Shawn Edwards on Black Cinema, Sarah Rector, and Kansas City

Viewer discretion is advised. This episode includes conversations about racism, slavery, desegregation, death threats, and difficult parts of American history.
In this episode of Hidden Foundations, Kendall sits down with Shawn Edwards, Kansas City journalist, film critic, producer, and executive producer of the Celebration of Black Cinema and Television, to explore how childhood warmth, family history, storytelling, and early exposure to movies shaped his life’s work. Shawn shares how growing up in Kansas City during the 1970s, weekend trips to the movies, his mother’s emphasis on critical thinking, and a self-funded Super 8 camera opened the door to journalism, film criticism, Morehouse, and production. The conversation also explores Lincoln College Prep, desegregation, sports, Spike Lee, Sarah Rector’s extraordinary family legacy, the movie Sarah’s Oil, and Shawn’s mission to preserve Black film history through the Black Movie Hall of Fame.

Chapters
00:00 Cold Open: Sarah Rector and Family Legacy
01:15 Meet Shawn Edwards
02:18 Journalism, Storytelling, and Early Writing
04:20 Kansas City Childhood and 1970s Culture
09:22 Movies, Imagination, and Critical Thinking
15:09 Buying His First Super 8 Camera
20:34 Education, Desegregation, and Leaving Kansas City
41:35 Sarah Rector, Black Cinema, and the Hall of Fame



Hidden Foundations is a weekly podcast hosted by entrepreneur and investor Kendall Schoenrock, examining how family systems, early adversity, and childhood dynamics quietly shape high-performing adults. Each conversation uncovers the “invisible wiring” behind resilience, ambition, leadership, and grit — told through candid stories from entrepreneurs, athletes, creators, and leaders.

Guided by the thesis that strength is forged early at home, the show uses a consistent framework to explore emotional environments, money narratives, family roles, conflict patterns, and early challenges. Every episode delivers at least one practical, repeatable insight for parents, leaders, and anyone seeking to understand how greatness is built long before it’s visible.

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#HiddenFoundations #ShawnEdwards #BlackCinema

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

At 11 years old, she owns this, she's got this parcel land. They hit a gusher. She's a millionaire at 11 and became a national story. I like to say she's the first person to go viral. It was in every U.S. paper, it was in papers across the world. Little Black Girl becomes instant millionaire. Her name is Sarah Rector. She lives in Taft, Oklahoma. Can you imagine that amount of stress when everybody knows who you are and where you live? I can't even, I would not want that life.

SPEAKER_02 0:29

How did sports in high school and in college shape your grit and resiliency?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Critical thinking's important. Like, like, I mean, that's that's uh that's the problem we have now with with you know Google and and you know AI and you know, people just like rely on all these devices to give them the answers instead of actually, you know, thinking or finding an answer for yourself.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

When did you realize that this rich history was in your family lineage? This is Hidden Foundations, a show about how family, childhood, and adversity shape leaders. Because before they became who they are, their foundation was already being formed. Welcome to another episode of the Hidden Foundations Podcast. I'm pleased today to be here with Sean Edwards, Kansas City native. How would you so you could be described as a movie critic, a music critic, uh philanthropist with some of the things? How do you how do you define it?

SPEAKER_01 1:32

Let's make it easy. We'll make it easy. So I would I would classify myself as a journalist. Okay, because that that covers all the bases in terms of my early career, my middle career, my current career. It's all under the umbrella of journalism. Yeah. Under journalism. And then on my side projects, I would consider myself a producer. Because I am a producer. You know, so I'm the executive producer of the Celebration of Black Cinema and Television Awards show. Then I produce other events. So, you know, the main gig, journalist, second gig, producer. Yeah. That just an easy way to understand. An easy way for people to digest what does this guy do? Right. Journalism and production. So with the journalism focus, um, that's what pays the bills. Yeah, and that's what that was the start, that was the starting point. Like from, you know, journalism was the starting point from day one, you know, because I grew up as a kid, you know, I always had that ability to tell stories, and I always had the ability to write. And so when you have the ability to tell stories and have the ability to write, you put two and two together, and there you go, you know. And uh, I kind of took the path of journalism. At one point, I wanted to take the path of screenwriting, but you never know which door is going to open first. And the journalism door opened first. You know, I, you know, because I meant I I began writing at an early age, and then uh, you know, I wrote all through elementary school on my own. I I would write plays and you know, write stories, and then in in middle school, went to Lincoln College Prep Middle School. Um, I had a creative writing class and I had a you know really cool teacher. And it was one of those extended classes that didn't take place at the actual middle school, but it actually took place at uh Penn Valley Community College because it was an advanced course, you know, because you know we're in an accelerated program. So I took this advanced creative writing course at the college when I was in middle school, and that, you know, had a really cool teacher. And so that that opened the door even further. And then when I got in high school, I wrote for the school newspaper and wrote for the yearbook. Did the same thing when I went to college, wrote for the school paper, and I soon discovered that uh when you cover certain things, there are these things called perks. So I was doing all this entertainment writing down in Atlanta when I went to Morehouse College, and also wrote for the Clark Atlanta University paper, too, because they were all right there, you know. So I just wanted to, you know, I wanted to write, and I had a platform that, you know, they would, you know, publish a stuff. So I ended up doing like concert reviews because you would get free concert tickets, and then did, you know, music reviews because you get free CDs and movie reviews because you get free movie tickets. And so then that opened up that portal. So, you know, the journalism was second, but ended up being first, and the love of filmmaking has never gone away.

SPEAKER_02 4:20

Sean, I want to dive into some of the things you've said about your your early childhood. Yeah. So uh being raised in Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri, so people know Kans City, Missouri.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

I do not live in Kansas. No, people watch these things worldwide, and everybody thinks Kansas City is just Kansas, but there's a Kansas City, Kansas, and a Kansas City, Missouri. I grew up Kans City, Missouri.

