A Better Chance TV with host Dr. Monique S. Robinson
Educational Conversations with Scholars in Mind. "Our mission is to empower and uplift scholars pursuing higher education at HBCUs, ensuring they have the resources, support, and opportunities needed for a successful future. Through mentorship, scholarship programs, and community engagement, we strive to create a pathway to excellence, fostering academic achievement, leadership development, and a strong sense of cultural identity. Together, we are building a brighter future for young scholars, strengthening the legacy of HBCUs, and fueling positive change in our communities."
A Better Chance TV with host Dr. Monique S. Robinson
Wilberforce Alumni Reflect On Legacy, Mentors, And The Power Of Saying “Look At What Wilberforce Did”
A tiny campus in Ohio became a launchpad to the world. We brought together four Wilberforce alumni for an energizing, unscripted reunion that celebrates how a small HBCU forged big courage: professors who refused mediocre work, a choir director who taught self-advocacy, and a community that funded buses to the Million Man March. From classrooms to Cairo, they share how confidence, rigor, and family-first culture turned students into leaders, authors, educators, and creators.
We swap stories that feel like living history. There’s the moment a president rested a hand on a student’s shoulder at the pyramids and said, “This is what it’s about.” There are red-inked papers returned until sources were solid, and a campus where the alma mater still rings like a promise. No band, no football, no problem—the prestige is in people who show up excellent when no spotlight is guaranteed. You’ll hear about study abroad in England, LA alumni singing the alma mater at the gate, and the anthem God Is lifting graduates and grandmothers to their feet.
We also shine a light on what’s new: a candid fatherhood memoir from a longtime stay-at-home dad, a love-forward poetry collection and performance plans, a novel and production company bringing short films to life, and an educator-led anthology amplifying Black teachers. Threaded through it all is an ethic of collaboration over gatekeeping: time, talent, and open doors for the next generation. If you’ve ever wondered how an HBCU can change your life, this is your blueprint—value yourself, raise your standards, and build together.
If this conversation moved you, share it with a friend, subscribe for more alumni spotlights, and leave a review with the campus lesson you still carry today. Your story might be the next one we highlight. Look at What Wilberforce Did!
Welcome to a Better Chance for Youth television show with your host, Monique Robinson, where we highlight, celebrate, and recognize students from all over the country who are doing great things in the classroom, community, and athletics. Every student deserves an opportunity, an opportunity for hope in the future. So let's celebrate our students, the next generation of teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs, and future leaders. Join us on another incredible segment of a better chance for you to show with your host, Monique Robinson.
SPEAKER_07:Welcome, welcome, and welcome. I know, look, y'all know when we go live, it has to be something extremely epic going on. So if you notice today, I have on which side is it on? Yes, yes. I'm I'm I'm representing um, and some say for my school. So I'm representing class of the two, they say 99, 2000, but I'm representing for class of 2000, um, of the Wilberforce University. Yeah, I'll be around a lot of people that always say B when they say their school day. So I'm doing a project right now, and this is episode one. So I hope to have an episode of many because so many people where I live in San Antonio, Texas, do not know what Wilburforce is. So I said we have some of the most elite graduates. First paying, you know, homage to my parents, they're both Wilburforce alum, and you know, have some classmates and some people who I've met along the way professionally and as a scholar at Wilberforce. So if you are watching, I want you to like, share, comment, shout out your year, shout out your alum, and we will make sure we get your comments heard. Now, if you do know someone that you want us to celebrate or interview, because the whole motto is look at what Wilbur Force did. So I have some people that have joined us, and um, some of them put their year that they graduated, but you know, anyway, I want you to know what our amazing guests have been up to with since they have left Wilburforce. Now, y'all know if I'm doing this thing live, sometimes I can't always see the buttons that I push, so don't judge me. All right, so what's up, Naz? How are you?
SPEAKER_02:Fantastic, fantastic.
SPEAKER_07:You know, Naz got his Wilburforce down, got his year. You know, so you know, I'm uh Nas, tell tell us, you know, what would you what year are you coming out? I see the year. I ain't gonna, you know, shout out to class and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_03:Thanks for having me on, first of all. Anytime. Um, I came at Wilbur Force in 1994 and graduated in 1998.
SPEAKER_07:Awesome sauce. Now we got some other people in the back now. Y'all know we are probably the most unscripted place ever. I can send out a ton to run a show and we never follow it. But hey, that's why we lie now. Let's see who we got next in the back for you today. I love the green and gold. Look at my sis, that green and gold.
SPEAKER_08:Come outside, come outside, come outside.
SPEAKER_07:Let me let me hold that shirt though. I trade you one of my one of mine.
SPEAKER_08:I know I need that shirt that you have on.
SPEAKER_03:I love your I love your introduction, Pendo. And I love the let's come outside.
SPEAKER_07:That is a great it's a sweater, this is a whole sweater.
SPEAKER_08:Thank you. I love it.
SPEAKER_07:Courtesy of one of my good friends in Dayton, Ohio. She has a shop and she sells Whippleforce gear, so you know, most of the things that I wear, even oh, I don't have them on the day, but they have some Whipple Force earrings. She made those two.
SPEAKER_08:Oh, nice, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:And then we have somebody else in the back. Somebody else in the back, yes. I don't know what year he came out though, but I don't know.
SPEAKER_08:Who else you got in the back?
SPEAKER_07:I don't know. Let's see.
SPEAKER_08:We're full of surprises.
SPEAKER_07:Greetings, greetings, greetings, welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. See, I got the memo. I got the memo.
SPEAKER_08:Yes, you did.
SPEAKER_07:I understood the assignment. Got it, got it. Well, welcome to the show. Y'all see, I have all will before us guests, which is a rare, like I never get to see like my Will before us fam. You know, I'm always on here with other schools. So I'm so glad that you guys are here to join me today. Now, if we don't follow the running script, charge it to my head and not my heart.
SPEAKER_10:It's okay.
SPEAKER_07:But the whole purpose of our my movement is you know, look at what Wilberforce did. And I can't take full credit because Ken, you know, uh, I had these two on the show before, and you know, I'm thinking I'm interviewing them, and they like, uh-uh, no, you're gonna start it, you're gonna start it. Okay, so now we have to look at what Wilbur Force did campaign going.
SPEAKER_08:It's very important, and we're not gonna gloss over the fact that you are down south with all those people who don't know about Wibberforce and the greatness that we are. So look at Wibberforce did you got four amazing, amazing alumni.
SPEAKER_07:Now, you know what's special for me when I first started um a better chance television, Keon was one of my first guests.
SPEAKER_10:Wow, special now. I didn't know that.
SPEAKER_07:Yes, camera barely worked, you know. Lighting was kind of lighting, lighting was like, uh girl, you just playing. So, no, thank you for even entertaining the comeback. I think the book, it was the um your book about relationships that came out. And I was like, I said, sure, come on. So if you are watching and you are interested in being on, hit me up in the chat. I will look back at it. But um, I gotta ask my guest this because we all are like different areas. I came out in 2000, came in '95. Uh Kian, when did you come in?
SPEAKER_09:See what happened was I had a great time at Wilburport. I had a chance to grow up, and uh you know, the actual academic course of study is one path towards matriculating, but socially I believe that I matriculated, you know. But uh, I came in in the fall of 93. Okay. Uh, and uh I I walked in uh the class of 99. So I uh I had a there is no judgment there, a prolonged uh you know experience at Wobble Force, and uh you know, but I'm better for it. That's right.
SPEAKER_03:But you finished though, and and and like crawling to that finish line, but I I got there and because of that, he is uh he is a bridge, he is a bridge between like you know I mean like like ages and and wow, like he really is like he he can he can talk to the young folks, he can talk to the older folks, like he has that those folks that haven't quite hit 50 yet, those that are you know moving moving through.
SPEAKER_07:I got two years, two years.
SPEAKER_03:My birthday, my 50th, my 50th is in two weeks, so I don't know.
SPEAKER_09:That's amazing. Come on in, the water's warm.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, hilarious, yes, hilarious. And um, now I'm gonna ask this question, even though I may know the answer for all of you. I may know the answer for all of you, especially Manasa. Um, what did you do while you were on campus? Because I get asked that a lot. Every college fair, every time I go speak somewhere, they're like, Wilberforce, it's only like three buildings there. I'm like, no, I was on both sides of the street.
SPEAKER_03:That is hilarious. Yeah, so um, I mean, I'll I'll go. I there was when when I was there for the for the four years, 94 to 98. Um, I just remember Wilburforce being really an incredible vibe, an incredible energy. Um, there was a lot to do on campus. Um, although, you know, we we are a small school and you have to try to make things happen as well. You know, you got to get kids out back then. We didn't have computers in our rooms or computers or phones like that. So you had to get kids out of the dorms to come to these programs if there wasn't a party. If you were doing an educational program or whatever, you had to you had to be creative in getting the student body outside to do things that wasn't party related. But um, I was in the choir. Um, I started with that, and then I was able to pledge Alpha by Alpha Fraternity Incorporated, my DZ chapter there. I was also in um, I became a part of the uh Study Abroad program, where we went over to uh Lancaster, England and studied at Lancaster University for three to four months, um, all through Weberforce University study, you know, study abroad exchange program. Um, I went to Egypt with with Weber Force and the Weber Force choir um to sing for the ambassador of Egypt, uh, like of Cairo. Like the Weberforce is just for me, there was so there was people like, well, there was nothing to do. I did a ton. I don't know what you did, but I did a ton of Weber Force, and I am thankful for all the things that they were.
