Showing grace & sharing life lessons with actress Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins
Episode 50Play
Actress Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins joins The Blackest Questions to talk about her journey to help people heal with her powerful podcast “Trials to Triumphs.” She also discusses the significant impact her HBCU experience had on her, what’s next for her Hollywood career following the success of “Dear White People,” and why Vanessa Williams is one of her biggest inspirations.
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Panama Jackson: [00:00:00] You are now listening to theGrio’s Black Podcast Network, Black Culture Amplified.
Dr. Christina Greer: Hi, and welcome to The Blackest Questions. A trivia game show meant to teach us more about Black history. I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer, politics editor for theGrio, and currently a Moynihan Public Scholars fellow at the City College in New York.
In this podcast, we ask our guest five of The Blackest Questions. So we can learn a little bit more about them and have some fun while we’re doing it. We’re also going to learn a lot about Black history, past and present. So here’s how it works. We’ve got five rounds of questions about us. Black history, the entire diaspora, current events, you name it.
And with each round, the questions get a little tougher and the guest has 10 seconds to answer. If they answer correctly, they’ll receive one symbolic Black fist and hear this. And if they get it wrong, they’ll hear this. But we still love them anyway. And after the five trivia questions, there will be a Black bonus round just for fun, and I like to call it Black Lightning.
Our guest for this [00:01:00] episode is actress and podcast host Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins. She acted in the Netflix hit series Dear White People and the Hulu original film, Bad Hair. She was also part of the Netflix ad that recreated the iconic A Great Day in Harlem photograph that was curated by the company’s Strong Black Lead initiative.
We’ll which tailors projects for a Black audience. She’s the host of the podcast Trials to Triumphs, which is an original podcast on the Oprah Winfrey Network with new episodes every Monday. Ashley, thank you so much for joining us on the special edition of the Blackest questions. Are you ready to play?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Thank you for having me, Christina. I’m ready.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. I love it. I love it. Okay. First question. Let’s jump right in. This talk show host was the first Black woman to own her own entertainment studio, becoming only the third woman to do so, following behind Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball. Who is this woman?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Is it Oprah Winfrey? [00:02:00]
Dr. Christina Greer: Bing! You are correct. It is Oprah Winfrey.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Hey. Hey.
Dr. Christina Greer: See, listen, coming in hot. I love it, right? You’re one for one. Yeah. So. Oprah created Harpo Productions in 1986, the same year that she launched her talk show. The Oprah Winfrey Show ran for 25 seasons, making it one of the longest running daytime shows in history and held the number one spot for 24 of those seasons with an average of 40 million viewers each week.
The show won 47 Emmys and eventually stopped submitting its work so that other shows could be recognized. When the show wrapped, it had taped nearly 5,000 shows that included five presidents, several princesses, and countless celebrities. Celine Dion was the most frequent female guest appearing on the show 27 times, and Chris Rock was the most frequent male guest who appeared 25 times.
So, Ashley, we know that your podcast, Trials to Triumphs, is on the Harpo, is part of the Harpo empire, if you will. Tell us a bit more about your [00:03:00] podcast and what it’s like to have the support of an icon like Oprah Winfrey.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: It’s amazing. I love that that was the first question and I’m so happy that I knew the answer.
Um, you know, uh, Trials to Triumphs. I created the podcast that I wanted. I wanted an interview style podcast where I could talk to people about their journeys, their ups and their downs to getting to where they are. Because I think oftentimes we celebrate the highlight reel and we don’t understand the things that it took in someone’s journey to get there.
And that’s where the inspiration lies. Um, I knew that the OWN Network would be the perfect place as Oprah Winfrey, Ms. Winfrey, as I like to call her, is one of my biggest inspirations. So to be her first original podcast, to be a sister podcast to Super Soul Sunday, uh, which is one of my favorite, and the Oprah Winfrey Show podcast, which are two of my favorites, is just really amazing and such a huge blessing, and I feel like it’s in the, the perfect place.
