Tavis Smiley: The “FAIL UP” Interview

with Kam Williams

Headline: Tavis Reflects on Life Lessons

From his celebrated conversations with world figures to his work to inspire the next generation of leaders as a broadcaster, author, publisher, advocate and philanthropist, Tavis Smiley continues to be a leading voice for change. He is currently the host of his late-night television talk show on PBS as well as the host of a couple of radio programs syndicated by Public Radio International: “The Tavis Smiley Show” and “Smiley and West” alongside Dr. Cornel West.
This year, Tavis is celebrating his 20th year in broadcasting, and in conjunction with that anniversary he’s just published, “FAIL UP: 20 Lessons on Building Success from Failure.” In this revealing memoir, he recounts 20 instances of perceived “failures” which were, in fact, valuable “lessons” that shaped the principles and practices he employs every day.

Kam Williams: Hi Tavis, thanks for the interview.
Tavis Smiley: My pleasure, man.

KW: I loved FAIL UP. I have to start by asking, who is the celebrity you refer to as “Mr. X“ in the book?
TS: Mr. X is Mr. X! I can’t tell you who he is, but the whole point of that story is a lesson I learned about how mistakes you make early in life can follow you. I wasn’t even in the broadcast business at the time. So, be careful about gossiping because loose lips really do sink ships. Now that I’m in the business, and people talk about me, I know what it feels like to be the victim of gossip. Mr. X is a major Hollywood player, but he won’t even come on my show. I had to learn those two lessons the hard way.

KW: Who was the other mysterious figure in the book who sent you that 8-page letter criticizing you about Obama? Let me guess. Was it Oprah?
TS: Ha-ha-ha! That’s another person I can’t reveal, only because I do still regard her as a friend. She was wrong and what she wrote hurt me and brought me to tears. I included it in the book to make the point that sometimes even your friends don’t understand your calling, your purpose, your vocation. But you have to stand in your truth anyway, and they will eventually come around to understanding you, if you do it lovingly.

KW: How hard was it for you to open up about your failures?
TS: Very! This is my 15th book. None of the others required me to be this transparent, this open, this honest or this authentic. It was a very painful process, yet I thought it was important, because I feel blessed to be in the broadcast business for 20 years. I believe that when you’re this blessed, you have an obligation to pay it forward. That’s what life is all about ultimately. What better way to celebrate 20 years than by sharing the lessons I learned from my 20 biggest failings!

KW: Jimmy Bayan asks: Looking over your life with a searchlight, if you had a chance to live five minutes of your life over, which ones would it be?
TS: Wow! I don’t think I’d live anything over, even though I’ve made a lot of mistakes. As I say in the book, while I didn’t understand it at the time, in retrospect I have learned how to see failure as a friend. So, I’m not one to live a life of regrets. I try to learn from my mistakes, but I’ll take my life the way it is.

KW: Robin Beckham asks: What are your thoughts about President Obama's re-election campaign? It is being reported that you are not an Obama supporter. Is that true? What are your expectations of and hopes for the Obama Administration as it relates to opportunities for black people?
TS: I believed that President Obama was a good choice a couple of years ago because I felt that, as a black man, if he could win, it would open up progressive possibilities in this country for a lot of people. That was my major reason for believing his candidacy was a good thing. However, I don’t endorse candidates, given the type of work that I do. My job is to hold people accountable. I held him accountable when he ran in 2008, and I’m going to do it again this time. I respect the President because I know he has a lot on his plate. But at the end of the day, for me it fundamentally all comes down to whether he’s going to side with the strong or with the weak. When Wall Street needed his help, he responded. Black folks need his help in a major way, but he’s afraid to speak out forcefully on the issue of unemployment, even though African-Americans supported him the most, and are now hurting the most. I don’t want the Obama era to be more about symbolism than substance when it comes to black people. I love him, but I love black people even more. So, I’m going to keep raising issues to hold him accountable. I just want the President to stand up and fight more forcefully for the least among us, the poor folks and the black folks, in the way that he has for his more powerful constituencies.

