“I used to be sitting on the sofa preparing for my last assessments once I bought the decision,” she mentioned. On the road was Jayson Council, Gersh Company’s head of tradition, calling to let her know that she was the recipient of a fellowship awarded by the company and Spike Lee. Oh, and Council had another person on the cellphone for the 22-year-old to talk with.
“It was Spike on the cellphone congratulating me, saying he was pleased with me and reminding me that he’s my Morehouse brother.” (Lee earned his undergraduate diploma at Morehouse School, the boys’s faculty subsequent door to Spelman and Spelman’s unofficial brother faculty.)
Livingston is one in every of 5 college students from the Atlanta College Heart Consortium, which incorporates Spelman School, Morehouse School and Clark Atlanta College, who had been named Spike fellows at Gersh.
“My final purpose is to be a screenwriter and director,” Livingston mentioned. “I wish to produce, direct and choreograph my very own movies, all having to do with Afrocentric spirituality and Gullah heritage.”
Livingston and her friends share a need to inform tales about Black individuals’s histories and experiences, however none of them are eager to be in entrance of the digicam. As an alternative, they mentioned, they see the facility and way forward for the trade as being behind the digicam in agent, supervisor, producer, casting director and different off-screen positions.
Late final summer time, after Bart Walker, Lee’s agent, requested what Gersh was doing round range and inclusion, he was linked to Council, who was specializing in the company’s efforts on this very space. Council finally met with Lee, and the 2 mentioned the challenges they noticed within the trade and talked by means of treatments that might be long-lasting slightly than fleeting.
A fellowship program, they figured, was one approach to create a pipeline into the trade for younger Black individuals desirous to work off-screen. To seek out the perfect younger Black abilities, they turned to Lee’s previous stomping grounds: the AUC. The fellowship is paid, and the fellows will likely be given $25,000 for scholar debt aid. The inaugural class of fellows will spend this summer time working within the Gersh Company’s New York or Los Angeles places of work, and on the finish of the summer time, every fellow will resolve which workplace and division they wish to be positioned in for the subsequent yr, when their fellowship turns into a full-time job.
Atlanta, Lee mentioned, was a pure place to start out the fellowship due to its pool of expertise, and likewise as a result of it holds sentimental worth. The celebrated director was born at Grady Hospital in 1957. His household moved to New York when he was 4, and he returned to town to check at Morehouse within the ’70s. He graduated in 1979. Lee’s grandmother and mom each graduated from Spelman, and his grandfather and father each graduated from Morehouse.
“We wish this factor to be a legacy,” Lee mentioned in an interview on the Johnson Lowe Gallery, the place a celebration for the fellows was held just lately. “Far too typically, we, as a individuals dealing in movie and tv, it’s my opinion that we focus an excessive amount of in entrance of the digicam and being within the highlight, however in all honesty, there’s extra longevity behind the digicam, and you’ve got much more artistic management behind the digicam.”
To seek out the fellows, Council traveled to the AUC numerous instances. There have been 81 candidates, and greater than 50 candidates had been interviewed. College students had been requested to have a grade-point common of not less than 2.75 — an achievable quantity for a lot of, but additionally one which wouldn’t exclude college students who work or who juggle college and different life expectations. Letters of advice had been additionally required, in addition to a video explaining why the scholar wished to take part.
Quentin Anderson, a senior who will graduate from Morehouse in December and was awarded the fellowship, mentioned this system feels “particular,” as a result of it embraces nontraditional college students like him.
“This chance is a brand new begin for individuals like me,” he mentioned. “I’m 25 years previous, and I’ve been a part-time scholar at Morehouse since 2016.” Anderson practically flunked out of college in his first yr and determined to take a while off to start out his personal company. With the coronavirus pandemic got here on-line lessons, so he nearly returned to Morehouse, the place he has been learning communications.
Council mentioned he and Lee knew from the beginning that they wished college students who had been passionate and hard-working, with an array of life experiences, not simply conventional college students with good grades.
“We wish to present that there’s dynamism in these swimming pools,” he mentioned. “You don’t simply need to go to elitist faculties, take probably the most elitist college students whereas demanding a 3.9 or higher and all of that. We wish people who find themselves actual.”
That’s additionally why Council traveled to Atlanta to fulfill college students in particular person, he mentioned. The company plans to proceed coming to campus and providing lectures and different methods of participating with college students.
Michael E. Hodge, govt director of the Atlanta College Heart Consortium, mentioned applications like this fellowship are necessary for Black college students, as a result of alternatives like this haven’t traditionally been afforded to those college students.
“To have college students go into these leisure enterprise fields behind the digicam, within the boardrooms, makes a distinction for what forms of photographs are portrayed culturally that then inform — or misinform — the inhabitants about what a selected group in your group is about,” he mentioned. He added that, with out Black voices shaping the trade in decision-making roles, the imagery of Black America could be restricted and inaccurate.
“With no Spike, you gained’t have photographs that painting historical past in a approach that’s genuine to the broad American tradition, not simply Black tradition, however the broader American tradition,” Hodge mentioned.
Jalen Ellis, a senior who graduated from Morehouse on Sunday, mentioned he wasn’t initially positive whether or not beginning a fellowship with a brand new company after beforehand interning for a unique one was the neatest concept, however the likelihood to be mentored by Lee pulled him in. Sooner or later, Ellis hopes to be a producer.
“I made a decision to take the leap as a result of this matches according to what I wish to see within the trade general,” he mentioned. “Extra Black professionals, extra Black individuals within the boardroom who’re assigning the roles.”