Some see a kNG —
Others, nobody.
Better?
Less than a beggar.
Nothing.
Born on the eastside, raised on the westside,
from the salt of a very specific earth.
Detroit.
In search of his native rhythm,
kA'RAMUU kUSH dropped out of Cooley High,
became a professor.
Learning refused to leave him.
Mind intact, forged in the fire of black theatre,
He survived Hollywood.
Over twenty years.
Work that disarms,
Questions the unmentionable,
Reconciles the sacred with the profane.
It traveled,
Cannes, Sundance, Tribeca, Hamptons, PAFF, ABFF, LA Film Fest and HBFF
Then —
CBS, BET, HBO and Cinemax.
His AFI thesis, SALVATION ROAD won the DGA Jury Prize.
It found a home at HBO
Through ABFF,
Alongside Oakland's finest out of USC,
kA' and he scaling the walls of the most prestigious film schools in the world.
One claimed the light. One embraced the shadow.
Coogler remembers.
Milestones.
Not destination.
He holds an AMPAS vote.
Sir saw him. Singleton saw him. Woodie King, Jr saw him.
Ancestral voices don't lie.
Nor do the resumes of over two decades of pupils,
Taught to see with two sets of eyes,
The ones in their heads and the ones in their minds.
From emerging to legendary artists:
jessica Care moore, Chadwick Boseman, Vanessa Estelle Williams and...
Sir Sidney Poitier himself —
Much wider than Hollywood.
He remains,
a pupil.
Of craft.
Of patience.
Of equanimity.
Everything taught has been tested.
Earned.
On the self.
As prof.kUSH —
A decade at Howard, and four at Pace,
The classroom keeps moving.
Students arrive.
He keeps listening.
A devoted pupil of Vipassana meditation,
A doula-in-training,
kA' moves fluidly from theatre to film,
from above to below,
between the eternal and —
Now.
MOOD. LINCOLN PERRY. SWIMMOBILE.
DETROIT ZOETROPE INC dba FILM SKOOLIE.
The conversation begins here.
Representation: Mark Herzberg at THE GERSH AGENCY, Gail Levin and Andrew Brown of LEVIN / BROWN MANAGEMENT and Stephen F. Breimer (Legal) of BRECHEEN FELDMAN BREIMER SILVER & THOMPSON, LLP.
