Amena Brown:
That time I met India.Arie ... That I went on a really bad date ... That time I was directed by Robert Townsend ... That time I got mono on Thanksgiving ... That time I went on a really bad Christmas tour ... That time I ...
Amena Brown:
Yes, folks. This is a That Time I episode, and these stories are always really fun for me to share with you all. Thank you to those of you that have been leaving me comments on social media. Just know that it brings so much joy and life to me. I hope that we are getting closer and closer to a time that I can tour the country and meet many of you. But until then, I thank you for your comments, and I thank you for your reviews.
Amena Brown:
Someone's Memaw did a review on Apple Podcasts recently and I was like, "Yes." So Doris, if you are listening, thank you for tuning in, being a part of our HER living room today. I'm talking about that time I met a celebrity and I want to start with one of my favorite music artists of all time, hands down, India.Arie. If you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you have heard me talk about India's music. I talk about her in other episodes with other people.
Amena Brown:
I'm almost certain, if I haven't already done it, that I need to give her a crown. I want to give her many crowns. If you're not familiar with India.Arie, part of me wants to tell you to press pause and go listen to her music right now. And then I feel torn. Well, listen to this and listen to her music. But either way, listen to her music, okay? I have loved India.Arie's music since first hearing her. She is one of the few artists who I own all of her albums, not just streamed them, owned them, either bought them on CD or bought them and downloaded them when that first became a thing. That's how long I've been following her music.
Amena Brown:
So this story that I'm telling you, we are entering the life of Amena when I was about 22 years old. This was my second job outside of college, which caused me to meet India at this point. My first job out of college I worked for Smoothie King. My second job out of college, which ironically the Smoothie King where I worked as my first job, and I want to shout out my friend, Saleda, who is the reason I got that job because she was working there after we both graduated from Spelman. She knew that I was just feeling very aimless at the moment because I had applied to grad school.
Amena Brown:
You may have heard me tell the story on this podcast. I can't remember now. But I had applied to grad school because I really wanted to be a writer, but I just didn't know what to do with myself in the in-between time. I didn't really see myself being a person that would do well in a corporate setting. So I just thought grad school because I thought that would at least buy me some time. My goal at the time when I was graduating from Spelman was to get a master's of fine arts in poetry. I graduated college in 2002, so we were the class that was graduating the year of 9/11.
Amena Brown:
I want to talk about that a little bit because I think when we think about what it means to go into the job market and what the economy's like, and I like to bring up that reflection because I know that there are Millennials listening that remember either leaving high school to go into the workplace or leaving college to go into the workplace and going into the workplace in a time where the economy was not in a very stable place. I also want to voice that for people that are graduating right now during this time that we're in a pandemic.
Amena Brown:
Both of these moments are similar to what it was like for those of us that were sort of coming out of college, going into the workforce right at this time that the economy was in a very unstable place. So I applied to grad school. I applied to three schools and did not get into any of them. So my friend, Saleda, took a good kind of pity on me and was like, "Hey, I got this job at this smoothie place. Why don't you come up here and work?" So I worked at the smoothie place for a while.
Amena Brown:
And then another friend of mine that I went to church with, she called me and she said, "Hey, I worked with this woman in the past who is an event producer. She's looking for an assistant, and I thought about you." She connected us. The wild thing is, y'all, life is so crazy. The Smoothie King where I was working was literally up the street from this woman's house who became one of my favorite bosses that I've ever worked for. I will tell you, I worked a lot of careers in my life before I got to this one of doing my art and working in media arts entertainment world full-time.
Amena Brown:
But next to this job, the job that I worked for my old boss, Pam, working as an assistant to her being an event producer, that was my second favorite job next to the job that I do now, talking to y'all and performing poetry. I remember talking to Pam on the phone. We did an initial phone interview. She worked out of her home. So she invited me to come to her home where she could do a little bit more thorough interview of me. She had a very up-North accent. So I didn't really know what to expect. But when she opened the door, this beautiful Black woman, I mean I was already sold on the job.
