Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 4-7-17

Feature
BY KENYA WOODARD Sentinel Feature Writer
She walked on stage empty-handed, but by the end of her speech Tuesday night, Academy Award-win- ning actress Viola Davis left behind a treasure trove of gifts to a crowd of thousands at the Sun Dome.
Davis – who in February, snagged a best supporting actress Oscar for her per- formance alongside Denzel Washington in “Fences” – spoke for more than an hour on the campus of the Univer- sity of South Florida about growing up in “abject poverty” and her ascension to Hollywood elite.
Getting to the latter re- quired being intentional about wanting a better life for herself, Davis said.
It also commanded Davis to be vulnerable and own her story – the highs and the lows – and cast aside the shame she felt growing up poor and Black in predomi- nantly white Central Falls, Rhode Island.
She encouraged audience members to do the same.
“The reason we don’t want to show our vulnerability is because of shame,” she said. “I kept it inside. And I wasted a lot of years.”
Born in her grandmother’s house in St. Matthews, S. C., Davis was the fifth and last child born to parents with limited education.
Davis said her father, a horse groomer and trainer, possessed just a fifth-grade education and was “barely literate.” Her mother, who married at 15, fared a little better with an eighth grade
education.
Davis, who currently
plays Annalise Keating in the popular television show “How to Get Away with Murder,” said her parents were not her role models. Her father, an alcoholic, sometimes would beat her mother.
“I loved my mom, I loved my dad,” she said. “But I did- n’t want to be like them.”
Growing up, Davis said she and her siblings lived in a condemned building with no plumbing and little heat that was so heavily infested with rats she would cover her ears at night to avoid hearing the rodents attack and eat the pigeons in the attic.
Sometimes, the rats would jump on the beds and gnaw on her toys, she said.
She and her siblings often went hungry and relied on food stamps to eat, Davis said.
“I always say I wasn’t poor – I was po’,” she said.
The one luxury the family did have was a television. Davis said she decided to be an actress after watching Cicely Tyson in the minis- eries, “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”
Davis said she was mes- merized by Tyson’s per- formance.
“I remember it was like the clouds stopped moving, the birds stopped chirping,” she said. “I didn’t hear the rats.”
Acting became the escape Davis needed from her world of lack and struggle. It also became a place of refuge from the racism and humilia- tion she suffered from class- mates.
Davis said she was
Award-winning actress Viola Davis was a part of the USF Lec- ture series. The venue was changed from the Marshall Center to the USF Sun Dome to accommodate the large number of people who attended. (Photo by Julia Jackson)
Juilliard School, a presti- gious performing arts con- servatory.
Davis said she struggled with her self-identify and coming to terms with her childhood, specifically the humiliation of growing up in poverty and having parents who were not educated. To cope, she entered therapy and spent seven years sorting out her issues.
In therapy, Davis said she learned some profound les- sons.
“What I was running from was not owning my story – the good and the bad,” she said. “Not owning the fact that all of that has created me exactly, the Viola Davis who came out on this stage.”
Davis – who holds a best actress Emmy Award for her role as Annalise and two Tony Awards – implored the audience to embrace their own stories.
“You have to own every- thing that happens to you,” she said. “If people wanted you to say nice things about you, they should have be- haved better.”
Avoid safety and be vul- nerable because it’s the foun- dation necessary to achieve your goals, Davis said.
“My gift to you is to dare to live greatly,” she said. “Dare to be imperfect. Just try it.”
Award-Winning Actress Viola Davis Tells Thousands At USF To ‘Dare To Live Greatly’
taunted regularly by white boys who chased her home from school throwing rocks and dirt yelling, “you ugly black nigger! You ugly black nigger!”
But even in her darkest moments, Davis said she “had a feeling that I wanted more.”
“I didn’t fit in,” she said. “l could feel it in my spirit.”
Davis said she began re- peating goals and promises to herself.
“I began saying to myself ‘I want to be an actress’, she said. “I said ‘I’m going to be
famous and people are going to know my name.’”
Davis said she received further confirmation that acting was her future after she and her sisters won a skit contest.
From that point, she acted in every school production and often won recognition for her performance.
After graduating from col- lege, Davis said she set three goals: take a year off, travel overseas, and get a boyfriend.
“I did all three,” she said. But Davis said she “hit a wall” after attending The
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