SPEAKER_07:I I I totally agree with that. Like I I found stuff to do, some, you know, allegedly I done, but can't prove it, I didn't do it. But so um anybody else want to answer about that one?
SPEAKER_09:Well, I I twin. I'm an identical twin. So uh he and I uh that was one of the unique opportunities. Many people who come with siblings or have already half on campus when they get there, you know, or a cousin or somebody they grew up with. Uh that was a very uh comforting experience because I I grew up in Los Angeles, so I was thousands of miles away from home. And I'm a pretty affable, friendly dude, and so is my brother. So we made friends. We the one of the beauties of going to um going to Wilburforce and and and and specifically for Wilburforce is nestled right there in the Midwest. So uh when you did get off campus for a short holiday where I couldn't go to Los Angeles, I got to visit Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, so Dayton. So that was uh an awesome experience. Uh being nestled right there in Ohio, but also being able to see the country. So in addition to, you know, globe trotting like Manasseh, uh got a chance to actually uh you know see some states that you only really you know hear about for sports teams and uh and and maybe you see in movies or TV shows.
SPEAKER_07:Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I get to push in buttons, you know. So if you are majoring in, you know, TV broadcasting, and you need it, I need an intern that can push these buttons because sometimes I mess up. But anywho, now on campus, I don't know if you all remember. Um, because see my parents, did anybody else's parents graduate from Wobble Force on here? Why okay? I don't know. Like my mom and dad, my mom stayed in shorter and my dad stayed in the mill department. And so when they brought me to campus, it was like, you know, how come she don't have to stay here? I'm like, yo, but shout out to my parents though, because they helped me pass history of wood before and you know, New Testament. They made the folks, they helped me pass everything. Wow, but um, in all seriousness, did you all have to walk before the wolf building? Because I probably wouldn't have made it.
SPEAKER_10:Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09:I think your class was the last class to do it, right?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah, we were the last class. I think uh to to go like go to shorter hall, go down in the basement, all of your administrators, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:It was it was different, it was definitely different.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, I mean, in and there that we didn't have any, there was no like major technology, will force wasn't you know, some state of the art school or anything like that, but it it was it was drenched in history, it was drenched in black greatness, and you know, and and being the first of many things, and so you felt that even though you were missing a lot of the state of the art stuff, you did feel like there was something special about being there, and and I always joke about something happening in between those cornfields, like there was something special that happened in between those in those cornfields. Like, I don't know what it was, but the energy synergy there was different. We didn't have any of the stuff that you would normally have at a school, you didn't have a football team, we didn't have you know, we had a basketball band, we didn't have a band, man. We didn't have any of that, but man, I tell you what, like, I don't feel like I missed out on anything. And I have friends who went to predominantly white schools, you know, the Carnegie Melons and places like that, and it's like, man, like they look at the relationships that I have still to this day with my Wilberforce and friends, and they jealous, you know. I mean, they like, dude, I I went to school, I played football, I don't talk to any of those people anymore. It was like you go back to Wilburforce every chance I get, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Right. Well, I know this year Manasseh gave me a challenge. So if you were part of the university course, and he kind of made me feel bad because I don't know, Kian, I don't know if you know Pendon though. A couple weeks ago, somebody was in San Antonio and didn't say nothing.
SPEAKER_03:I don't know who that was.
SPEAKER_07:I'm sitting here sending a lot of messages. Somebody's gonna say, Well, uh, I'm in San Antonio when I get back home. I was like, What you where? You know, but make a long story short, you know, I I was able to connect with my Whipple Force brother. You know, he gave he signed my book, so I didn't have to act like a stepchild because I didn't follow directions. I bought it from Amazon instead of him. But um we made it right though.
SPEAKER_09:We good, okay.
SPEAKER_07:I didn't follow directions. I you know, I was just so eager to buy it. But anywho, what Manasa gave us a challenge because I don't know if y'all remember. Um, when I was there, I came in fall 95, and until I left, I was part of the university course. Um, you know, I was part of the the group that actually like went to many places, and so some of us still talk, some of us talk every day. So Manasseh gave me a challenge to reinvent that group of people. So if you are watching and you were part of that course the years that I was there, even if you weren't and you know some of the songs, because I'm gonna ask y'all that after break, and you know, some people know like what was what was that song that hit every convocation?
SPEAKER_10:Oh bring that back to what's that's that's the go when we come back.
SPEAKER_07:Um when we come back in and uh when Don Dance happens, and some of the people are really excited. I know the choir is back up to speed. I talked to Dr. Say a lot, um, and also help him along the way with some of the things that he's doing. So, you know, hey, we we trying here. So Manasseh gave me a challenge for that, but I know there's some other um some other type of reunions going on too.
SPEAKER_08:Well, my 30th anniversary from graduating. I know it's manasseh's 30th anniversary as an alpha, like 30.
SPEAKER_03:We all we all we all have we all have uh published books and we want to get together during Don Dance in 2026 with other authors from Wibberforce and definitely display that and and put that on on full on full tilt. So we Wilberforce, man, listen, we got a lot of people doing a lot of amazing things, and you know, I I just feel like um we were talking before we got on, and and penda was just saying that we gotta stop like you know, kind of tampering it down our our our flame. Like we are great, we have done some great things. Wilberforce has people have done alum has done some amazing things, and we need to highlight those things, and we need to talk about them, and we need to give people flowers, and people need to give themselves flowers and stop acting like we ain't the stuff, like you know what I'm saying? Like, we not the big schools, we not Howard, we not Hampton, we not none of that, but we are Wilburforce, and and we you know, I mean we'll I'll put us up against anybody.
SPEAKER_10:Yeah, absolutely. I'm just saying, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_08:I don't remember I don't know if I was a freshman or a sophomore, but Dr. Miri O'Brayle, she I think I was an African American class and some literature class or something, and she asked the question, and I knew the answer to the question, but I answered the question with the question, like, is it 1954? And she was like, Don't you ever answer a question? I don't care if you're wrong or not. You don't answer the question with the question, you answer like you know the answer, and if you're wrong, I will correct you. That got me right, and even though sometimes I'm just a little timid, you know. I do we do play this. Oh, I'm not all that. No, we are all that. We are all that, like y'all were talking about the things that you did on campus. You know, I was on the debate team, I was in Black Women United, women holding interest in professionalism. I ran from Miss Wilberforce. I was um, what is that?
SPEAKER_09:Uh we did a play together.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, we did plays.
SPEAKER_07:I said y'all did a play, y'all did a whole play together.
SPEAKER_09:The best of Justin Simple, Langston News play.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, we did. We did. We were the we were the lead characters.
SPEAKER_03:And listen, like, you know, like like Keon has been in the forefront of a lot of things, like a lot of movements, man. Like, this dude is such a humble guy, but he's so passionate and so giving and and and genuine, and you know, I mean, like, he just he'll it's the reason, it's the only reason that my book got finished. Like, he, you know, thoughts in my head. I'm talking to this dude. He's like, dude, you need to go talk to Penda. Like, this is this that's don't even because of Pinder.
SPEAKER_09:That all comes back to Pinder.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. I mean, she is the Oracle on this particular uh, you know, at the on this vessel right now. She's the Oracle. When I got the will before, she was one of the first people I met. She was in the counseling center. I walk in the counseling center, she was there, she was just kind and sweet and passionate, and but you know, just a sweetie pie. And so she, you know, when you told me to reach back out to her, it was just like this dude is just a vehicle to like connect people, and like he just has that as a gift. So man, I I I thank him like a million times over for sure.
SPEAKER_09:Going back a little bit, Manasa. This is also an anniversary this coming week of when we went to the Million Man March. Yes, we're on the tweet. Yeah, yeah. Uh, if you don't remember, I think Monique, you you might have been a freshman. Uh that that it wasn't social media, so when they were advertising this, it was a big deal that it spread around the way that it spread around. And you know, being college students, I didn't have two two nickels to rub together. You know, but what I'm most proud of of the community that is Wilberforce University, and I can only speak to our community. I I trust and believe that other HBCUs have similar communities. And as I've talked to colleagues, friends, and people who've been to HBCUs around our era, they also uh spoke highly of the community, but specifically the New York Man March, the way the sisters held us down, yeah, the way the social organizations made sure any young man that wanted to go, they were getting a seat on that. They they bought that ticket. Yeah, the sororities all bought tickets for the guys to go. Uh, there was so much outpouring of charity and making sure, and that was the other thing about uh uh our campus. Uh, there wasn't a whole lot of folks who could just stay in the room, you know.