SPEAKER_02 4:45

Um you describe it as being wrapped in warmth. Oh, yeah. Very good childhood.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

Oh, the childhood was the childhood was phenomenal. I I think I think I was born at the at the perfect time to take advantage of current day culture. I was born in the late 60s, and the 1970s was the most incredible decade for movies and music. Like that's that's not even debatable. We're not even gonna have that debate. Like the best albums, best movies, and some of the best TV series were were during the 70s. Now, music-wise, the 80s was cool, but still the 70s was the foundation because there were so many different genres that came to life in the 1970s. It was the height of it was the height of rock and roll, you know, you had all Led Zeppelin and all those incredible, you know, rock bands. Then you had The Birth of Punk. You also had the Height of Disco, and of course you had Reggae, was at his height, led by Bob Marley. And then, of course, you had the incredible genre hip-hop, which came online in the 1970s. So, as you can see, the 70s gave birth to so many musical movements, and then you had existing movements that were just like at their peak. It was the peak of RB, it was the peak of soul. Like it was the peak of everything, probably except for jazz. Like it was the peak of country music. Like the 70s had it all. And then, you know, movie-wise, you know, the 70s gave birth to, you know, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg and Francis Fora Coppola, and you know, you had, you know, the very first Star Wars, you know, come on. And movies like Apocalypse Now and you know Serpico and Dog Day After. It was just Bonnie and Clyde. It was just a, I mean, and then you had like, there was a dearth of, you know, blacks in the 70s. You know, you had the Bill Cosby, Sidney Potier films, you know, Uptown Saturday Night, A Piece of the Action, Let's Do It Again. I mean, you know, and then you had like, there was just so many, I mean, you know, you you you had Claudine and Sounder with, you know, Diane Curl and Cicely Tyson. It was just, it was, it was a 70s was great. I grew up during the 70s. The 70s was great, you know. America turned 200 years old in 1976. You know, it was just, you know, it was, it was a it was a great time to be a kid, you know, growing up in, you know, Kansas City, Missouri. And, you know, we we didn't have modern day distractions or modern day worries. Like, you know, we were kid kids. Like, you know, go outside. Oh man, you you you went outside, and even if you stayed inside on a rainy day, you got really creative and inventive because, you know, all of our toys and things, like, you you you had to be creative. You know, we we didn't have devices that did the thinking for us. And then, you know, later in the 70s, you know, we did have video game consoles. You know, we had the Atari 2600, but we weren't bound to that. You know, you play it for a couple hours, and you're right back outside on the block. I mean, it was it was it was cool because I, you know, I lived in an area called Friendship Village, which was right off of 56 and Swole Parkway. And, you know, it looks suburban, but it's right in the middle of the, right in the middle of the city. You know, it's the it's the urban area of Kansas City, but it looks suburban because Swole Parkway is a boulevard. It's a gorgeous looking boulevard. Back then, it's a gorgeous looking boulevard with two sides, and you had the medium in the middle and the trees, and it's it's it's nice. The neighborhood was nice. It was it was nice, and you know, all the kids, and we we we all got along. We, you know, we we play kickball, we play, you know, tackle football, we played this baseball game called Peggy. It was like we we did all these things, and we had skate parties, and you know, you know, a couple people would always have a boom box, so there's a lot of dancing, and then break dancing came online, and it was just the the interaction was a lot of fun. We raced each other up and down the streets, and you know, we lived on a hill on the slope, so we would, you know, race bicycles and skateboards. I mean, it was it was it was just incredible, and we just, you know, we weren't worried about anything. You could, you could, back then you could play outside and not worry about getting abducted or or kidnapped or shot or you know, ran over. It was just, it was great, it was it was so much fun. I was like, it was so much fun.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

In your childhood, on the weekend, the weekends, your mother would take you to the movies.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Well, we we were big, we were active. Like we were a super active family. So, you know, you know, because my mother was an educator, she was a school teacher, so she she encouraged us to do different things. Like, you know, we you know, we had music class and I had acting classes, and you know, we went to the library to check out books and all these activities. Then you throw in the church element, like choir rehearsal, and you know, the youth group, and then yeah, we we went to the movies all the time, like every every weekend. I mean, that was that was the thing to do. You you you go to the movies because back then it was it was affordable family entertainment. You know, you go to the movies, get a little popcorn, get some candy and a coke. It didn't break the bank back then, and you go to the movies and have fun.

SPEAKER_02 10:12

Is that one of the things that bothers you about the today's world in terms of the the movies uh no longer being so expensive?

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Way too expensive. Way too, like, yes, it it it it it does. It it bothers me because I think it has become a firewall that prevents some people from experiencing cinema the way I did, because now going to the movies you have to pick and choose because it's so expensive, it has now become an event instead of just something that you do on a regular basis. Like we went to the movies literally every weekend. Like, you know, you know, sometimes you go to the movies and you watch a movie and you come out and you look up at the board, and it's like, well, I want to go to another one because you could afford to do it. You can't do that now. It's so expensive, it's become an event. It's almost become like how you used to go to like Disney World or Disneyland once a year. Now you have families you only go to the movies once a year, not 52 times a year, which is to me is sad. Because, you know, going to the movies is a way of opening up the world. I mean, all these different stories that can take you different places, you know, and sometimes you go to places that you'll never go to, or you'll go to a place that gives you a new perspective. But, you know, going to the movies really it it it opens up the door of uh of imagination and experiences. And it's just something that people should be able to do on a regular basis. Go and see a movie on a huge, gigantic screen because the experience is not the same at home on the television. I don't care how sophisticated your system is, it's still just not the same. It's you know, going to the movie should be a part of every everyone's normal experience where you know they get a chance to go on a regular basis and not just once or twice a year.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Right. Did did your mother instill in you with the teacher and that Socrates method of the Socratic method of teaching? Because she didn't answer questions. Like you you would go to her and you'd say, How do I make a movie? No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 12:07

She would take you to the library and stuff. Right, right, because she wanted me to think. I mean, and that's what's missing. Like, like critical thinking's important. Like, yeah, I mean, that's that's that's the problem we have now with with you know Google and and you know AI, you know, people just like rely on all these devices to give them the answers instead of actually, you know, thinking or finding an answer for yourself. So no, she's she's like, she encouraged us to think. She encouraged us to research, she encouraged us to discover. And therefore, it was more meaningful. Like, if if someone just gives you the answer, like, does it mean as much? But when you have to actually like, and you gotta remember, going to the library back in the day was was super hard because you had to go to the, you know, the card catalog and the Dewey Decimal system, and you like it made no sense like at all trying to find books. But you had to go and find the book, then you know, pull them off the shelf and open it, and then actually read it and retain the information. And, you know, that was that was back then, that was cool. That was fun because it's it's a sense of this, it's a sense of dis, it created a sense of discovery. So then, you know, once you discover something, you're you're more proud about it. Because you're like, oh, I found this information. Now I can take this information and apply it to what I want to do. I mean, that's cool. You know, that's I think that's what's missing today. Is, you know, you don't, you know, a lot of kids growing up now don't aren't aren't given the opportunity to discover something on their own. It's all just given to you by machines and and robots and all algorithms and all that. No, sometimes you wanna you wanna get you sometimes you gotta get your hands dirty.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

I think one of the flaws that we're seeing now is that parents want to make their kids happy.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

Well, my parents made us happy, but I think it's happy in a different way. I I I think now there's this, it's um, it's the definition of happiness is different. Because we were happy back in the day, but I think sometimes you, you know, you had to earn that happiness. Like that happiness just wasn't automatic. But yeah, there's a yeah, parents are a lot softer now. Like, you know, it's it's it's it's it's for instance, like, so recently there's the movie Michael came out, and one of the big controversies of the movie is that his dad, like, they punished him by taking off his belt and spanking him. And I'm like, gee whiz, I didn't I need a biopic. That happened all the time. Like, it's but it doesn't it it happened all the time, but that was that was that was, you know, during the 70s, that that was that was that was a parental style of correcting an issue. Also with the neighbors. Well, yeah, yeah. Because you know, that's the thing, yeah, exactly. Exactly. I I literally lived in a place called Friendship Village. And literally, if you were doing something wrong, somebody else's parents could tell you, stop doing that. What are you doing? Come here, da da da da. And there was it was no issue. You cannot do that in 2026 at all. Right. It would cause a whole collapse of the neighborhood.