Dr. Christina Greer: Absolutely. And I, I love the [00:04:00] fact that you talk about you know, so much of what we need to know is beyond the highlight reel because when, you know, I love talking to people and I love talking to, you know, I’m a professor. I love talking to my students. But we also find that so many people when they have adversity, in retrospect, they would never take it away because they realize that from that adversity, they became the phoenix right?
It, it sort of jolted something in them to either change, you know, change a job or get out of a particular situation or they recognize that rock bottom isn’t rock bottom. And, or maybe it was, and they had to like completely change course and all these new things flourish from sort of what seemed like a valley, which actually only helped them go to the peaks where they are.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yeah, that’s why retrospect is so important because it doesn’t feel like that in the moment. But it’s when you’re able to look back over your life and you can have such gratitude for, like you said, the valleys that led to the peaks.
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. Are there any particular guests that stick [00:05:00] out for you or any particular stories that really just help you solidify that you knew what you were doing in this podcast is really tapped into something that like listeners really need?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Oh yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s so many, I chat with, um, my friend, Kelly Rowland, and she talks a lot about forgiveness and, um, you know, her relationship with her mother and how it grew over the years and how she learned to show her mother grace and how that helped her in her motherhood journey.
I talk with actress Sonequa Martin-Green, who talks about the tragedy of losing her parents within about 24 hours of one another and what that meant for her in her life and how she, she walked through, um, really that trauma and how she’s on the other side of healing and what that looks like. Um, I just talked with Michelle Hoard, uh, who is just an amazing woman and advocate.
Um, and she talks about how she, uh, [00:06:00] her eight year old daughter was murdered at the hands of her ex husband and how she now fights in Gabrielle’s honor every single day and how she still found love again.
Michelle Hoard: More than one thing can be true at the same time.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes.
Michelle Hoard: I can be in love and get married again and find love, which I did, and be heartbroken that my circumstances, you know, created a situation where I met my husband.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: So we are talking about so many different stories. Um, but, but, but the through line is, uh, survival, it’s resiliency, it’s grace, it’s love, it’s perseverance, and it’s transparency. You know, everyone that comes to my podcast is kind enough and generous enough to share their truth, their stories. Some of the most difficult things, some things they’ve never even shared before with us in hopes that it will help or save others.
Dr. Christina Greer: Well, I think it says so much about who you are for [00:07:00] also being able to tap into that and getting people to open up and trust you enough on this amazing podcast, Trials to Triumphs. For our listeners out there who are just joining, and it’s on the Oprah Winfrey Podcast Network. So congratulations on the podcast.
Um, we here at theGrio. We love just sort of supporting and saluting all the podcasts out there. Um, so you’re one for one. Do you want to keep this party going? You’re hot.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I do. I’m feeling good about it.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. All right. Question number two, Vanessa Williams made history in 1984 when she became the first Black woman to be crowned Miss America.
She ultimately had to resign her title, but she rebounded and had major success as a singer and an actress. In fact, one of her songs was a number one hit and earned her a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year in 1992. Can you name the song?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes,
um, oh my goodness, and I’m looking at my Vanessa Williams book right now.
I love her. What is the name of the song? Um, are there hints?
Dr. Christina Greer: No hints for [00:08:00] you.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Oh man, um, I can, I’m like literally singing it in my head and I cannot come up with the name. The, the, the…
Dr. Christina Greer: It’s Save the Best for Last.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Save the
Dr. Christina Greer: Save the Best for Last.
See, and I wouldn’t dare sing it because I lip sync in church. That’s how bad my voice is.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Save the Best for Last. Yeah, 1,000%. Yes. That’s it.
Dr. Christina Greer: So it was the third single from her, from Vanessa Williams second album, The Comfort Zone. The song was number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for five weeks. As I mentioned, the song was nominated for Song of the Year at the Grammys, but it was also nominated for Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Performance.
Vanessa Williams has also had success as an actress on screen and stage, starring in TV shows, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Now, I just think Vanessa Williams is just beautiful on the inside and out. So talented. We know that you mentioned Vanessa Williams as someone you’ve admired [00:09:00] in the business.
