hey beautiful listeners sisters and siblings this is fansin Cox and you are tuned into sister brunch the podcast bringing you the stories of resilience success and empowerment within the entertainment and media Industries brought to you by the black women and gendere expansive people who are too frequently behind the scenes we are here to share their stories uplift them and their work and to build an archive of the true movers and shap in Hollywood and Beyond so let's Dive Right into this conver
sation with our guest today and I thought I'd start by sharing this quote that I just love from today's guest as a way of introducing her and I found this in Voyage Atlanta magazine and she says my approach to Art is partially rooted in my political experience as a strategist critical thinker and eternal optimist I am resourceful and I like good art I love this welcome to Sister brunch to the founder of hummingbird black creative respected leader in Progressive and feminist politics Heidi Willia
mson thank you thank you so much I'm happy to be here very glad to have you so Heidi I've been stocking your Instagram I think that's how I first found out about yeah I love humming for black creative and it just got me so curious about you and your background so we always start with our first question which is to tell us your journey of how you ended up sitting here today on sister brunch you can go as far back as you'd like to but tell us your journey for how you ended up here today oh God I m
ean if I had to pick a a point in history where I felt like my life took a faded turn it was when I applied to film school I had just gotten my bachelor's in English and African-American studies at Georgia State and I sent applications to three film schools I really wanted to go to NYU I got weight listed and and while I was weight listed I decided to take a summertime job with the labor union well I'm from Atlanta and the labor union for the most part is where all the civil rights leaders that
you have heard of and some you've not heard of that's actually that's their day job so I actually ended up accepting a position with SEIU and my life really did take a faded turn because it never occurred to me number one that people actually organize for a living right like you always hear people talk about fight the power but they're really wellaid jobs and great benefits uh for people working in the labor union and that just really set my life In Motion in a way that I never anticipated seein
g how the work got done the thought that went into many of the famous moments that we now romanticize in our head as the post civil rights generation right whether we're talking about the Rosa Park Incident or you know how the marches were organized like sitting at the feet of the men that organized with King and recognizing understanding the strategy the hard battles that were fought inside the Civil Rights Movement you know how women were often silenced uh by black men and then when you go to
the women's movement black women are often silenced by white women so sectional Dr cruncha taught us can can I take you back and will you tell us what the acronym SEIU stands for the service employees International Union thank you and for people who are wondering you worked for a labor union in a in the South yeah cuz I'm about that life you know like don't you know for those of you California Chicago New York Union folk y'all yeah we about that life in the South okay so it didn't always we didn
't always get what we want as Dr CT Vivian always reminded me we didn't always get what we want but we made progress step by step and so that that is how I have moved through my career I I can't say that at 22 I envisioned myself working in politics I worked at Center for American progress which is a progressive think tank in DC I was there during the Obama Administration I would never have guessed that I went that route but I have always been a quick learner and I felt like if there were opport
unities that presented themselves but when I was in DC I got to see how the sausage was made you can never unsee it and while I think I did a lot of good work I worked with a lot of really great people it is not where I'm supposed to be and I had to make a hard decision after a a sabatical where my mental health was in Jeopardy I was at this Crossroads around do I chase the thing that is inside of me that I am most compelled to do or do I chase the dreams and the Legacy that my parents envisione
d for me you know because middle class black folks put a lot of pressure on their kids right to have the the resume the title the job the benefits the look right of success yes but it's a lot of empty Souls walking around trying to be the best version of their parents dreams M and they have done that at the expense of their dreams but you can't be around uh people who have this very visceral experience around what it means to survive and thrive Despite All Odds and not have a Moment of clarity a
bout what it is that is right for you and so I and therefore write for the people that you want to serve right like and I think you know I spent a lot of time in policy in DC self-taught right so I'm often with lawyers I'm often with phds in these sort of elite spaces like that was my bonafides like it was sort of like [ __ ] around and find out but you know H like people knew like I had my Niche and you could you know poke the bear if you wanted to like I spent a lot of time trying to make make
myself fit as best I could like my authentic self fit into this space and it was killing me inside but at the same time like I did a lot of good work yeah and and that Niche was was reproductive Justice I know you that's some of what you did economic Justice and economic Justice yeah yeah I I my portfolio at cental American progress was always about centering the most marginalized yes which were women who look like me some that don't look like me but it was the people who you know the Planned P