KW: I want to know, when is he going to end these wars? The money invested in guns and bombs and destruction only serves to spread pain and devastation. Just think what good we could be doing if we spent as many billions on housing, education and healthcare.
TS: I couldn’t agree with you more.

KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: What message do you want the readers to take away from your latest book?
TS: The simple message that the great Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett delivered years ago: “Try again! Fail again! Fail better!” I love that. I believe there is nothing we endure in life that you can’t recover from. Failure is not fatal. Everyone has the capacity to fail up.

KW: Judyth Piazza asks: How important is it to have a mentor, and who are some of yours?
TS: I believe mentors are terribly important. My two best mentors, one dead, one living, are Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Cornel West. Even though he died when I was a young child, I regard Dr. King as a mentor and I consider him the greatest American we’ve ever produced. Dr. West is my living mentor, and a dear and abiding friend. Much of what I’ve learned about loving and serving people, and about appreciating humanity, comes from my relationship with Dr. West.

KW: Attorney Bernadette Beekman asks: What do you have to say to encourage all the men in jail, so that they can take away a message of hope from your sharing your life experiences?
TS: That even behind bars, even on Death Row, you can fail up, because life is about committing ourselves on a daily basis to the best in us. Freedom is a state of mind. Freedom is an attitude. Freedom is a spirit. You may be behind bars, but you still have the capacity to be free. I’ve visited some people behind bars who are freer than Negroes I see running around every day. Being in jail, or poor, or uneducated doesn’t determine how free you can be. There are really only two types of people. Either you’re running scared or you’re running free. I choose to run free, and you can, too, no matter what your circumstances in life.

KW: Nick Antoine asks: Who was your favorite interview of all time?
TS: My short answer is: My favorite interview is always the next one. And that’s not a way of avoiding the question. It’s a way of saying that I so love what you and I do, Kam, that I can’t wait to get to the next one. So, that’s my honest answer.

KW: Harriet Pakula Teweles asks: When an interview’s not face-to-face, do you think a person can more easily evade a question because of the lack of eye contact?
TS: They could, if I let them. But after 20 years, I’ve gotten pretty good at preventing people from dodging questions. [Laughs]

KW: Thanks for another great interview, Tavis.
TS: Kam, you’ve always been so nice to me, and so kind to me. I always love talking to you, and I especially enjoy reading the interviews you do with other people. Thank you for the work you do, and thanks for interviewing me again.

KW: Maybe we can get together the next time you’re in town visiting Dr. West at Princeton.
TS: We’ll make it happen.

The Roommate DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Thinly-Veiled Remake of Single White Female Released on DVD

Single White Female (1992) was an intriguing psychological thriller revolving around a young woman’s unhealthy attempt to ingratiate herself with her new roommate to the exclusion of all others. Her increasingly-bizarre behavior gradually escalated over the course of the film from dressing alike and adopting the same hobbies to killing their pet puppy and sabotaging the object of her obsession’s romantic relationship.
Ultimately, the disturbing compulsion was attributed to the deranged psycho’s having witnessed her identical twin’s drowning when they were 9. So, this belated attempt to bond so closely with a perfect stranger was explained as a perverted desire to recreate the closeness she had formerly felt with her late sibling.
The reason for such a detailed digression at the outset of this review is because The Roommate is basically a brazen rip-off of Single White Female, and a godawful one at that. Instead of being set in New York City’s fashion world, the story unfolds in L.A. where we find freshman Sara Matthews (Minka Kelly) making a smooth adjustment to college life, especially in terms of flirting and partying.
The attractive fashion major from the Midwest is already dating a popular upperclassman (Cam Gigandet) and turning the head of a well-connected professor (Billy Zane) she wants as a mentor. The fly in the fun ointment is her profoundly-disturbed roommate, Rebecca (Leighton Meester), a one-woman wrecking crew who chillingly announces “I always wanted a sister” upon learning that Sara’s twin had died at, you guessed it, the age of 9.
Next, with manic abandon, Rebecca proceeds to monopolize Sara’s time while embarking on a transparent reign of terror aimed at ruining all of the poor girl’s relationships, whether that involves telling a suitor never to call Sara again, killing her cat Cuddles, or ripping a ring right out of the belly of her best friend, Tracy (Alyson Michalka).
As if the purloined plot isn’t infuriating enough, proving far more problematical than the thinly-veiled plagiarism is the atrocious acting, the slapdash editing, the absence of character development and the cringe-inducing dialogue. The film’s biggest flaw of all is its failure to generate any tension, since a suspense thriller sans the element of suspense is apt to disappoint even an audience arriving with low expectations.