SPEAKER_10:That's true.
SPEAKER_09:Like there were things to do night. There was uh lectures, there was, I was in the blackmail coalition, there was keynote speakers, there were conferences we had a chance to go to at other colleges. There was, you know, and then in this in this enlightenment era of ours, you know, this million man march came about. And you know, I'm fortunate to not only got to share that with my brother Manasseh, my twin brother went, many people like from from all across our campus, from whatever fraternity, sorority, I mean, whatever fraternity you were in, you if you were from another state, if you didn't really rock with that person regularly, you uh you had an opportunity to build and bond in that I don't know how many hours ride it was on that bus.
SPEAKER_08:It's like eight hours, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:That's a good experience because charters was the was the thing back then. That's what probably took you.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah, we didn't even it wasn't. I think Wilbur drove one of the buses. I think we had some charter buses as well. Yep, and I don't remember how I don't I didn't take Wilbur. I don't know how the people got on Wilbur.
SPEAKER_03:Maybe Wilbur came in a little cheaper, but uh I remember I remember being there just the last point on on that, but I remember being there and being so I I was so comfortable, it was so peaceful to be there. Like I fell asleep under a tree, like amongst a million people. Like I it like I'm in I'm just amongst everybody. At some point, I had to lay down. I took a little nap under a tree, woke up, people was passing our waters. It was just an amazing experience.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy. Remember the first stop, the first stop, and we seen all these other buses and all these other black men from these other schools, and the brothers just hopped out, was like, yo, what's up? Everybody dapping and bro hugs, and just like, man, you know, we only had a little bit of time before you know the bus took back off, and all the brothers was like, Yeah, we see y'all up there, man. Power to the people, you know. Man, that was that was just I I'll just that was just one of the beautiful things that Wilberforce gave me an opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_03:Wow, might be time to visit that amongst everybody. Yeah, we might all need to march to Washington next time.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, hey, I'm I'm I'm game for it. I mean, it might take me a little longer, you know. I'm down at the bottom right now in Texas. But hey, I'll get there. Uh, we gotta take a quick, quick, quick commercial break. But when we come back, because you know I'm an educator, so I I love, you know, if you could just shout out one teacher that, you know, gave you your get together moment at Wilberforce. I might have about five, but when we come back, I want you to share that one teacher that gave you your get-together moment.
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SPEAKER_07:Welcome back. Y'all ready? You want me to go first, or y'all still thinking?
SPEAKER_08:I got one. Okay. You go first. Oh my goodness. I already told you about Dr. Brayley, but um, I had a professor, Dr. Johnson, who was a counseling professor. I had him my last semester along with Dr. Sitous' class, which were both very, very hard classes. Um, and he was so tough that everybody was taking big dictionaries to class. And I just remember when it came time for the final exam, it was based on points. So if you only needed five points, you didn't have to, you only had to answer five questions that you knew. But I took every I was so worried that I wasn't gonna do well. He was like, Pender Horton, what are you doing? Like, you got this. And Dr. Grisby was like that. Dr. Grisby, oh man, he I used to talk to him even after graduating. He used to call me Dr. Horton. He was like, Dr. Horton, you what are you doing? Like, people always would say, What are you doing to me? Yeah, just so many. Um, Dr.
SPEAKER_02:Grisby was a was a good guy.
SPEAKER_08:He was a true man.
SPEAKER_02:I love him.
SPEAKER_08:Rest in peace.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah, he was a good guy.
SPEAKER_07:He separated all of us in class. Me, Titus.
SPEAKER_08:Titus. That's a name I haven't heard of.
SPEAKER_07:TJ TJ, Jamie, all my all my good friends. I learned it, you know. I learned you can't talk in class in college because he will try to fail you. So I moved volunteer.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Well, I know for me, um, mine was with mine will probably be Mr. Williams, our our choir director. Um there was he showed me that uh he talked to me and showed me about knowing your value. We talked a little bit about that before we got on on uh on live, just about knowing your value and and how difficult that can be sometimes and understanding what that means and what it you know how much you can ask for or how much you can, you know, you know, you make people respect you. But uh, we would go on trips, choir trips to places, and if the uh accommodations weren't right, if the food was was wasn't right, if if they if they were treating us unfairly, he would let them know without a doubt, and he would make it very clear we're we're the Wilbur Force University choir. We are you know like excellence, like he just stood in excellence, and he would not allow you to talk to him or do anything outside of being excellent and respectful to him and his and his children. I remember one time we got to a to a church, they were supposed to be, we had been traveling all night, we were supposed to be um getting some food before um the the concert would start. We get to the church and they don't have the food ready, there's no food ready, and he's like, you know, what's going on? And and he goes and talks to the person that needs to talk to, he let them know listen, I I'm going to get my kids something to eat. We all got on that bus and he drove us somewhere, fed us, got back to the church. The the concert was a little late, but he didn't care because he was gonna make sure that we got what we deserved, we got treated the way that we should be, and that that sign of excellence everywhere we went. If it wasn't right, he was gonna make sure it was right, and it was gonna make sure it was right because we were with the force university.
SPEAKER_09:For yourself, yeah, man.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. We went on tour, we would go down to some of the brothers' states and some of these other places. I mean, it'd be like, listen, man, he would like, look, we're not staying here. The hotel accommodations are not appropriate. We're not staying here. He did one o'clock in the morning. He telling the he'll tell the bus driver to take them to the holiday inn. Find this, find something open that's better than this.
SPEAKER_08:Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Get them right. Yeah, I I it happened more than one time.
SPEAKER_07:Wow. In real life. Like we were. I don't know if Manasseh remembered, but I was traumatized. They put us up in like some kind of like camp or something. Campground.
SPEAKER_03:That's the one that's the story I'm talking about. Wow. Accommodations, it's a it's like a campsite, so they're like lodges with like you know, bunk beds. And he's mama. Oh was like, you know, restored so mama. Oh was like this has no happening. No longer, Mr. Williams. They said, absolutely not. My our children will not stay here. It was late, it was like 12, one o'clock in the morning. He was like, We they will not stay here. Told the bus driver, everybody get back on the bus. We're gonna find you know, this is before technology, but it's right back, Google, ain't nobody Google maps, none of that. Go find a hotel open and get my kids into that hotel so they can sleep.
SPEAKER_09:It was opening up that map, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_08:That's true, though.
SPEAKER_03:It he he just exuded excellence. Like, I'm not a perfect man, I'm not advocating any of that. I'm just saying what what he taught me was to was to appreciate yourself, to value who you are, and and stand on it. Don't be afraid to stand on it. And he being not afraid.
SPEAKER_08:That's good, Manasseh. That's that's a good sometimes. I used to be jealous that I went in the choir. I was in MVIP do voices and praise.
SPEAKER_03:But let's be clear, it was not the same choir. It's not the same choir. Absolutely not. Y'all were the elite, not the university choir. He made it known, David.
SPEAKER_08:You were the elite choir, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:I love MVP, but I'm just saying, he he will make it known. This is not a cookie and punch choir. I still hear that in my sleep sometimes. No, yeah, Mr. Williams, he he taught me a lot. So Kian, I'm gonna let you go before I go.
SPEAKER_09:Um, well, there were so many. Uh, I had Dr. Jane Ball right off the bat, freshman year, uh Miss Vernon, who taught voice, and also the plays that we were doing, penda. Um, I was uh I am a complex, kind of outgoing, shy person. So I have some things that I'm shy about, and then there's some things that I'm very outgoing about. You know, mostly I'm outgoing, I say. But the voice addiction and the combination of that, doing that with the plays, which I've always kind of done theater, high school, even in elementary, you know, I've always been on the stage until coming to Wobbleport. So when Wobble Court had some opportunities, uh, I took it. And not that hundreds of thousands of people were gonna come, uh, but what I wanted to do was practice speaking out loud, articulating myself, projecting, and uh getting those opportunities uh in classes like um uh voice addiction, public speaking. Uh those were were really good uh opportunities. Uh Dr. Mora. Yes, professor. Yeah, I had a chance to take a public uh. I can't I can't remember what it was now. Forgive me, but I can't remember the name of the class. But it was the first time in my life that I did research to the level uh because what she was asking for was higher, higher like preparing you for grad school. And I didn't know it then until I actually went to grad school. And when I got to grad school, my work was a lot easier because I had seen that back in Wilberforce. And and and you turning your first little paper to her, and there's no facts, there's no citations, that thing get returned back to you like a Serena volley, like it's back in your face, yes, and you're gonna turn it in right. She's not gonna let you turn in mediocre work, you know, and that's what I remember about being in her class. We even went to uh and we being resourceful because a lot of the um the work that we did, Wilbur Force had an adequate library, but we had to actually look into the area, right state. She took us on a field trip to Ohio University's library, and they had one of the finest libraries in this in the state, perhaps in the country at that time. And uh we learned how to how to how to use the library system, you know, in a broader, more effective way. So uh that that was one of my kind of get you together, you know, uh in terms of you know being held to a higher standard, and then in terms of like developing and bringing something out of you, it would it was Miss Vernon and uh Miss Miss Jane Ball.
