{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"How I Got Here with Dreena Whitfield","title":"Kamilah Forbes on the Apollo Theater, Hip Hop Theater, and Building Culture That Lasts","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2227,"description":"Kamilah Forbes was supposed to be a doctor. She went to Howard University with a plan to study medicine and act on the side. Freshman biology changed that. She walked across campus to the theater department, and the rest is a story of hip hop theater festivals, Def Poetry Jam, HBO, and eventually becoming the Executive Producer of the Apollo Theater in Harlem.\nKey Takeaways:The clear career path does not always exist in arts and entertainment; sometimes you have to create the lane and build the audience for it yourself.Your biggest collaborators are often already sitting next to you; Kamilah's Howard classmates became her lifelong creative partners and co-builders.Moving a legacy institution forward means shifting from reverence to relevance while honoring everything that came before.Saying yes to a job while seven months pregnant taught Kamilah that there is never a \"perfect time\" to step into your purpose.The people you build with early in your career often become the people you build with for life.In this conversation, Dreena Whitfield sits down with Kamilah Forbes inside the Apollo Theater to talk about growing up as a first-generation Jamaican American theater kid in Chicago, pivoting from pre-med to fine arts at Howard, and co-founding the Hip Hop Theater Festival to create a space that didn't exist for young voices. Kamilah shares how a job interview to be an assistant to Stan Lathan turned into her first role in television on Def Poetry Jam for HBO, how she rose from talent executive to executive producer, and how a consulting gig at the Apollo eventually led to the opportunity to help shape its future.\nTopics covered in this episode:Why Kamilah chose Howard University and how HBCUs create spaces for Black identity and creative growthHow hip hop theater was born from young artists who didn't see themselves reflected on existing stagesThe path from Def Poetry Jam to directing and producing across theater and televisionHow the Apollo Theater transitioned...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/BdBbhpyNt_QCzr05Um48v_vIOKUIOTF2dTew_MTRoO4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS80NGI3/MzFlMzYxNGE2NDZi/M2ZhNDM3ZWM3YzVh/NjYyMS5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}