Three Things Senator Wendy Davis Taught Me About Life

This past Tuesday, I had the privilege to witness Senator Wendy Davis filibuster an oppressive abortion bill that would ultimately shut-down all but 5 clinics in the state of Texas. I am indeed pro-choice. I think every woman has the right to choose what happens to HER body. The ramifications for the passage of such a bill are quite horrific. The bill would ONLY allow for the procedure to be performed in a handful of cities including Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio. Those cities are within a 3.5/4 hour radius of each other on the west side of the state. It takes more than 15 hours to drive across Texas!!! The bigger picture though, is that these facilities are the go to places for a lot of poor, uninsured women throughout this state and many nearby states as well for things like birth control, breast exams, and health checks.

I am not ashamed to say that it made me quite emotional seeing Sen. Davis literally give her body and her voice for so many that could not. I (re)learned 3 big lessons from her that can be applied to everyday life!


1. PREPARATION is key - 

• Sen. Davis and her democratic senate minority cohort had collected binders upon binders of stories, articles, and research to read from to take up the 13 hour filibuster time block.
• She knew what she was talking about and had retorts ready when she was questioned
• She wore the now infamous pink Mizuno Women’s Wave Rider 16 Running Shoe for the long haul. No heels for this battle

2. It helps to have PEOPLE -

• Frequently, her fellow Democrat Senators would stand around her for support
• Her office, with the help of social media, was able to keep collecting stories that they would then send to her to read ensuring that she had enough material
• Her Democrat fellows would eek the time... essentially running the clock by asking her questions that asserted their beliefs.... and spoke very slowly. LOL

3. In the end, it comes down to YOU - 

• Even though she had some support, it was SHE that had to stand for the entirety of the filibuster, even after there was some dispute as to whether a not a vote on the bill passed.
• SHE had the responsibility of thinking quickly on her feet when questioned by Republican senators.
• SHE spoke from her experiences and from what people would consider a mistake, being a teenage mother. And then she rocked it out at Harvard Law!
• SHE had to stand, she had to exhaust herself, she had to fight. And had it not been for the conviction of her values and what she wanted, she would not have been successful! 

Guest Blogger: @jesimieljenkins - Moving to LA - Part 1

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:

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.