so she said about the saving people, she went
on saving people, open one day somebody would save her son.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
M hm.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
So I choose people because I choose a character because
of what people are doing.
Speaker 2 (26:23):
Yeah, I want to go back to something just said.
She brought up the Elvin scene, right, because that was
a role.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Well, when you.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Schooled Elvin on I guess the marital, the marital, how
much input did you have on that scene and what
were you trying to convey when you saw it on paper?
What did you say to yourself, Oh, I know what
I can do in this scene to convey a larger message.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Oh, I didn't say anything. I just said I just
said the lines.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
It was just as it was there.
Speaker 6 (26:50):
Oh, it was there, but it was the way you
deliver it, you know.
Speaker 3 (26:54):
So it was like battle rapping.
Speaker 1 (27:02):
It was so, you know, it was this is this
is a part of your training as an actor. Language
and how you use it, you know, And there's rhythm
in this pace, and so much is conveyed in that way.
If you said it another way, it wouldn't be as effective.
If you tried to say it like you were singing
(27:23):
the lazy No, it wouldn't work.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
It wouldn't hit like a black mama.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
What would in writers' rooms like though, because it felt
like a black experience with black writers writers.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
The thing was to write a human story, to write
about human behavior, the truth of human behavior. That's what
makes comedy and theater real, the truth of human behavior.
You don't have to make something up. If you're writing
(27:58):
about something that's real.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
You can take a different perspective on it, and your
skills as a writer, you know, show up in your
language or your you know, those things that writers do.
Speaker 6 (28:14):
Yeah, what do you do to channel roles like your
role and fall from grace, like when you're the villain,
What do you do to channel those roles?
Speaker 1 (28:25):
Everybody's a human being, right, Yeah, okay, m she's just
a nasty human. This is a person who is sick.
Her whole perspective is warped. You've got to be sick
to mistreat another person. I'm sorry. You cannot be sane
(28:48):
and do hurtful things to people. You just the sane
person won't do that.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
Do you agree that one of the four agreements is,
you know, don't don't take offense to things, don't take
things personal.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
Because what you do.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
What somebody does to you is not a reflection to you,
is something that's going on internally with them. It's hard that,
you know, to put yourself in that position, but you
really got to.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Know that sometimes you want to just clutch somebody, shake
them real good.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
My daddy used to say, you'll stop taking everything personal
personal once you realize that it's a bunch of people
out here on cocaine, like people out here doing all
types of stuff that you have no idea about.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
Where was your father from.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
Monk's corner, South Carolina. All my family in South Carolina, Mama, daddy, everybody.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
It's the best because you know.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
It's like if you ever been to the International African
American Museum. Oh you were there, I'm bugging yes, you
were there for the grand opening. I didn't get to
meet you'll want to meet y'all was on the other side.
But yeah, it's right there on the port where, like
I think fifty percent of all enslaved Africans came through.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
So that's like home for a lot of us.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
And don't know that's right, And don't.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Know another thing I want to ask you about when
you ran down on Vanessa, who are what were you
channeling in that moment, because I'm sure you, I'm sure
you and your sisters knuck out the house a couple
of times and Mama had to get on.
Speaker 7 (30:11):
You never snuck out.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
I didn't have to sneak. Yeah, I didn't have to sneak.
Yeah it was good. I didn't have to. But it
was good not to have to do that. Yeah, you know,
sometimes it might have stayed a little too long or
we didn't have to sneak. It was it was, it
was fun. It was you know, it was an actor,
(30:33):
and you understand human behavior, you understand feelings. It's it's
the way you develop yourself. This is the craft. This
is what we do. And uh, I guess if you
do it in a certain way, people think it's you.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yes, that's why they can't see you playing a role
like in a Fall from Grades, like mister Shott is
a villain.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
No, it's she was.
Speaker 5 (31:02):
We have to detach the actress from the character.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Oh yeah, you know. And as an artist, you don't
want to sing the same song or play the same tube. Yeah,
you don't want to paint the same picture forever. You've
got a paint box. You want to use those paints
and do a different scenes because we have range. Well, yeah,
(31:30):
and you want to express humanity in whatever you do
at least I do.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
You know you can't.
Speaker 7 (31:38):
I was going to say your time at at Howard.