SPEAKER_02 15:09

Tell me the story that uh how you got your first video camera.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

It wasn't a video camera, it was actually super eight millimeter. Super, we we got weight now. You you got your video cameras are a couple years down the road. Yeah. I did it the I did it the old, old, old, old school way. So, so yeah, I had this love of um, I had this love of film from watching movies, and you know, I wanted to, you know, figure out how to make them myself and you know, did the research and soon discovered, you know, okay, I can I can go get a camera and get some film and just start some start shooting. And so um there was a camera store on uh 63rd and Brookside in the Brookside neighborhood, Crick's camera store, which was right across from the old Brookside movie theater, which is now a price chopper. And so I walked in and, you know, that's back there, you know, yeah, socials. People talk to one another. You know, you walk in the store, and I, you know, asked the guy there, you know, I want to start making movies. What do I need? He showed me, you know, you need a super eight millimeter camera and it's the type of film. You talk to people. That's how you learn. And so then I found out how much the camera would cost. So uh I had a play uncle, one of my mother and dad's uh Bruga friends, um, Uncle Charles around Francis, they lived over in Kansas City, Kansas. Um I forgot the name of the neighborhood, but it's the real nice old school neighborhood. They live in this huge house, a huge, huge house. I thought they were, I thought they were, you know, when you when you when you when you're a kid and you go over to somebody's house and it's it's it's it's big. I mean, you think they're like richer than rich. And they were also one of those families, they had everything first. So they were the they were the first people I knew that had a microwave, they were the first people I knew that had cable television, they were the first people I knew that had like a like a cordless telephone, you know, all the gadgets. They had all the all the gadgets first, all the gadgets first. He was also the the first family I knew that had like a the a screening room in the house. Yeah. So I was like, oh yeah, they're they're loaded. But they would always, every weekend, you know, it was the house that people went over to, you know, hang out, and you know, you know, Aunt Francis would like cook a lot of food, and there was always soda and beer, and so I noticed that at at the end of the end of the evening, there would always be this huge trash can, you know, full of beer cans and soda cans. And I was like, well, what are you gonna do with those? Because I knew you could, you could, I don't know how I knew this, but I knew that if you if you took those cans to the recycling, you could get money. And so, you know, they they had these get-togethers all the time, and so they would always have a um um a garage full of cans, like about 20 cans you put on the back of Uncle Charles' pickup, and we would drive to the recycling place and you know, turn the cans in for money, and then he would give me the money because I I asked him, I said, I want those cans because I, you know, I got the project I'm working on. So I used that money to buy my first super eight millimeter camera and some film at Crick's camera store, and that's how I got started. Because, you know, you know, making movies back then, we we didn't have iPhones where you could cheat. You know, you had to you buy a cartridge of super eight millimeter film and you load it into the camera and you shoot, you make it about, depending on how good you are, two and a half to three minutes of footage. Yeah. That's all you get. And then you had to take it back to the camera store, and they had to sale it. They had to mail it to Chicago. Because they would develop the film in Chicago, and then they would send it back a couple weeks later, and that's when you get your spool of film, and then you get the viewfinder, and literally you link it up by hand, and you gotta, you know, you look at the scenes, and in order to put the movie together, you had to get a you had to get a blade, and you literally cut each strip, you know, each scene. You cut each scene and you know, tape it to the wall, and you get the note cards to let you know which scene it is, and then you tape it back in order to I mean that's how they made movies for real. And back in the noble film, you cut it and put it together, and the there there you go. So, you know, I started doing that, I think it's like nine or ten, nine, ten, eleven years old. Started just experimenting, shooting different stuff, creating little student films. But you wouldn't be here as a film critic. No, no, not at all. I wouldn't have probably done 90% of what I'd done in life probably would not have happened if I hadn't done that, because that ultimately ended up opening a lot of doors. Which we'll as we keep conversing, as we keep conversing, you'll see how my my combining my love of cinema with my love of writing and my ability to write and learning like film technique ultimately end up paying off in a big way, like continually through life.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

So that foundation goes back to the time of the castle, which is the the Lincoln school.

SPEAKER_01 20:00

Yeah, yeah, the castle on the hill. Lincoln College Prep. Which has the most stunning, like if you stand on the front steps of Lincoln College Prep and look west, it's the most stunning view of downtown Kansas City from any vantage point in the city. It's incredible. It's incredible. And if you stand there during the golden hour, you would just be like, whoa, whoa, Kansas City looks great. It's a great vantage point. But yeah, I went to the affectionately known as the Castle on the Hill, Lincoln College Prep.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

And walk me back through those times, the that time in your life, because it there's also an echo in those hallways of other family members that also attended the same school. Yes. When did you realize the legacy both of that institution as well as the history of your family in that place?

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Oh the history of the family came much later because when you're a kid growing up and you you hear bits and pieces about family history, you don't initially put it all together. And you can you kind of take it for granted because it's just part of the, oh, my aunts and uncles are talking about this again, oh, my cousins are talking about that. You don't, you don't put it together. I initially thought going to Lincoln College Prep was cool because they recruited you to go there back when so back when I was in the fifth or sixth grade, I was in this program called Gifted and Talented. I guess it's like a program where they kind of put all the quote unquote smart kids together. It was based off of how well you did on standardized testing. Yeah. And so, you know, all the kids who, which depending on how you look at that, it's either fair or unfair or whatever. But they they put all the kids who did well on standardized testing into this program called Gifted and Talented. And so then, you know, there had there were several different gifted Talented programs throughout the Kansas City, Missouri Public School District at all these different elementary schools. But the funnel was to send all of these kids to Lincoln Middle. So you know, so we were all at Lincoln Middle, and then the the progression was you would eventually go to Lincoln College Prep. You know, once you're surrounded school.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

So you were surrounded by other kids that were deemed to be high achieving as well.