arenthood and the nrows of the world often wanted to act as if they weren't there so my portfolio really was about taking economic Justice reproductive Health policy and pushing back on eugenical policy because the people who we call Progressive and who we think are sort of fighting for us have their own set of challenges and you know some of the things that I had to do in order to push them to be more inclusive right and they want to be in alignment with the administration and power so for many
of them I was too far out there and so I think a lot about that like what is power what does it look like to get people to move in a direction that they might not want to go but it's the right direction that is best for Humanity and society and this thing that we call the human race I think in my 20s and most of my 30s that looked like policy and advocacy now that I'm in my 40s it very much is leaning into the storytelling that I came of age listening to right I have a a long Legacy of sci-fi a
fficionados in the family comic book offici family and there's something about it right sometimes the the radical thing is to show up that's that's literally 90% of the work to be that Brown face to ask that one question to be bold enough to Simply say how about we try it try it this way then there are other instances where yeah you got to fight tooth and nail we might make it look good but it is a fight and so yeah I had yeah I hadn't realized that you had actually started off uh planning to te
ll stories through film TV media by applying to film schools and then you went into politics and now you've come full circle and obviously there are so many well it's all connected right like politics is storytelling lots of lies and some of the stories we get told but then you you know having stories right right right and so you're building the ability to reach people through stories towards good towards Liberation for us right toward towards us being able to make choices around our bodily auto
nomy this is Heidi Williamson and you're listening to Sister brunch thank you so much for tuning in to Sister brunch stay tuned for more of our conversation with our guest Heidi Williamson and we just want to thank you truly truly truly I want to say thank you for all of the ways that you support sister brunch by leaving us amazing reviews we' love reading them following and interacting with us on Instagram at sister brunch podcast watching the full videos on trelow media YouTube channel that's
youtube.com/ trelow media t ruju l o thank you so much truly we're back in and very ready to dive right back into this conversation with today's guest Heidi Williamson and so then when did that shift happen where you created hummingbird black creative so I went to film School in in DC and it was a particular program for people who had already had a career so it in many ways and that's at American University it was it was a program really about training me middle managers to transition careers an
d got it I had no idea at the time how useful it would be because I had the bright idea let me just get this degree get out of DC I'll go spend the summer with my family in Georgia and then move to LA and I did that but I happened to move the month before Co shut the world down and so here's here's the takeaway like if you hear if no if your listeners take away nothing from this interview sometimes the blessing is in the pivot that that has been the story of my life right it's not about you can'
t fix all the thing you can't there's some things you just can't change there's nothing you can do about it the the reality is what can you do in the pivot and what I found was there were a lot of people in the world so California shut down New York shut down the South you would have thought it was about to be you know another hot girl summer like from five years ago people were working folks were still just yeah people were working you had a lot of organizations who were trying to do the right
thing they did you know hybrid policies and you know went virtual but at the end of the day the South acted as if nothing was happening right okay and so you had a lot of people who wanted to do things like produce short films or they had Comm strategies that had been rooted in physical art installations and phys physical convenings and physical things that they now had to figure out how to do virtually and so I just I began producing you know because my in my mind let me do something to pay the
bills until I can get in a writer's room and that turned into me producing everything from national conferences podcasts supporting creatives trying to bootstrap their own projects I I leveraged former clients and all of the relationships I had garnered over the last 30 years and said let me help you do your culture shift work let me help you with your calm strategy or let me help you think about what it means now to do certain kinds of work that ordinarily would fall under advocacy or Communic
ations but you got to do it in the co world and it it morphed you know I think one of my attorneys was like I know you're trying to get in with someone but you realize you're doing it yeah right don't do that because they'll just stifle you so just go ahead and keep doing what you're doing I know like I know you're looking at it as this is kind of the hustle I got to do to get by but the thing you said you wanted to do you're doing it and like I think it really for me was just about giving mysel
f permission to do it on my own terms because we want that that cosigner or that and we're told we're told there's there's a way to do this this is the hierarchy this is the format and I mean that goes from the actual writing right if it's a feature it needs to look like this but here you are being like no actually this is what this looks like and this is yeah yeah and I focused on because I had gone to school and the degree technically is in producing I knew that and one of my mentors is an ant