SPEAKER_08:Wow, you know, her book is like$400 on Amazon, Dr. Ball's book. Really? It's yeah, it's very rare. Um, so I watch it to see because I really want a copy of it, but it's very rare. I don't even think it's in production anymore. It's it's uh priced very high.
SPEAKER_07:Wow, it's her campus, the campus archives will have it because I'm on the history of Wilburfort's book, like really I don't know.
SPEAKER_08:I have to see.
SPEAKER_09:I'd like to visit our archives, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:Um the you mean even you know Paul Lawrence Dunbar, he he was there, and you know, Langston Hughes, just all different kinds of people that graced Wilberforces that people don't talk about.
SPEAKER_07:I am so glad that you all are on here because I these are my daily arguments. Like I wear, I don't know. This is what I do because every Friday I wear a HBCU shirt, but you know, I'm kind of biased. I have more Wilburforce shirts, so sometimes just saying, you know. Um, and so every Friday the kids look forward to see which kind of Whippleforce shirt I'm gonna wear. But here when I go places, they're like, Well, what is that? Where is that at? You know, so I don't know. I mean, I know Manassa is in Florida, Pinda. I don't want to say the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_08:Well, me and Keon are in uh North Carolina. I'm in Carrie, he's in Durham.
SPEAKER_07:Okay, but do y'all experience that where y'all at?
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, what do you mean?
SPEAKER_07:Experience like when you wear your when you wear your HBCU gear, especially your school, because I wear it, you know.
SPEAKER_08:Well, Tenda, you go ahead and I was gonna say all around me, all I hear is Aggie Pride or Eager Ball.
SPEAKER_09:And there are like eight other there's 10 uh HBCUs in the state that you can you can trip over an HBCU going to a store, you know.
SPEAKER_10:I'm so jealous of y'all.
SPEAKER_09:And it's a great experience, it's a great vibe because two two two types of reactions I get usually like, oh, I've heard of Wobble Force. Oh, that's cool, man. Yeah, yeah, Wobble Force, of course, you know, and then there's the oh, I haven't heard, you know, then you got to kind of educate them, and yeah, you know, I've tried to be less condescending as I've gotten older, but you don't want to presume everybody's had you know exposure to you know, you know, like like why would you only think that there were five HBCUs? Like right, know all your HBCUs. If I hear Tugaloo, I know where Tugaloo is. You know what I mean? If I hear, you know, uh Rust College, I you know what I mean, other other schools that aren't Howard, Hampton, you know, so I oldest private institution. Yeah, but listen, I try not to do that and talk slow to them. Because there was a time in my when I first left Oval Course and I got this degree, and I'm walking around and I'm saying, yes, the old the nation's oldest nation's oldest.
SPEAKER_10:I still do it.
SPEAKER_03:I do the nation's oldest, better than me, because I I still give them a little you still flow. Man, I'm like the the the nation's oldest private institution of higher learning. Yeah, I do that. I do. I catch myself though. I do it. We got all single letters, we got single letter chapters. Yeah, we we the we the first, bruh.
SPEAKER_09:I'm not over and you'd be surprised. I run into Greeks who when I say the we have single letter chapters, they didn't know that. Wow, I did after that, and when I hear that, I'm like, then I then I go find then I then I act like okay, what'd you say?
SPEAKER_03:I act like I hear my mama calling me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm quickly in the in the car in the in the car. Yeah, you know, you didn't know you didn't know that Delta was beta chat, okay. Ma'am, ma'am, okay, I got it. Cool, cool. All right, where did you think it was at? Where did you think it was at? Yeah, where did you think it was at? That's what I want to know. Where we're where your history, that's right.
SPEAKER_08:Did you read?
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah. But do they have the right the right materials to teach it?
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, yeah, that's so Dr. Mo. I have a question for you.
SPEAKER_07:I know this is your show, but it's a I mean, we never plan it, it's okay.
SPEAKER_08:I would never like I went to Bowling Green and my parents met at bowling green. So I went to bowling green to get my master's, right? I could not imagine my parent going following in the same footsteps as my parents, and like when they dropped me off at bowling green, it's like, oh, that's the dorm where we met. And I'm like, girl, I don't need to hear all that, you know. But how I like you know, how was it for you? Like, did you buck at them when they said that they they wanted you to go to Woman Force? And then now on the other side, do you you know they were right?
SPEAKER_07:I honestly um being really transparent, I didn't want to be there. Um, I had my heart set to go to Elizabeth City State. Um, my grades and it my grades had other plans for me because I had a music scholarship until they seen my grades from high school. Um, and you know, reality set, and you know, my mom and dad, they don't play no games, it was either boots or books, and you know, I ain't about to be in nobody's army. Like I can't I couldn't follow directions with Mr. Williams. So, what I look like being in the army. But um, but uh in all transparency, I got to Wilburfors uh in '95, and I just was like, you know, I'm stuck here, might as well do something. Um, and my my it took her a minute though.
SPEAKER_03:It took her a minute. It did. I kept I bumped my head up. She was bucketed, she did not want to either it was very clear. I mean, because because we were in a choir together, I mean, I was an upperclassman, but she we were in the choir together. That's how I know her. And man, she had an attitude.
SPEAKER_07:She did not, and when I tell people this, some people like, you ain't had no attitude. You I just can't see you like that. I'm like, no, I was a mean, uh, I was mean for no reason, and I just you know, I did not want to be there. And when I got in the choir, I uh established like Manasseh, uh Michelle, like some of the upper classmen took me kind of like under their wings, Tanika. And um they just was like, Look, you know, they they have my back, like, and then you know, on the flip side, my parents, they was like, We don't care what you do. You ain't come, you you come home, but you're gonna be in the military because we failure is not an opposite, you know, like that was what they was weighing on my head, and then I start, you know, getting involved with some stuff on campus. Uh, you know, was in the choir, people was inviting me to sing at the events and stuff like that. Uh, and then um I never forget Dr. Um, Dr. Henderson was our president, and you know, he just used to always talk to me like, You sure he really don't want to be here? I was like, I'm gonna get it together.
SPEAKER_03:And I don't know if President Henderson was the best just at first, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:But I mean that says a lot that he, the president of the university, was so invested.
SPEAKER_09:He has the personal task again, whether whether you know whether he found a reason a way to connect with, yeah. For a lot of us that were far away from home, he allowed us to come to his home for a home cooked meal for the short holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07:That's amazing. They would do so much for us.
SPEAKER_03:He was he was incredible. He was when I when we went to when we went to Egypt, I when we went to Egypt with the school, he was there. He was like and this like talking about this kind of stuff is just crazy to me because like where else in in life do you can you have these experiences? I was in Egypt with the president of my university walking up towards the pyramids and the sphinx that I'm gonna see for the first time, right? Wow, many of all of us, all of us are gonna see for the first time, but he had been there before. So I'm literally walking right next to him. We're walking up this uh this hill, and then as soon as you get to the top of the hill, you see the sphinx and the pyramids and all of that. And I get my breath gets taken away immediately. I I like take this deep breath in. I he looks at me and I got I got tears coming down my eyes because it's just a it's just a beautiful sight, right? And uh, and the president of university puts his hand on my shoulder and he's like, Yeah, this is this is what you this is what it's about. This is what it's about. Expose you kids to to life. And the president of the university, like it, it was unprecedented. Like, you know, this is nothing about my dad. The president of the university is sitting here talking to me as we're staring at the pyramids.
SPEAKER_08:That is amazing. I never heard none of these stories.
SPEAKER_07:I know we went, we went twice. We went twice. The first time is I think the first time we went, it was like uh Black History Month guest as the um ambassador. I still got the article somewhere 1998, yeah. And then the second time we went, my mom got to go. And I know a lot of times I get I'm very territorial with my mom. Like, I don't y'all know um my parents. My mom ended up being everybody's mom. Like, we would have our family reunion back then, Labor Day weekend. My mom would find kids on campus and be like, hey, y'all, y'all eating and invite them to the family. You know, like, mom, we don't even know them. You know, that's that's rubber force.
SPEAKER_09:That's what they would. He had worked maybe one more year at Woberforce in one time and came back home to Cincinnati. So, in seeing him around Cincinnati in some of the volunteer capacities he was in, or whatever, he would always stop whatever he was doing and say, Hey, this is one of my twins, and he'd introduce me to whoever you know was in his circle. He always made sure I was good. He always made sure if if if you know where you employed, are you liking what you're doing, you know, what his his his interest and his memory and him taking a interest in my professional development when first of all to do it in college is one thing, right? And to do it, you know, now I'm an adult, I'm out of the world now, and for him to have taken that interest. I I that was one of the uh it was like having you know being so far away from my own parents, like have him in Cincinnati where that move is even more amazing.