SPEAKER_01 22:28

So when I was in the second and third grade, I was a I was a I was a lab rat. So I went to Nelson Elementary School, uh, which is now a part of UMKC off of was that 52nd at Rock Hill Road, somewhere around in there. It became the music conservatory for UMKC. But it was it was Nelson Elementary School, I went with, named after the founder of the Kansas C Star newspaper. Right. Willem Rock Hill Nelson, Willem Nelson, Rock Hill. I mean, it was, yeah. But that's where I went. So I was in this experimental class. So um it was five second graders, five third graders, five fourth graders, five fifth graders, and five sixth graders. And it was like this um, it was this real experimental style of education where we designed our own curriculum and we didn't sit in rows. The whole room was modulated, it had pods and bing bags and all that. And then there was a a private like reading room where if you didn't want to be bothered, you can go in there and read. And it was all based on being creative and arts, and then we had a we had a we had a we had a stage outside the the classroom where we produced stage plays, and it was a real different type of environment. So I I went there in uh second and third grade, and then unfortunately um that got dismantled because the Kansas City, Missouri School District created this desegregation program, which destroyed everything. Because some clever person thought it was a really good idea to bust black kids 45 minutes to an hour outside their neighborhood to go to school in Independence, Missouri. Which did not work because the people who lived in independence didn't want black kids coming to their schools, and we didn't want to have to get up at six in the morning and ride a bus for 45 minutes to an hour to go to school in independence. Like it was, and it was also the first time, you know, as a kid where you know you like actively face racism because like the first couple days of school, all the all the people, all the neighborhood people and people who attended the school were standing in front of the school yelling, go back home niggers. So it's like, okay, this is gonna be fun. So that so I went from being, I went from that experimental environment in the second and third grade where it was blacks, whites, Asians, Hispanics, and all these different grades co-mingling together in one classroom to like a scene out of Selma.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Does that bother you when the intent, obviously that there was something?

SPEAKER_01 25:19

No, I think my parents, my no, no, no, but see, it didn't bother me at all. Because like I was I was well prepped. Like my no, my, so both my parents were were pro-black, and both sets of grandparents were super pro-black. So I was, no, we were well, my sister and I were well prepared for the negativity that we were about to encounter. So it was just, it was just, you know, desegregation. No matter what city you look at, the whole desegregation plan was stupid and dumb, but that's a whole different topic. But no, we were, we I was, you know, we were both, we were both well prepared. We we knew there were gonna be issues with the teacher. I I I remember on on the on the on the first day of school, um, you know, how the the standard question is, what did you do this summer? Because it's the first day of school. And I was like, oh yeah, I went on family vacation. We went to the Wisconsin Dales, and then we drove over to New Jersey to go visit my grandparents in Princeton, New Jersey, and then the teacher said I was lying. I was like, oh, okay, this is gonna be fun. Did you enjoy your summers in in Princeton? Oh my God, yeah. I mean, because I mean Princeton was a Princeton was like um, Princeton was a three for one. So you go to Princeton, you hang out in Princeton, New Jersey, which is a college town. My grandparents lived about four blocks away from the university. And that's that's how they made their money, too. So my grandfather in Princeton, he owned a janitorial service, and he had two main clients, the, you know, Princeton and University and Johnson Johnson. Because Johnson Johnson headquarters were located in Princeton, New Jersey, when Johnson Johnson was a really big deal. And so, yeah, so he he had a janitorial service that cleaned all the offices and cleaned all the schools, and you know, he made a very nice life for himself and a very nice house in Princeton proper, which a lot of people can't afford to live in Princeton proper. And so, yeah, raised two kids, my mom and my uncle, and you know, they both went to college. And so, yeah, so I wasn't a first generation college kid either. I wasn't even a second generation college kid. I was like a third generation college kid because my grandparents went to college and my mom and dad went to college, so you know, going to college was was automatic. But no, growing up in Princeton was great. I mean, the neighborhood was cool, and you know, you walk around, you walk up to the university, you walk to Nassau Street, super fancy street, all these super fancy shops, and then the park was right around the corner, spent a lot of time playing tennis and basketball with the with the with the other kids that that lived in the neighborhood. And then we would often go to New York because it's, you know, you just get on the train and hop over to New York to go visit my, you know, Uncle Sam and Aunt Essie that lived in Brooklyn. Brooklyn, Brooklyn, back in the 70s. Brooklyn 70s is different from 2026 uh Brooklyn. But uh, we so we got a chance to do New York, and then sometimes we'd go all the way up and you know, hang out in Maine and Vermont, New Hampshire. So it was it was it was it was always great. We went every summer, sometimes during Christmas holiday. So it's it was always fun, you know, hanging out in Princeton, New Jersey. And then, you know, the grandparents were cool, learned a lot from them, and you know, they were they were big figures in in Princeton, you know, because he, you know, he was an entrepreneur, and what he would do is a lot of the like immigrants that were newer to Princeton, that primarily came from the Caribbean part of the world, he would hire them and take care of them. So I I have a I have a couple of Caribbean play aunts and uncles that remember my grandparents helping them get settled and helping them find work. So, you know, because whenever it was it was it was a weird juxtaposition because we were always because we were always the the kids, the kids from Kansas are here because everybody thinks Kansas Missouri is in Kansas. And the kids from the kids from Kansas here are like the bro the Browns' grandkids are here, and so you know, because my my grandparents were like Princeton royalty in the black community in Princeton. So we it was it was you know it was fun, it was great. You learned a lot, watched a lot, observed a lot. It was a, it was a it was it was it was cool.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

Did they instill in you the importance of education?

SPEAKER_01 29:12

Yeah, that's why I ended up going to Morehouse. That's that's how I first really learned about Morehouse, was uh my grandfather in Princeton would always talk about Morehouse. I mean he was like a deacon in the Baptist church, and Morehouse has huge connections to the Baptist church, but you know, he would always, you know, he would always talk about, you know, Morehouse. And remember, this is uh, you know, I started hearing about this in the 70s, and you know, Martin Luther King Jr. graduated from Morehouse, and you know, 1975 is just seven years after he got assassinated. So the assassination, you know, Martin Luther King was a was referred to often in in the household. Like Martin Luther King went to Morehouse, and Martin Luther King did this, and he did that, and that. So, yeah, I I heard about Morehouse and you know Martin Luther King. And then I was I was a huge sports fan back then. I remember Edwin Moses, who ran the 400-meter hurdles. Like I remember watching the 1976 Olympics, which took place in Montreal, and I remember to say Edwin Moses ran track at um at Morehouse College, and the stadium's named after him. Yeah. Edmund Moses Stadium, where I played football at Morehouse.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

There was a there was a key decision that you made at 18, leaving Kansas City to go to school. And and part of that decision was made on a fear that if you stayed, you would potentially end up.