Poor (0 stars)
Rated PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, menacing, violence and teen partying.
Running time: 91 Minutes
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Director’s commentary and an alternate opening sequence.

Kam's Kapsules: For movies opening May 20, 2011

OPENING THIS WEEK
Kam's Kapsules:
Weekly Previews That Make Choosing a Film Fun
by Kam Williams
For movies opening May 20, 2011


BIG BUDGET FILMS

The Beaver (PG-13 for profanity, sexuality, drug use, mature themes and disturbing content) Jodie Foster directs and co-stars opposite Mel Gibson in this ventriloquist’s dummy dramedy about a depressed CEO who only talks to his wife and sons (Anton Yelchin and Riley Thompson Stewart) through his hand puppet. With Jennifer Lawrence, Cherry Jones and Zachary Booth and featuring cameos by Terry Gross, Jon Stewart and Matt Lauer.

Midnight in Paris (PG-13 for sexual references and smoking) Romantic comedy, directed by Woody Allen, about the troubles of a couple (Owen Wilson and Rachel McAdams) who find themselves reevaluating their elusive dreams while in France on business. With Kathy Bates, Michael Sheen, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, Alison Pill, Tom Hiddleston and Carla Bruni.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Not Yet Rated) Fourth installment of the seafaring franchise finds Captain Jack (Johnny Depp) forced to search for the Fountain of Youth aboard the ship of the legendary Blackbeard (Ian McShane) after falling for the notorious outlaw’s daughter (Penelope Cruz). With Geoffrey Rush, Judi Dench and Keith Richards.


INDEPENDENT & FOREIGN FILMS

The Big Uneasy (Unrated) New Orleans resident Harry Shearer wrote, directed and narrates this damning expose’ uncovering the truth behind why the levees failed during Hurricane Katrina.

Bloodworth (R for violence, profanity and drug use) Kris Kristofferson stars in the title role of this dysfunctional family drama about a Prodigal patriarch whose return to his tiny Tennessee hometown forty years after walking out on his wife (Frances Conroy) is met with the resentment of his ex and their three maladjusted sons (Val Kilmer, Dwight Yoakam and W. Earl Brown). With Hilary Duff, Reece Thompson and Brent Briscoe.

Cost of a Soul (R for violence, pervasive profanity and brief nudity) Brotherly Love crime saga about a couple of wounded war veterans (Chris Kerson and Will Blagrove) who return from Iraq only to end up back in the same Philly slums they joined the military to escape. With Mark Borkowski, Judy Jerome and Nakia Dillard.

Hard Breakers (Unrated) Date-rape comedy revolving around a couple of best friends (Sophie Monk and Cameron Richardson) embittered by the battle-of-the-sexes who turn the table on men by knocking them out in order to have their way with them. Cast includes Tom Arnold, Chris Kattan, Sticky Fingaz, Tia Carrere, Alexis Arquette and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Life 2.0 (Unrated) Virtual reality documentary examining how fantasy relationships have transformed players of Second Life, an internet computer game where one assumes an avatar identity to immerse oneself in an online digital universe.