I'm on HBC. You graded went to Delaware State?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Have you ever heard of it?
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Yes?
Speaker 3 (31:44):
Wow?
Speaker 7 (31:46):
The police thing next exactly right.
Speaker 4 (31:50):
But the freedom that you were talking about earlier, I remember,
like I was raised in the household where my mom
was very much like that. But going to an HBCU,
I remember that being the first time where I was like, oh, okay,
the world like really needs me. And it was because
of like teachers and counselors and stuff that kind of
had the same spirit that you have. I wonder, like,
for you, what was like one of your favorite things
(32:10):
about walking on campus every day with those students as
a dean.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
As the dean ooh, walking on campus. Everywhere I looked,
I was reminded of my time there as a student,
and I was reminded of my friends, and I was
reminded of the things that we did and the time
(32:34):
in which we were living as students. It was an
important time. Doctor King was assassinated in my sophomore year.
Speaker 3 (32:45):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah, I watched these things happen. So much unfolded on
that campus. I remember when Muhammad Ali came and spoke
on the steps of Frederick Douglas Hall mm hmm. And
I remember him standing there and he said, look at me.
Can't you see that I'm free? And you could. Oh.
(33:13):
They were great people. There were great. Oh. The instructors.
When I tell you about instructors I had at Howard University.
Speaker 4 (33:24):
You know, yeah, they feeling they pour in like you
never forget that, like they pouring into you in a
different way.
Speaker 1 (33:30):
And they're so well developed. They are deep, they are deep.
So there was a time, you know, I was just
referencing back to my father's area dentistry. There was a
time when African Americans were trained, could be trained at Harvard,
(33:50):
but they wouldn't hire them to teach. So these people
who were trained in these great quote great institutions went
to HBCUs to teach. You were receiving that education there,
that discipline, those demands. They were serious about it. They
(34:14):
were so serious about it. There was there was an
instructor at Howard down in medical school, doctor Montague J.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Cobb.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
They talked about this man. He was legendary. My father's
friend said, oh, no, you don't understand. If we failed
the test, he would say, meet me in the lab tonight,
And they'd all show up in the lab and while
they were going around doing what they were supposed to
be doing, he would pull out his viola and play
(34:45):
as he walked up and down the aisle. And my
father's friend said, you wanted him to play that viola
because that meant that he was pleased with what you
would do. I mean, they came, you know, people we
came through in a time that we should remember.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
I feel like that's a level of village. I don't
know if we have anymore.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Well, we can have it if we wanted, and we
can expand it. We can expand it to it include
our Hispanic family. We can expand it to include our
Asian family. We can expand it to include our Caucasian family.
We can expand it because we need all the people.
That's a line from August Wilson's play Gim of the
(35:26):
Ocean on Esther who on Essa says, I'm going to
show you what happened when all the people call on
God in the one voice. God got beautiful splendors, and
God got room for everybody.
Speaker 4 (35:48):
Were you when you when you decided not to return
back to Howard did you feel like you didn't return
because your work was done there? Or was it just
like a personal decision because like business reasons, Like I
just felt like people like you, what we need you.
Speaker 7 (36:00):
On campuses every day.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
But I know it's probably it's a lot to do
well at once, But like, what was that like for you,
that decision not to go back?
Speaker 1 (36:08):
Well, I will always be connected. I will always be
connected to Howard University. As a matter of fact, next
week I will be in Washington, d C. For the
one night only reading of Chadwick A. Boseman's Deep Azure.
He wrote that, So he was one of my students
(36:28):
early early on, when Al Freeman Jr. Invited me to
come and teach for a semester. So we were in
the studio doing the show Monday through Thursday and Friday morning,
I'd get up and fly down and I'd teach. And
he was one of my students. Collecchi Susan Collecchi Watson
was one of the students. Camilla Fors one of the students.
(36:53):
He was He was fearless, he was brave South Carolina,
and and he was also very respectful. It's why I say,
as a people, we are respectful people. We are naturally
you know. So anyway, he kept in contact with me,
(37:17):
and after he had graduated, one day I received this call,
I'm sending you something. Mister Shady would always call me
that I'm sending you something. Even after he had attained
fame and notoriety, he still called me mister always. So
he said okay, And what he sent was a copy
(37:37):
of the script that he had written hip Hop Theater.