SPEAKER_01 30:24

Yeah, but we knew we wasn't, so we knew we weren't. I knew I yeah, that's the that's the through line is if we all knew, like all my buddies and everybody I went to school with, we all knew that if you stayed home, the odds weren't good. But all of us knew we weren't staying home. We went to Lincoln College prep. Like, even even though I didn't finish the Lincoln College prep because I got lazy and dumb, um, we we all knew that the next pathway after high school was was college. Like nobody ever was like, man, what are you gonna do when you graduate? I don't know. No. I was hanging out with a group of people where you were like, oh, I'm about to go to Yale, I'm about to go to Harvard, I'm about to go to Stanford, I'm about to go uh to Langston University, I'm about to go to Howard, I'm about to go to Spelman. Like there was no, there, there was no hesitation on what to do next. But that was like the through line. I mean, yeah, that's like stealing the line from you know, boys in the hood. If you, if you if you stay in Kansas City and you don't do anything, it's not gonna end well. But everybody I hung out with, everybody I went to school with, everybody I went to church with, it was it was automatic. You were going to college. That was the thing was we were all competing on who was gonna go to the best college and who was gonna get the most scholarship money. That was that was that was it, yeah. Our our whole situation was completely different. Like we were competing on a different level. We're like, nah, I'm uh I nah I I got more scholarship money than you, or I'm going to a better school than you. Like, or I got a higher SAT score than you, or I got a higher ACT score than you. Like we were we were competing at a completely different level. Played football. Football sculpture. I played football all through high school. Yeah. Yeah, I played football all through high school. I I enjoyed playing it. I don't think my body liked it, but yeah, I ended up getting a half academic, half athletic scholarship to play uh football at Morehouse.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

How did sports in high school and in college shape your grit and resiliency?

SPEAKER_01 32:17

I mean, sports in high school was more like it was sports in high school was fun and it was social. Because all my buddies played and was fun. You know, you got to play together, you got to practice together, you got to hang out in the locker room together and travel on the bus together to go to games and you know, eat together before the game. It was fun. It was cool. It was, it was, it was exciting. Playing football in college is a job. It's a job. It eats up all your time. It's a job. The practices, and it's it's much more competitive. The practices are intense. The practices are long, the wait rooms long, the training's long, they tell you when to eat, they tell you when to study, they tell you when to try. I mean, it's it's a in college, it was a job. It was it was not a lot of fun. The college was a job. Like when I when I broke my ankle and I couldn't play anymore, I was kind of happy. Like it's like it was a job. It was it was a job. But it was still, it was, it was cool, but it was a it it's a huge night and day.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Were you still reviewing or while you were at school, you started reviewing music?

SPEAKER_01 33:16

Yeah, I did, yeah, because I discovered you, I discovered that by writing for the um well, I knew you could do it, because um, because so my mom being an educator when we were kids, back when I was in my single digits, like I remember we would always go to the grocery store, like that price chopper, 63rd of Brookside. We go there all the time for some reason. I don't know. We passed a lot of grocery stores just to go to that one, but we would always go to that one. And I, you know, the shopping thing was like, well, I don't know, you know, whatever. But I would always go to the magazine stand, because that's back when magazine stands were a huge deal. And I would always read all the movie and music magazines. So I was a big Rolling Stone fan. So I I knew all about the art of the of the music review. I was always reading the music reviews, so I learned how to mimic that and would write my own music reviews. So it was time to actually write them, I knew how to do them. So that's yeah, so I started writing. I star I started writing music reviews because I knew you got free music. It was like so I could load up my load up my apartment with with CDs and cassettes. For free. Really? They'd send them to you. Well, they sent them to the to the school paper, you know, they send them just just like when I worked at the pitch. They send them to the pitch, and then you, you know, then after a while they discover who you are, and then sometimes they send it straight to you. I mean, same thing with movies. Yeah, you review movies, review movies, and they find out who you are, and then they start setting up screenings just for you. That's how that's how that's kind of how it worked, but I figured that's how you get, you know, I needed some cassettes and some CDs.

SPEAKER_02 34:42

You know, I read recently one of your most recent reviews, and it was four words. I mean, it was one, which review was it? It was um the mummy. Oh, the mummy. It was the new mummy. The new mummy. The new mummy. Oh, okay. And it wasn't, it was, it was, it was very, very clear based on your review that that was not something that spoke to you. No, it did not. And I what I was fascinated about with that was was how remarkably short that specific review was, and then how when you're captivated and when something really speaks to you. Yeah, I was trying to be funny. I was being funny though. I there's sometimes sometimes you just And then there was something I was trying to understand there, which is is that a deliberate choice?

SPEAKER_01 35:21

Yeah, yeah, that was deliberate. That was 1000% deliberate. Yeah, because you gotta do stuff to shake things up, but that was deliberate.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Do you ever worry when you're when you're reviewing a piece of music or a movie that the recipient isn't going to understand your perspective and then potentially take offense? Because in that particular case, that director has uh the potential to do another nine-figure budget. Yeah, but he don't care what I say. But but there's an there's a shadow that you cast.

SPEAKER_01 35:55

It is, it is. No, no, no, especially when you when you're doing it pro no, it's it's it's it's crucial, especially when you're doing it professionally, because a lot of people pay attention to it. A lot more people pay attention to it in the industry than I think people realize. But they do, they do do that. Now, I will say this the people who take offense to what you say mostly exist on the music side. I mean, you can actually Google a Wikipedia. I remember there was a local group that I wrote a review about, and they didn't like the review, and they actually recorded a song that they were gonna kill me. Yeah. It was a group called Devious Minds back in the day. It's hilarious. And even on the uh, it was funny because I used to write uh music reviews nationally for uh The Source and Vibe and Double XL. I forgot which publication it was for, but I I believe the group was a group called The Alcoholics. It was a group called The Alcoholics, and the album wasn't too great. And so, you know, I wrote the review and they were upset, and they told the editor, man, when we see him, man, we're gonna beat him down. But I was like, bro, I live in Kansas City, not New York, so good luck. Right? I'm sure you're not gonna get on a plane and fly all the way to Kansas City because you didn't like the. So it's stuff like that is funny to me. Yeah, so I'm sure, I'm sure people take offense. Um, you know, on the movie side, it's mostly the movie studios who distributed movies that take offense to a bad review. Because I I think they think it's gonna impact the bottom line, which is money, and not as many people going if you say, I mean, you know, being on television, you can't take lightly. The power of that is incredible. Like the amount of people, I know everybody gets hung up on social media, but still, there's still way more people who watch traditional television than are ever on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. Like, you'd be surprised how many people watch television. Sure. And the different types of people that watch television. It's it's still mind-boggling to me how many people watch. And pay attention. Y'all have somebody come up to me in the grocery store and be like, man, I remember that movie you reviewed back in 2003. Why did you only give it two popcorn bags? I'm like, how do you remember that? I don't even remember that. Because people come up to me all the time and they'll throw out a random movie title. Like, throw out a random movie title. Just any movie. Any movie, any movie. Shaw Shank Redemption. Yeah, they'll come up to me and they'll be like, How many popcorn bags did you give Shaw Shank Redemption? I'm like, well, I wasn't on air when that movie was released, but if I had to review it and give it some popcorn bags, I'd probably give it a four. But you do know that when that movie first came out, most people panned it and most people did not go and see it. It was TV. 90% of the people saw on the TV, it was a flop. Yeah, it's amazing. It's actually a flop. So yeah, yeah. Shaw Shank Redemption benefited from um TNT, TBS. It's a TBS classic. That's one of those amazing. Nobody paid money to see it, though.