SPEAKER_08:Where is he now? I'm like, we talk about people. I just I want to go sit at their feet now that I'm an adult and just thank you because he he saved me from a lot.
SPEAKER_03:Like it's I don't, you know, Mecca More was that was like that too. Was the reason that I went to this to Europe.
SPEAKER_08:I didn't go.
SPEAKER_03:He asked me, and I said, No, I'm too scared. He he he he looked me in the eyes and said, Do you want to go? I said, I I don't know. I said, I was like, like, like for three, four months, he was like, If you want to go, you can go. He said, You just gotta tell me if you want to go. He's like, There's a lot of life out there, son. You don't have to stay where you have amazing.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, so you that's right, you did go overseas.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, I studied in Lancaster University, Lancaster, England, my senior year, January until April. Wow of my graduating year at Wilberforce. And and the Mecca Moore and President Henderson were were at the forefront of that. There were the reasons that that that even happened. Um, the four students. I mean, and and like the co-op program, like there was so much there at that small school at that time. Um, and the energy that was there, it is we had dirt roads, we didn't have paved, we didn't have a paved like road or nothing. Like it was dirt road, it was a lot of people didn't have cars. No, we had three, four buildings, like we something in those cornfields got us 30 years later on this damn podcast now, whatever we doing, talking about Wilburforce.
SPEAKER_08:And the more you talk about it, the more I'm like, why would we ever minimize ourselves? Like, we are talking about some amazing things that Wilberforce gave us and who we are as Wilbur Forceans. How dare we say, um, I'm not all that? No, Wilbur made us who we are, and as a result, like, look at these relationships we have. I am so like one of our Wilbur Force sisters is moving here next Saturday. I'm counting down the days, so excited and so happy.
SPEAKER_09:Like when I see my found out you was coming, I was like, Yay, more.
SPEAKER_08:Like, I mean, we have people that I love Carolina when y'all list.
SPEAKER_03:It's really I need some of y'all in Miami. Can y'all get any call?
SPEAKER_07:Right, I'm like, goodness. It's well, it is four in Texas, but they oh they like. I think one of them graduated in 80, one of them graduated in like 92. But they come to the events though, because I love it.
SPEAKER_09:Like every time I decide next up, you're only two hours from my parents.
SPEAKER_07:So next rock, I go to the water park. I check, I check on them if you need me to.
SPEAKER_09:I I keep I keep you posted. I keep you posted. No, Aries is in uh that area too. So you can't.
SPEAKER_06:I love Aries. Oh, I haven't seen so long.
SPEAKER_09:Eric McDaniel's in Texas.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, Eric. Man, I just can't. I can't. I wish I could go to homecoming, but like I just I gave school in my spirit.
SPEAKER_09:Hopefully, we play this back, and this gets played next week. So, in the spirit of homecoming, people can see, uh can can see, you know, uh how proud we are of Wilberforce, and Wilberforce can hopefully be proud of us.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because it's that's a lot, it's a lot. It's a I mean, you know what I mean? Kamal Smith doing movies, and you know what I mean.
SPEAKER_09:Like Gino, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Corbin. I mean, the list goes on. We have amazing people doing amazing things, and it all came from Wilberforce.
SPEAKER_09:Uh proud of our educators, we've got principals, we've got uh doctors, people doing collegiate, you know, work in you know, in higher academia. Um, we've got people, you know, doing it in corporate America, doing it in clinical research, you know. Entrepreneurs, yeah, entrepreneurs, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I put us against anybody, I don't care what nobody says.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I'll be extremely extremely excited that you all have brought up everything that I, you know, because sometimes they hear from me all the time. So when they hear from people who have walked the same walk, you know, even though I am I'm the youngest on here today. I get it. I'm the young. I get it. But you know, especially the different bonds that I have with you all, like Penda, you know, Penda's family, Manasseh's family. Kenya, you family too. But like Penda knew me when I was, you know, still trying to find my way. Manasseh met me when I probably he probably was like, Who is this crazy girl?
SPEAKER_03:I told you you were you just reminded me of myself, like this, like this little this little chip on your shoulder. Don't really, you know, gonna give somebody told if they get too close and all of that stuff.
SPEAKER_07:So I know for deliverance, but in all in all seriousness, though, I um am forever grateful for what Wilberforce has done and continues to do. Um, I I really am, and I would never, and Penda got on me this week. I'm gonna be honest with y'all, because y'all fam. Be honest with y'all. She got on me, but I didn't want to call her before we came over here because I didn't want to tell me y'all. But y'all know um sometimes I go visit other places, but at my church they had a song fest. And I know Manasseh, you hold hold your thought. They had a song fest, and the they, you know, the pastor was like, Hey, anybody know this song? You know, he was talking to the congregation, and I'm sitting in the back, just you know, just looking around or whatever, trying to, you know, not make eye contact with anybody. And so I felt so bad that I had to post a video of me singing the song at my mom and daddy church because I was like, Oh god. So Penda got on my case really, really bad in the text. So when you got on here today and was like, quit downplaying yourself, and I really hope when you know, if you're watching this, if you are uh watching the replay and you graduated from the Wilberforce University, see, I'm around a lot of people that graduated from Prairie View, so that's how they announce themselves. So I say it just I graduated from the Wilberforce University, I say it just like them, but um we need to quit downplay in our school, and I think the more we do these talks, if we can come up with some alum that is ready to share their story, I will dedicate from now to homecoming to look at what Wilberforce did because I know we have different chat groups and they talk about all this unnecessary foolishness when it comes to homecoming, but it it's time to be like real and say, Hey, builders, not tear it down.
SPEAKER_09:Wilberforce taught us to build, yeah.
SPEAKER_08:Each one teach one, each one reach one. I ain't learned one African proverb at Wilberforce. That's the one, you know, and I would go back to we got from our own exhort, you know.
SPEAKER_09:We gotta get it, get it out out the ground. You know, we got we gotta you know bring it from within, so yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Ain't nobody coming, ain't nobody coming to save us, y'all. No, I'm just I'm just and I'm talking about in life period, and nobody coming to save you, save yourself. You have to, you know what I'm saying? Like you have to dig in in yourself and save, pull that out of yourself. Like, nobody's coming to save you. You gotta save yourself. So with whether it's will be force or whatever, you have to make sure that you understand that in life, especially right now, you are you you have we have to save each other, we have to be looking out for each other, we have to build each other up. We have to, otherwise, we're going to falter. We can't this, this, this single, this singular thought process where everybody doing their own thing is not gonna work, and what we where we are currently in this storm. We are nobody's coming to save you, save yourselves, save each other.
SPEAKER_08:You gotta pay this picture, though. Like, we Wilberforce in the middle of cornfields where the KKK would be having rallies down the street. Like the Underground Railroad was really part of where we were, so that's part of the reason why we're so close because you couldn't be out by yourself, you had to be with somebody. That's what Wilberforce taught us. This this ain't for play play, like this family in real life, this family in real life. The Tawawas, like the spirits there, there were spirits there.
SPEAKER_07:The Wawas used to scare me, but I used to be over, but allegedly I was over there.
SPEAKER_03:I said the history of Wilbur Force and the things that that happened prior to us being there are legacy things. They're legacy, they're their blood, their sweat, their tears that are that are on in that soil. That you know what I mean, and and we walked on those on those hollow grounds, you know what I mean? We are a part of that history.
SPEAKER_09:That's another caretaker. That's another caretaker.
SPEAKER_08:Oh that's my right there, keeping us on the keeping us connected to our purpose, and still doing it.
SPEAKER_10:Thank you, thank you.
SPEAKER_07:She is she is forever my choir mother that saved me from many.
SPEAKER_03:She called me the other day to make sure that I would send her the send her the book. It's been 30 years, and she's still mama. I'm still making it. You better sign it. You better sign it. Now, I ain't gonna go on the website, baby. I'm gonna, I need I'm gonna just send you a check and I need you to know, yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_08:Yep, and you sign it. You sign it for yeah, this this this smile on your face when you're doing it too.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, this is so good. It was it will it it was it was for me. I'm I'll speak for myself. I didn't know that will be force because I didn't want to be at Wilberforce either. I didn't I had no plans with me at Wilberforce, but um what Wilberforce gave me, I didn't realize until after it was all over. I needed what Wilberforce offered me. I I don't know how I would have fared at a larger school, at a at a predominantly white school. I don't know how I needed family, I needed a family atmosphere, I needed that small campus, even though I fussed and fussed about it, and you know, dirt rows, and you know, I fussed about it, but at the end of the day, I needed it, I needed what Wilbur Force had to offer me, and and it gave me everything that I needed. It was a family-oriented environment. Yes, it was small, but man, the relationships that I built are timeless. Oh, absolutely. So we can't feel the same way.
