Jeff Rivera's Blog

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by Stacey Garratt and Jeff Rivera

Her voice still gets choked up when she talks about it. After working her way from an assistant position to a senior level publicist at a major publishing imprint, Robin* (who chose to withhold her identity for fear of retaliation) was proud to have worked her way into a competitive field as a black woman in an overwhelmingly white field. 

She worked tirelessly, sacrificing personal relationship...

Overnight successes don’t exist—not lasting ones anyway. If we really want to create something that will make an impact on the world for the greater good, we must be willing to go for the long haul.

This means, we must be willing to do the work that’s involved; every day building on what we did the day before. This is why I found more than anything that I must personally work on something that I’m passionate about; something I would do for free.

I’m not driven by money anymore and any time in t...

Its overwhelming, isnt it? When I go to Netflix, Hulu, BET or Quibi, there are so many choices to choose from, I dont know where to start. Forget about Youtube videos. There is so much content out there, how do we create something that will get peoples attention and at the same time keep their attention?

First of all, I realized that we dont need millions of fans. You can have a few thousand or even a few hundred and make an impact. You can even have an audience of ten and change peoples...

We are living in the best time ever for an artist. We are no longer dependent on music labels, book publishing companies, movie studios, fashion houses or television networks to become successful.

Even if you have absolutely no money, but youre willing to borrow a cell phone or walk to get Internet access, anything is possible!

I know what its like to have a dream and not know where to start. I was homeless living in my car with my mom, brother, pet turtle, bird and gold fish (literally) so...

Its no secret that there arent enough stories featuring people of color on the screen. If you are a person of color, youve noticed it. Why arent there enough? There are a number of reasons, but today theres one I want to focus on. Its because we have not taken the initiative in the past to do it ourselves.

Not the man. Not corporations. Not the media. Not bankers.

Us.

The days of relying on a deal with a music label or movie studio or TV network or book publisher in order to become...

With the big push for diversity a few years ago, like many other creators of color, I got excited. It seemed like every other article in Deadline, The Hollywood Reporter or Variety was about how there was a new TV show or motion picture which featured a person of color.  I could just imagine Hollywood knocking on my door and asking me, Okay, unknown filmmaker, heres a few gazillion dollars, whatcha got?

But thats not exactly whats happened for many of us. There were and still are visible...

This story has been in one form or another with me since I was about 16-years-old. That is around the same time that I was introduced to my grandfathers book, The Underground Railroad in Connecticut by Professor Horatio T. Strother. He was one of a few history professors who were African American at that time. His passion was history and specifically black history.

My mother had told me about him for as long as I can remember, but it wasnt until I was a teenager when my Uncle Eddie started...