SPEAKER_02 38:47

If I'm scrolling it, it comes on, I just leave it.

SPEAKER_01 38:50

Yeah, it's one of those you leave it. Yeah, you like Shaw Shank Redemption, you leave it. You know, Forrest Gump, you leave it. There's certain movies you just you no matter where it starts when you're watching, you leave it.

SPEAKER_02 39:00

What are some of the movies that you really lean into just for you, if you're hurting?

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Oh, I like it's it's a weird choice, but I really like Vanilla Sky with Tom Cruise. That's a good, all right. I got the mojo back. You know, I like that. Uh Coming to America always works, because then you just start laughing. You're like, okay, I don't have to worry about anything else. So, like, I like vanilla sky. I like um I like coming to America. I like Spike Lee's um 2001 movie, uh 25th Hour. That's a good, that's a good movie to reset yourself. You've got some shared history with Spike because he went to school, he went to Morehouse. Morehouse, yes, he did went to Morehouse and um has some of his yeah, has some of his same professors, Professor Eichelberger, um, yeah, who taught us uh cinematography and and screenwriting, and we watched uh quite a few of Spike Lee's uh student films. I and Spike Lee, I did not know that Spike Lee went to Morehouse when I chose to go to Morehouse. It was just a lucky coincidence. Sure. Because I didn't really discover I discovered Spike Lee this summer, right before I went to Morehouse, though, because they had written about him in Essence Magazine, because they had his first movie was coming out called She's Gotta Have It. And they had they took it to the Cannes Film Festival and they were talking about this new black filmmaker with this new movie. But they did not say in the article that he went to Morehouse. That that came out later. Then that spring of my freshman year, I ended up meeting him because um he shot school days on the campus, which was crazy. Yeah, like that was crazy. Like that was that was a that was a really cool experience. That was that was that was so cool. And the fact that I made the cut and a few scenes as an extra is even better. I got free McDonald's in Kansas City for a couple of years because I was an extra in school days. Because people would be like, oh yeah, you was a school day. Here, you can just have this quarter pounder and have this fries. You want to strike? Yeah. I never understand, like, it's the funniest thing, because it's really hard to comprehend. Even now, like, you know, because you know, being on television is that because people see you on television, it always like bewildered me why people want to like give you stuff. Right. Like all the time. Like, I could be at a deli, like, I mean, you just had the sandwich. I mean, but I don't know, yeah. Like, why? Like it's like the craziest thing. But megaphone, right? Yeah, yeah. But I got like school days, I got a lot of free McDonald's because of school days. A lot of from just random, I got a lot of free McDonald's from being in school days.

SPEAKER_02 41:35

I have to say that when I started to look and and research your background, uh huh, I was totally blown away with uh the deep history that your your great aunt has. Daddy's side, daddy's side on your your in terms of how it shapes the whole narrative. And when I when I started to review this, I wasn't sure if this story should start back in the Civil War or if it should start in the Congressional Act of 1866, where the the that let's do this starts. So let me frame this, and you correct me. You correct me if my history uh lesson is wrong. Okay. You've got uh the five civilized tribes that before they were Native American Indian tribes, um, used to have slaves.

SPEAKER_01 42:28

Yes. And people don't know that. That's one of the biggest little-known facts of the institution of slavery in the United States of America.

SPEAKER_02 42:37

Full confession, as a Kansas native, born and raised in the middle of Kansas, until last week I did not know that fact. Yes. Until I started looking into this history.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

99.9% of people do not realize that there were some Native American tribes that owned slaves.

SPEAKER_02 42:55

And the Creek Nation had enslaved your great-great-great great grandparents. Something like that. Yeah, I lose track.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

I lose track.

SPEAKER_02 43:05

Who gained emancipation by fighting for the Union Army during the Civil War? During the Civil War, yes. So that is how they became Creek Freemen. Yep. And your great aunt was because she was born in this very specific window in terms of the time like that.

SPEAKER_01 43:25

You know, the federal government's tricky with those windows.

SPEAKER_02 43:27

And and because she was a emancipated Creek Freeman of a certain birth age. Right. Certain date. Yeah. She it was between 1901 and 1903.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

She was entitled to land because they were kicking them off the land they originally lived on.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

But this was also somewhat tragic because this is where the U.S. government basically stole a hundred million of the so that the Indian tribes had 138 million acres. Yes. And the American government stole.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

I don't know if that's the correct phrase here. Well, yeah, they stole it, but then they said you got to go live someplace else.

SPEAKER_02 44:07

Then when they they removed them, and then they they took 98 million of those acres and divvied them out to different individuals, one of which was your great aunt.

SPEAKER_01 44:18

Yeah, but the but the land that they gave them was in a whole nother state. Right, it was in Oklahoma. It was in Oklahoma, because they had plush land, it was like Florida and Georgia, like nice land in Florida and Georgia, because yeah, whenever the government wants something, they would they want it for a reason. And then they gave them the land in Oklahoma and they're rocky, and they didn't think they thought it was crap. It was worthless. They thought it was worth it, because you couldn't grow crops on it. It wasn't, you know, by it wasn't anything nice, like it wasn't ocean front or mountain view. It was just in the middle, and it's just like you might as well like it was like the surface of the moon. Right. Little did they know, classic phrase, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:57

Little little did they know.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Little did they know underneath underneath that 168. Underneath was like underneath is the stuff you want. Oil to this day. Lots of the stuff you want.

SPEAKER_02 45:09

Like, oh yeah, it was a very nice grade of oil, too. So here's the piece. And then then then obviously uh that leads into uh a huge film called Sarah's oil.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

No, it didn't. It led into the you're going now, you're going too fast. Okay. It led into black trauma. Because what the what the Fed Gov did was okay, they relocated these people, and then they they gave them this crappy land, but with that crappy land, you still gotta pay taxes on it. $30 a year. So now you which in early 1900s, 30, 30, 30, I mean 30, because a dollar back then was is equal to like $35 today. Right. So you do the map. So they grave them this crappy land that you can't make any money on. You can't grow crops, da da da da da da da da. Like, what do you do? But you gotta pay the taxes. So you you create this situation of black trauma. It just so happens that my great-grandfather and my great-grandmother were savier than most. So instead of completely losing the land to foreclosure because they had no way to pay the taxes, he's he came up with an idea to lease the land because he heard that there were prospectors in the area that were searching the land for oil. And so he ended up leasing the land to these, to, to, to different oil companies. Because all the kids had a parcel of land. Right. And but the the land that ended up being profitable was the parcel that Sarah owned. Because that's where they they actually found struck oil. But if he hadn't unleashed it, like, but then that once they struck oil, that created even more trauma because now you gotta trust that these people are paying you correctly. I would say for every dollar that Sarah got paid, probably nine got stolen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

Like, because how do you, like, she how do you monitor how many barrels and they 25,000 or 2,500 barrels a day, and where does it go? And she's 11. Yeah, they were skipping.