Hip Hop Theater was born on the campus of Howard University,
and he was one of the progenitors. He was one
of the innovators. And it's how can I say hip
hop language and rhythm through the voice and experience of
(37:59):
a class that.
Speaker 7 (38:02):
It is grand, that's like the essence of an HBCU.
Speaker 4 (38:07):
Like when you're saying it, it's like, okay, that's what
it's like when you go to like the cave for
like you and the parties, or it's literally like everybody
is so like astute, but like you, it's a vibe
like you can't describe it.
Speaker 7 (38:19):
You got to just be there and it's real.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
It's real, and people are taking their education seriously right
But now with this AI business, I don't know, children
trying not to write their own papers to try to
do this what do they call it? This chet thing?
And who excuse me for stammering, but it puts me
at a loss for words like darling, don't you understand
(38:43):
why you're here now? If you wanted to do that,
you could stay home. You should stay home because you're
taking up room that somebody else could be occupying. Who
really wants to.
Speaker 5 (38:55):
Do the work.
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Yeah, who really wants to develop? What about your intellect? Baby?
Do you have no care or thought for your intellect
for expanding that? What about that? What about your worldview? Darling?
Do you not care for that?
Speaker 3 (39:15):
Oh?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Okay, you're gonna give that to the chap too. All right,
Well let's see where you lad, Let's see where you
end up. So purpose the play. Yes, one of the
things that's said in this play by the patriarch, he said,
he feels he feels that he has lost a communion
(39:40):
with God. He said, ancestors were in such close communion
with God and his creation. They knew how to do
things and how to take care of things, he says,
And I think that I have I think that we
all have lost that. He says. Well, maybe it's old age.
I don't know, But he says, he's very interested in
(40:02):
the things we used to do back home down in
the country, fishing and hunting and bee keeping and growing.
You know, I was shocked, shocked to know that they
are children who don't understand that French fries come from
(40:25):
potatoes that are alone.
Speaker 4 (40:27):
And those weren't the children that how it was okay,
but I'm shocked, but I'm shocked to know.
Speaker 1 (40:37):
I'm shocked to know from two pediatricians in two different cities. Right,
they have books, you know, in their waiting rooms for
the young children. Young children come in and pick up
a book and try to scan it.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
M M.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
Because the parents aren't giving them books, they're giving them
these little things. These things.
Speaker 5 (40:57):
Yeah, it's like, m.
Speaker 1 (41:02):
So, so here we go back to parenting. You will
leave that in the hands of somebody else and think
it's gonna come out right. I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
The dramatic pause, I don't know this is a dramatic
pause that you'll be stopping. That's why i'd be just like,
speaking of dramatic pause, you call it a dramatic I'm
trying to figure out sometimes it's dramatic, Paul, but then
sometimes you really are done. So I'm just trying to
figure it out.
Speaker 1 (41:31):
She's speak.
Speaker 3 (41:34):
We're in conversation.
Speaker 7 (41:35):
That's right. The I had a question about the Deep Azure.
Speaker 4 (41:42):
So the proceeds from the One Night Only are going
back to the College of Finding Arts at Howard. Yes,
what like today if Chadwick could see kind of like
you know, how the final product has come along and
everybody that's involved, Like what would his sentiments be?
Speaker 2 (41:59):
Like?
Speaker 4 (41:59):
How happy would he b two see all of this
coming to fruition from that first phone call that you
guys had about I'll.
Speaker 1 (42:04):
Tell you his wife is very and he's producing partner
who was his best friend in college. They're very happy,
and I'm very happy because it's happening, and it's happening
with a great cast of actors. I don't know if
you have that.
Speaker 7 (42:21):
List, I can look it up.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
I don't know if we have the list. You look
it up, Mark, Yeah, I got it.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Oh, you should look at it.
Speaker 4 (42:30):
It's it's Isaiah Johnson, Yes, Amber Emmon, who plays as
your Greg. Alvarez Reed plays Tone, Joshua Boone plays Rod.
Lauren Banks the Street Knowledge good. Yeah, I'm gonna mess
this one up. At a sola isa Colo Aska Looming,
(42:53):
she said, what what you say?