Lost Bohemia (Unrated) Gentrification documentary about the protracted legal battle to prevent the conversion to office space of the century-old, studio apartments above Carnegie Hall which have been home to such artists as Marlon Brando, Isadora Duncan and Paddy Chayefsky.

Louder than a Bomb (Unrated) Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel (Gene’s nephew) co-directed this performance-driven documentary following the fortunes of four teams of high school students competing in Chicago’s annual poetry slam.

Blue Valentine DVD

DVD Review by Kam Williams

Headline: DVD Features Drama Deconstructing Failed Marriage

Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy’s (Michelle Williams) marriage was doomed almost from the start. At the time that they met, she was a promising premed student at a college in rural Pennsylvania; while he was a high school dropout barely eking out a living a world away in Brooklyn.
Their paths crossed quite by coincidence when Dean was sent to Scranton by his moving company to help an elderly gentleman (Melvin Jurdem) relocate to a nursing home on the very same day Cindy was there visiting her ailing grandmother (Jenn Jones). For Dean, it was love at first sight, and when he still couldn’t get her out of his mind a month later, he finds an excuse to return to town to try to track her down.
The incurable romantic serendipitously spots the object of his obsession on a bus and wins her heart by serenading her with a song. He had no idea, however, that she not only already had a hunky boyfriend, Bobby Ontario (Mike Vogel), but that she also was pregnant by the popular big man on campus.
Nonetheless, Cindy takes Dean home to meet the parents (John Doman and Maryann Plunkett) who are obviously underwhelmed by their daughter’s dating a chain-smoking underachiever with not much of a future. But their obvious disappointment does nothing to discourage the hopelessly-smitten suitor from popping the question that very night.
And when Cindy accepts the proposal, the mismatched pair proceeds to embark on a disastrous six-year relationship marked mostly by incessant arguing and a basic inability to communicate effectively. The real victim here is the baby, Frankie (Faith Wladyka), who didn’t ask to be raised by such a dysfunctional couple.
Thus, “Can this marriage be saved?” is the burning question at the center of Blue Valentine, a flashback flick directed by Derek Cianfrance. Michelle Williams earned an Oscar nomination for her super-realistic performance as a wife increasingly embittered by both motherhood and the burden of being the breadwinner. And her co-star Ryan Gosling is just as convincing in his capacity as Dean, a chuckleheaded slacker with lots of shortcomings.
Unfortunately, this much-ballyhooed movie has a fundamental flaw, namely, that it’s no fun to watch. For, far be it from me to recommend that anyone invest in a relentlessly-unpleasant deconstruction of a marriage that was never meant to be.

Fair (1 star)
Rated R for profanity, nudity, violence and graphic sexuality.
Running time: 114 Minutes
Distributor: Anchor Bay Entertainment & The Weinstein Company
DVD Extras: Commentary by director Derek Cianfrance and co-editor Jim Helton, “The Making of” documentary, deleted scenes, and a home movie.

Hey, Boo

Film Review by Kam Williams

Headline: Intriguing Documentary Revisits “To Kill a Mockingbird”

