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“I Never Freeze”

"You get to decide what kind of king you are going to
be"- Black Panther Chadwick Aaron Boseman was a Sagittarius
born on Nov 29, 1978. True to his fire sign, Chadwick Boseman
ignited a light and Revolutionized the film making landscape.
Boseman was an artist who went the extra mile until he felt his
work was complete and perfect, connecting with his characters
on a physical, mental, and spiritual level. From his depiction of
African American baseball player Jackie Johnson to first Afri-
can American Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall to the
progenitor of funk music, James Brown Baseman has always
strived to fight for a better world not only for himself but for
minorities, for people of color, for those who fought before us,
for those who needed a hero, a role model, a reckoning force.
He started out as a writer and director and ironically, started acting only to understand and relate to ac-
tors. To prepare for his roles he often visited locations, things, and people connected with them. For his role as
James Brown, he went to Brown's old house and spent time with Deana Brown learning about the actor he
would portray. Part of this experience included him trying on the clothes of the late James Brown. He was in-
spired by music especially jazz, blues, classical, and hip-hop. He vented through writing not just for the pur-
pose of scripts but just because. He would write when he was tired, angry, happy, confused, stressed, inspired
or all of the above.
The contributions of Chadwick Boseman paved the way for many individuals of African descent to be
accepted on film not only as extras, background actors, victims, broken, enslaved, stereotyped, but as positive,
beautiful, capable, and powerful icons. He allowed people of color, young and old to see themselves not in the
light of someone downtrodden and rejected but as resilient, capable, successful, and genuine. To a young boy
in South Carolina, to a Harvard scholar, to professional actor, director, and writer he motivated others to push
towards their dreams even if the forces of the world try to keep them down.

Interestingly enough, Boseman died on the day recognized by the MLB as Jackie Robinson day and
also the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington. Although Boseman passed at 43 on August 28, 2020,
he lived a life well lived and remembered. His performance went above and beyond, in this unscripted improv-
isation we call life. Boseman will always be known as Black Panther, Prince T’Challa, King of Wakanda, and
hero of things we thought were lost. Things like family, selflessness, love, courage, morality, hope, genuine-
ness, kindness, nobility, humility, and change.
From the pages of Boseman's life, we have learned that people are not expandable, time is not in our
hands, knowledge is a gift, hands were made to reach out and help, rights were meant to be expressed, and the
important things are worth fighting for. We don't wait for roles to be given but we take them. Wakanda Forev-
er!