Louisiana taught me another level of humility. Everyone is so content, not socially content but spiritually. Everyone is happy with who they are and loves their city regardless of what has happened here with Katrina and all the different stories. They have a sense of pride and it really rubbed off on me.

I think that's really the allure of acting for me. I really want to connect with people.

I've worked so hard to just be my full self and God has just validated me in so many ways.

I really got attracted to the idea of touching so many people and that idea of art transcending entertainment and art and activism being synonymous.

I think that's something that Oprah [Winfrey] and Ava [ DuVernay] do seamlessly. They know how to connect to people and they know how to share our stories. To be a part of that is a blessing.

People respect us, they love us and they're entertained by us, so it's like when you trust somebody on that level, it's a lot easier to speak some real knowledge into their minds.

If I choose this platform [The Black Arts Movement] and God validates this platform, I feel like we have to use the hyper-reality to get people closer to [actual] reality. Right now is so special because it's the information age and people just want to be aware and there's no better way of doing that than through art.