A Little About Me
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Growing up in Detroit, I won a playwrights’ competition and got to work with the great Ron Milner. His work “Checkmates” made it to Broadway around that time, so Mr. Milner was a really big deal in the community. One day, during the first rehearsal of my play —staged at the original Bates Academy, thank you very much— Mr. Milner looked at me, smiled, and said:”You have it kid..keep writing”.
Or something like that.
I was a kid… I don’t have the exact quote.
All I know is when you grow up feeling invisible, you remember when someone sees you. So whatever he said, it boiled down to “keep writing”.
So I kept writing.
I wrote as often as I could with my God-given talent. But it wasn’t until I read Nathan McCall’s memoir, “Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America”, that I considered the question of why was I writing? Mr. McCall’s’ story taught me that journalism is at its best when it edifies the people. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to thank him personally for singing his song.
Hearing it made me feel seen. And inspired.
I began my own ballad as an intern at the Kalamazoo Gazette and it was heard in the halls of The Los Angeles Times, ABC News and ESPN. Press badges from Wimbledon to the White House..sports, culture and politics.. I just kept singing—or rather writing—like Mr. Milner told me to.
Sometimes with laughter. Sometimes through pain.
Always as myself… the only song I know.
Welcome to the show.
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