Renee McBride-Williams
Art for Life's Sake
Chekejai: Some folks know Renee McBride-Williams as being the host of Shed Kitchen on WPEB 88.1 FM, community radio station in West Philadelpia. She is also the manager of that very station as well as a site organizer for the Media Mobilizing Project. Renee McBride-Williams has a long history in the media as well as in education. She has worked for National Public Radio (NPR) and has helped produce for LaSalle University television station. She worked as an educator for the School District of Philadelphia and she is the recent recipient of a Community Leadership Award which was presented to her by the Moorish Unification Council of the World, inc. She is also in the artistic realm on various levels. Mrs. Williams has performed in the George C. Wolfe Play, “The Colored Museum.” She is on the board of Center Stage at the Annenberg Center of the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, The Philadelphia Clef Club, National Jazz Museum in Harlem and for the John Coltrane Society.
She has been in artist management and has studied and worked with well-know artist and performers such as Christian McBride, Paul Perillo, ?uest Love of Da Roots and Brian Anthony Wilson of The Wire.
She is currently merging her broadcast background and talents with her acting and perfomance background to create a radio theater show aimed at creatively educating youth. It is my distinct honor and pleasure to introduce Renee McBride Williams . Welcome to the Designing Sistas.
Renee: Thank you
Chekejai: So let’s talk about your artistry. You’ve done stage work and you do so much in the arts – how did you get your start?
Renee: I was a natural born entertainer. I was one of those kids who, if you can imagine, came downstairs to entertain my mother’s friends with the Twist. I did the Twist and the Slide or whatever was popular at the time. It was to keep myself from being bored. I loved to read and I watched television and I would repeat the words that I heard the artist say. I thought that their dialogue was great. Some of the old films that I used to watch – my favorites – like “Sunset Boulevard” and “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?” and even some of the old Elvis movies where you found out that the artist became an actor as well. That was before I realized that I was Black and some of the stuff I wasn’t invited into (she says with a smile and light laughter). I say that lovingly. I’m not angry with the past and the history that I came through.
I came to a point where I realized that I wasn’t necessarily just going to be a cook or a wife or have the most traditional lifetimes, lifestyles, I guess. It wasn’t for me.
Growing up I played the violin for a while. The teacher would say “ah, Renee you need to [lead] this group and, you go up front into the 1st chair.” I went from there to other instruments to wanting to be a drummer and a singer.
Chekejai: A drummer?! Hearing that, especially from women is very rare.
Renee: Yeah! I was taught how to hold drum sticks and carry a beat by some of the world’s most famous artist and musicians. One was (Ramon) Tiki Fulwood of Parliament when they first started and Jerry Brown who is now working with Diana Ross. He was out there with Stanley Clarke. A lot of these guys and Mary Barbara Washington were MFSB [Mother, Father, Sister, Brother]. All these guys taught me how to play. So believe it or not I could carry a beat for a while. On the other side of that, they said to me “you can sing too so let’s try to get you to do some of that stuff.” But needless to say, when you get involved with the entertainment industry some other things become more important. My son was born before I got old enough to really enjoy the arts as a young person. I was a teenager when I had him. I went into my early 20s with a child so he became my focus. He became my “star” so-to-speak. I used to put “star” t-shirts on him not knowing that one day he would become just that. I would to sing, “I Want to Take You Higher” to him. To answer your question – In order to bring food to the table – in an order to keep from going crazy – I had to work and then I had to find some sort of hobby that I enjoyed more than anything that kept me alive. Raising a child was the most important job that I ever had. I knew that my dedication was to him and only him at the time and then I had to be true to myself and make Renee happy. So besides working I wound up doing some stage stuff. When I wasn’t doing that I became a personal manager for some artist because I could make those phone calls and do some of those bookings. I knew exactly who to talk to to get the lessons. The people to talk to to get the movement going as far as the entertainment industry was concerned. I drifted into a lot of these jobs haphazardly and to be honest it was nothing planned. It was just one of those things where the doors opened and it said, ”walk in” and I did. That’s how that actually happened.
Chekejai: so the doors to the arts opened to you almost immediately?