Amena Brown:
But when she opened the door and I saw that she was this beautiful Black woman, I was like, "Ah, yes. This is everything I want in my life." So her office in her home was upstairs. We did the interview. I found out I got the job. Okay. So now, part of what Pam's business did in event production is a lot of the events she did were for these big nonprofits. She would help them coordinate these big fundraiser events, these fundraiser galas that were very expensive per plate and then would raise all this money towards these different nonprofits that she worked with.
Amena Brown:
One of these events booked India.Arie to perform at the event. I was super excited. I don't think I'd had that many other interactions with people who were famous or celebrities or well-known, outside of one time in college. I co-facilitated actually with another Spelman student, Thelathia, hey girl, who's now Dr. Thelathia. But Thelathia and I co-facilitated a conversation with Pearl Cleage and Sonia Sanchez. I remember that was the first time that in my adult life I can remember being that close to someone who didn't know me at all, but I knew them. I knew their work.
Amena Brown:
I had so much respect for them. I remember Sonia Sanchez and Pearl Cleage both being very down-to-earth and asking us these very ordinary, everyday questions about school and how we were feeling about our classes. They were rock stars to me. I mean writers are rock stars to me still. So this moment, imagine I'm only probably a couple years later from having had that moment with Sonia Sanchez and Pearl Cleage. Now, here I am, oh my gosh, India.Arie got booked for this event. Okay. I already am in love with her music, but also have to be professional.
Amena Brown:
So we get to the night of the gala. All the preparations are together. We were at this large venue in Atlanta. It's my job as Pam's assistant to basically check on all of the talent, make sure everybody has what they need, and kind of running interference between whatever tasks need to be done and checking back in with Pam, making sure Pam's good, if there's anything she needs me to get for her as my boss. So she was like, "Go check on India. Make sure she has everything she needs. If there's anything that she needs, get it."
Amena Brown:
So I go down to where the greenrooms were in this venue. This is when I find out that India's rider told us that she is vegan, but no vegan food was provided for her because the catering was just your average catering. It was like pasta with cheese sauce. I think the only vegan thing that was there may have been a pan of string beans, and that might have had butter on it, to be honest. I don't think I went down to India's dressing room myself. I don't think I went there myself because we had some other volunteers working. So I think one of the volunteers came back up to tell me.
Amena Brown:
I remember going outside of this venue with one of the members of the steering committee. We had gotten a restaurant suggestion from India because she was like, "I have to eat before I perform." Every performer's different. I get so nervous before I perform that I can't eat. But I have some friends who are like India. They have to eat before they perform. So she had told us about this Indian restaurant that she loved that had wonderful vegan food. Bless our entire hearts, the steering committee member and I commandeered a limousine out front of this venue, didn't belong to us.
Amena Brown:
But they were all just sitting out there waiting for their different people to take them home after the event. So we begged this driver to drive us several blocks away so that we could pick up this food, get it back, get India fed so she could perform. So we were running in our heels. We get in this limousine. The driver agrees to take us. We get out. We order. We're just picking as many dishes as we can because we want to make sure there's enough food, not only for India but for her band members that are there, any other singers who are there with her, whoever she brought with her.
Amena Brown:
This is food for all of them to get fed now since nothing is there that they can eat. Get the food, hustle back. Run in our heels to make sure the food gets there. Then I have a moment to breathe. At this time, I think I had met India and introduced myself to her, let her know that I was Pam's assistant, let her know if there's anything she needed. But I was being super professional, y'all. It's kind of like there are two Amenas inside of me, honestly. There is an Amena that is very professional and very full of customer service all the time.
Amena Brown:
And then there's the other Amena who just could faint at the sight of someone who just she finds very impressive. But in these professional moments, customer service Amena, she gets the job done. I totally talked to India, had this very professional moment. She nodded. She was professional. It was all good. So the event goes on. India performs. She's wonderful as usual. At the end of the event, Pam walks up to me with this Swarovski crystal award. She hands it to me and she says, "Why don't you go and give this to India?"
