Coming up on American Black Journal native Detroiter Shaun Robinson talks about her new role and about opportunities for women in Hollywood.

Also the latest on new Detroit Training Center for the skill trades.

Plus we'll meet a young jazz pianist who is turning heads in the music world.

Stay right there.

American Black Journal starts now.

Announcer 1: From Delta faucets to Behr paint.

Masco corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Announcer 2: Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

Announcer 1: The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of American Black Journal in covering African-American history, culture and politics.

the DTE Foundation and American Black Journal partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

Announcer 2: Also brought to you by AAA, Nissan Foundation, Ally, Inpact at Home, UAW Solidarity Forever and viewers like you, thank you.

♪♪ Welcome to American Black Journal.

I'm Stephen Henderson and I'm so glad you've joined us.

Emmy award winning journalist, television host and Detroit native Shaun Robinson has added a new title to her resume.

She made her debut as the executive producer of two original movies on the Lifetime network in partnership with Bishop T.D.

Jakes.

The films are based on the seven deadly sins book series by African-American author Victoria Christopher Murray.

They're titled "Lust" and "Envy."

Here's a scene from "Envy" followed by my conversation with Shaun.

I don't trust her.

Can we just focus on the meeting please.

Can we focus on not letting a stranger into our business.

I understand how you feel.

All right Reagan, like just talk to me please.

We need to get this right.

I understand that.

We could lose one of our biggest clients.

I know.

But I do love your pitch, it's really good.

Yeah, and most of them are Keisha's ideas.

She should be in this meeting.

I'm not gonna allow a stranger to come into our office, our company on this.

Yeah, but I'm just trying to do the right thing.

I know I may have just met her but she's my sister Reagan it just feels wrong.

It's simple, we're sticking to my plan.

When Justice gets here, Keisha is not gonna be in this office.

Shaun Robinson welcome to American Black Journal and welcome home to Detroit.

Thank you Stephen.

I love being a part of anything my city is doing anytime I get to visit in person or virtually I'm in.

So thank you so much for having me.

Yeah, so of course you've had a really, really remarkable career in Hollywood but this new work is kind of a different turn.

Let's start with the names for these programs, "Lust" and "Envy."

Now there's something kind of ominous about those words.

Well, Stephen.

So, first of all I actually started my career in Detroit.

WGPR channel 62 long, long time ago but most people who know me nationally know me from Access Hollywood where I spent 16 years covering the red carpet.

Interviewing all the celebrities in Hollywood.

And I started thinking towards the end of that period what I wanted to do, what I wanted the next or additional chapter to look like.

And I knew that I wanted to be a content creator to produce content.

And as journalists we're really producers at heart because we've had to produce our own stories many times coming up the ranks and we had to have a vision for our stories.

And so a friend of mine who worked at Essence magazine at the time, this was back in 2016 told me about a galley of this book "Lust" that he received.

It had not reached the store shelves yet, the galley came to his desk and he said, "Shaun it's written by author Victoria Christopher Murray, "she's writing each of the seven deadly sins "and the first one lust is about to come out.

"You should call her and option the entire series."

And so that's what I did.

I knew Victoria so I called her up and optioned these books.

And I kind of pitched them around town, I knew that I wanted to make them into movies.

And it was a year of really pitching and then what happened was Bishop T.D.

Jakes did a partnership with Lifetime who I had also pitched the books too.

And he through his producing partner called me up and said, "Shaun you remember those books you pitched to us "about a year ago?

"Do you still have them?"

And I said, "Yeah."

And he said, "Well, Bishop T.D.

Jakes would like to "executive produce them with you for Lifetime."

And I was like, "Oh, yeah."

So that's what we did.

So hopefully 'cause I've been telling everybody in Detroit hopefully you've already seen "Lust" and then "Envy" the second book in the series also movie, the encore presentation of "Envy" airs tonight in Detroit at 6:00 p.m. so make sure you tune in for that.

So yeah, that's what it's been.

Now I'm an executive producer for the first time through Lifetime and I'm so thrilled, I'm really, really happy.

Yeah, so that's an important milestone to reach as well because even though it's 2021 things aren't all fair, things aren't all equal and it's still tough for women in Hollywood and of course for black women in Hollywood to get opportunities to do the kind of work that you're doing.

