"I marched. I realized that marching isn’t so much for the cause—you think you’re going out there for the cause—it’s more for the person...

"For me, I needed to feel comfortable in my own skin for so many reasons—I was such a shy kid, I felt lost, in the shadows, in the...

"I think there are multiple ways to have conversations. Al Sharpton can say something of substance, but it ain’t gonna get heard the same...

"In our efforts to give our kids the best, sometimes we completely remove them from their communities, and so what I began to see at...

"My first album...I mixed "I Feel Pretty" with "Say It Loud—I'm Black and I'm Proud"...I never thought it would create such a divide in...

“I feel like a lot of Gen Z-ers have the idea that we are just headed towards doom and that we were put in a situation that we had...

"Black people are queer as well. Black people we have been seen as the strange and odd and not normal thing since we were shipped out...

"It was a shock and an eye-opener and great to be a young person and to be out and proud amongst my peers [at Baltimore School of...

“For me, it’s age and experience. If I had gone to [Juilliard when I was younger], I think it would have been harder. I think I would...

"I think it has become clearer and clearer that we must lean into our individuality and be purposeful about celebrating [the title black...

“To be trained in a certain style and then be professionally asked to do a whole completely different style [because of my race]—it’s not...

"So often I was getting sent in for “The Drug Dealer,” "The Drug Addict," "The Drug Addict Who’s on Death Row," and I don’t read that. I...

"[Having my identity evolve] has been the hardest thing to deal with the business and industry because I've always been multifaceted,...

"I grew up knowing how hard it is to be an artist and have a kid; to survive on following your dreams and have multiple jobs and still...

“When I was bringing in heritage [to my all-white high-school], like plays like One Monkey [Don't Stop No Show], The Fredrick Douglass...

"As a young actor what I'm finding is that when that happens, I clock it for myself and I go, 'Oh, I dont ever want to be in this...

“I love telling our history and our story it’s important and it’s necessary but for there to be forward movement, we have to start...

"I'm so honored to be the first but I'm also very uninterested in being the last. I certainly don't try to down play it and I want it to...

“I myself fall prey to “blacking it up.” Whatever that means, and why do I have to do that to feel that I am authentic and valid. Maybe I...

Get ready, 'cause here they come! With just a week away from the 2019 Tony Awards, we got to celebrate the 12-time Tony-nominated Ain't...