Amena Brown:
Pam didn't say to me, "This is your time to tell her you're a big fan." But Pam knew I was a big fan. There was some kind of knowing in her eyes when she handed it to me that I was like, "What if I never see India again? What if this is my one moment?" So I go to give India this award and tell her we just really thank her and appreciate her for agreeing to be part of the event. She's so kind and so excited to get the award because of how it was made. She told me that she loves crystals. So she was very excited to get this Swarovski crystal award.
Amena Brown:
So right as she was gushing over the award, I was like, "This is my time." So I just told her, "India, thank you so much for being a part of this event. Also, I really love your music and I listen to it all the time. Also, one of my favorite songs is Strength, Courage & Wisdom. I listen to Strength, Courage & Wisdom when I get on the treadmill. I'm on the treadmill." Y'all, as I'm describing to her that I listen to her music while I'm on the treadmill, I start doing this running motion, like I'm trying to demonstrate to her with my body what I do on the treadmill.
Amena Brown:
I'm like, "I get on the treadmill and I'm like (singing)." All of this I'm telling you I did in front of India.Arie, okay? She was very kind and very gracious. She chuckled. She said thank you. I just shuffled myself away before I did anything else. That is what happened the time that I met India.Arie. Just thinking back on that, I'm like, "Oh my gosh. My little 22-year-old self and just not even knowing how to handle this whole situation." This felt like my first real job. I mean Smoothie King is a real job too. But this felt like my first real job in the sense of having had all these responsibilities that I needed to do.
Amena Brown:
There were things that Pam was handing to me. It was like, "You have to do this. If you don't do this, it doesn't get done." To think that I got a chance to meet India.Arie in the process at 22 years old was pretty cool to me. So shout out to India.Arie for being just a wonderful and kind person to me even though I was very awkward with her. But shout out to Strength, Courage & Wisdom because it is a really dope song.
Amena Brown:
Okay. My next That Time I Met A Celebrity story is about Brené Brown. I don't know if Brené Brown would consider herself a celebrity, but I'm just using celebrity as a term to mean famous people, people whose names you know before you meet them. You know them. You know their work. You know something about them. I think at the time that I actually met Brené Brown in person, I think I had just started reading maybe it was The Gifts of Imperfection that I was reading. Somebody had recommended it to me because I am a recovering perfectionist myself.
Amena Brown:
I just remember being on a very healing journey at the time. So I was reading the book and I was kind of tweeting some things about the book. I do not remember exactly what I was tweeting. But I remember I was tweeting with someone about the book. I said to them, "I know, right?" I was saying to them basically Brené Brown's like my cousin probably because I mean if her name's Brené Brown and my name's Amena Brown, surely we're cousins. Brené responded to my tweet basically agreeing that we were cousins. That made me feel like, "Oh my gosh. Now we're going to get to go to the same family reunion. This is going to be amazing."
Amena Brown:
Let me tell you something. It is wild how social media, there's sort of two meetings that happen because when someone famous or someone that you really respect their work or know of their work, know of them and this moment of even them liking your tweet or even them responding to you on Twitter or on social media, that is its own meeting. If the story had stopped there, I felt so amazing that she responded to me. So fast forward several months later, I was booked for a leadership event in Atlanta and Brené Brown was also speaking there.
Amena Brown:
I was performing poetry there and she was speaking there. We were all, well, I didn't know that she was. I was staying in the Host Hotel and she was also staying in the Host Hotel. But of course, I didn't know that because, to pull back the veil on what events used to be like in the before times, it really depended on the speaker if they were even staying the night sometimes, depended on the speaker if they wanted to be in the Host Hotel. So you weren't always guaranteed that even if you were on the bill with insert these people that you think are amazing, it didn't mean you could go down the hall and know they were in the same hotel that you were in.
Amena Brown:
So my husband and I were getting ready to leave the hotel. When the elevator door opened up, came to our floor and opened up, there was Brené standing in the elevator. You know how your mind is doing this spy move a little bit where your mind is looking at a face and scrolling through why that face feels familiar to you even though you don't know that person personally? My brain did the ... and was like, "Oh my gosh. That's Brené Brown." Y'all, when I tell you Brené was chilling that day, no makeup, she had on an athleisure kind of set on with the jacket with the zipper and the pants to match.
