thank you sidney poitier

I fully intended to be timelier in my blogging and posting, but a funny thing happened… life. As we find ourselves in a whole new year, no time is better like the present.

Sidney Poitier passed away on January 6, 2022. All stop. A legend, our legend is gone. Many of us grew up watching the adults in our families swoon at seeing him on screen and trying to emulate his swagger. It was unprecedented how a Black man could tell stories that transcended and do so with the style and grace of royalty. Our royalty.

His work in “A Raisin in the Sun” inspired me to be an actor. He carefully sculpted his career by choosing and crafting his roles. He was a man of his age and a man for all ages. And in his example, much of my career has been designed around the desire to tell stories of the HUMAN condition through the indelible lens of Blackness.

This past holiday season, I was honored to once again take a turn as Scrooge in the Goodman Theater’s production of A Christmas Carol. This timeless story shows that by learning from the past, opening our eyes to the present and considering what could be, we can make a change for ourselves and for others. That is a human story, one that transcends.

Through Mr. Poitier’s many movies, he showed us how we can be that change and impact the generations to come. So, I thank him for showing this Black man what is possible and how I too could be part of telling the human experience.