SPEAKER_09:I feel the same way. I needed to get out of Los Angeles because I think you think the expression of drinking through a fire hose, the the culture and society, we would have drowned, my brother and I. And I think what Ruberforce presented was enough of the foundation of knowing what's right, because we it was small schools steeped in church values, plenty of diverse students who reminded me of family, reminded me of, you know, a lot of the elders that were on campus, the upperclassmen, they reminded me of my older brother. My older brother uh went to Moorehouse. So we were looking at schools by the time we came about, we were looking for an HBCU. It had to be an HBCU, there was no other option, and then it had to be a school with some importance and significance. So I remember when we got our acceptance letters, we were like, We're going to Wobber Force, uh tell telling the uh stuffy Morehouse dude, you know, that we uh got accepted. And and he was proud, and he he had heard, you know, he had heard of Wobber Force. He he you know, he he he knew he knew a lot, he was telling us about Wobber Force. When we got when we got to campus, and he was still in Atlanta, so that was also great because instead of going way back home, we were able to stay gone from home. Like my mom was very protective in LA, but as long as we were outside of LA, she was fine with us seeing the world and you know, going to do that. So we had to leave LA. I don't know that I've seen for you know how people are that live in where you know in your hometown, they never go but maybe two, three hours down the road. Yeah, like races. You got people that's never been east of Las Vegas. Yeah, I feel that if it was not for Wilberforce, I could have been one of those people who you know, just a city, a town, you know, a town guy. So uh Wimperforce is a it was was truly a global experience. We had our African brothers and sisters on campus. We had you know, it was just a cultural explosion. Like we we were able to really people from everywhere, from small town, big city, you're learning dances, you didn't trade-offs, yeah, you learned styles, styles, clothing, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, hip-hop, hip-hop wasn't as broad with so much intersectionality as it is now, it was just maybe two or three regions, but even the diversity of that, you know, we like this out west, but we like this in the Midwest, we like this in the south, you know. Yeah, so uh where else can you get that experience? You know, and I'm from one place where you can get a buffet of all these experiences while only being in one place, you know.
SPEAKER_08:That's fair. I mean, I don't even know how I got to Wilberforce, like to be quite honest. I don't remember filling out an application. I went to Wilberforce sight unseen. The the only day that I saw I never visited the campus, I saw it when I was a senior and it was grad night.
SPEAKER_10:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_08:I just really think about like I went to Wilburforce, it was a half an hour away from home, but it really I felt like I was across the country because I was so immersed in the culture, and I think it's so important, like y'all are saying, we Wilburforce chose us. That's the way that I have to think about it. I don't think I I don't gotta let him like I'm going to Wilburforce. Like, I wasn't like that. I wanted to go to Jackson State, and my daddy said, Nah, Pen, you're going where the money is, and then we all go where the money reside, but you know what?
SPEAKER_07:I gotta go back to Kian. He I completely forgot that you were from LA. I remember um the tour, the West Coast tour, and I will never forget how the um I don't know, Manasseh. Was you gone by then? Or you were still there when we when we got off the plane and came through the corridors and how they sang the alma mater out there. Wow, and they had that they were so banner back then, yeah. Oh my god, they sang the alma mater and it rang. You know how hollow, like oh my god, yeah.
SPEAKER_09:We had a great experience with the LA alumni, they would send us care packages. Wow, they would send us off in the summer each summer before we came back. Wow, uh yeah, I met art before he came to Woman Force, uh the summer before he came.
SPEAKER_08:Bowser, yeah, from L and wasn't Z Z from Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Where are you at? Z, miss you. Wow, this is so amazing.
SPEAKER_07:This is thank you. Okay, somebody put 937 over. 937.
SPEAKER_09:Hey, I remember, and I this probably predate pending. You might remember this. Remember when there was no 937? It was just it was our 500.
SPEAKER_10:I remember your freshman year, my master. Oh yeah, yeah, that changed your freshman year. Oh no.
SPEAKER_07:Before I got there, they was talking about pay phones and standing in the hallway.
SPEAKER_10:I was like, we had one pay phone.
SPEAKER_03:We we had the first phones, but my fresh our freshman year, there was there was still pay phones.
SPEAKER_09:No, no, y'all were the second year. Yeah, y'all were the second year of that.
SPEAKER_08:One phone on the floor, and you curled up with your feet on the wall. Girl, my mama trying to call me, get off the phone, like, and then we got phones in our rooms.
SPEAKER_03:You had to go to the computer lab to get your work done. There was no close that midnight. Yeah, you had to go to the computer lab. So at a certain point during the semester, everybody needed to be everybody was in the computer lab. Not enough computers for everybody to go to the computer. Man, and then you would always hear somebody yell out at some point during like like uh finals week or something. I lost my paper.
SPEAKER_10:Yep, yep, yep.
SPEAKER_08:Yep.
SPEAKER_07:Oh man, yeah, that I mean I lost Dr. Callendar's paper. Oh I wanted to throw that computer all the way across the computer there because Dr. Calendar and Dr. Situ probably was the hardest classes that I've ever taken in my life.
SPEAKER_08:That was like so Dr. Sit Two. I mean, they have many people crying in them in them computers. Oh my god, and you your paper had to be bound when you turned it in. I remember going to Kinko's at like two o'clock in the morning for them to buy my paper so I could slide it under our door.
SPEAKER_07:That was literally cried because I was like, I'm about to fail this class because I'm not about to do this over. And I sat here all day in this lab. It was it was bad.
SPEAKER_02:It was yeah, it was a different time. It was a different time. It's just no auto stage, no, no AI.
SPEAKER_08:No auto stage. They don't, they don't understand.
SPEAKER_07:So we gotta take this last commercial break, but when we come back, um, I do got you know a big question because I need to know, you know. Uh our our next phase is is from Wilburforce to the world. So I want to know like what you got going on because we all got stuff. So right after this, I want you to tell me.
SPEAKER_00:What if your greatest breakthrough was on the other side of your story? Inspire Me Moments, Living Out Loud with No Regrets by Anthony Harris Brown. Isn't just a memoir, it's a miracle, a movement, and a map to becoming who you were meant to be. Through raw honesty, spiritual insight, and power and reflection. You'll unpack your past, embrace your scores, five stories. You'll find real stories almost five. Live out loud with no requests. Get your copy today. Everywhere folks are sold.
SPEAKER_07:So welcome back, welcome back. What you have been watching, it's kind of like my own personal homecoming in a little bit. Um I do plan to be at Don Dance because I'm back down from a challenge. You know, I might not do some of the things I used to do with my uh my attitude. I use it for positive. So Vanessa challenge me. Um, choir members, I need y'all to show up and show out. Y'all never told us what song it was that we did, you know.
SPEAKER_09:I love when you guys used to do God is. Yes, you did God is. I remember graduation coming to an aid. Like it was all decorum and all, you know, uh procedure. God is started, people went to church, grandmas got out of walkers, everybody was everywhere. Graduation 99. Everybody was it was just like when the when when the more secular song uh cash money came off. That was Jesus' cash money. When God is played, and the choir went to town, that up against any choir anywhere. I want to buy it, I want to own it.
SPEAKER_07:I got a copy of the CD, I got you.
SPEAKER_10:C D I got you, yeah.
SPEAKER_07:Only only because you, you know, you kicking out this, you know, look at what Wilbur Force did. I will send you a copy of the CD.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, send that.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, that's yeah, that CD. I yeah, Manasseh.
SPEAKER_09:I mean, I I felt surrounded by all of the thousands of graduates from every generation ever when that song was sang, you know. And it had been sung, you know, all those years I was there. I had every convocation I've been to, every but it was something about the last time you hear it as a student of World of Force. Oh wow, yeah, that it just that in the alma mater, of course. The first time you get it as an alumni, and each time after is special. I cry like a big old baby. That is a standard. Like, I hope that whatever they're doing in the music department today, that they that someone has told them that's World Forces.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, yeah, the I just say is is definitely trying to connect um alumni with the choir. I can say that about him. Like he reaches out, he invites now. If the choir is in your neighborhood, please go out and support. Last week they was in Indianapolis.
SPEAKER_09:Um we're trying. Penda, I got something to talk to you guys about. Uh, Miss Bonnie had uh uh talked to uh President Newkirk. Wow who's from North Carolina, so got it. Um we we're gonna try to see what we can do to raise some money so we can get the choir down here, maybe even the band as well.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, we're we're um working it with the church, my church here that's trying to do an HBCU initiative. Only thing is I I you know we got to go with what's around us, it's not HBCUs in Texas. Um, however, I always try to see if you're gonna get mine first, even though it's a of course. But um, no, uh let me know, Kian. I might be able to um to come up there for that. I know I go to Cleveland every year for their college fair if I can. Um, because my my mentor, um Shaquin, jump on here because you know I'm he outnumbered today. Usually it is Bethune or somebody else, but since we outnumbered, he might not show up, but he might be in the comments. I better be quiet.