Executive producing is kind of the height of those work in Hollywood and it's still pretty exclusive.

Yes and that's why I'd love that I have this partnership with Lifetime because as a black female we run into many closed doors here in Hollywood and listen every sector.

But in terms of Hollywood it is very, very top and so for this door to be opened and for me to be able to open the doors for other black women, for other women of color, for people of color is really important for me because I know how tough it is.

It's tough for everybody but equally it's extremely, you have to have a lot of perseverance out here.

So to be a person that is able to create opportunities for other people it's just a thrill for me.

And that's how I want to use my platform and create great movies.

At the end of the day it has to be entertaining and who can't identify Stephen with those temptations that we are confronted with.

Listen I was raised in a church and that's what the sermon is usually about resisting temptation.

And so these are morality tales, lust and envy and I'm gonna put you on the spot.

Can you name the five other deadly sins?

You got lust, envy.

Gluttony.

Yep.

Greed.

Greed.

Pride, wrath and slot.

And sloth, right.

Sloth is my favorite.

Sloth is your favorite.

(both laughing) So yeah, we've got this entire book series and hopefully with your support we'll be able to do the other five deadly sins.

'Cause we need to know about all of them and resisting the temptation of all of them.

So hopefully everybody tunes in.

So is it easier do you think in 2021 for you to be doing this work than it has been?

I mean, are we headed in the right direction in Hollywood with getting rid of those barriers?

Well, listen, I think on some level there will always be barriers but I think it's really up to us to keep pushing forward and keep once again opening the doors.

Like my parents and grandparents always taught me if God gives you a platform use it to give back and so that's what I'm trying to do.

My focus not only is creating good content but also creating these opportunities.

Listen Stephen, for years when I was at Access Hollywood covering the red carpet, somebody could be the toast of the town one year, riding high, getting awards, accolades.

And then the next year they can't get arrested so it's a tough business.

So, we need more people who are able to reach back and help other people get those job opportunities.

And so I'm really thrilled, I'm really very happy and hopefully there's a lot more to come.

Yeah, you're also working through your foundation to keep those doors open for women around the country.

Yes so my foundation is called the S.H.A.U.N Foundation for Girls and we help level the playing field for girls from underserved and underrepresented communities.

And we work in five key areas and those are represented by the acronym of my name S-H-A-U-N.

So S is for STEM, science, technology, engineering and math.

H is health, A is arts, U is unity and N is neighborhoods.

So if there is a nonprofit that is doing work in one of those five key areas we would possibly be a resource for them.

I kicked things off in Detroit with a grant to the incredible organization, Alternatives for Girls.

And one of the things that they do is help rescue girls and young women from sex trafficking and they are phenomenal.

So we gave them a grant and we also did an initiative in Detroit, sex trafficking prevention workshop to help our young girls learn about what's happening out there.

How pimps are luring girls into the sex trafficking industry.

It's not just happening overseas it's happening right in our own backyards.

Yeah, the work that you're doing, what do you hear from young women about the challenges that they face right now and how different that might be from what you faced as a young person here in Detroit?

Well, you know Stephen right now my foundation is working on a documentary about implicit bias towards black girls.

Which is as we're having this national conversation about Black Lives Matter, I'm focusing on the lives of black girls and how the biases that they face every single day coming from adults black and white that are preventing them from achieving their dreams, that are affecting their self-esteem and their chances for success.

And how we all as a society suffer when a marginalized group isn't able to reach their fullest potential, we all suffer as a society.

And it's interesting Stephen, I was having this conversation about the documentary and as I've been telling people about the work that we're doing, inevitably somebody says, "Well, what about black boys?

"Black boys are having it very tough too "well, you know black boys."

And I said, "You are absolutely right.

"Black boys are having it really tough, "I am focusing on black girls.

"I will help you focus on what you're passionate about "and I will focus on putting black girls at the center."

And it's so interesting Stephen because whenever I mentioned black girls somebody inevitably says, "Well, what about black boys?"

When I'm talking about black boys no one ever says, well, what about black girls?

Like people have a hard time keeping black girls in the center and that's what I am doing with the foundation.

And as black females we're used to being pushed to the side so that other people can rise and we need to start focusing on our girls.

