Meet John Lewis | Film Maker & Public Speaker

We had the good fortune of connecting with John Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, let’s talk legacy – what do you want yours to be?
I want my legacy to be about someone who came into a messed up world but did everything he could to make it better than how he found it. Despite the odds, despite the adversity, despite going against the norm I want my legacy to be that I made compassion cool. Most of all I want people to understand that I want everyone to feel empowered. When people look back in my story and what I have done I want people to feel that the stories about them and not me I want them to understand that they are the ones who have the power to change their lives, improve their lives, and improve their families lives as well. I don’t want it to be about me I want to be about the person that finds out about my story.Most of all I want people to understand that I want everyone to feel empowered. When people look back in my story and what I have done I want people to feel that the stories about them and not me I want them to understand that they are the ones who have the power to change their lives, improve their lives, and improve their families lives as well. I don’t want to be about me I want to be about the person that finds out about my story

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
As a film director I have to say I’m most excited about my current project which is a feature-length documentary based on social justice and food justice to the lens of hip-hop., named “They’re Trying To Kill Us” before getting to this point I recall working on various projects and also working on creating my my own online platform through using arts and video to create attention and awareness to subjects that I thought mattered. To be honest it wasn’t hard Nora easy I had a goal in mind to provide content to get peoples attention in order to make positive change and it was all about the resistance that was given there’s a lot of resistance but that didn’t bother me one bit because I knew I had a goal of empowering people to show them healthy ways to change and improve life. One of the best lessons I learned along the way was that there will always be hiccups they will always be adversity they will always be hurdles to get over but if you continue and just go for what you know is right it will all work out in the end this process for me has been at least a 10 year process and probably even longer. I want the world to see my story and understand that I’m not special that anyone that sees my story can do the exact same thing and even better

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If my best friend was coming to visit the trip would be all about sign, fun and food. We would most likely go work out at Legacy Fit with my boy Manning. We would also have to make sure that we checked out Planta, Bunni Cakes, Green Bar and kitchen, and Love Life Cafe. And if they’re coming to visit I’m assuming that everything is A-OK and we’re not in lockdown so we would go to club liv and we would also make sure that we hit up South Beach we also work out at the beach I would also work out at Fort Lauderdale beach as well just to get a little diversity considering I don’t drink I would still go to the bar with my friend if they want to but I will embark in a nice cold glass of Agua.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Wow there has honestly been so many people that of help me out along the way…. And while I don’t want to neglect anyone or not give them credit it Hass to go to my mom my mom is someone who fight through social justice issues remind me to pick cotton as a kid my mom is example of all the hard work that I’ve ever done. From my mother not finishing college until her 50s to her having me sit down in the hallways of the college while she went to class to show me the example that anything could be done. Also the fact that my mother adopted me when she was 40 years old and didn’t have to take on another child but decided to take me on in order to save basically save my life.

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Image Credits
Eye recap Erik Umphery Sana Ullah Alyssa Trofort