Why does she in particular stand out to you?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Oh my goodness. I, in Bad Hair, Justin Simien’s film, I actually got to play her assistant, which was such a dream come true to play, to like act with her. Um, but I really love and admire Vanessa Williams because I feel like she has a career and a trajectory that I really aspire toward.
Like to me, she’s done it all. And I, am in many ways a multi-hyphenate. I just love that she’s had her hands on almost every area of the business and really thrived and excelled and had such a full career. Um, and that’s what I want. I mean, she’s done music. She’s recorded albums. She’s been on Broadway. She’s in movies. She’s on your television screen.
She just does it all and I think she’s amazing and she has a family and just all of the things, uh, that, that I want for myself. And she’s had such a long lasting career and she’s well respected in the business and extremely [00:10:00] talented. And I just think she’s marvelous.
Dr. Christina Greer: I would love to hear her on your podcast because when I’ve heard her talk about the post Miss America and what it meant for her as a Black woman feeling as though she let Black America down and then to have this amazing career.
I mean, everyone who listens to this podcast knows that this is a Queen Latifah stan podcast. Like I think Queen Latifah is on the Mount Rushmore of dynamic, beautiful, amazing, multi-hyphenate women. But I’m going to, and I put Missy Elliott up there too. Love your Mount Rushmore. You are making a serious case for Vanessa Williams to be right there next to them as far as just a dynamic, brilliant Black woman who is sort of crossing so many different genres, um, and over time, I mean, like, you know, I think about her movies with like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but also in like Black movies and like, you know, um, sort of always keeping her feet really grounded in Black American culture as well, even when she’s mainstream.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yeah, it’s so the vibe. Yeah, for sure.
Dr. Christina Greer: She’s, she’s a whole vibe.
Okay. So, I mean, listen. Okay, [00:11:00] now I’ve got three on my, on my Mount Rushmore. So I’ve got Missy, I’ve got Queen Latifah, who’s my number one and then I’m putting Vanessa Williams up there.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I love that.
Dr. Christina Greer: Now, Ashley, if you weren’t acting, what else might you be doing?
Like, is there, you know, is there an alternative universe where Ashley’s doing something else in the world?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I think the alternative universe is that honestly, I’m teaching. I love to, I love education. I love teaching. I have a, I have a passion for youth and like, you know, the next generation, like, you know, uh, giving back, uh, Sankofa, almost like these are all things that are like really important to me.
So I think that in an alternate universe, I like you, would be like a professor.
Dr. Christina Greer: Well, you’re always welcome to come to my class.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I would love that.
Dr. Christina Greer: You’re always welcome. I’m sure my students would be like, Oh my gosh, Professor Greer. I always have amazing guest speakers and you know, it’s, it’s so wonderful when people actually give time to come and talk to [00:12:00] young people because you never know.
Um, the sentence that you say to them that changes their whole trajectory, um, and especially, you know, seeing someone who’s young and fabulous and doing so many things and just being bold, right? And brave, uh, with sort of, how they want to take their life. I think, you know, and take it in the direction, um, that for some people they need to sort of see someone doing it to give them the courage to do it.
Time for a quick break. We’ll be right back.
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Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, we are back. I’m talking to Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins, and we’re playing The Blackest Questions. Ashley, are you ready for question number three?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I am. I’m really upset about question number two, but it’s fine. Let’s go.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. And when you have Vanessa Williams on the podcast, you can just explain it to her.
Listen, it’s nerves. And the times that my, my podcast siblings have turned the tables on me, and I’ve, I’ve gone on Michael Harriot’s podcast and Panama Jackson’s podcast and Toure’s podcast. It has not fared well for me.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: It’s vile. I’m like, I know, you know, questions first. It’s so [00:14:00] wild.
Dr. Christina Greer: You know them, and they’re, and it’s, they’re at the tip of the tongue, but they just don’t want to come out.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. Question number three. We got this. So this Baltimore native was a prominent civil rights attorney who successfully argued the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, which did away with segregation in public schools. What was his name?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Thurgood Marshall.
Dr. Christina Greer: Boom, you are correct. Thurgood Marshall became America’s first Black federal judge in 1961.