In 1961, Harper Lee, an unknown white woman from a small town in Alabama, won a Pulitzer Prize for her groundbreaking novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Released at the height of the African-American struggle against Jim Crow segregation, the book played a pivotal role in raising the country’s awareness of racism while simultaneously serving to shame the South about its disgraceful legacy of lynching, oppression and discrimination.
A couple of years later, the screen adaptation of the best seller earned several Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actor. Gregory Peck delivered his career performance as Atticus Finch, an attorney defending a black man unfairly accused of rape.
Unfortunately, Harper Lee basically became a recluse after 1964, which is when she granted her last interview with the press. She also never published another novel, which has led to considerable speculation about the reasons for her silence and for her failure to write again.
After all, she and Truman Capote had been best friends as children, and it is apparent that the characters Scout and Jem in “To Kill a Mockingbird” are based on the two of them. Their relationship would endure into adulthood, and it was even the subject of a recent bio-pic about Capote.
All of the above and more fascinating factoids are unearthed in Hey, Boo as intriguing a documentary as you could ever hope to encounter. Since Ms. Lee did not cooperate with the project, director Mary Murphy depended on the reflections of luminaries like Oprah, Tom Brokaw, Andrew Young Jon Meacham and Scott Turow for insight into the reasons for the very private author’s uncompromising withdrawal from the public eye.
What turns out to be perhaps most compelling is how closely “To Kill a Mockingbird” mirrors events which transpired in Lee’s own life. For instance, she was a tomboy and the same age as Scout, 6, at the time that her father, a lawyer like Atticus, was representing a black man accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
A fitting tribute to a true American icon, a half century after she subtly helped shape the course of history and left an indelible mark on the country’s conscience.

Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 82 Minutes
Distributor: First Run Features

I Can Finish College (BOOK REVIEW)

I Can Finish College:
The Overcome Any Obstacle and Get Your Degree Guide
by Marcia Young Cantarella, Ph.D
Lulu
Paperback, $17.85
248 pages, Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-557-71731-6

Book Review by Kam Williams

“Almost half of the students who get into college do not graduate… Students who succeed have what is known as Emotional Intelligence. This means that they are resilient and know how to face obstacles, manage time, take advantage of resources, build networks, become self-aware, become self-confident, learn from every experience, focus on personal aspirations, and take responsibility for themselves…
You can succeed and finish college if you learn how these institutions work and how they can work for you. This book is meant to help you do just that. The goal is your graduation.”
-Excerpted from the Introduction (pg.7)

At my college orientation way back when, an administrator intimidated the freshmen by having us look at the person sitting on our left as well as the one on our right, before soberly prophesying that “one of the three of you will not graduate.” I was sitting between my roommates, both of whom, as it sadly turned out, did eventually leave the university without getting a degree.
Today, I can’t help but wonder how much their prospects might have been improved by a book like I Can Finish College. For this handy, how-to guide supplies plenty of great tips about identifying and dealing with the array of potential pitfalls lying in wait to torpedo the promising careers of unsuspecting undergrads before they even have a chance to blossom.
The author, Dr. Marcia Young Cantarella, is a veteran in the field of student affairs, having done long stints as a Dean on the campus of prestigious places like Princeton, NYU and Hunter College. Such ivory tower trappings notwithstanding, she nevertheless has a knack for breaking down her sage advice into readily-digestible layman’s terms.
Dr. Cantarella fields practical questions on topics ranging from how to pick and pay for college; to how to select your major and courses; to how to study and manage your time. Designed more as a utilitarian resource than as light reading to be consumed in one sitting, I Can Finish College is ideally approached as an academia encyclopedia to be returned to at any time during college that a higher education issue suddenly surfaces.
To appreciate the degree of the author’s selfless dedication to the next generation, one only need consider that she is the daughter of the late Whitney Young (1921-1971), the venerable Civil Rights Era icon who served as the Executive Director of the Urban League for over a decade. Ostensibly inspired by her father’s lifelong commitment to the disenfranchised, Dr. Cantarella conveys on these pages the sense of a person sincerely commited to alleviating the escalating, minority student dropout-rate, a crisis she refers to as the “Silent Epidemic.”
A common sense, college survival guide designed with the most vulnerable demographics in mind, especially the endangered black male.

Top Ten DVD List for May 10th

This Week’s DVD Releases
by Kam Williams

Headline: Top Ten DVD List for May 10th

Some Like It Hot


Bhutto


Siege of Leningrad


My First Scholastic Storybook Collection [featuring Splat the Cat]


Now & Later


Justin Bieber: Never Say Never


Cougars, Inc.


No Strings Attached


Cropsey


Ninjas vs. Vampires