SPEAKER_09:But um got homecoming this week, so they they they they doing their homecoming. I got a we got a uh a good friend of mine I used to work with, Turney Brother. Uh he I saw him post that he was on his way down to to uh homecoming. Uh yeah, okay. That marries kids, yeah. They on their way to uh to Florida.
SPEAKER_08:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_07:Hear it all the time, and I never like I'm never overcrowded the room with you know Wilburforce graduates, and they vicariously live through me and my memory. So it's like, come on, y'all, we got dope people too. Y'all just don't, you know, y'all overpower us. So now from Wilberforce to the world, um my experience had been I I wanna, you know, first I want to thank all of you, uh Manasa, Penda, and Kian. Wilberforce gave me a voice that I didn't have. Um, and it taught me to channel my energy. I know I didn't really mention my favorite um professor or professor that stood out the most because I got like three. I will never forget Dr. Mora giving me that F on that well-written pencil report. She politely gave it back, like uh-uh, baby, you in college. This needs to be typed out by tomorrow. Yeah, yeah. Wow, that'll learn you. That'll learn me real quick. That paper was here too. And Mr. Williams um taught me how to stop using this and use this. Yeah, you know, and Manasseh was there, they would miss dinner plenty of days because of me, because of this.
SPEAKER_03:Stop talking and think first.
SPEAKER_02:Wow. Think before you say so.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, and so I oh there you are.
SPEAKER_06:Hey popcorn, it's not the popcorn.
SPEAKER_09:You want to marry kids. I know you had it down.
SPEAKER_07:I told you, I'm like, I know he watches somewhere. Him shaking popping the screen. Like, I you never know what to expect from him. So that's why I was like, let me see, let me be nice, tread lightly. But um, and I'll in all fairness, uh, Mr. Webb, that last year that I was in the choir, and he told me I was one of the most improved soloists, or what have you. I mean, and I get it, because freshman year, to I really learn how to like zip it like it. The principles that he was teaching me then helped me fight and advocate in the world now. Like I can go in the room and knowing that people don't expect the, you know, expect me to have a doctorate, of course not, you know. But it it taught me to be humble enough to use this and get at them instead of being sassy mommy.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, that's good.
SPEAKER_07:Well that's so let me hear from y'all before we wrap it up, you know, which y'all been up to Willcourse to the world, because I mean Willcourse taught me how to stand on business and make it happen.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I'll go. Y'all know I dropped this book, Uncharted Territorial Father's Journey on September 1st. Thanks to the people that are all on here. Keon for being uh who he is and and patching me in to my sister Penda, who was my writing coach and helped me get this book out here. Um, it is a my my testimony, I guess, about my life as a stay-at-home dad. I was I've been a stay-at-home dad since our uh oldest son Elijah was born, and I have wrote, I've written about all of the ups, downs, the the bad, the ugly, the the good things of fatherhood and parenting. And I want to share it with the world. I um the epilogue also has um lessons for my children and possibly anybody else who feels like the lessons could affect them and and and penetrate their lives. Um, and so I'm very excited about sharing this with the world. It's as uh Tupac would say, it's the realest thing I've ever wrote. Um I've I kind of bear it all. I try to be as honest as I can and I try to be as uh vulnerable as I can in this book to uh show people some of the things that I've gone through and hopefully help them along their path um as as they read it and and kind of get into it. So um I'm very excited for it. I hope everybody goes and gets it. You can uh purchase it from www.manassaht.com and um and I will sign it and I will send it to you. And I would love to get your feedback as well. I'm gonna definitely be doing some live uh with people like Keon and some other people so they can so us brothers can talk about what this means to them and and maybe how it affected their lives or how they um can you know just give me some feedback on how it made them feel. Um, and so so far, so good. I've gotten a lot of great feedback from it, and I'm just thankful for everybody who supported. Please go get it. I know a lot of people, right? I got I know a lot of people, and a lot of people haven't bought this yet, so get to it, people.
SPEAKER_10:I know that's right. I know that's right. Yeah, I know a lot of people you went to World of Force, buy the book.
SPEAKER_07:I know a lot of people, yeah, go get the book, go get the book, absolutely, and get it from him and not on the website because he will fuss at you and see not on Amazon, I can't sign it if you get it from Amazon.
SPEAKER_03:I can sign it if you get it from Manassa T.com. I learned goodness. You good, you good. We you ain't got it. You you good, we good, we good. We fail again. All right. So thanks for the project. I've been up to this book. Go get the book. Penda got a book coming out.
SPEAKER_08:Yeah, pinder has a book coming out. Monique, you got your logo. Oh, thank you. You got your logo over my book cover, but running between dandelions, it is my first novel. It has been a dream to write a novel. I wanted to honor my mother, my mother is deceased, and honor relationships and the sister friends that pull us through when life is hard. The log line is a woman must understand her mother's story in order to overcome her fear of being an unfit mother. So, since Wilberforce, I really my desire is to help people tell their stories and working with, I really most recently have been working with mostly Wilberforce grads like Keon and Eris, and just so many people who found me after all these years when my gift was literally born at Wilberforce. I also will be starting my production company, Penn Scribe Productions, because I have some short films. Actually, the novel was inspired by a short film, and so I want to go into production in May with this film called Yellow, and then we're gonna travel the world and talk about it. I really am just desiring to be, I want to be one of those notable alums of Wilbur Force, so that where like when I'm dead and gone, they'd be like, you know, Pinda James went there. You know, I I think I think about that. I want to be uh I want to make Wilberforce proud and the people who poured into me proud because there were too many sacrifices and too many open doors for me. So I this ain't for play play. That's what we're talking about. Come outside, come outside, let's go. What's on you, Keon?
SPEAKER_09:Uh well I am um uh I am uh proud of my two uh published works that are in the world. Um they're for right now available on Amazon only. Uh locally, I'm doing some distributing. Uh but um if you want to support me, uh you can look up uh After the Snap. This is my first book. Um this was a very uh vulnerable uh exploit of myself. Uh I was able to kind of share poetry. Um I'm a poet, as you can see in my tagline. Uh I've been writing poetry since I was in sixth grade. And uh one of the things that I've always been able to make sense out of life, you know, life is kind of life, is I can always kind of slow myself down, turn everything off, chill out for some music, and get to writing. So uh during one of the difficult times of my life, uh uh in my uh previous uh life, I was uh divorced and uh I wrote about the tales of that in poetry. So this was kind of like a narrative poetry. So fast forward, what Wilbur Force did for me is now I'm happily married, about to celebrate nine years tomorrow with my lovely Wilberforce and Lashaki first, and I was able to uh uh move past this point of my writing journey and get into love multiverse. So this book is a collection of poems loosely themed off of Marvel and um other uh superhero themed uh shows that had arcs in them where they were in some romantic settings. So I was able to kind of turn those into stories about uh poetry and love and relating them even back to like real life and you know things that I've experienced. So uh Love Multiversal is on Amazon, and so is After the Snap. I'm also uh working with uh you know local poetry nights, uh trying to get my shape and my weight together for uh being involved with slams and uh really doing the performance side of things. I I love writing mostly, but you know, for poetry, uh they it is better to sell your work if you are uh hitting the stage often. So trying to find those opportunities and uh recording uh to music, those are some other opportunities that are coming down the pipe. Um uh doing some tinkering with script writing for some ideas that I have, and uh, you know, and then where I have left if I'm giving it mostly to to God and to family, to my art, to work, the rest to will before. So that's what I'm I'm doing now.
SPEAKER_07:Love it, love it.
SPEAKER_03:So Keon is very active as a Wilburforce alum in Wilberforce.
SPEAKER_08:He's my president. He is that's what I was about to say.
SPEAKER_07:I didn't want to say it and say it wrong.
SPEAKER_09:And I stepped in a role on the board as well. Uh that has gone dance as well. So I watched it. He don't just he don't just talk it. Yeah, so I'm trying to kind of give my time, my talent. Uh, you know, if I don't have a lot of treasure right now, you know, time and talent is hopefully uh something that we can farm and mine, and hopefully it'll yield something for my contribution that'll help bogeforce along. Really, that's really not with people, you know. It's just yeah, I can do for you.
SPEAKER_07:You know, I like that. And I like the connection that it constantly um constantly brings. Like here, like I said, it's only four of us. Um, and Cassandra, she will come to anything. And um, the both the alum, they both are Oheads, but they will come to anything that I do, and they like, you're not about to be the only book force person here. I get excited. Yeah, we'll we'll dress up and take our pictures and have our you know, our banner. We do what we do, but um y'all not the only ones out here in these streets doing stuff.