Speaker 7 (42:55):
Okay, knew I wasnna mess it up. I'm sorry.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Is the Street Knowledge evil? Jess Washington? Uh is stage directions?
Speaker 1 (43:04):
These are all professionals.
Speaker 7 (43:06):
Yes, and uh.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
God, we're so honored. Mm hmm, We're so honored and
our and our our honorary host committee. H I mean
you know who's on that mm hmm.
Speaker 7 (43:23):
You can look it up.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Look it up and see. I mean, these are people
supporting this.
Speaker 4 (43:33):
So the Honorary Host Committee, Ryan Coogler is the honorary chair,
Common Susan Khalichi Watson, don Cheto, uh Tony see Coats.
I'm sorry, tannahissee Coats, Camilla Forbes, Reginald Hudlington, Kenny Leon
and Terrell, Alvin McCraney.
Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yes, that's a whole universe, Yes, all to support Yeah,
to support his legacy. Chadwick was he was really amazing.
Chadwick was an actor. Yes, Chadwick was a writer. Chadwick
was a director. Chadwick was a scholar. He studied many things.
(44:16):
The etymology of words, oh, he was deep into that,
into names and the meanings of them. He studied the Bible,
not to Bible thump, but to understand its origins really
and its deeper meanings. And then he combined all of
(44:39):
that with you know, I hate to say it like this,
but I'll say it like this with African cosmology. Why
do I hate to say it like that, Because Africa
is a huge continent and it is not a monolithic proposition,
but there is a certain ethos that runs through all.
Speaker 3 (45:00):
He was brilliant, very he was brilliant.
Speaker 1 (45:05):
There was nobody else to play back Black Panther.
Speaker 3 (45:07):
But mm hmm, Chadwick, see how big we got him
on the door.
Speaker 1 (45:12):
Oh yeah, And you know what he really cared about.
He called me one day and this was after graduation.
He was living in New York and he was so
excited and he wanted me to know what he was
doing and to come and see. And I was thinking, Okay, now,
let's see what premiere is this, what film is this?
(45:33):
What play is this? It was none of that. He
was working with young people in the Schomberg Library and
he was so excited about that. M wow, yes he was.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
You know, you came up in an aramister, Shadwick, where
dignity and grace were everything. So do you have a
look at how wild Hollywood is now? You think to yourself, boy,
y'all got it easy. Y'all wouldn't have got away with
that my day.
Speaker 5 (46:05):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
You have to look at Hollywood. I could look at
the way young ladies dress. What's the pan I'm not
talking about I'm talking about you know, the young ladies
are so beautiful. They're so beautiful, and something has happened
(46:31):
in popular culture, you know. And I don't mean to
be critical, and I hope young ladies listening don't take
this as personal criticism because I don't mean.
Speaker 7 (46:43):
It that way.
Speaker 1 (46:45):
But you're young queens, beautiful and smart and brilliant and right,
and it really I know I'm taken aback when I
see on a college campus young women dressed in strips
of clothing. I mean, male instructors don't like it. But
(47:13):
more importantly than that, and you correct me if I'm wrong, sir,
No man wants his woman to be out like that
right now.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
I grew up on method man saying wearing three fourths
of cloth and that was showing your stuff off boo.
Speaker 1 (47:37):
You know, it's like there's today's designers. I mean, there's ways,
you know, there's there are other things.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
And I just leave something to the imagination. It would
be nice some things for my eyes only, you know.
Speaker 6 (47:51):
And like you said, there are always of being sexy
without showing so much, please, and that's really not sexy.
Speaker 3 (47:58):
I mean one of the most sexy is most beautiful pictures.
Speaker 2 (48:00):
As you I forgot what year it was, but you
got on like a basketball jersey, like and some popcorn.
Speaker 1 (48:09):
That is.
Speaker 3 (48:12):
That iconic white jersey. Yes, that was Yeah, that was
a beautiful picture. That's like that is the epitome of sexy.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
Oh well, it's it's I think it has to do
with I think it has a lot to do with
what they're what they see, what they're emulating what they see. See.
We we grew up in a time where you know,
the the singers, these ladies were dressed down, these women
(48:41):
who they were wearing robes and gowns and dew right.
Well it's a little different today. Yeah, so they're really
just emulating.