SPEAKER_01 47:28

Yeah. Even if she was grown, she wouldn't have known. So, but the fact that she was 11 made it worse. But like, I for every for every dollar that that that piece of land produced, she probably got 10% up, which was still a lot because she was making millions a year, but it wasn't the full amount. Somebody else got the full amount.

SPEAKER_02 47:49

Do you agree with the title that she was the first black female millionaire in the United States?

SPEAKER_01 47:55

I don't know. I guess. Does it matter to you? No, it doesn't matter. I mean, she might have been the first black female. She might have been the first black female millionaire. I mean, who knows? I don't know. Was there any anybody else before her? I I don't know. I do know that I would not have wanted to be in her shoes. There were death threats. I mean, that's the reason why. Well, there was well, she died young because there was there's too much stress. Because here's here's the thing that here's the thing that the the the thing that Googling doesn't do. Here's the thing that the movie doesn't do. Uh Jacob Hanley, local filmmaker, did a documentary for KCPT. He couldn't, he didn't do it. Um, which is why we're working on this. I'm working on this one woman show that we'll talk about that we try to give people a sense of what this young woman was going through. Here's the thing that nobody realizes or talks about. So, at 11 years old, she owns this, she's got this parcel of land. They hit a gusher. She's a millionaire at 11. And it became a national story. I like to say she's the first person to go viral. It was in every US paper, it was in papers across the world. Little black girl becomes an instant millionaire. Her name is Sarah Rector. She lives in Taft, Oklahoma. Da-da-da-da. So you just made a million dollars back in 1913, when one dollar is equal to like $35. You have instantly outpaced everyone economically. Back then, a well-paid lawyer made like $10,000 a year. Right. And you got a million dollars in the bank. Everybody knows your name, what you look like and where you live. How much stress is that? Because now you're either worrying about people robbing you or killing you, which they did kill some people for the land and for the oil. Yeah. So you're worried about death threats. Legitimate. Legitimate death threats. Yeah, where they actually use dynamite to blow up your house and kill you. So you're worrying about legitimate death threats. It's it's already during the height of lynching in America. So like if you push back, oh, what's gonna happen? I'm like, oh my God. It's like everybody knows who you are. So everybody in the community is coming at you. Hey, you got a million dollars. Could I have a thousand? Could I have two thousand? Like, it's like, and then it's security. She got kids later in life. Like, are they gonna get kidnapped? How do they how do how do you sleep at night where everybody like when she lived in the mansion in Kansas City? Everybody knew she lived in that mansion. Yeah, you can't miss it. It's still the one the one of the biggest pieces of property on that street in 2026. Can you imagine what that looked like in 1920? In 1925, 1930? So, how do you sleep at night? She had to hire security guards. How do you protect your money? How do you protect your kids? Like, every day someone's gonna ask you for a loan. Can you help me do this? I can't, I can't eat. I need money for food. I can't, the churches help that the can you imagine that amount of stress when everybody knows who you are and where you live? I can't even, I would not want that life.

SPEAKER_02 51:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

I would be like, no, keep the money.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

How much of that history and how much of that money was discussed when you were a kid? When did you realize that this rich history was in your family lineage?

SPEAKER_01 51:34

I always knew about Sarah, but I didn't realize how important it was until about five years ago. As you get older, you start putting two and two together. And I'm like, well, my grandmother's never had a conversation where, man, I had a hard day at work, or I hate my boss. So, like, she never went to work. Like, oh, so it's like, well, I mean, it's little things.

SPEAKER_02 51:56

So they made Sarah's oil, which is a movie. They did just last recently. Last year. What did the movie get right? What did the movie get wrong?

SPEAKER_01 52:06

Well, it didn't really get anything wrong. Whenever you do a biopic, and I know a lot of people are kicking and screaming about this new Michael Jackson biopic. You have to consolidate some characters and you got to condense some characters. Like all the siblings weren't represented in the film, because you I mean, do you really want to cast eight kids and just running around for no reason? Uh it gave a good sense of the situation. Now they were the movie's PG-13, so they purposely did not want to beat you over the head with the racism in the danger. It's more implied than they actually show you or what actually happened in real life. Because what actually happened in real life, that'd be depressing, and nobody would pay money to go see that. Right. So they they they did a good job of telling the story they could tell without offending the viewer, which they did. I mean, that's a delicate balance. So I watched it with my daughters. See, that's you see, and you're able to watch it with because how old are your daughters? Uh 11 and 12. See? And it was just fine, right? Almost 13. Because they didn't, you know, they didn't do the, you know, it's oh, because it's inspirational from that standpoint. I love the inspirational aspect.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

One of the things that came up in our in our conversation after the movie was where, and it kind of I I felt the movie kind of glanced over this, is where she learned about royalties and where she learned how to negotiate, where she learned about some of the business tactics. See in in the movie, it was portrayed that her father wasn't as necessarily as savvy in terms of leasing or understanding that there was the obligation of paying taxes, and they didn't get into all of that. Right. And they really portrayed Sarah at 11 to be the master negotiator to go in and and really stand up for herself. And my daughters love that theme. Yeah. But it was not. That's what makes it a movie. Yeah, and this is this is where I'm curious as a critic, and obviously.

SPEAKER_01 54:07

That's what makes it a movie, because they're taking what the dad probably did in real life and giving it to her. Yeah. Because it's not fun watching him do that. Because what do you what is she gonna do? It's called Sarah's oil. Right. So they they enjoyed that specifically. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I love most people enjoyed that. That was the best part of the movie was watching her be an intelligent young black woman who knew about royalties and oil rights, and it was fun.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

Let's feed that into some of your current day projects to celebrate black cinema and and black history. What are the some of the big projects you're working on and where are they in their drive?

SPEAKER_01 54:42

I'm only working on one big project. It's and it's it's big and it's it's it's it's tough, but we're gonna get through it. We are um in the process of creating a black movie hall of fame in the 18th Divine Historic Jazz District. It'll eventually live inside the renovated Boone Theater, which um hopefully by Friday, construction, the construction phase should be complete, and then we'll start the interior design soon after.

SPEAKER_02 55:11

So you've also done um a lot of uh black cinema history in terms of uh inaugurating people into the freshman class of the Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_01 55:21

Yes, yeah. We did that as sort of like a when we announced the project, we we kicked it off with a series of inductees that were all connected to the Kansas City area since the the building of being Kansas City.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

One of those is connected to my hometown of Junction City.

SPEAKER_01 55:37

Oh, yeah. Kevin Wilmer. No, no, you gotta say it correctly. I'm sorry. Academy Award winner.