He was appointed by President John F. Kennedy. Six years later, he became the first Black Supreme Court justice in 1967. Before becoming a justice, Thurgood Marshall led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and won 29 of the 32 civil rights cases he argued before the Supreme Court. And so I know you grew up in Gaithersburg, Maryland, which isn’t too far away from my beloved Baltimore.
But what’s something you learned early that’s really crucial to your success today?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: That I could do anything. Like when I look back over my life, I, I [00:15:00] never… There was never a time in my life that I felt limited. I didn’t, I didn’t necessarily see people around me doing limited things. I grew up in, I would say like middle class neighborhood and you know, it’s the 90s.
So like, you know, people, I definitely was around people working traditional jobs, including, um, you know, my parents, my, my, my mom has always been a leader in the DEI field. So my mom traveled a lot as a, as a diversity equity and inclusion consultant. So even that was kind of cool. I had a mom, I had a, a mom that was like, you know, on the road, traveling and educating people on DEI, which at the time was like, obviously
it had always been a thing, but like there was really an uptick in like people wanting to know more about DEI and, um, you know, my dad worked in the cable space, but I just say that to say that my parents, though, they always told me that I could do anything and the people around [00:16:00] me, including my parents and my family believed that I could do anything I wanted to do.
So when I think of like home, which is something I ask people that come on my podcast as well, you know, my answer is that I think of a place that cultivated an environment where I could achieve the very things that I’m doing today and I’m really, really, really grateful for that. I also grew up in a very diverse environment.
Like I grew up with everybody. All the schools I went to were very diverse. Um, you know, white was definitely the majority, but it was, I, I went to school with, with all types of people until I went to Howard, which was a very clear choice. Um, so, yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: Right. That’s deliberate.
Yeah. I think that, you know, the more we… the more I interview people, I think that there’s a foundation of confidence, and sometimes it’s blind confidence, right? But there is this foundation of a little bit of invincibility sometimes. Which comes with naivete, and it’s like, I’ll [00:17:00] take it. But even in these diverse spaces, which, same with me, you know, predominantly white, uh, but both of my parents are Greeks, in the sense that I was always around frat brothers and sorority sisters, and their kids.
Um, so, other Black kids who are in similar circumstances as mine, there was just a, a level of like, I can try things and even if I don’t succeed, I still have an emotional safety net that is supporting as long as I’m trying. Like, you’re not going to have a grand slam or even a home run every single time, and that’s okay.
It’s just that forward motion, um, that creates, as you talk about on the podcast, sometimes it’s a trial, right? And sometimes it leads you to a valley, but in the effort of trying, you have this, this triumph.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes and I would also like to note that I went to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School.
I just think that’s–
Dr. Christina Greer: Shout out to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School!
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes, I went to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. [00:18:00]
Dr. Christina Greer: Now, is it still around?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Ah, yeah. Mm hmm.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, I really need you to go back to Thurgood Marshall Elementary School, take some pictures, and send them to The Blackest Questions.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes, I will. Hopefully I go back for homecoming. So, hopefully that happens.
Dr. Christina Greer: Oh! Okay. Alright, so, we’re back on track. Are we ready for question number four?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: We are, yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: You’re doing so well.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I’m pretty proud.
Dr. Christina Greer: So well.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Okay. All right.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. And we’ve had people who were 0 for 5, but they’re like, you know what? I had fun. I learned something so here we are. And hopefully our, our listeners are learning a little bit more about my favorite city, Baltimore.
You know, I mean, you’ve got two HBCUs in Baltimore. You got Billie Holiday. I mean, it’s just, it’s a magical place. Okay. Question number four. The director who created the TV series Queen Sugar and also directed the films Selma and When They See Us is the first Black female director to have a project compete in the legendary Venice Film Festival.
Can you name this director?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Who is [00:19:00] Ava DuVernay?
Dr. Christina Greer: You are correct! And Ava submitted her film, Origin despite being told for years that international film festivals are not interested in Black storytelling. Ava DuVernay was raised in Long Beach, California, spent decades in journalism and public relations before breaking into film at 32 years old, and since then she’s shattered glass ceilings, plural, becoming the first Black woman to be nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Director. She’s also the first Black woman to direct a film with a budget of 100 million. And she was the first Black woman to win the Best Director Award at the Sundance Film Festival. So I know that Ava was also a part of the Netflix recreation of A Great Day in Harlem.