Amena Brown:
She had her sneakers on. She was holding a Chick-fil-A cup, the largest one. I respected the fact that it was the largest one. For some reason I was like, "That's right, girl. You drink all that sweet tea or whatever it is that's in there." I reacted before I had a chance to think. So as soon as my mind recognized this is Brené Brown, I said, "Oh my gosh. You're my cousin." So then I'm looking at Brené's face as maybe her face in her mind is also doing the spy ... and certainly is like, "When I go to my Brown family reunion, I don't remember anyone looking like you there." I don't know.
Amena Brown:
I could tell her face was like, "Who is this woman and why does she think that we're cousins?" So then I tried to cut it before it got super weird, before it got additionally super weird anyways. I was like, "Remember on Twitter?" I explained to her the whole Twitter chain of events. And then she was like, "Oh yes. No, I do remember that. Yes. Yes. Hi. How are you?" We did a little exchange. We chit chat. I was like, "Yes. I am also performing poetry at this event where you're going to be speaking. So I hope I see you there. Have a great day."
Amena Brown:
Let me tell y'all something else about when I run into celebrities out in the wild, meaning when I run into them and it's not their event or their concert or their show or they're not in their professional moment. I just looked at her. She looked good. But I looked at her and just knew she was not in her professional gear. She was chilling, and I felt like it would be wrong in that moment to have asked her for a photo because I just felt like she's relaxed. She's chilling. I don't want to bother her. She's in her regular life zone right now. So I didn't ask for her picture, y'all.
Amena Brown:
I just enjoyed the moment for myself. Honestly, I think I was hoping that at the event where we were both booked, I was hoping that I would see her the next day or later that day in the greenroom or something. And then she would be in her garb she was going to wear onstage. We'd both have our makeup on, and we'd take a picture together. But to pull back the veil on how events used to be in the before times, you also didn't know if everyone who was booked for an event would actually be in the same greenroom at some of these events. It's kind of interesting to think about that now because I'm like, maybe that was particular to this event.
Amena Brown:
But anyways, it was basically like there was a general greenroom where most people hung out. But there were certain, more high-profile speakers that had their own greenrooms. That's understandable because of people like me that were probably going to be bothering those people while they're trying to prep for their talk or whatever. So Brené was totally on the premises. I watched her talk, and it was fantastic. But I saw her nowhere in the greenroom. So the only picture I have from this moment, y'all, I'm going to have to post this on my social media so y'all can see it.
Amena Brown:
The only picture I have of this moment is me next to the TV screen where Brené was speaking. So shout out to Brené Brown for being very kind to a stranger basically yelling at her in an elevator that we're cousins. I still feel like we're cousins some kind of way, Brené. I know that it might be a while before there's a big family reunion, but I'm still feeling like there's some biscuits or something that can be shared among the family, Brené. Let's work it out.
Amena Brown:
My last celebrity story is about that time I met Common. I know that if you've been listening to this podcast for a while that it may feel like I have lived a lot of lives in one life. Haven't we all though? But I feel like I have in a certain way because I just have had certain things I was doing at a certain time in life that gave me access to certain types of events. And then once I stopped doing whatever that thing was, then you just move on. You don't have access to that.
Amena Brown:
Before I became a poet professionally, I was still a poet but I wasn't doing poetry as my vocation. I actually thought that I was going to try and make a career of being an arts journalist. I had started trying my hand when I was around probably 25. I started trying my hand at writing about music. A part of this I will say, to be very honest, was a hustle to get free concert tickets. A friend of mine named Larry, he had a newsletter that I mean it was probably really not just ... I feel like now when we say newsletter we mean e-newsletter. We mean different things.
Amena Brown:
But he had something that it was on a mailing list, but it was actually more like a small media outlet inside of his newsletter. So he would ask different ones of us if we wanted to write for different sections of it. If I remember right, I think it was called ATL Lowdown at the time. ATL Lowdown had been looking for some writers interested in writing about music. Larry was basically like, "Yeah, just make this your own. Look for shows you can cover and albums you can review." So I just started writing to different promoters and concerts and saying, "Hey, I'm writing for ATL Lowdown and wanted to know if I could have one free ticket or two free tickets to such-and-such show."