SPEAKER_02 55:43

I'm sorry. There we go. Academy Award winner. Oscar winner, man. So, in preparation for our interview, okay, I reached out to Kevin. Oh, all right. Hi, Kevin. And uh Kevin wants to know why you never moved to LA.

SPEAKER_01 56:00

Kevin knows that answer because I can turn around and be like, Kevin, why haven't you moved to LA? Um, LA is super expensive. And I learned early on, if they want you to work out there, they'll fly you there. Yeah. Because I just saw how I was just in LA two days ago, and um, I was out doing my little, doing a little run, trying to stay fit, and I'm ramp out by this house that was for sale. Like, I love this house. I really like perfect neighborhood, perfect house, perfect style. So I, you know, I Googled the address. Man, they want $3.8 million for that house. Yeah. You know how many houses I can buy in Kansas City for $3.8 million? A couple. At least easy. Yeah, but a couple, I can find some neighborhoods at 3.8. I I could maybe get four nice houses. Wait a minute. Yeah, that's a million dollars for a house in Kansas City, you're good. You go pretty far. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's that's at least three and a half houses in Kansas City. Is that the real answer? That's the real answer. The affordability. The affordability is a real. I mean, I could I could move to LA right now, and there would be a couple people who would be happy. Yeah. Like I could move to LA right now. I'd be like, I'm moving to LA. Like, I actually I turned on a job because they weren't gonna pay enough. Because they I had interviewed to be the awards editor at Entertainment Weekly. And then everything was going well until they said the salary. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. Like, I'm not trying to move to LA, so I also have to get a second job at a department store or a grocery store. Right. Like, that's not because I like the I like the lifestyle I have in Kansas City. Like, no, it means it's it's cool. You know, there's no traffic. And I mean, buying gas in LA today at $7 a gallon? Uh nah. No, I just I but I I I could go there, I could go right now. But when they need me, they fly me there. So I'm friends with everybody on Delta. Yeah. No, I literally know flight attendants and pilots. It's it's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 58:06

What didn't we talk about that you uh want to clear up or uh elaborate on?

SPEAKER_01 58:13

I mean, there's nothing to clear up. I just um we kind of glanced over the the Black Women Hall of Fame. I mean, just let's double click on that because I think that's such an it's number one, it's it's it's number one, it's super important because it's super unique. There's no other place that exists like it, right? Where there's a dedicated building or dedicated facility that's going to preserve and talk about the history of black film, there are pockets that exist. Like if you go to the African-American Museum in DC, there's a pocket that touches on black film. If you go to the Academy Museum, there's a pocket that that touches on it. But we're we're gonna talk about the totality. We're gonna talk about the early days and Oscar Michael and what he did and how it was so incredible, how this man, his love of cinema still far exceeds probably every filmmaker that's ever been, because he wanted to make movies so badly that he self-financed them and then he would shoot them. I don't know where he got the equipment, because you gotta remember this is back in the 20s and 30s where it was hard just to exist as a black person. And then he he found equipment and you know, cameras and lights and editing, you know, and then he hired actors, some of the greatest actors of all time, to star in these movies. And he put it all together, and then he felt he had all these movie theaters tell him, man, we don't we don't show black movies. We don't let black people black people can't come in here and watch nothing, and we definitely not showing no black movie. So he literally would have to put these reels in his car and drive from city to city begging movie theaters to show it. And if he found one to say yes, then they were like, Yeah, we'll show it. But, you know, white people come in here during regular hours, y'all gotta come watch this at midnight, which is where the term midnight ramblers came from. Because there would be some movie theaters if they did let black people come in, then they would have to watch the movie at midnight. So then if he did find a movie theater to say yes, then he would have to get back in his car and go to the black neighborhood and go from door to door and tell people he's showing a movie. Right. Like, can you imagine? Different from marketing, you gotta get out there. But can you imagine just having one reel, one film, one copy of your movie, and you gotta like one day you're in St. Louis and you gotta pray that they say yes, that they're gonna show it at midnight, then you gotta go to the neighborhood and let people know that they're showing it at midnight, then you gotta collect all the money. You gotta really like it. If you got your if remember now, if you got your money, because like the movie theater owner would be like, you know, Oscar would be like, 200 people came to see my movie, the movie theater owner would be like, I think it was 50. Right. Like what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? So he goes, he gives you the money for 50 people, and he kept the other money from the other 150 people, then you gotta get back in your car and go do it all again in the next city. I mean, these aren't cars like today, man. That's some man traveling on, and you gotta remember, traveling for black people was dangerous back then, you know, you know, because there's some cities you can't be in after dark. I mean, it's just it's a whole thing. So we we're gonna we're gonna tell Oscar Michelle's story. We're gonna talk about the civil rights era and like Sidney Potier basically holding it down for like decades and doing his thing, and we'll talk about Black Exploitation era and Spikely and then contemporary filmmaking and then hip hop's impact on filmmaking. So it's it's going to be an important building. So I just want people to know that it's coming. You know, we're in the middle of fundraising. We picked the absolute positively worst time to bring something online called the Black Movie Hall of Fame, because all of a sudden all the grants and all the money dried up. Like, oh, oh. But you it's a significant lift.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:08

Uh, how much have you raised so far? And what do you need to get across?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

We got the building done. We probably need another two and a half million. Yeah. But you've raised 12, or what was that? What's 12 to get the building done. Yeah. Which is good though, because you can't do anything unless you get the building done. Right. So the building's done. Like it's, you know, the ceiling and the roof and the basement and the foundation and the, you know, that's important too. Yeah. Now we got to put the like the cake is baked. We got the cake baked. Now we just gotta put the icing on it. Where can people follow you on on find you online? Man, just just type in S-H-A-W-N, Edwards, and Google everything. Amazingly, everything pops up. Yeah, everything. Or if you want to be more specific, type in Sean Edwards and then Kansas City. And then it's just every everything. I mean, it's that's that's the amazing thing about about technology. Is it everything pops up, all the social media stuff, it all pops up. It's it's it's yeah, it's there. I'm uh so grateful for our time. No, this is a great conversation. Thank you. I like it. Man, those are some great answers. Even Kevin's answer. Kevin knows why I don't live in LA, though. Man, we're not Kevin, Kevin should live in LA. He knows he knows when they need when Spike needs Kevin. Right, you got a call. Like, Kev, bro, I I I need you to write this thing called Black Klansmen. Yeah, and then he goes back to Kevin didn't even move to Kansas City, he still lives in Lawrence. Yeah, he doesn't live in Lawrence. He lives in Lawrence, the king in Lawrence. But no, it's now LA's nice though. I mean, eventually, we'll see. I yeah, I spent a lot of time out there, so yeah, it might make more sense. Yeah, because traveling is brutal.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:46

We'll see. Yeah. If you like this conversation, like, comment, subscribe, share this. Please share this. Really, really enjoyed it. It was a fun conversation. Thanks for your support.