While I can help fundraise and provide visibility for Covenant House as a board member, I’ve also seen their work up close. Six years ago, I was invited to participate in my first Stage and Screen Sleep Out at the Manhattan Center. I gave up my bed for one night in solidarity with homeless youth and met and heard the stories of these young people and alumni. (This is similar to the UK homelessness charity, Centrepoint, who also stage an annual Sleep Out initiative.) My eyes were opened and my own blessings became very clear to me. Had I not had support or resources when I was first starting out, who knows where my path would’ve taken me.
While it’s unfathomable to me that some people in our society are still attempting to decide who has rights and who doesn’t, that’s the reality. As someone who was dealt a very specific hand in life, I bristle against any construct that attempts to tell me who I can and cannot be, or what I can and cannot do. I can play my cards any way I like, I can chase my dreams, love who I love. This was instilled in me at a young age by my mother, who raised me as a single parent in North Carolina. She enrolled me in dance, she listened to my dreams and she raised me to be authentically me.
Therefore, I will keep showing up to the spaces that it is my privilege to occupy with integrity, kindness and compassion, while playing the cards I’m dealt. If I’m doing my job correctly – and I mean my job on planet earth as a human being – then maybe one day, someone might look at my work, my presence and my encouragement as the reason they took a leap to chase their dreams and their truth. I think changing the game is about making moves that allow others to build on them; it’s the sum of the moves or the arrangement of the cards you’ve been dealt that define you in the end… and my game isn’t over yet.
European editorial director: Deborah Joseph
European beauty director and UK Deputy Editor: Camilla Kay
Website Directors: Ali Pantony and Bianca London
European Design Director: Dennis Lye
European visual director: Amelia Trevette
Entertainment director and Assistant Editor: Emily Maddick
European Fashion Editor: Londie Ncube
Talent Booking: The Talent Group
Video Producer: Elizabeth Robert
Photographer: Sabine Villiard
Stylist: Karen Clarkson
Styling Assistant: Molly Ellison and Lauren Herwig
Hair Stylist: Ursula Stephen at A Frame
Makeup Artist: Vincent Oquendo at The Wall Group
Nail Artist: Ada Yeung at Bridge
Digi Tech: Paul Storey
1st Assistant: Kyle Amerantes
2nd Assistant: Astin Ferraras
Stylist Assistant: Molly Ellison
On-Set Producer: Jean Jarvis
On-set Production Assistant: Melissa Berrios
Executive Production: HenHouse