Tell us how that came to be and where you think Hollywood is right now in terms of representation.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yeah, you know, recreating that is such a core memory. Netflix and the Strong Black Lead Initiative selected, [00:20:00] um, some Black folks over at Netflix to recreate, uh, the iconic Image and, uh, you know, my castmates and I were so honored to be a part of, of the collective.
A Great Day in Harlem: Defeating larger than life forces, trying to flip our world upside down. We stand up on any stage and every screen.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: And it was so much fun. And just, they recreated that stoop, uh, you know, we’re on, you know, the Netflix kind of like lot basically and it just, it was, it was a time when it felt like we were able to look around and say, wow, look at all of us. Like we’re on TV.
We’re making things happen. Like this was a dream. We were all hoping that we would be able to have a career like this in, in Hollywood. And you know, it was a great day and we just like laughed and joked and ate and it was just wonderful. Um, But, you know, how do I feel [00:21:00] about Hollywood now and where we are, you know, obviously fighting for a lot of things that we very much so deserve and dealing with a lot of corporate greed, which is just a difficult thing to handle.
But I think specifically as Black folks in Hollywood, we are…we have so many more opportunities, many of which we are, we are, we are creating for ourselves. Um, but I still believe personally we have a long way to go. I still don’t see, I still don’t feel that I see myself enough on television. I still don’t feel that I see you enough on television.
I still do not feel like we have the, there should be more, uh, Black female directors who are given a hundred million dollars to make films. I’m so happy that Ava has had the opportunity, but I know, and Ava knows, 20 more amazing female directors, at least, that should be able to have the same opportunity.
So, I’m happy that we are shattering glass ceilings, but, uh, [00:22:00] there’s more to shatter and I am and I am very so passionate about being an active part in the glass shattering.
Dr. Christina Greer: So that brings me to my next question. So is there any interest in you getting behind the camera? I mean you, you’re very telegenic and you’re great in front of it but as, as we need more storytellers and people directing said stories…is that something that’s on your bucket list, uh, as you make your way through Hollywood?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes. 1,000%. I, I’m very much so also a creator and a producer. I have, I have that type of brain. So I, and I would love to direct. Um, so that’s the goal, you know, hopefully you do see me firing, as I like to say, firing on all cylinders. And, you know, you know, on my Kerry Washington, you know, like that’s, that’s what I’m trying to do, you know, Viola Davis, you know, her production company is amazing.
She’s doing it all. So like, that is where Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins is headed.
Dr. Christina Greer: I love that. And I love that you do have [00:23:00] role models that are close enough…also in age. We’re not talking about people who were 95 years old. It’s like you actually have Black women who are, they’re still navigating, right?
I’m sure Kerry Washington would say like, there’s still, she’s got goals and other, other mountains to climb. But I, I love this baton passing that’s happening and there’s, there’s definitely more. There’s not enough. But we’re, we’re trending upward, as they would say. And hopefully, after the strike is over, we can really have some robust projects, because, uh, what you and so many other Black women are doing in Hollywood is really an inspiration.
And for someone like me, who gets the honor and privilege of being with young people… almost every day, they notice it and they see it and so it makes sense to them. So I just want to say thank you for the hard work that you’re doing. And since we’re killing the game, you want to go on to question number five?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes. It’s feeling good. It’s feeling good. I feel good about it.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, [00:24:00] question number five. The term, “Black Power” became popular during the Civil Rights Movement when college student Stokely Carmichael began using it as a way to unite people in his fight for voting rights. Carmichael, who then became Kwame Ture, was a part of the Black Panther Party, one of the original Freedom Fighters, and was also a student at what historically Black college?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Mm hmm.
Dr. Christina Greer: Take a guess.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Howard University.
Dr. Christina Greer: That’s right.
You know…
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I just was like giving the suspense.