Renee: My brother was working in radio for a lot of years. And he was well respected. I grew up with Jack Jones as well and Ed Bradley, and all those guys, and Frankie Beverly. All of us had a take -- and there are so many names that I could throw on and on and on— the music industry as well as theater. In theater you had community theater. You had a lot of different things going on. You could be creative and love it. People cheered for you. Even if you were lousy they clapped for you. You didn’t have the gong show — it changed everything — but for the most part the doors opened. So that’s how I wound up in the field that I’m in now.
Chekejai: It sounds like you derived a lot of inspiration from almost anywhere.
Renee: Yes, you had to. Honestly speaking, in the era that I came up in there wasn’t too much for women— much less encouragement. And if you were a woman of color — I would say because my birth certificate was checked off as “Negro” When or then we started calling each other “Black.” Until James Brown came with, “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” there was a fight that was going to happen if someone called you “Black.” We didn’t have quite the identity that we have today. At that time we really didn’t know how we were going to do what we did. Because we were still marching. We were still going into the back door in some places and still afraid to go down Route 13. Some people know what I am talking about. There was a place outside of Philadelphia where I had an ashtray thrown on me and they told me to “get out of the neighborhood!” this was in Havertown [Pa]. Today Havertown is truly intergrated but you knew that there was a segregation in entertainment. You knew that right here at home we had the Nixon , the Uptown and all these venues where they would welcome the African American artist or the Black artist or the Negro artist. You had role models – Angela Davis who taught you how to be outspoken about your beliefs right or wrong, you had a right to be wrong. Then we had many of the writers and poets. It changed. The revolution was really a revolution within the culture itself where women began to identify with the fact that they were a part of the culture too. Prior to that – you were going to pretty much wind up getting married, having kids, maybe graduating from high school. College was for the elite African American. It wasn’t grants out there until after the Vietnam war was over. By that time many women had started going into college. It changed our whole society and culture. As far as the arts are concerned we were welcome there. It wasn’t the same for African American women – it was a greater fight. So the fight was on! I had a child at the same time. I was determined (in reference to her son) at the time that as a black male he was going to be confident in what he did and he was going to be good at what he did. I had to try to kick open doors, open doors do whatever it was that was necessary to help create the person that he is today. I knew that there would be maybe no reward for it. I knew at the time there would be a lot of punishment, maybe some hardship prices that I had to pay myself. At times I had to say, “I can’t do that any more.” I had to take a secular job. I had to work somewhere to make sure that he had money for his lessons and basses and so forth and so on. But it was a good call. It made it easier to be able to express myself because it was a fight. It was a battle. Sometimes your angry, sometimes you hurt, sometimes your disappointed, so you have to come out victorious and at the same time make sure that you don’t wind up dying in the process. Or wind up losing your mind. It’s a difficult road to take but one that I am ready now to share because it really wasn’t that hard. Sometimes the doors did open at the right time if I met the right people at the right time, In the right places at the right time. God’s gifts – I utilized and He gave them back as blessings. So I’m thankful for those things today. So that’s how I wound up in arts and music to express how I felt cause I was there!
Chekejai: Now I don’t know if you are old enough to remember the Black Arts Movement but maybe there are some people who have been in your circle who may have shared some stories that have impacted your life. Do you have any stories from that time?
Renee: One friend in particular is Ed Smith, that I want to talk about. I talk about him. He just finished doing “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” down in Texas. He’s done a lot of work in directorships in many community theaters here (in Philly) and in NY and in Texas. He and I talk quite a bit. We say that it’s not all that people imagine that it is. When you support one another and we can look at each other as the characters that we are, the people that we are. When I look at you I don’t see a Black woman, I see a woman who is a part of the human race. You have those rights and those emotions and those feelings that you have because you are a woman is just because it’s who you are.
We talk about things that go on in society. For example we protest today. We had those same protest, different prices. At the time people hollered and screamed because the price of potato chips went from a nickel to twenty-five cent (she says with light laughter). So we laugh at some of that stuff. We have greater sums of money and I would like to say that we became accustomed to a better lifestyle that’s being taken away from us little-by-little. We’re hollering and screaming. The same thing we did 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 60 years ago. So, for the most part the inspiration is that people can share my pain, or share my laughter.
Chekejai: I can’t thank you enough for being our special guest today on Designing Sistas. It was trul a wonderful honor to have you. Thanks for sharing so much of yourself with us.
Renee: It was wonderful to be here.
