Jesimiel and I met during the year I lived in Philadelphia working as an Education Fellow at the Wilma Theater, a Teaching Artist for Philadelphia Young Playwrights, and developing my craft as a performer and writer. Jesimel recently moved to LA to pursue a career in TV hosting. When I remembered the fascinating discussions we had about being African American, intellectual, and creative, I thought he'd offer a fascinating perspective. Featured below is Part I of his journey to LA. He's brutally honest and I dig it.
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I’m reading a remarkable book right now. In fact, so remarkable that it seems to mirror my life at the moment. It’s called The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and could easily be hailed as the first major work of nonfiction concerning the Great Migration, the period between 1915 until 1970 when black families uprooted from the south to make new homes in urban areas of northern cities. They were drawn by increased wages, a better quality of life, and mostly less discrimination. Wilkerson chronicles the lives of three different families from the moment they left the south up until the book was completed. The title is from a poem by Richard Wright:
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I’m reading a remarkable book right now. In fact, so remarkable that it seems to mirror my life at the moment. It’s called The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson and could easily be hailed as the first major work of nonfiction concerning the Great Migration, the period between 1915 until 1970 when black families uprooted from the south to make new homes in urban areas of northern cities. They were drawn by increased wages, a better quality of life, and mostly less discrimination. Wilkerson chronicles the lives of three different families from the moment they left the south up until the book was completed. The title is from a poem by Richard Wright:
I
was leaving the South
To
fling myself into the unknown…
I
was taking a part of the South
To
transplant in alien soil,
To
see if it could grow differently,
If
it could drink of new and cool rains,
Bend
in strange winds,
Respond
to the warmth of other suns
And,
perhaps, to bloom.
I started reading this book before I decided to move to Los
Angeles back in January. I’d spent
the last three years in Philadelphia working at an art museum and
dispassionately auditioning for theatre roles here and there when something
came along that I actually liked.
Much like the families in Wilkerson’s book, I was fed up. I felt that
there was a glass ceiling for minority actors in such a small theatre market
and my dreams were waiting for me somewhere up near Jupiter. I decided to move
to Philadelphia with the hopes of padding my resume with good roles but after
months of auditioning and being looked over for someone far worse than I and
seeing lackluster and lifeless productions of wonderful pieces of theatre, I
realized I was in bad soil. So,
after some soul-searching and after losing my dad in 2011, I decided to hitch a
U-Haul to the back of my Nissan Rogue and traverse west for a new life, more
opportunity, and more fertile soil. I needed the warmth of other suns.
Side note: I totally had a nerd moment when I read that he'd been reading "Warmth of Other Suns" because the book was the basis for work I did in a class I took while in graduate school on self-generated work. Some of the best creative writing I've been able to do.
To reach Jesimiel you can follow him on Twitter @jesimieljenkins or email him at jesimieljenkins@blallywood.com.
Side note: I totally had a nerd moment when I read that he'd been reading "Warmth of Other Suns" because the book was the basis for work I did in a class I took while in graduate school on self-generated work. Some of the best creative writing I've been able to do.
To reach Jesimiel you can follow him on Twitter @jesimieljenkins or email him at jesimieljenkins@blallywood.com.