Play It Forward Missed Opportunity Witj Film Maker Michele Stephenson

0:00It's an amazing place to hang out. Arrow.net, ARROE.net because it's all about having a podcasting choice. It's not just one. It's 20 different podcasts. All level sports is one of them. In fact, just the other day, I spent time with the writers and producers of professional wrestling. That is a story because we can all relate every generation. Where is it? All level sports on arrow.net, ARROE.net. Enjoy your exploration. Mist opportunity. I love sharing conversations. Hosting them, though, requires a lot of show prep. My podcasting platform features thousands of guests. What you don't have access to are my missed opportunities. The show prep was 100% done. The conversation. It didn't happen. I keep all of my notes because I believe paths will one day cross again. Let me explain missed opportunity. It's my questions and statements without their answers.

1:04I'm leaving open enough space at the end of every single question, hoping they'll download the talk and insert their answers. Mist opportunity is seen as a lost piece of history. It is a message in a bottle that's been tossed out to sea. I hope to locate a destination. This week we're putting focus on my missed opportunity with Michelle Stevenson. Okay, so who is Michelle Stevenson, a filmmaker, artist, author who openly admits to pulling their vision from within their Haitian and Panamanian roots? Her experiences include being nominated for three Emmys and winning the jury prize at Sundance. There's talking big stuff here. ESPN was backing up the short film Black Girls Play, which by the way won best of the show at Tribeca. The short film puts focus on all the handgames that young girls play with their hands. It's influenced music and dance across America and around the world. And the goal is to trace the entire story of those handgames dating back

2:08to the slave era. Wow. The invitation to share a conversation with Michelle Stevenson came on January 18th, 2024. They needed a reserve date, which was going to be the 25th of Thursday, which according to everything that I've ever experienced in all my years of podcasting, that is the most sought after day for conversations. My reply as always was, yeah, let's do this. And they said, okay, how about 920 Eastern time? And I gave them my my answer, which is always, in fact, it's an heroism. It's perfect. Nothing else. Just perfect. Two days before the 920 arrival of that conversation, I received an email that said, hey, look, don't want to inconvenience you, but we need to move Michelle's conversation. Can you please do February 2nd, 2024? And I said absolutely. And we'll still do 920. Correct. Correct. Well, the conversation didn't happen. Coming up next, my questions, my statements with Michelle Stevenson without her answers.

3:12Hey, welcome back to Missed Opportunity. This week, our focus is on filmmaker Michelle Stevenson, ESPN gave her the opportunity to create this unbelievable documentary called Black Girls Play. This is such a true connection to history in the modern world. It's like, we know what we're doing with dance moves. We just don't know the story and you dove into that. What was that experience like? How important is TikTok in keeping this journey growing forward? I gotta ask you, do hand games change between the different regions of this country and around the world? So how many people are featured in this story? I mean, you went all out. I mean, you went everywhere with this. We've got to learn how to preserve these amazing connections. Does this inspire you to want to grow in other areas so that we can really get to the root of who we are

4:14today? Hey, I live in the South. I have fallen witness to a lot of these games. I know this story all too well. Hand games, generations have played these hand games, not only here in the states, but around the world. What is the actual reaction as you travel and just listen to their stories? I think one of the things that inspires me the most about hand games is the style of individualism. Could it be that this was a connection to outreach in the way of saying this is us. This is how we do it. Let's grow together, bring your style and our style and let's have some sort of big connection here without fighting. Why don't we know this story and exploration? Why has it taken a documentary to kind of remind us? But then again, I'm not knocking you. I'm just saying why aren't we speaking on the everyday street? This has helped shape so many genres of music. Can you imagine if we didn't

5:21have these hand games? And there you have it. Another missed opportunity. It is a lost piece of history. You now know the questions. So let's locate the answers. The door is always going to be open. If you know Michelle Stevenson, please reach out to me at arrowcgmail.com. That's ARROEC at gmail.com. As always, be brilliant.