Dr. Christina Greer: You wanted to build up for suspense? See, this is, this is what a director does, right? You build up suspense. I love it. So Howard university was established shortly after the end of the Civil War and was originally created.
I mean, you know this, but I got to say this for my listeners, right? It was created to educate Black clergymen, but quickly expanded to include liberal arts and medicine. In its first [00:25:00] five years, Howard educated more than 150,000 freed, formerly enslaved people. Now back to the phrase “Black Power”, its earliest known usage is found in Richard Wright’s 1954 book entitled, Black Power.
It was then used in a speech by New York politician Adam Clayton Powell, but it wasn’t until Carmichael began using it as a rallying cry that it really became a common term used to show solidarity in the fight for equality. Stokely Carmichael was arrested nearly 30 times while protesting and the FBI closely monitored him because they believed he was in line to succeed Malcolm X as America’s most controversial Black voice.
Stokely Carmichael: This country is built on lies. They tell you and me that if we work hard and if we sweated that we would succeed and become rich. If that was true, I’d tell you that we would own this country.
Dr. Christina Greer: So I know that you’re a bison, a proud bison.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: Um, and a Howard graduate. What made you [00:26:00] decide on an HBCU and what would you tell our listeners? Who are considering going to an HBCU.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Oh, wow. I, like I said, I grew up in a, in a diverse environment, but it was still predominantly white. And, uh, my mom is a Howard alum and, uh, my grandmother and her sister…my great aunt also, uh, went to an HBCU, Winston Salem University. Um, so I was, my father went to UDC, so I was really surrounded by, uh, Black folks who were going to college to be around Black folks. And that is what I knew that I wanted for myself too, especially given that I didn’t get that the entire time growing up.
I obviously got it from, you know, my family and my family friends and Jack and Jill and all of these other things. But I wanted to be immersed in my people. And, uh, again, my mom was a [00:27:00] really big inspiration for me. And going to Howard University, uh, was for sure one of the best decisions of my life. Like it’s up there with like marrying my husband, like all, you know, you know,
do
people, yeah, it’s in the highlight reel.
Um, And the thing that’s so unique and so special about HBCUs is that, you know, we have to remember that HBCUs were founded out of a fight and a need, right? We were fighting for the right to be educated properly and we, we needed to be around each other. We needed to be immersed in culture and in education and in, um, just achieving amazing things together. Uh, you know, Howard was founded in 1867. So, you know, you all can think [00:28:00] about what, you know, the world was like for Black people in 1867. And so for me to have started Howard in 2005 and graduated in 2009. What a legacy. I’m, you know, when, when you’re at Howard University, you’re able to walk the yard, the same yard that Stokely Carmichael walked, you know what I mean?
That’s so many, um, Zora Neale Hurston, so many amazing people walk these same walls. And there’s something about that, that again, like I said earlier, reminds you, you can do anything. These amazing Black folks came before you, and they did it, and you can too. It’s Sankofa, like I said, right? You know, they are passing the baton.
If you’re thinking about attending an HBCU, I promise you that it will leave you changed for the better. It, I don’t know one person that’s attended an HBCU and regretted the decision. That is a fact. Um, it is, it is a rich [00:29:00] experience that, uh, is, is worth experiencing.
Dr. Christina Greer: And I obviously, I’d be remiss if I didn’t shout out part of the wonderful experience for so many people is having Black professors who nurture you.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Oh my gosh, yes!
Dr. Christina Greer: And make sure that this ,this experience is filled with a certain foundation of intellectual curiosity, but pride as well. So shout out to all the professors, past and present, who make the HBCU experience what it is. Okay, so we’re going to take a quick commercial break. Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins is doing an amazing job on Blackest Questions.
We’re gonna come back and play Black Lightning.
theGrio Daily: Y’all come look at what Michael Harriott just posted. Black Twitter, come get your mans. It’s his podcast episodes for me! I was today years old when I found out Michael Harriott had a podcast.
Subscribed! I’m world famous wypipologist, Michael Harriot and this is theGrio Daily. That’s right. The Black Twitter [00:30:00] king has a podcast. theGrio Daily with Michael Harriot every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday on theGrio Black Podcast Network and accessible wherever you find your favorite podcasts.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay, we’re back from commercial. You are listening to The Blackest Questions.