It doesn't take anything away from anybody else but we need to make sure that their needs are being met.

It's been two years since the city of Detroit announced a new $30 million job training center was coming to the city's West side.

Thanks to an investment by the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and Millwrights, the skill trade school is being built right in the neighborhood where I lived as a small child.

And despite some delays caused by the pandemic, that project is nearing completion and about to open this fall.

One Detroit producer Bill Kubota has been following the center's progress and he has this update.

BILL: Detroit's West side the scene two years ago along 996 near Grand River and Livernois.

I remember this being empty.

It really wasn't nothing over here.

Dead house and abandoned houses that's the only thing I remember over here.

Sold drugs and been into fights around here.

BILL: Those were the bad old days for Antoine Hamilton who stepped out of prison not long ago after a 15 year stint.

This is the same neighborhood where our Stephen Henderson lived for a time and where he established his Tuxedo Project creating a community space in his childhood home.

Yeah, talk about what the neighborhood was like in the 1970s.

When I first moved over there the neighborhood was fantastic.

Every home was filled, every block was clean, no vacancies and each house on the block was full with people and kids.

BILL: Abandoned decaying houses still wait to come down but at the end of the block, a transformation.

The talk in this part of town now action with the carpenters and millwrights crade school taking shape.

Jesus was a carpenter, I'm a follower of Jesus and I'm a carpenter.

BILL: James McCullough age 22, a Detroit East sider.

He's working on the school where he'll be taking classes when it's done.

I've done things from the exterior panels those walls right over there to doing installation installing doorframes to being the guy that pumps water, whatever is actually required of me that's what I do.

I mean, the reality is that men and women of color have not felt welcome in a range of trades and have been underrepresented.

BILL: Back in March 2019, Mayor Mike Duggan joined residents to Tuxedo Project and the carpenters union.

Announcing the new trade school to replace their smaller facility in suburban Ferndale.

The Detroit building boom has been threatened by a shortage of trades workers who live within city limits.

You never really heard about it.

I still find it amazing today that a lot of people are like, "The trades, what's the trades?"

And you tell them about it And they're like, "I never heard about it."

If you really want to communicate to Detroiters that you want to recruit Detroiters, let's get a training center in the city.

That would be a pretty major statement.

There's 130,000 vehicles go by this facility every day on 996 so they won't be able to miss it.

People pass by her they'll see it.

There's a bus stop right behind us, they could bring a bus to school.

I mean, transportation it's right here, right?

You know what I mean?

You can come from all over to come here.

BILL: Juan Ortiz has been recruiting returning citizens who trained at the state prison systems vocational village.

I didn't know what I wanted to do.

I had a long time to thinking about it.

I didn't know what I wanted since I met Juan.

I met him in the prison when we'd go there to talk to guys and he was sitting around I started talking to him.

He sold me on his dream and I followed him.

Within the first week I was home I had a job.

BILL: Hamilton is on the job or in school putting in 60 plus hour weeks, a bit of a lull after the first COVID shut down but the carpenters are busy now.

It's definitely a good thing to do in terms of making a living.

Starting off at 19 an hour.

Minimum wage isn't even close to that.

I was making like 9.45 at one point BILL: That was a family dollar store.

As a carpenter apprentice, he's earning while he learns.

It's gonna max out at like $34 an hour so yeah, it's definitely good in terms of making a living.

I'm in the process of trying to get my cousins in here.

We working on it right now.

So I always preach the union in school.

All my work that I've done has been inside of the city, from the train station to the book tower to this very same school that I'm gonna be attending.

This new facility will give the instructors the space they need, the tools they need, the technology they need to meet the demands of what the industry needs for today.

So our capacity could go up to 1500 students in this one facility.

This area the structure is held up by wood columns and the wood beams, and then the rough deck and then it gets glass around the front for the main entrance.

So about another month or so we'll have this closed in.

MAN: Yeah, interest in using wood?

Well, that's part of what carpenters do.

So we wanna showcase in our main lobby things that carpenters do, high-end trim, the flooring work we'll have polished concrete done by the carpenters.

When you walk in you're gonna look around and see things that carpenters do.

BILL: Along with those flourishes, they're working on other ways to attract visitors.

We can have contractor symposiums, career fairs in a space that would hold up to 600 people.

