Many individuals acknowledge Kendrick Sampson, 37, as a gifted, charismatic TV and movie actor—with main roles in Issa Rae’s cultural phenomenon Insecure, and 2022’s meet-cute romcom, One thing from Tiffany’s, amongst others. However alongside and intertwined with constructing a prolific profession in Hollywood, the multi-hyphenate entertainer is constructing one thing else: Black Energy.
Supply: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
Via his group BLD PWR, Kendrick Sampson is laying the muse for a motion that facilities pleasure, artwork, pleasure, and creativity—all Black birthrights to assert—whereas additionally strolling by way of the hearth this time.
“I began BLD PWR to offer radical changemakers a spot to belong—constructing stable, grounded relationships between grassroots actions and the leisure business,” Sampson tells CASSIUSLife in an unique interview. “We wished to create a protected house the place we may navigate the messiness of community-building, work by way of our variations, and create new artwork and popular culture actions that assist true freedom and well being.”
“BLD PWR is for the misfits like me,” Sampson continues. “Those who wish to change the world and are keen to get our arms soiled, make errors, and do the true work wanted to create lovely artwork that shifts tradition towards the healthiest and freest model of our story.”
Sure, there’s energy within the wells of revolutionary storytelling and radical truth-telling—a individuals energy rooted in Black freedom and liberation. Motion elders usually train us that if we enable the machinations of white supremacy to steal our pleasure, what beloved poet and ancestor Amiri Baraka calls in Clever I our “oom growth ba growth,” then they’ve already received. If we purchase into the narrative that Black our bodies, steeped in generations of trauma, solely have the best to bleed, not dance, then our enemies have received. If we fall sufferer to the lie that we are able to solely use our voices to wail in grief, not sing, then our enemies have already received.
As this capitalist system cracks and splinters, fault traces exposing themselves earlier than all of it comes tumbling down, it is going to be the misfits, the time-travelers, who attain into the previous to see the long run. It will likely be the artists and lecturers, dancers and musicians, healers and apothecaries, poets and storytellers, who will remind us {that a} new world will not be solely potential however that it already is and already was.
“Storytelling, like civilization, originated as an Indigenous observe in Africa,” says Sampson. “Story is on the core of community-building—it’s how we construct civilization, tradition, and belonging. The extra management we now have over our story, the extra management we now have over our well being.”
“Hollywood has achieved an efficient job convincing us that storytelling and artwork are ‘only for leisure,’ however tales form actions, shift views, and encourage change,” he continues. “That’s why individuals manipulate and twist narratives—it’s a software of management. Abusive techniques use tales to justify hurt and keep energy.”
BLD PWR disrupts that narrative by not solely making the connections plain but in addition by offering insights into the movie business that may form motion constructing.
“At BLD PWR, we acknowledge that the whole lot wanted to construct a movie is identical factor wanted to construct a wholesome group,” Sampson explains. “Give it some thought—storytelling requires:
• Carpenters
• Medical employees
• Consultants
• Authorized groups
• Meals & water companies
• Educators
• Housing & infrastructure
• Electrical & tech crews
• Transportation
• Performers, artists, and digicam operators
• Managers, authorities assist, payroll, and group organizers
“It’s actually community-building.”
Sampson went on to say,
“Some movies require 1000’s of individuals to return collectively to deliver a imaginative and prescient to life. That’s not completely different from activism. I used to assume that appearing and organizing had been separate, however they’re not—they’re the identical factor. Storytelling is activism. For therefore lengthy, I used to be informed ‘It’s simply appearing’—nevertheless it’s by no means simply appearing. Tales are highly effective, and people who declare they aren’t are the identical individuals utilizing tales to govern, management, and form minds. They only don’t need you to inform the reality as a result of it messes up their recreation.”
So, what will we do about it?
“Greater than ever, we should reclaim our tales—defend them, heal them, and nourish them,” Sampson says fiercely. “Proper now, we’re seeing ebook bans, assaults on Black historical past, and AI being weaponized to rewrite reality. Social media is managed by a few of the most disconnected, dishonest, and abusive individuals, making it much more vital to get again to the fundamentals: speaking to one another, passing down reality, and maintaining our tales alive.”
ONE TIME FOR THE BIRTHDAY BOY
Supply: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
If there’s one factor Sampson goes to do—apart from pursue justice with a ardour—that’s get together with a function. A favourite son of Houston, Texas, particularly Missouri Metropolis, he’s made it his mission to strengthen the bonds of human connection and group by curating areas the place Black people might be free to seek out our rhythm in techniques that attempt to bury us.
To that finish, every year, he makes use of his birthday celebration, “Who All Gon’ Be There”—as a result of Black people must know earlier than we even take into consideration planning to go away the home—to pour again into the communities that raised him in H-City, Mo Metropolis, and LA. He additionally makes sure that it’s a assured back-bone twisting, hip-shaking, soul-stirring, line-dancing, solo cup sipping, Black ass good time.
“‘Our pleasure is resistance’ has grow to be like a slogan—nevertheless it’s not a slogan, a speaking level, or a self-help tip,” Sampson tells CASSIUS. “We’re in a warfare for our tales, our freedom, and our individuals’s futures. America has at all times functioned as an occupying power—a settler-colonial system designed to maintain us managed by way of false narratives.
