“She was inspired by being sick and tired of the injustice she was experiencing and she knew she had a right to liberty or death.”

The second season of Underground does explore Canada’s role in providing a welcoming place for the thousands who were in danger of being captured and returned to their owners, and those who escaped by way of rerouting beyond the American borders.

Remakes are awesome, especially when it honors yet adds a new component or dimension to the original.

It’s no mistake that Harriet Tubman is revisiting us, in different forms, right now, as we travel through a very contentious time in the world.

The show [Shots Fired] is an autopsy of our criminal justice system.

Understanding that what it is that you’re doing isn’t limited to the roles and the rejection, it’s bigger than that, it’s about your purpose in life.

I became an instant fan of the show [Underground] seconds into the opening frames of the pilot.

Study and know that we are always a student of the craft well after we’ve completed any course of study… and approach the work as a servant, not a star.

Learning about all these elements and aspects of her was mind-blowing and educational for me as a woman because I have to sometimes remind people that have known me for years.

But truthfully, we have so many stories, lives and subjects to explore that I’d love to keep pushing towards new knowledge.

One or the other she was going to have by any means necessary.

Rosa Parks was primed, she had the Civil Rights Movement behind her, she didn’t just decide to sit on the bus, it was strategic.

I felt validated and valued , and here was this woman [Whoopi Goldberg ] inside my television screen who gave me a voice.

When that drone shot carried us through the main house with Rosalie, played so unflinchingly-brilliantly by Jurnee Smollett Bell, I signed on for the ride.

I had praying grandmothers who bathed me in “The Word” and filled the atmosphere with worship.

I walked away from the craft because I wanted to know that this is what I was supposed to do with my life.

That is a huge part of my excitement, the fact that this generation will get such a beautifully-detailed introduction to a hero and icon that has largely lived in a few pages of our history books and in one-dimensional photographs.

I believe that it is this quality that draws people to come and see a film, and that it is the hope of attaining this quality that inspires the filmmaker to make his film in the first place.

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.

I went on to be inspired by many other artists and forms of art, and was soon directed to a place that would help harness my experiences and develop my voice within the craft, LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York City.

I try to pace myself and not work for the sake of working and stick to what inspired me prior to receiving recognition.

Loving someone has great benefits.

You are not doing it to be loved back. Its value is to inspire you.

An America that inspires hope in its ideals must complement an America that inspires awe in its strength.

I’m inspired by the work of those (and sometimes even the people themselves) who strive to inspire.