ESSENCE.COM EXCLUSIVE: Uptown Girls: Joy Bryant and Kerry Washington Give Back in Their Hometown of the Bronx

Kerry Washington: 'Young Women of Color Are up Against So Many Odds'

By Kenya N. Byrd

Don't think because Kerry Washington rubs elbows with Hollywood big wigs that this actress has lost touch with the people. The Bronx, New York, native has made it her business to stay connected to her Boogie Down roots, which has helped make her a tour de force on the silver screen and stage. Today, Washington heads back to her stomping grounds to pay it forward for the Uptown Girl Power Benefit, which will raise funds for mural art projects that portray positive images for young women and girls. ESSENCE.com caught up with the screen gem to talk about her affinity for hip-hop, why women of color always have to fight harder, and what the B-X has to offer.


ESSENCE.COM: So, Uptown Girl, is this your first trip back to the Boogie Down?
KERRY WASHINGTON: Well, this is my first official event with Uptown Girls but I've been friends with [environmental community leader] Majora [Carter] and Joy [Bryant] for many years, so it's nice to be working together. I'm just really proud to be from the Bronx, and I always tell folks I'm the twin sister of hip-hop because we were both born in 1977.

ESSENCE.COM: We love that you're a hip-hop baby! Why did you choose to become involved with UG?
WASHINGTON: When you look at the statistics young women of color are up against, so many odds, including a lack of health education or growing up in poverty. We're up against a lot and those of us who have had enough velocity and have been lucky enough to move beyond those statistics should not be thought of as the exception. Joy and I don't want to be the exception, and we're not when you look at amazing women like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor! We want our successes to become the norm.

ESSENCE.COM: What has growing up in the Bronx instilled in you to help you make it happen in Hollywood?
WASHINGTON: We Bronx girls just don't scare easily. Hollywood is a business where fearlessness is very helpful. Also, we don't really take no for an answer. A Bronx girl will be like, Really? Let's try it another way. We're very resilient women.

ESSENCE.COM: Absolutely. What cultural enrichment and contribution has the borough made globally that has endeared you to it forever?
WASHINGTON: (Laughs.) Where else in the world do you turn a piece of electrical equipment into an instrument? Nowhere. Think about it: [Spinning] and sampling was created because we didn't have pianos and violins and we wanted to make music so we started scratching records to create sound not just make music. That's simply incredible, inventive, resourceful, commitment and phenomenal. We can make something out of nothing.

Joy Bryant: 'It All Goes Back to Having That Positive Influence in Your Life'

By Wendy L. Wilson

If one thing can be said about actress Joy Bryant it's that she always comes back home. The star of "Welcome Home, Roscoe Jenkins" and "Antwone Fisher is returning to her old South Bronx neighborhood in New York for the first ever Uptown Girl Power Benefit, which will help raise funds for public art projects themed to empower young women. Bryant is very open about her own meager beginnings—being born to a mother who was just 15 years old and reared by her grandmother on welfare—she can relate to what many of these young women are facing today. She talks to ESSENCE.com about joining her fellow Bronxite, Kerry Washington, and environmental leader Majora Carter tonight for this project, the goal of it and why her past never stopped her from dreaming big.

ESSENCE.COM: How did you get involved in the Uptown Girl project?
JOY BRYANT: I've been reading about her and following her and admiring the work that she's done. I was basically stalking her [laughs] and I finally got to meet her earlier this year. She's an amazing woman and even before knowing her, I looked up to her. We became friends and she asked me to come down and introduce her at a speech during Earth Day in Washington, D.C. She asked me to participate in the Uptown Girl and I was honored to be a part of it.

ESSENCE.COM: We know that young women in the Bronx and other urban communities face teen pregnancy, high dropout rates and issues of domestic abuse. How did you subside all of that and how do you teach these girls to do the same?
BRYANT: It helped that I had my grandmother. I grew up not very far from where the event will be taking place, but my grandmother always stressed to me that, regardless of the fact that I was a poor, Black child from the Bronx, I was never to use that as an excuse for me not to dream big and go out and get the things that I really wanted in life. In order for me to change the circumstance of which I was born into, I had to do well in school because that was the thing that was going to liberate me. That's how I was able to get in the A Better Chance program, which led me to get a scholarship to the Westminster school, graduated, went to Yale for two years and here I am. It all goes back to having that positive influence in your life.


ESSENCE.COM: Why is it important for you to come back home to the Bronx and give back to this program?
BRYANT: The least I can do is give back and share my story with young women who are growing up. I've been blessed with so many opportunities, but at the end of the day, if I can do it, then they can do it. These girls are bombarded by negative images all around them. Even if it's just one girl who looks at these murals and gets inspired or empowered, or a boost in her spirit, then I know we've changed the world.
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