I Always Wanted To Be A Renaissance

A Woman Is More Than The Sum Of Her Parts. So I Had An Opportunity To Present Some Work At The White House. I Chose Not Just To Talk About The Sky, The Planet, Love Or Heartache. I Wanted To Actually Be There, To Place A Mark On That Moment.

I Didn't Leave Home Until 27. I Was An Only Child Raised In Philadelphia By My Mother And Grandmother. My Grandmother Controlled The Stove. She Made A Lot Of Potato Meals - Mashed Potato, Potato Souffle, Potato Pancakes. When We Didn't Have Electricity We Ate Romantically, By Candlelight.

One Of The Things I Love About Africa Is The Amount Of Dignity And Respect And Humility You See All The Time. You Don't Realise How Often You're Disrespected Until You Are Surrounded By Respect.

The Best Gift I Was Ever Given Was The Arts. My Mum Gave Me Those On A Silver Platter. Growing Up, Her And My Grandmother Would Take Me To Ballets, Classical Concerts, Even Smoky Jazz Clubs I Wasn't Supposed To Be In!

Balancing Is Hard. I've Lost Roles That I Really Wanted Because I Had Set Up A Tour. I Cancelled Tours To Do Roles Before. But I Have To Find The Time To Make That Up To My Audience. I Made A Commitment To Them.