NEWS & UPDATES

VoyageLA

VoyageLA, an indie magazine with publications in all the major cities hit me up. Check it out. You might learn something about why I am the way I am.

Daily Inspiration: Meet Kayodè Soyemi ←

WE AT CULTURE CON 2025!

Woke up hella early to go from Harlem to the Brooklyn Navy Yard. I remember shooting something there forever ago and haven’t been back since. Cheers to the organizers and of course, Imani Ellis. Big conventions like this are bound to have issues, but everything was smooth… except the food trucks— big L there. Great options, longest lines ever. I have never seen so many hangry people in my life. It was on the verge of The Walking Dead. If you know me, you know I cannot stand waiting in lines… maybe it’s an ATL thing…

Day 1: Sheryl Lee Ralph, moderated by her son, Etienne Maurice. She had some words for us ya’ll. Here’s my favorite part:

It’s almost like she invented the phrase, “Sorry, I’ve got rehearsal!”

2 CHAINZ

Closed out the weekend with the one and only 2 Chainz aka Tity Boi. An amazing, AMAZING close out. He talked about his new book, The Voice in my Head is God. He talked about his troubled past and his relationship with his mother, going to college, and the peace he has now, listening to that voice in his head. Probably the most vulnerable I’ve ever seen him, just incredibly brave.

Don’t Hate Me, But…

Hov… Building a casino in Times Square will not heal the wounds of gambling addiction in the Black community just because you’re making a “noble” investment.

I’m starting to believe the American Non-Profit Industrial Complex is one of, if not the most, well-prepared scams ever.

I don’t think I’m alone in this, but I am so tired of the language of liberation. All the talk of “transformation” and “change.” We still tired. We still broke. And we still so controlled by the concept of time, that a 501c3 can’t transform anything, especially if the transformation is due by Q4. Too Fast.

And listen, I get it, non-profits just want to stay alive. But it is a trap full of impact statements that always fall short. That CEO showing up in a Bugatti is not revolution, it’s a rebrand. I trust the one with the hoopty! Seriously like, the revolution got some volunteers, a grant, a logo, and (a sometimes villainous) fiscal sponsor, then forgot who it’s for.

The performance of care while negotiating power is so unbalanced that I sometimes question the assumption of good will.

Don’t hate me, but sometimes I think the Non-Profit world doesn’t want freedom— it wants sustainability. I’m not going to unpack that, but I really hope we can agree that they are not the same thing.

Now Playing:

Live Laugh Love — Earl Sweatshirt

Tuff Times Never Last — Kokoroko

Let God Sort Em Out –– Clipse

Now Reading:

Some of ya’ll know I’ve been working on an adaptation of Richard Potter’s life for the better part of 5 years now. I am back to researching.

ABOUT POTTER
Richard Potter was the first American-born celebrity magician and ventriloquist. A Black man, Potter was born free in 1783 on an estate in Hopkinton, Massachusetts (now a section of the town known as Ashland, MA) to a white man and a Black woman named Dinah, who was taken from somewhere in West Africa. Performing until his last days, Potter died in 1835 at the age of 52 and was said to be buried upright on his estate. His wife, assistant, and collaborator, Sally Potter, died a year later. They had three children; survived only by their oldest son, Dick Jr., who frequently performed with them. There are many mysteries surrounding both his and his family’s life and how he became among the first Black celebrities of the American Revolutionary Era, however it is no mystery that Potter was a skillful performer on and off-stage, making the life of a showman a respectable career and contributing to the mystery of his eclectic backgrounf. Throughout his early education, his tours in Europe, New England, and the Antebellum South, his eventual joining of the African Lodge No. 459, and the construction of his estate (now Potter Place in Andover, NH), he put the most value in the ownership of his narrative, and his family. Like any Black man of his time, Potter faced many adversities, and all the while, he persisted in setting a stage for Black entertainers in the generations to come.

ABOUT THIS PLAY
This play is adapted from the few recorded accounts of Potter, several of them mentioned in John A. Hodgson’s Richard Potter: America’s First Black Celebrity. I am grateful for Hodgson’s book and the facts provided, however, this play is also fused with the myth and mystery in which Potter helped create. “Based on” does not give enough credit to the power of myth in storytelling. While this story is inspired by actual persons and historical events, certain characters, characterizations, incidents, locations, and dialogue are imagined. Though there is little known about Potter and his family, he, and all of the characters in this play are real and complex just like you.

Now Watching:

For Us

I miss you.
I realize I never had you, but—
I still. Miss. You.

One thing that broke us?
Not us, but Us. We. They.
Believing investment guarantees returns.

It’s sad,
The American dream.
Realizing love was never ours to lose, only to witness.

(True déjà vu.)

Isn’t that scary?
Grasping it in your hands—
but never feeling it.

Maybe some dreams only exist to show us what’s missing.