Amena Brown:
Resoundingly, most of those people answered yes. They were like, "We'll add you to the media list. Here's where you can go." Maybe if the artist was sort of doing group interviews where you could kind of get a question in or sometimes the artist would allow different media outlets to come into their greenroom before they perform. It was wild. I interviewed all sorts of people like this. Common was coming to town as a part of John Legend's tour, y'all. So I want you to imagine that John Legend was headlining. This was when John Legend's album, Get Lifted, had come out.
Amena Brown:
John Legend was headlining. Common was performing before him. And then before Common, Rahzel was performing. Rahzel is a phenomenal beatbox artist. I think I tried actually to get to John Legend and Common, reached out to their publicist and got to their publicist. She did write back to let me know she received my email. But then after that, I stopped hearing, which kind of made me feel like the outlet I'm writing for might not be big enough. I can't remember by this time if I was doing this for ATL Lowdown.
Amena Brown:
But over time, after I started writing for ATL Lowdown, then I really started to think I wanted to take journalism seriously, especially because I was having a lot of fun trying to find words to describe the musical experience. My favorite thing was to write about what the live show of an artist was like and give people who may not have been there this window into what it was like and to try to describe for people who were there what the experience was. So after I realized I loved that, then I started reading up on how to pitch different article ideas.
Amena Brown:
Before I knew it, I was a freelance journalist writing about arts and culture in Atlanta and really trying to focus as much as I could on what then would have been soul and hip hop. So Common definitely fit into that vibe. So I don't remember if it was for ATL Lowdown or another publication, but a part of it was if you wanted to pitch a publication, you would sometimes have to do a little bit of the legwork first. So I couldn't necessarily go to them and say, "Hey, I want to do an interview with Common." I would have to go through the process to see if I could get Common to say okay to the interview.
Amena Brown:
And then if he said okay, then I might be able to go back to the publication and say, "Well, I've got this interview with Common scheduled," and maybe they'd be interested to take on this idea. I also at the time ran my own blog. So sometimes I would write to publications and if they didn't take the idea or the pitch that I had, then I would still approach the publicist, the promoter, whoever, and see if I could land the interview. Worst case scenario would be that I put it on my blog. So I'm really wanting to land this interview with Common because it just feels so important.
Amena Brown:
He was one of the bigger name artists at that time that I had ever approached for an interview. Anyway, I try all I can, but it's very apparent that my little publication that I'm trying to get this interview in is not important for an artist like Common. I think I need to stop here and give even a little more context to what my thoughts were as I go into the concert because I think I went ahead and bought ... I'm trying to remember if I bought the tickets to the show or if I got free tickets to the show but didn't land the interview. I can't remember that part.
Amena Brown:
But I want to rewind a little bit to tell you another thought. Before this, there was one time, this never happened again, it was one year in Atlanta where VIBE Magazine, which was founded by Quincy Jones, had a VIBE Music Fest in Atlanta. I think I also covered VIBE Music Fest. I remember that that is part of how I got introduced to John Legend actually because, at that time, Common and John Legend were under Kanye West's label. Y'all, I'm trying to think about the timing. I think this is before Kanye's debut album even dropped. The singles were out, but I don't think the album had come out yet.
Amena Brown:
This was my second time seeing Kanye live. Kanye, John Legend, and Common performed their set together. I need to just admit to y'all something. I try, like I'm sure a lot of us try, not to be a judgey person. But when it comes to groupie culture and those things, I do think I judged. I was just like, "I just could never see myself being a groupie that's trying to chase down these men who are artists and find their hotel rooms. I don't know. I don't see myself being that person." I'm not going to lie to y'all that something about seeing the three of them performing was the first time that I contemplated becoming a groupie.