hropologist who was always in my ear like you know when the world is going through all this kinds of chaos that's when the great artists of the world are like creating their best Works yes because it's like this combination of like misery and beauty and pain and family and so it I focused on developing IP but what was paying the bills was producing independent productions for other people and so I gave it a name I gave it a name um you know from the south and how we do in the south is you know e
verything is a metaphor everything is an allegory and and I had a my my inner group of friends was like it needs to be Southern it needs to be black but it needs to be like magical kind of like you and I've always had a fascination with hummingbirds because it is really one of the most mythical magical yes Birds right it can fly backwards it can fly upside down it can hover it can carry tricet body weight it does the holy impossible much like black women and the the people our communities who do
do so much in spite of so there are two you know there were two projects that I'm still raising money for them but the creative is still moving forward and in the meantime it's all about building symbiotic and accountable relationships right so some of this is about leaning into the intuition that I have been able to cultivate and curate over the last 20 years and I think that that makes me seem a bit more like I know what I'm doing than people real life like that's like what they're I think wh
at people see when they are looking at either social or they talk to me is that I have some sort of secret sauce and part of what this is part of what they're seeing is simply a woman in her 40s who I have sort of been through enough fire to be very clear about what I will and won't do that works for some people and it does not work for some people at the end of the day though that's their feeling your your their feelings are their resp responsibility and in the words of Nicki Minaj like have yo
ur feelings but watch your mouth and just leave me to do my thing right and I'm keep doing my thing yeah exactly and I think people are approaching me to do a lot of things but the best way that I enter the space is the same way that I have entered every space that I come into I don't have all the answers I'm not anyone 's Guru or expert I'm learning like everyone else so really it's about kindness wrapped in some boundaries like that's really all I can that's all I can offer that's kindness wra
pped boundaries and and kindness yes yes those are the two things that I refuse to concede everything else is sort of malleable but those two things I will not concede I know who I am I know what I want the boundaries that I set around that are immovable and so I have paid a price for that in the previous career I survived right I think I'll be okay but there's some people who I've met in the last year it's clear they're waking up trying to figure out where is the closest puppy I can go kick to
feel powerful and to feel in control and to show people like like I have dominance and I'm going to like that is that power is connected somehow with success and greatness I don't I don't walk through the world that way what I have found is that being my authentic self has inspired other people to be their authentic self and that is revolutionary in a lot of ways especially when we're talking about black women specifically black women of a certain age right the Gen X I've been looking at Tik tok
s over the last week about you know people talking about like what is the deal with the Gen xers and you know I'm a proud latchy kid and I'm a proud do-it-yourselfer I respect things that take work from the ground up but at the same time you know we had to learn to prioritize we had to learn to prioritize and get [ __ ] done in a way that no other generation has had to do it and so to do that you know it can require doing hard things but but I try to still do it with kindness and humility and th
e boundary setting really does eliminate a lot of the challenges that we Face either as artists as black women as the black community right like it it it can it can it's it can be a precursor to a path of of torment and and Hell or it can be a precursor to a a challenging life but in some ways a much more fulfilling life because you have steadied yourself you have have maintain talk about just you know in in you know hopefully to educate me and our listeners or or or even Inspire about some spec
ific boundaries that that you set the biggest one is time not allowing my calendar to run me every W well we're very lucky we got time on your busy calendar that we we really are cuz I and and no because it is exactly what you're saying and it's why we know even when we're planning out at the beginning of the season if if these are the women and gender expansive people that we're going to have on this podcast folks going to be busy and we want to contribute to your uplifting and your and your me
ntal health and and so I I appreciate I feel like we've probably been in touch for about 3 months and I was like we going to get a we going to get her we going to get her but but we're really glad that you're working and that any of those times that any of us have to reschedule it is for our own health and it is our boundaries saying you know what I need to be aware of my time so we so appreciate and on that note I'm going to ask you our signature sister brunch question which is that you and you
ng Heidi are sitting down to assist a brunch and we want to know what are you both eating what are you both drinking and what do you tell her oh this is a great question because I love brunch I actually was hoping that this interview would be over brunch in some way listen to your from your lips because that is the goal that is the you've just said it I'm glad you said it out loud that is absolutely the goal yes so yes for those of us who consider ourselves brunch afficionado I first of all if I