SPEAKER_08:No, you better talk. I have um I have that's not I need to see your books.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, I have two books. Um, they just came out. Um, this one is my first visionary project. Um, probably working on the next volume. I'm gonna be calling doing the author call. Um, this one is really Voices of Education. So what we did with Voices of Education is I feel like the black teacher don't get to really talk much. Um, and a lot of there are a lot of great African American educators. Uh, shout out to both my parents who are educators, and I didn't understand it growing up. Like, why we always got these kids over here? They are not your kids. You teach them, lead them there. But I know I'm grown. But um, every I have a group of individuals from different walks of life who are educators telling their story, their rookie mistakes, and it's you know, it's honestly a good read. Um, some of the people that are in the book have been principals, have been classroom teachers, you know. One uh one of the authors, like true life story. We were both in uh South Florida together, and we almost got fired on our first day. True story. Because I know it wasn't our fault. Thank God I don't drink, but um a group of teachers went to happy hour, but they wasn't smart enough at knowing the time of day, and we had to go back to work, and so they you know got dismissed. But you know, Wilberforce taught me to always hold on to my paperwork, my receipts, and so that's why we got to keep our job because it wasn't nothing on my receipt. So, but that's that one. So this is voices of education is really a really good read. Um, especially if you want to go into education and you don't really get the full um backstory of how how things work, and then but this one, you know, this is dedicated to my parents. Y'all know I love doing the children's books because my daddy get like, what? This is my children's book. Um, the title has changed, um, so it's not, you know, look at what Wu did this. This is the one I gave to my parents because it says look at what we did. Um, but the one that is actually for sale is um our family began at NHBCU. Now I did keep this. I'm gonna show y'all a picture. It's probably gonna trip y'all out. This is this is why I changed the you know, I changed the name, but this is why I kept this picture in here. I don't know if you can really see it. Yes, they took my parents' actual wedding picture because my parents got married their sophomore year at Wilberforce. Um, and that's you know, this was supposed to be their graduation gift because they had their um 50th, yeah. They got that golden woo, that was the hardest thing ever.
SPEAKER_02:They got their golden man, that's legacy right there.
SPEAKER_07:So, and I was you know trying to push to get it released, and it didn't get released till recently, so it was like dang, I want to get it today classmates. So, this is the newest children's book. It is available on Amazon, but it is not uh listed under that name. If you want that name, you have to get it strictly from me. But um, so that's what I have going on. I'm still doing my nonprofit.
SPEAKER_08:You got nine more books.
SPEAKER_07:Oh my god, panda.
SPEAKER_08:I have this one too. I'm not gonna let you minimize yourself after we just had all these big old conversations about we didn't know.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's let I mean that's goals right there. Yeah, let it fly, right?
SPEAKER_03:Hey, me, me with this whole little single one little show, like J B, like y'all over here.
SPEAKER_09:Absolutely, and you know what? This is gonna be so important to come back to Wilberforce with our with our work so that these young kids who have thoughts, who have ideas, you know, maybe there's an author that we can help get published while they're still in school.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, and they and if they are interested, have them reach out to me. Like, I don't mind helping. I mean, I'm one of those, and I think one of my colleagues said best. She's like, You a connector, man. You'll find somebody. Because my thing is, I am not a a gatekeeper. If I know what idea, I'm gonna pass it on. Um I don't have the crab in the bucky mentality. And I think that's what hinders us as a community. And um before we go, I I have to have to say this because at Wilbur Force, that's what taught me how to, you know, calm down the the rough edges around myself. I will never forget in New York. I think we was on a Today show. Uh we were in New York, and that was when I found out that my sister um had AIDS, and she, you know, and Tanika and Michelle, you know, because I I've always been private, I don't tell people my business, you know, and they just was like, what's wrong? How can we help? You know, that's family. You know, when my sister passed, who was there? People from the choir.
SPEAKER_08:That's the first time you I heard you talk about it, like as free, like what people might not know. Like I I graduated from high school with her sister. Um, so the family lines run deep with us. So is it was tough when she passed, but Monique never talked about it. This is the first time I heard you talk about it like freely without inhibition. Um I'm I see the growth, sis.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it used to it used to mess me up because my um me and my sister, and that's why I value people with siblings, we did not get along, we was completely opposite.
SPEAKER_06:Vanessa, like, whoa.
SPEAKER_07:We completely opposite down to the wire opposite. And but I learned to grow when I got, you know, met friends and seen a different way of life. Like I was from Dayton, but I was never home. You said where? Your mama won't company this week. I need to go busy. I think I live, I was in Louisville more than the, you know, I was in Dayton.
SPEAKER_10:People probably thought I was from Louisville.
SPEAKER_07:But you know, so I'm just saying, make those connections and those friends while you are there. Um, y'all got any final thoughts before we get out of here?
SPEAKER_03:No, love yourself, take care of yourself. We're in unprecedented times. Um, nobody's coming to save you. So you better, you better, you better start talking to the people you know. You bet we need to start reaching out, helping each other out. Um, you know, folks need to, you know, we might listen, we gotta go. We're we're not foreigners to rough times. I mean, we're not foreigners to to having the struggle and having it. We that's where we probably most comfortable. Because we just so we've done this for so long, we know how to do it. But you know, we're in a precedented time, so just please, everybody, uh show a little patience, so show a little grace, and let's let's just take take care of each other.
SPEAKER_08:You say it best.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, I'll go next. Um, I've got this quote up on my uh Facebook profile by Jonas Mikas. Okay, it says, In the very end, civilizations perish because they listen to their politicians and not their poets.
SPEAKER_08:Oh, I see what you did there. Okay, well done, well done. I see what you did. I know how I'm just saying, you know, I I on my TikTok when I first started TikTok, I said, Do you ever remember the days when you would be like, Hey, what you doing? Come outside, and now that's how I start all my lives. Like, come outside. I think it's time for us to come from behind the four walls, and this is where we get our healing, this is where we get our growth from, and remember your strength so you can write it down.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, this is where the rev, and that's where the revolution is gonna happen, it ain't gonna happen in between those four walls, they're gonna happen outside.
SPEAKER_07:Come outside, definitely. I I love this. Um, now if you are watching the replay or you're watching along with us, and please know that this is probably be the show all next week because this weekend is it's gonna be busy. But what I want you to do is inbox me those graduates that you know, or it might be yourself that want to say, look at what Wilberforce did. I am dedicating all next week to shout out these alum and their amazing stories because um I know they really talk about it much, but recruitment and retention is a thing. If people don't see success, it probably won't happen.
SPEAKER_08:So we had about 39 people on this live, so we got a whole list of people, right?
SPEAKER_07:And so it you name people, and then people are chiming in, even though it's kind of like the ninth hour, so they must be watching from the beginning because I'm like, that was old, that was old comment. But anywho, thank you for joining us tonight. And again, um, if you want to be highlighted, you know, look at what Will Force did everybody got things showing it look so you know I I see I'm jealous. I need that shirt like in real life. Where you get that from, Kia?
SPEAKER_09:Uh, one of the tables at dawn days. I can't remember. I don't know if this would this isn't a firm. This is somebody else. Uh, this might be the bookstore. This might be the bookstore.
SPEAKER_08:This is firm right here. Yeah, I think this is firm too. I love you, firm and Miss Brown. Oh man, they the best. Yeah, yeah. I love all y'all.
SPEAKER_10:I think I want to thank each and every one of y'all in this time, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Monique for being so so humble and gracious to use your platform to to you know kind of and push people forward to penda for helping me get my my story out for Keon for always being my brother and always being there for the convos and the support. I just thank all of you guys. I appreciate you.
SPEAKER_07:Any anything I can do, let me know. Y'all know I'm a text, a phone call away. Even if you're in San Antonio and don't like tell nobody, just text me and I'll I'll show up. Just kidding. I'll I'll let you slide. Just kidding. So it's been fun, but we definitely gotta run. Um like, share, comment. Uh hit me in the inbox if you're interested in being highlighted. All next week is dedicated to what we're homecoming because it's homecoming.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, it's homecoming.
SPEAKER_07:Yeah, it's homecoming. I'm not gonna make it too high.
SPEAKER_09:Yeah, I'll be there in spirit. I'll be there. I live vicariously through y'all, and I'll try to get there.
SPEAKER_07:I'm coming to dawn dance, though. I'll be at dawn dance.
SPEAKER_09:We'll be at dawn dance. Let's go.
SPEAKER_07:I'll be there. So it's been fun, but we definitely gotta run and you know, stay tuned. Check out because this is absolutely what Wilbur Force did. Look at that boom, got the glasses and the hatble force.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, okay, that's good for inspiration, motivation, and the good news of Jesus Christ. Look no further. The Daily Gospel Network has what you need. With more than 300 ministries from all over the country broadcasting every week, you're sure to get your dose of spirit-filled encouragement from the great programs on the Daily Gospel Network. Catch the Daily Gospel Network on Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, all mobile devices, and the internet.
SPEAKER_01:Tune in to a better chance for youth television show with Host Tony Robinson on the Daily Gospel Network. The television show dedicated to highlighting incredible students on the world. Join us every week as we uplift the youth and help them on their journey to what you really deserve. At the Better Chance for Youth Television Show with host Tony Robinson on the Daily. Join us each and every week as we uplift our youth and help them on their journey to the bright future they deserve. So until next time, God bless. From your friends on a Better Chance for Youth Television show with your host, Monique Robinson.