Amena Brown:
I don't know if it was the power of what that music sounded like at the time, that it just riveted me at VIBE Music Fest. But I remember feeling like I understand how people become groupies now. It makes complete sense to me. Even if I don't become one, I can understand. So keep that in mind. Here I am probably maybe a year later now that John Legend's album is out. I mean I watched John Legend perform twice with Kanye West before any of us really knew who he was at all. It's so crazy to think of that now.
Amena Brown:
So here I am at this concert. Rahzel performed. Common performed. I'm talking about Common put on a show. Do you understand? Common rapped. He freestyled. He was break dancing. I mean it was like outside of deejaying and graffiti, he was doing all the facets of hip hop, what it felt like. He put on such a good show that I was like, "Oh my gosh. He just gave John Legend a run for his money right now. John Legend has to come out and really bang out this show." That's how good of a show Common put on.
Amena Brown:
The concert was at Atlanta's venue called The Tabernacle. If any of you live in cities where there is a House of Blues, The Tabernacle in Atlanta is probably the closest we get to what would be the House of Blues in Atlanta. In between each set, the artists, I don't know if John Legend did this, but I think Rahzel and Common both at the end of their performances, they went out to their merch table, to their merch area. If you wanted to buy merch or have them sign things or just greet them or whatever, you could do that while you were waiting for John Legend to come onstage.
Amena Brown:
So I decided I really didn't have anything that I wanted to buy. I'm not even sure, y'all, honestly, that I had money to buy anything. Because the reason why I was trying to get all these tickets for free or for very low cost was because I was also broke at the time. So being an arts journalist was part me discovering this thing I was very passionate about, but also part a wonderful hustle because I didn't have money to go see a lot of these shows. So being able to promise to blog about it or write about it for a publication and that being my way to get into this concert or this music festival for free was working out wonderfully for my social life.
Amena Brown:
I had even figured out with one of my girlfriends, Camille, who is a photographer, she and I would sometimes write in and get two tickets so that I would get one as the writer and she would get one as the photographer. She would take enough pictures to get me a shot to give to the publication and I would write the article, and she and I would have a fun night. We would just go watch whoever's show it was. So I go in line because I don't know. I think what I had in my head was that I wanted to introduce myself to Common, tell him that I had tried to get this interview, and I don't know what I thought was going to happen from there.
Amena Brown:
I'm wondering if maybe in my mind I'm hoping if I say this to him that he'll be like, "If you can do a quick interview, I can do it right now." I was just prepared for whatever he might say. But I really was getting in line for a professional moment because I wanted this interview, whether I was going to get it after the show or whether I was just introducing myself so that the next time he was in town my name might be more familiar to his publicist. I don't know. All I'm telling y'all is I had forgotten all my groupie thoughts that I'd had at the previous show.
Amena Brown:
I was like, "I'm going to go up here so I can try my best to land this interview." So I get to the front. Common is wearing a yellow Polo kind of shirt. He had a Kangol to match. Y'all, I got up to the front of the line and I looked in his eyes. It was like everything professional that I could have had in my mind left me in that moment. I think there's a commercial that's like what I'm about to describe to you where the feelings that I had inside myself. I think this is actually a commercial tactic that's been used a few times where two people, they meet.
Amena Brown:
They look in each other's eyes. It's almost like instead of you seeing your life flash before you, what your life was in the past, they are seeing their future together flash before them. So I looked so deep into Common's eyes, y'all, that I just got transfixed on these freckles that he has on his face. He has like a dotting of freckles across his face. I was not seeing a past together. I can't all the way tell y'all that it a future together. The only thing I can think to tell y'all is that I looked in his eyes and realized this is the type of man that would turn you all the way out.
Amena Brown:
That is the exact thought that came to my mind. I realized when I looked in eyes and that's what I saw. Even though for a lot of us that grew up listening to hip hop, especially grew up listening to hip hop in the '90s, you have this perception of rappers who were considered to be conscious. So Common would have fallen in that category. Mos Def would have fallen in that category. These were rappers that called women queen in their rhymes and different things. They weren't gangster rappers. They weren't really rapping about gangsta life or drugs. They were rapping about the community.