“However pleasure is a warfare technique. It’s our North Star—a reminder of what we deserve, what we struggle for, and the world we wish to create. Folks get so caught up in what liberation will appear like, however you possibly can really feel liberation proper now by way of pleasure. That’s why the techniques we struggle in opposition to attempt so exhausting to strip pleasure away.”
Years earlier than WAGBT grew into a serious annual fundraiser for BLD PWR, Sampson envisioned what it might be.
“Once I was 18 years outdated, I moved to LA alone. I prayed for Black mentors in leisure, and for a very long time, I assumed I didn’t have them—however I did. Simply not in the best way I anticipated,” he says.
“I met Ben Guillory, who co-founded Robey Theatre Firm with Danny Glover, Sampson stated. “They led me to the legacy of Paul Robeson, one in all my biggest inspirations to today. Via them, I discovered about Toussaint L’Ouverture, the resistance chief of the Haitian Revolution, and why Hollywood actively fights to erase figures like him from our tales.
Sampson added,
“I met Richard Lyons, an appearing coach who compelled me to learn The Autobiography of Malcolm X and reenact a scene from Spike Lee’s Malcolm X movie. I met Nate Parker, who was creating a brief movie about Nat Turner on the time. So these grew to become my Black mentors: Paul Robeson, Toussaint L’Ouverture, Nat Turner, and Malcolm X.
“On the similar time,” Sampson recollects, “I met Pastor Frank Wilson from Fifth Ward, Texas, who taught me about giving again on birthdays. My first Christmas in LA, he took us to serve at a shelter for unhoused individuals locally. I’ll always remember what he stated: “How would you prefer it if somebody got here to your celebration and requested for presents? Effectively, that’s what individuals do to Jesus yearly—say they’re celebrating his birthday however solely asking for issues for themselves.”
“That second remodeled my pondering. I left that shelter feeling extra entire than ever—rooted, aligned, and linked to one thing greater than myself. From that time on, I devoted my birthday to giving again. What began as small gatherings at shelters grew into an annual custom—first with foster youth, then assisted residing communities, and now full-fledged group fundraisers,” Sampson concludes.
WHO ALL GON’ BE THERE?
Supply: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
In case you are not conversant in The Session, a month-to-month R&B jam session in Houston created by the visionary Isaiah Parks, then please rectify that instantly. The stay music scene within the metropolis is already second to none, with supernovas like Marium Echo holding courtroom a number of nights every week in entrance of mesmerized audiences. What Parks has achieved, although, is take that intoxicating, vibrant, attractive feeling one will get on the hole-in-the-wall and elevate it into the stratosphere.
By bringing collectively sangers like Desz, who has a voice that transports listeners to a different dimension with its otherworldly energy and wonder; Patrice Dominique, whose raspy growl and pitch-perfect tone reaches deep into your coronary heart and your recollections with every be aware; Spud Howard, king of the jukebox, who will in the future be talked about in the identical breath as Johnnie Taylor, and Kirk Richmond, whose buttery wealthy vocals conjure tears and smiles on demand, Parks has created one thing sacred. The Session is a spot of therapeutic, pleasure, love, laughter, and group. It is smart, then, that Sampson and Parks have partnered to deliver Who All Gon’ Be There (WAGBT) x The Session R&B Jam from the Third Coast to the West Coast.
On March 9, at Axelrad Beer Backyard in Houston, Sampson was joined not solely by his group, mates, and household but in addition by his chosen household, together with hometown hero and Hip-Hop luminary, Trae the Reality; Issa Rae, who toasted him along with her very personal Viarae Prosecco; Carl Payne, who was on the town directing Je’Caryous Johnson’s Video games Ladies Play; and Amber Riley, who sang a shocking rendition of Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Issue.”
Supply: @LuvByDre / De’Andre Silas
Now, this Sunday, March 23, Who All Gon’ Be There (WAGBT) x The Session R&B Jam touches down in Los Angeles, bringing that sticky, candy southern warmth to the Metropolis of Angels.
Lucille Clifton teaches us that we should “rejoice that each day one thing has tried to kill us and has failed.” Sure, we live in occupied territory surrounded by individuals terrified and envious of Black brilliance, energy, magnificence, ingenuity, creativity, and pleasure. However they didn’t create our pleasure, so it should by no means be theirs to destroy.
And believing, residing, respiration, sharing, and combating for that reality, collectively and internally? That’s how we construct energy.
“Once we lean into pleasure, it’s a launch, a reminder, and a reunion with our freest selves,” Sampson teaches us. “It’s about constructing areas the place we are able to breathe, chuckle, and rejoice our energy—not simply areas of battle. That’s what WAGBT is about.”
To assist BLD PWR, donate immediately at www.bldpwr.com/donate.
This assist helps fund:
• Neighborhood organizing initiatives
• Packages for Black storytellers and filmmakers
• Grassroots movement-building
• Activism, schooling, and management growth
Your contributions gas actual change, guaranteeing that artwork, storytelling, and activism stay highly effective instruments for liberation.