So, also we wanna make that available to the community.

If there's events that they wanna have, our doors will be open to them.

BILL: Expect hundreds of Detroit residents to come out of this school with new careers these next few years.

That's what the union says.

The grand opening later this summer Not only just being a carpenter, is the brotherhood.

Being able to rub elbows with different guys and help keep jobs and learn different things, new things.

I learn something new every day.

This is 147,000 square feet.

This building is for our members and built by our members.

I think the best part is what it means to our members, they're the owners of the project.

My neighborhood being brought back.

This right here it's going to be here for awhile.

And finally today, April is jazz appreciation month.

And today we're shining the spotlight on jazz pianist Alexis Lombre.

She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and she's based out of Detroit in her hometown of Chicago.

Alexis just dropped a new single titled, "Come Find Me."

And One Detroit's Will Glover caught up with the talented young musician.

How is everybody doing?

(jazz music playing) I grew up with, well, Jazz was always loved in my family, it was loved deeply by my grandparents and that love passed down to my mother and then she passed it down to me.

I first started playing piano when I was nine.

First it was classical training.

Started classical for two years and I went to jazz and I did both at the same time and then my classical teacher was like, "You need to pick one."

And I was like, "I'm picking jazz bye."

I'm originally from Chicago but I went to University of Michigan I just graduated there.

So while I was there I realized I was close to Detroit and I just went to jam sessions and started getting gigs.

And Detroit was really welcomed me so easily.

It was so easy just to and such a warm family environment.

I mean, Detroit and Chicago are really like sister cities in a lot of ways.

So Detroit in my development I mean, lots of times while I was studying at University of Michigan I was also being, I don't know if saxophone is Wendell Harrison he's a Kresge artists.

I just practiced at his house where he would give lessons and many, many other mentors, Marion Hayden.

Talk to me about this new single and why you named it "Come Find Me."

What was the inspiration behind it?

Take me through a little bit of the thought process of Alexis around this.

Well, I started writing this song while I was in college at University of Michigan.

We started writing it in the practice rooms and I took it to my friend producer Eddie Burns house back in Chicago.

And he put this kind of like hip hop, R and B beat onto it and before that I've never even really performed non jazz originals in public.

So I was kind of terrified like, oh my gosh.

Like my fan base is gonna hate me, I'm doing something different.

But melody and lyrics kind of come together so "Come Find Me" was just there.

Like, when I figured out the melody those lyrics were there but I was wondering like in what context it was.

So at first I was writing the lyrics and it was like about this dude like come find me when you wanna treat me right and you wanna act right.

And then it started turning around like I had this kind of spiritual session.

I'm a Christian, I love the Lord and it just kind of ended up being a conversation between me and God and God saying come find me.

What advice do you have for people who are just starting out?

or what advice can you pass on that you've received?

I guess the best thing I would honestly say is to know yourself and to get to know yourself and realize like how much of yourself do you know.

Because once you know yourself you can know what kind of decisions you wanna make.

What kind of people you wanna be around and you can start visualizing where you wanna see yourself.

But if you don't know yourself you're just kind of like a summation of everybody around you and if you're not around all the right people all the time then you're just kind of drifting in the wind.

♪ If you want somewhere to go ♪♪ ♪ A place you can call home ♪♪ And one more jazz note.

You can learn about Detroit jazz history by checking out the Detroit public television documentary Detroit Jazz City at dptv.org/jazz That's gonna do it for us this week.

Thanks for watching.

You can find out more about our guests at americanblackjournal.org and you can always keep up with us on Facebook and on Twitter.

See you next time.

Announcer 1: From Delta faucets to Behr paint.

Masco corporation is proud to deliver products that enhance the way consumers all over the world experience and enjoy their living spaces.

Masco, serving Michigan communities since 1929.

Announcer 2: Support also provided by the Cynthia and Edsel Ford Fund for Journalism at Detroit Public TV.

Announcer 1: The DTE Foundation proudly supports 50 years of American Black journal in covering African-American history, culture and politics.

The DTE Foundation and American Black Journal partners in presenting African-American perspectives about our communities and in our world.

Announcer 2: Also brought to you by AAA, Nissan Foundation, Ally, Inpact at Home, UAW Solidarity Forever and viewers like you.

Thank you.

♪♪