By Relentless Aaron
A publicist couldn’t have written this.
And Nostradamus couldn’t have predicted it.
The timing. The geography. The experiences that lead here… all of it so profound.
A kid from Mount Vernon found out Debbie Allen lived behind Traphagen Elementary School.
So he walked up to her front door and knocked.
And she let him in.
That kid was me.
I was a tween with more audacity than sense, standing on the porch of a woman who would go on to do so many more TV & film projects, but today and at this very moment, Debbie is helping to shape one of the most important television shows of my generation: A Different World.
At the time, some 40-plus years ago, I wasn’t thinking about television history.
I wasn’t thinking about Hollywood.
I wasn’t thinking about legacy.
I was just a kid from Mount Vernon who had found out Debbie Allen lived nearby and decided that the most logical thing in the world was to go knock on her door. Whatever I had to say to get through that door worked!
And here we are years later, that moment feels different.
Because when I look back now, I see a door.
And I see how much of my life has been about knocking on them.
Before Hillman Came Superstar
In my twenties, I was building Superstar USA TV and The Superstar Magazine.
I was interviewing artists and entertainers, documenting culture, publishing stories and trying to make something happen with the tools I had.
Brandy was among the stars I sat across from during those years, and she also appeared on the cover of The Superstar Magazine.
That detail has an even more remarkable connection today: By now we’ve all seen the footage of Brandy performing the theme song for the new A Different World series. Netflix
So now the thread gets even longer.
Debbie Allen.
Brandy.
A Different World.
And eventually, Felicia Pride.
At the time, these were separate chapters.
Today, they look more like pieces of the same story.
Then Came the Harlem Book Fair
In my forties, I was at the Harlem Book Fair doing what I had always done: talking to people, finding stories, interviewing authors and documenting voices I thought deserved attention.
That day, I met a young author presenting her books.
Her name was Felicia Pride.
I interviewed her there for my show Superstar USA..
Looking back at all of these experiences now is almost surreal.
There I am, younger, wearing my Relentless cap, microphone in hand.
There is Felicia, years before Netflix, years before Hillman, years before the title “showrunner” would sit beside her name.
Neither one of us could have known what that moment would look like seventeen years later.
But that is the thing about history.
Most of the time, when you are living it, it doesn’t announce itself.
It just looks like another afternoon.
Another conversation.
Another interview.
Another person you happened to meet.
Until enough years pass.
Then suddenly you can see the line.
Seventeen Years Later
Last night, nine minutes from my house in Atlanta, I sat in a standing-room-only crowd at STORYBOARD, the Atlanta Influences Everything pop-up conversation at the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs.
The featured storyteller was Felicia Pride. Eventbrite
Not simply author Felicia Pride anymore.
Not the young woman I interviewed at the Harlem Book Fair.
Felicia Pride, creator, showrunner, writer and executive producer of Netflix’s new A Different World. Netflix confirms that the series returns to Hillman College with a new generation and premieres September 24. Netflix
And Debbie Allen is back.
The same Debbie Allen whose door I knocked on as a kid.
She returns as executive producer and director of the premiere episode. Netflix
Tell me that isn’t a circle closing.
Then Felicia Stopped the Room
But the part that hit me hardest had nothing to do with credits.
It had nothing to do with Netflix.
It had nothing to do with somebody’s résumé.
Felicia did something she did not have to do.
In front of that whole room, during her night, during her spotlight, she stopped and acknowledged me.
She called me the OG.
She talked about me knocking down doors.
She told that room what she believed I had meant to the culture.
That alone was enough to sit with.
Because there is something different about being remembered by somebody you encountered before the titles, before the scale, before the industry changed how the world knew their name.
But then Felicia turned to the woman sitting beside me.
LaTonya.
And she gave her flowers too.
She explained that LaTonya had come into the process as a reader and had been so good that it led to a role in the series.
LaTonya now has a speaking role in the new A Different World.
Think about that.
Felicia’s night.
Felicia’s spotlight.
Her moment.
And she used part of it to shine light on other people.
That told me as much about her as any production credit could.
“Felicia Pride Is the Next Shonda”
So I’m going to say something plainly.
Felicia Pride is the next Shonda.
And I know exactly what I mean when I say it.
I am not saying she is trying to become Shonda Rhimes.
I am not saying one Black woman in television must be measured against another.
I am talking about scale.
Vision.
Creative gravity.
The ability to build worlds.
The ability to create opportunities inside those worlds.
The ability to reach a point where your storytelling becomes bigger than a single script, a single episode or a single television series.
Shonda Rhimes built an ecosystem.
What I see in Felicia Pride is the possibility of that kind of reach.
Not imitation.
Expansion.
Some People Are Stars. Some Build Planets.
I have thought about success for years using a different kind of map.
Some people are stars.
People gather around them because of their talent, their charisma, their visibility.
Some people build planets.
They create something that can sustain other people.
Jobs.
Characters.
Writers’ rooms.
Opportunities.
Stories.
Then there are people who begin building galaxies.
Multiple worlds.
Multiple creative ecosystems.
Multiple opportunities for other people to enter, grow and shine.
That is what I am watching in Felicia.
Some people are stars. Some build planets. Felicia is building a galaxy.
And the reason I feel comfortable saying that is not simply because she has one of the biggest television opportunities of her career.
It is because I watched how she handled the room when the spotlight was hers.
She shared it.
Talent can get somebody into the room.
Character determines what they do once everybody is watching.
Hillman Opens Again
The new A Different World follows Deborah Wayne, the daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, as she begins her own life at Hillman College. Netflix describes the new series as a continuation centered on a new generation while bringing back familiar faces from the original. Netflix
Felicia Pride serves as showrunner, writer and executive producer. Debbie Allen returns as executive producer and director, and original cast members including Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Cree Summer and Darryl M. Bell are part of the continuation. Netflix Media Center
The series premieres September 24 on Netflix. Netflix
And tomorrow, I will be watching differently than I would have watched seventeen years ago.
I will be watching Felicia.
I will be watching LaTonya.
I will be watching Debbie Allen.
I will be hearing Brandy.
And somewhere behind all of it, I will be thinking about a kid in Mount Vernon who heard that Debbie Allen lived behind his elementary school and decided to knock.
Knock
Maybe that is the part of this story I want people to carry with them.
I knocked on Debbie Allen’s door.
Years later I built my own magazine.
I interviewed Brandy.
I sat across from Felicia Pride at the Harlem Book Fair when neither of us knew exactly what the next seventeen years would bring.
Then life moved.
People grew.
Careers changed.
Cities changed.
Relationships formed.
Doors opened.
And one night in Atlanta, all of those seemingly unrelated pieces suddenly sat in the same room.
That is what a full-circle moment looks like.
It rarely arrives with warning.
Sometimes you do not realize a circle exists until you are standing at the point where it closes.
So if there is a door you have been scared to knock on, knock.
You may not know what is behind it.
You may not know who will remember you.
You may not know which conversation will matter seventeen years from now.
You may not even know what you are starting.
Knock anyway.
Because sometimes the door you knock on as a kid becomes part of the story you are still telling decades later.
And sometimes the young author you interview at a book fair turns out to be the woman building the next galaxy.
About the Author
Relentless Aaron is an author, producer, publisher and cultural storyteller whose work spans books, film, music, journalism and entrepreneurship. Through Relentless Times, he documents the people, stories and cultural moments that connect yesterday to what comes next.