Amena Brown:
They were rapping about Black history and Black present and Black future. They were rapping about those things. So Common was in the category of rappers that did that. I feel like because of that, especially around this time, there were a lot of assumptions about what's a conscious rapper like. Common's vibes were very different from LL Cool J. LL Cool J had a very outwardly sexy vibe. That was a part of his music. Well, at that time, Common didn't really have a lot of that going on in his music. But y'all, when I looked in his eyes, I felt those vibes.
Amena Brown:
It was like I felt two feelings. One, I felt like this is the kind of man that would really turn you out. But also, I felt that you are not prepared for that turning out. You're not prepared for that. All of this happened very quickly in my mind. It took my breath away how good-looking he was when I got that close to him. The only thing that finally came out of my mouth to say is I did finally, professional Amena, I got to give it to her. I got to give her the kudos right here because other Amena has fainted, has started thinking thoughts about wishing that she had a pair of breakaway panties. Do y'all know what I'm talking about?
Amena Brown:
When I played basketball and volleyball in high school for my little Christian school because that's the only place I ever played sports because it was very easy to get to state when you went to Christian school. Anyway, we used to have breakaway pants that you wore to the game. And then when it was time to play, you could basically pull those pants off from the waist because they were all snaps. And then you were wearing your basketball shorts that you were actually going to play in. I enjoyed those breakaway pants.
Amena Brown:
But other Amena was thinking that she wished she had a pair of breakaway panties. If she would have had a pair of breakaway panties, she would have just pulled at the waist and, I don't know, think about handing these panties to Common. I don't know where my mind was headed there. But I'm telling you where other Amena was, why she couldn't think of nothing else to say. She had a lot of other thoughts going through her head. Professional Amena stood up there and was like, "Hey, Common. I really wanted to get this interview with you, reached out to your publicist, and never heard anything back."
Amena Brown:
Common took a pause for a minute. And then he looked at me in my eyes, y'all, and he said, "That's okay. We'll see each other again, won't we?" I don't know if you've ever experienced the feeling of your body feeling like it is going to spontaneously combust from the inside out. That is exactly what I was feeling at the end of this conversation. Is this a thing that Common probably says to everyone who's in line at his merch table? Probably. Did I care about that at the time? No. He might as well have been asking me to marry him as far as 25-year-old Amena was concerned.
Amena Brown:
So that, listeners, is about that time I met Common and almost got turned out, but then didn't because I realized I was just not ready for that kind of thing. I want to thank y'all for listening to the embarrassing things that I've said, thought, and done when meeting celebrities. Bless my heart. I'm interested to hear your stories. I hope you slide in my DMs and tell me some of the shenanigans you've experienced in meeting celebrities. This is not even all of my celebrity stories. So I might come back and do another episode of That Time I Met A Celebrity, Volume Two.
Amena Brown:
For this week's Give Her A Crown, I want to shout out Chloé Zhao, who recently was the first Asian woman and second woman ever to win a Golden Globe for best director. In her book, Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes talks about the experience of being first ever and only. I simultaneously wish for a world where talented directors like Chloé Zhao no longer have to be the first Asian women to receive these types of accolades, and I want to give Chloé Zhao the honor that her work deserves, for what it means to be an Asian woman and a woman of color paving the way for so many marginalized voices that will come behind her.
Amena Brown:
I recently watched Chloé's film, Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand as a woman who loses everything in the Great Recession and embarks on a journey through the American west as a van-dwelling nomad. I gravitate to films that explore the themes of home, and I loved the cinematography and the storytelling and the characters in this film so much. Check this out, as well as Chloé's other feature films, Songs My Brother Taught Me and The Rider. Chloé, thank you for telling stories that reconnect us to the land, that reconnect us to each other, for the path you are paving for other Asian women and other women of color. Chloé Zhao, give her a crown.
Amena Brown:
That time I met India.Arie ... That time I went on a really bad date ... That time I was directed by Robert Townsend ... That time I got mono on Thanksgiving ... That time I went on a really bad Christmas tour.
Amena Brown:
HER with Amena Brown is produced by Matt Owen for Sol Graffiti Productions as a part of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and partnership with iHeart Radio. Thanks for listening, and don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review the podcast.