Since I do not watch much T.V. and can not afford cable, I primarily watch two shows; The Simpsons, and The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS. I am a fan of Tavis Smiley because his interviews are honest, insightful, intellectual, political, and funny. Half the time I do not know who he is interviewing, but I still watch because I learn a lot from his guests and from Tavis as a television and radio host. I would be on his production crew in a heartbeat if given the opportunity.
So driving around L.A., I began to see the bus stop ads for the State of the Black Union on Feb. 28. Tavis Smiley’s State of the Black Union is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. I registered online to attend but then I came across a scheduling mishap. So I couldn’t go…and just when that happened, I received an email from a homie to register for the Young Scholars Forum at USC, a pre-event to the SOBU.
I woke up early on Friday and headed out to the forum. I was given a ticket with a center front row seat with my name on it. The auditorium was filled with young people, from elementary school students with their teachers to graduate students. It was an awesome sight.
There was a guy with fancy cameras who sat next to me. I figured he was a journalist/photographer of sorts. So I asked him about it and he said, “Oh, I work for a small company called the Associated Press.” I gave him the weirdest look and responded with, “SMALL??” He laughed and re-explained himself, maybe he thought I didn’t know who the AP was. Hello! They only write every other news piece that gets regurgitated over and over by every other news media outlet. Then he said, “You never know where life is going to take you, I went to school to get a law degree, and look at what I’m doing, I’m not using my law degree at all”. Well I definitely understood what he was saying, I can relate. You can’t deny yourself of your passions.
Finally, the forum began… with a NAVY commercial… BUU!!!!! But they sponsored the whole thing and I went in for free. Ok that’s cool, but did they have to plaster their name everywhere? Then Tavis came out. He introduced Dominic Di Prima who was the moderator for the forum. She is the woman who hosted “Street Science” on 92.3 The Beat. Now she hosts and produces “The Front Page” on KJLH. She asked some excellent questions to the panelists. Starting with, “How can we maximize the results from this era of Obama’s leadership?”
The panelists/speakers were also amazing. They were on point about being motivating and pushing the audience to really believe in our fullest individual and collective potential. I was impressed by all of them.
Professor Alia Sabur is the youngest professor in the world teaching mathematics and engineering. She spoke about the challenges of being a leader as a woman, who’s short, naturally soft spoken, and young. I was inspired and reminded by her words that anytime you are doing something that you are not supposed or expected to do, there will be people who do not like that. So I say, jump over those challenges, and be the person you’re meant to be.
Tricia Rose, she used to teach at UCSC, but now she’s a professor at Brown University in the Afrikana Studies Department and writes about Hip Hop culture. She was very adamant about Hip Hop not being something that belongs to corporate America. She said, “take it back, it is our cultural expression that enables us to become our fullest.” She also talked something funny that she calls the Hip Hop trinity, which is the gangster, pimp, hoe trinity that mainstream hip hop suffers from.
Jurnee Smollet is an actress, and I did not know who she was, but I gained a lot of respect for her because throughout her career she has stood up for her values.  She is the youngest board member of Artists for a New South Africa which is a non-profit dedicated to combating HIV/AIDS, advancing human rights, safeguarding voting rights, and empowering children orphaned by AIDS. She was very involved with the Obama campaign and gave a lot of insight about the youth being responsible for Obama’s success. She was big on reminding the audience about the individual and family tasks you can do to change things. Start right here and you'll see it transcends to community, city, state, nation, and the world.
Maria Teresa Petersen is the founding director of Voto Latino. She was great. After another speaker talked about how young people are “seen, but not heard”, she made the point about how in Latino culture and in the over-all immigrant community, it is young people who have always been looked at for leadership, knowledge, and translation. We have been listened to, we have been put in uncomfortable situations where we have to interpret for our parents, explain to doctors or secretaries at city offices what we need to get done. I really appreciated her acknowledgement. She also mentioned how the historic immigrant marches were fueled by teenagers who sent text messages and myspace messages about walking out of school and participating in the movement.
I was very inspired and motivated by this panel. It made me think about where we are as people in the movement for social change. We do need to take advantage of this era. Obama is not Jesus, but we can use the momentum from his campaign and keep going from there. I have a lot of faith in us. I have a lot of faith in young people. I love the youth whom I work with and I am very dedicated to their growth, even though it is they who teach me a lot every time I meet with them. I am a young person myself and this forum confirmed how everything I am doing at a creative level, voicing my mind and experiences through art, blogging, social networking, radio production, and now film, is what I need to be doing to contribute to our movement. I am documenting our movement and I do it with honor. I am blessed.  I am a powerful person in my own right. So I gotta keep doing what I am doing, following my heart and my passion.
 

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