I’m your host, Dr. Christina Greer. I’m here with Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins. We have done an amazing job on our questions and now it’s time for some fun stuff, the Black Lightning Round. So Ashley, here’s how it goes. There are no right or wrong answers, I just want you to give us the first thing that pops in your head, and we’ll go from there.
Are you ready to play?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yes. Okay.
Dr. Christina Greer: What is your favorite Black brand to support?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: You know, I’ve been liking, uh, there’s so many, but I, uh, McBride Sisters. The McBride Sisters wine. I, I have like their
subscription. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: What’s the last show you binge watched?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Okay. This is okay. I’m just, I’m exposing myself.
Dr. Christina Greer: No judging. This is a judgment free zone.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Okay. Are you all ready?
Dr. Christina Greer: We’re ready.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Signs of a [00:31:00] Psychopath.
Dr. Christina Greer: Oh, yes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: It’s on Max. It’s available on Max.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: And I’m fascinated at psychopaths. There we are.
Dr. Christina Greer: And sadly, they’re growing, growing in the population.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Yeah, yes.
Dr. Christina Greer: Who is your all time favorite musician?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Mmmmmm. Erykah Badu.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay? Ooh, I’m right there with you. What is one item in your make up bag you can’t live without?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Mascara.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. What actor or actress are you dying to work with?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Viola Davis. I really want to work with her. Yeah.
Dr. Christina Greer: Hey listen, we manifest things on this podcast, so ask, believe, receive.
So pretty soon it’s going to be Ashley and Viola Davis working together. And you heard it here first on The Blackest Questions.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Can’t wait!
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. Would you rather get dressed up or dressed down?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Dressed down.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. And last question, who’s the better cook? You or your husband?
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: Me. Oh. [00:32:00] But he makes a great breakfast.
He’s the breakfast guy. I’ll give him that.
Dr. Christina Greer: Okay. I was about to say, cause he’s not on the podcast to defend himself. So right now we’re going to give Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins the last word. I want to thank you so much for joining us on The Blackest Questions. I want to thank our listeners uh, for tuning in.
I want to thank you all for playing along with us. And don’t forget to check out Ashley’s podcast, Trials to Triumphs. Ashley, promise us you’ll come back when you have your new movie with Viola Davis.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I’ll come back and I’ll get five out of five. I cannot believe I didn’t get Saved the Best for Last. I’m going to, it’s going to be haunting me literally
for the rest of my life.
Dr. Christina Greer: Well, you know what? You can apologize to Vanessa Williams when she comes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins: I will. Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Christina Greer: Thank you for coming on and I want to thank you all for listening to The Blackest Questions. This show is produced by Sasha Armstrong and Jeffrey Trudeau, and Regina Griffin is our Director of Podcasts.
If you like what you heard, subscribe to this podcast so you never miss an episode. And you can find more at theGrio Black Podcast Network on theGrio app, website [00:33:00] and YouTube.
Writing Black: We started this podcast to talk about not just what Black writers write about, but how. Well, personally, it’s on my bucket list to have one of my books banned. I know that’s probably bad, but I think… They were yelling, N word, go home. And I was looking around for the N word because I knew it couldn’t be me because I was a queen.
I’m telling people to quit this mentality of identifying ourselves by our work, to start to live our lives and to redefine the whole concept of how we work and where we work and why we work in the first place.
My biggest strength throughout, throughout my career has been having incredible mentors and specifically Black women. I’ve been writing poetry since I was like eight. You know, I’ve been reading Langston Hughes and James Baldwin and Maya Angelou and so forth and so on since I was like a little kid. Like the banjo was blackly Black, right?[00:34:00]
For many, many, many years everybody knew. Because sometimes I’m just doing some– that because I just want to do it. I’m honored to be here. Thank you for doing the work that you’re doing. Keep shining bright. And we, and like you said, we gon’ keep writing Black. As always, you can find us on theGrio app or wherever you find your podcasts.