were having brunch with a younger Heidi it would be a Catered Affair it would not be going to a restaurant I would invite Heidi to my home and we would have a number of options that include some of our favorites the favorites that have carried us as Staples throughout Heidi's life so like the shrimp and grits lobster mac and cheese oh you know real cornbread not this sweet cake y'all eat out here in on the west coast like real cornbread okay okay um it's sacrilege I don't I don't understand who
stop loving isud you got to stop saying y'all I'm from the East Coast but we pretty bad out there too but yes understood stop somebody stopped serving up love at the dinner table in this migration story that took black people West I don't know what that's about something something went wrong okay bread or corn muffin would be there and then you know the shrimp and grits made with authentic Hony is something that our grandmother very much wanted to make sure that we knew was not just a comfort f
ood but was like a staple right so being the descendants of slaves and sharecroppers what we could grow and eat ourselves was very important and then like a mixed fruit salad so like one of those bows that's mixed with like raspberries blueberries strawberries grapes maybe a little bit of Pineapple something fruity like that and probably a waffle I'm not much of a bread eater but the younger Heidi was and also the younger Heidi well we would have mimosas for younger Heidi but the older Heidi has
evolved into straight champagne no reason to even contemplate the mixer that would then be followed up by some kind of bourbon cocktail o cuz I'm a bourbon girl again they keep offering bourbon that they say it's bourbon even though it was made in California again sacrilege I don't even understand how people can fix their mouths to say that it's like saying it's okay to walk outside the house ashy like who stopped loving us who stopped loving us and convinced us this was love like we're not doi
ng it out here for you we got we we are not doing it out here for you I feel like we got to I feel like I'm going on a search to find places where you can eat have you been to my since in in Mid City I have but I see from your face it didn't yeah didn't didn't do it I have a friend I have a friend who is a culinary tourist she primarily her name is Chima she primarily schedules tours internationally so if you ever go to Italy or Spain or Portugal Australia or Argentina she plans the travel as we
ll as plan your culinary tour and I asked her for my birthday would she be willing to just break her Rule and do a domestic culinary tour with me to find the soul food places in LA and she has agreed to do that so the first week of February I will I if you got something to add to the list I'm open oh my goodness well no I clearly yeah I'm like I already named one the one that I always tell everybody is the best soul food place in La and now I'm like my words it's pretty good I mean I I don't I d
idn't didn't dislike it but people here just really don't want to it's almost like the whole the anti-pork thing I don't get it right and so I'm glad that there are so many tury Advocates out here and so many jack fruit proponents I was going to say I'm I'm vegan so I'm really messing you all up yeah I hear you pork has brought black folks a long way truth and so while I get it I understand it I just like I I just need a rib right so we're g to try fixen we're gonna try Mel Fish Shack we're gonn
a try these two cents there are a couple other places you know primarily like Englewood CAW but we're going to be recording that that'll be Instagram okay tag us let us know I just I need help I need help I love that okay and what do you tell her at your at your sister brunch with your younger self have patience your timing is always perfect you're exactly where you're supposed to be so trust your timing and beyond that it really is like you know at 22 all you got is passion and a notebook go fo
rth right you know [ __ ] the system any way any which way you can yeah because you have to be willing to experiment and try and fail and that's part of the process too and for people who are like over Achievers the firstborn Gen X like we we're told that those are bad things and there's such blessing and richness on the other side of all of that but you got to just sort of let go of the need to control and and Trust the process trust your process no one else's just yours just yours thank you so
much Heidi Williamson this has been a pleasure thank you for making the time you have helped change things through your advocacy work and your policy work and we are so grateful for everything you do a thank you thank you thank you for thinking of me as well right so I I I don't know what spoke to you or you know what the first sort of intro that that exact moment but I'm so thrilled that you reached out and we're willing to work with my schedule I think it was actually I think I Googled black
women owned production companies I'm pretty sure that's how I found you what oh yeah you were up there you you doing you're doing it right your SEO is good yes yes okay all right I received that I will team know that let the team know they're doing it right might have to reconsider the bonuses that they were getting CU yes I love it I love it so yes thank you thank you thank you hey have you been listening to Sister brunch for a while if you want to kind of take things to the next level of siste
r brunch we have a community a family a membership over on patreon that is a place where you can help us make these episodes happen for you a lot goes into it it takes months of planning and scheduling the our guests and recording our guests and doing all the audio and we would love for you to be even more involved with us at sister brunch so you can head over to patreon.com/crashcourse Cox sister brunch is a women make movies production assistance program project and I acknowledge that the land
I record the podcast from is the original land of the tongva and the Chumash people here in Los Angeles that's a wrap on this episode we will talk to you soon
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