LOS ANGELES — To kick off Black History Month, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation teamed with the Black Hollywood Education Resource Center and the Los Angeles Urban League to host the Global Youth Leadership Conference. Prominent TV writers and filmmakers attended to teach the next generation of Black and Latino students how to diversify the storylines portrayed on TV.
One attendee was 16-year-old Stefani Perez.
Her apartment complex’s laundry room is where Perez goes to get away from the chaos in her Westmont apartment. She and her boyfriend, who is not yet allowed inside her apartment, go there to hang out.
“We’ll watch something on our phone, we’ll talk. I kind of had my first kiss right outside,” Perez said bashfully.
She says she’s had to grow up quick. As the daughter of two parents with gang affiliations, she was forced to choose at a young age which path she’d take.
Watching the movie “Selena” was the first time Stefani saw a woman who looked like her achieve her dreams and now she knows it’s possible for her to become a singer and actress too.
She says she grew up seeing the same narratives on TV and wondered why almost every Latina character was portrayed in the same light.
“I would definitely want to see or play, I don’t know, for once, it to be a well put Latina woman, or a well put Latin man and it would be like, she built herself up from the ground,” she said.
It’s why she was so excited about her field trip to the Martin Luther King Jr. Global Youth Leadership Conference.
She eagerly listened to filmmaker and writer Camille Tucker, who shared how she started in the entertainment industry many years ago with the 500 LA area high school students who filled the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center.
“When you can see someone doing unimaginable great, fantastical things, you can also see yourself doing it,” Tucker said.
President and CEO of The Memorial Foundation, Harry Johnson, says he holds these conferences across the country to introduce the students to successful people, like Camille, who have broken every color and economic barriers in their way.
“Especially in light of Tyre Nichols’ funeral,” Johnson said. “The police shootings, and all the other crimes going on, young people need to look up and see there is hope out there.”
Hope is the foundation of Wendy Raquel Robinson’s Amazing Grace Conservatory. The co-founder and award-winning actress trains thousands of emerging actors, performers and at-risk youth, teaching them how to express themselves authentically on the big screen.
“I think it’s so important because if we don’t tell our stories, who will? If not us, then who? And if not right now, then when?” she questioned.
A star-struck Stefani says she left feeling inspired.
“It showed me that if I’m persistent enough, I will be able to get to the place where I initially want to be or I should be,” she said.
Besides careers in entertainment, national and local speakers taught students about leadership, the Black college experience, and the value of entrepreneurship at the Global Youth Leadership Conference.