Speaker 5 (48:52):
What they mhmm.
Speaker 4 (48:53):
I thought it was from nineteen eighty seven. Madison Square
Guarden was jersey, it was, yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:01):
I'm talking about yes, oh yes, what you were doing.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
I was there with Malcolm Jamal Warner.
Speaker 3 (49:13):
To be here before you got here.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
Yes, congratulation, you know, try to give your icons they
flowers and celebrate them while they're still here.
Speaker 7 (49:22):
Absolutely, whoa got her balloon.
Speaker 5 (49:29):
Flowers?
Speaker 3 (49:31):
We don't never do that.
Speaker 5 (49:32):
Nobody here.
Speaker 2 (49:37):
You've been so gracious with your time, So I've just
got a couple more questions. What's the lesson you learned
way too late in life that you wish you figured
out sooner and you would teach the next generation.
Speaker 1 (49:48):
Now, this is gonna sound weird to you after everything
I've told you. The lesson that I learned later in
life was that I'm enough as a young girl growing up,
(50:12):
you know, and young girls go through this. You'll know,
you go through a period where you feel like because
and it's because you're looking outside yourself. You compare yourself
to everyone else you see, and you're not enough because
(50:33):
you don't dressed like that one, or you don't have
hair like that one, or you don't have legs like
that one. You can think of any number of things.
Young girls go through. This kind of thing usually happens
around adolescence, where you feel like you're not enough. Part
(50:57):
of that had to do with my mother being so beautiful,
my father being so handsome, and my sister being so cute,
my brother being so whatever, And I just thought, well,
when I was born, the Lord was doing something else.
Speaker 7 (51:16):
I'm serious, What age was this that you felt like that?
Speaker 2 (51:19):
And I was.
Speaker 1 (51:23):
When I was young, when I was oh ten, eleven, twelve.
And that's a subtle thing that you'll carry with you
until you look inside yourself and you start looking inside yourself,
(51:45):
and that thinking vanishes and goes away, because is only
when we look inside ourselves that we see what beauty
really is.
Speaker 3 (51:56):
So when did you get to that place of worthy?
Speaker 1 (51:59):
When did I get to this? Please?
Speaker 3 (52:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (52:04):
I think I was about thirty I want to say
I was about thirty four thirty five years old?
Speaker 3 (52:22):
Wow?
Speaker 1 (52:26):
And now I look back at those pictures of myself
and I say, what did.
Speaker 3 (52:30):
You feel like that?
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah? The mind? Oh yeah, the mind. That's why it's
important to teach young people to look inside the mind,
the state of mind. And there's too much going on
right now that's so distracting for them. I don't know
(52:52):
how young people feel. If they listen to news reports today,
they can't feel empowered. It's not meant to do that
for us, for anybody, but.
Speaker 3 (53:03):
It never has though.
Speaker 2 (53:04):
I mean they always say if it bleeds, it leads,
like they especially for black people, it never would telling
us anything to make us feel uplifted and empowered.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
All of humanity is in the same boat, my friend,
nobody feels empowered by that.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
None really.
Speaker 1 (53:22):
I was taught a very great thing. I heard a
very great thing from a great being some years ago.
Make yourself great by making others greater. M m mhm.
And that's what I would teach a young.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Person, make yourself great by making others greater.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
M yes.
Speaker 7 (53:49):
Man, Well, thank you, not just for the interview, but
for your career things.
Speaker 3 (53:54):
Thank you, Thank you for being you like you know that.
Speaker 2 (53:59):
It is not every day you get to meet people
that you you know, you grew up on and watched
and you know said to yourself, man, that person right
there is a pillar of our community and what we
need to be as a people.
Speaker 3 (54:09):
And then you meet them and you're just as gracious
and regal in person. So just thank you.
Speaker 2 (54:14):
Thank you to your mother and your father for raising
such a beautiful, strong woman, and I hope I can
do the same for my daughters.
Speaker 1 (54:22):
I think you are I think when they look at you,
they know that they're loved and they're protected. That's all
they need.
Speaker 2 (54:31):
Absolutely, absolutely make sure y'all go check out Purposes running
through on Broadway through July sixth.
Speaker 3 (54:38):
It is Queen Felicia Rashad. Thank you for joining us
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