Action Speaks LOUDER Than Words
“If this is what you say you are… walk in your greatness!” As he began to share his life story and passion with me, actor, aspiring writer, lover of animals and soon to be world explorer, shared these words with me. I gotta be honest. It convicted me in a way that has made me take a deeper dive into the things I have spoken over my own life and how they just simply aren’t matching my walk.
Our words have power. Plain and simple. Jason’s story is a great example of how speaking it and doing the work creates the manifestation. So here we begin our chat at the fresh tender start of his career…
To make a short story long… LOL! Acting kind of found me. I’ll be honest. Acting found me. I went to Georgia Southern University where I studied Sociology and African Studies. While I was there, I started working with students – I was the president of Black Student Alliance. I started working with younger children – going to libraries and reading to little children. And so, I was like, man I like this a lot. So, after I graduated, I wasn’t able to find a position anywhere. A friend of mind was like, hey I’m a principal at this elementary school. Come and work with me in my after-school program. I was like yeah … okay. I came in, I helped and when the year was over, she was like do you want to be a teacher full time? I was like well, I don’t have a degree in teaching. She was like, you don’t need it. The children love you and the parents speak highly of you, so I’ll just let them know that you’ll be the lead teacher. I became the lead computer and PE teacher. So, I taught for 17 years. While I was teaching, I was also doing music. So, I was a rapper with this rap band. We had about three or four albums. We were compared to Goodie Mob and Public Enemy. We were very conscious. We didn’t really break into the industry, so we put that down. One of the guys in the group called me up and said I should be an actor and told me to go to this audition at Georgia State University. I did not know what in the world I was doing. They were like… okay you don’t know what you’re doing, and I was like nope. So, they told me to take these sides… read these, come and we’ll call you. When they called me, I had already read the scene and then started reading with the other actress and it became so real. So, the next person said, can you read mine? Then the next person and the next person. It was six directors and I read all six of their plays. The chair of the department called me that night and was like, Jason, you got cast in all six plays, but I cannot let you do that because you’ve never acted a day in your life. She was like, you can choose two. My life hasn’t been the same ever since. That was in 2009!
Everything happens for a reason. Gifts from God come naturally. I’m not surprised, because I see it all the time. What may take one person years of training, technique development, and coaching may not be for someone with a God-given gift. Your purpose is always in you. Once you find it, it’s nearly impossible to ignore. It’s just how God works.
I don’t think anyone is an overnight success. Believe it or not, we are being prepared to walk in whatever greatness we’re walking in now. It was all preparation. I believe my teaching and my storytelling was preparation for me to do the craft that I’m doing now. It was all preparation.
I agree! I think that if we look at everything in life – every stage in life is preparing you for something greater. Possibly for something you never did think would happen and just completely change your life around.
Speaking of life stages, Jason has begun to fulfill a stage in his life that will enhance his career.
Writing has always been a part of me. Now I’m beginning to explore the script part of it. That’s where I’m learning how to be open to different voices. I want to write while I’m out there. The more experiences we have, the more we must write about. I want to start writing in that space and explore some of the ideas that I already have. Like some of the dreams… I have very vivid dreams and sometimes they scare me, and sometimes they make me laugh. I’m going to start writing those dreams down and place them into a script.
I want to learn how to tap into different arenas, different parts of my brain… my spirit so that I can begin to open and tell more stories and create them.
Besides acting and writing, Jason has huge goals for opening a school dedicated to meditation – focus on breathing, unity, and civility. The dream for his school includes basic curriculum, but with a strong focus on mental and holistic health as well as human evolution.
We’re so disconnected from the earth and from nature that we’ve lost some of those things that our ancestors had. So, I want to begin to represent that to the younger children so that they can have the tools that they’ll need to share with others or to push us higher. So this school will be based on transcendental thinking. That’s my greatest goal.
Our great-great-great grandparents were still connected. Like I remember I stepped on a nail and I went to my grandmother. She told me to get a piece of fatback and a penny and put it on my foot. Within a week, it was healed. I want our children to be able to reconnect to that so we can literally heal ourselves.
The mind is something that is so untapped. We haven’t even begun to tap into how powerful our minds are. So, I want to bring people in to help children really tap into their higher selves.
Photo Credit: phyllis.iller
Artwork: C.fluxsing
I think it’s amazing especially with the heightened awareness of mental health issues ravaging our communities. I believe tapping into how to utilize your brain, to get your thoughts out… to be able to express yourself plays an intricate and delicate part of your overall health and mental stability.
That’s the school I want to build.
Back to his acting. Jason is a part of the Black Lightning cast starring Cress Williams and China Anne McClain. The pilot episode aired on January 16, 2018 highlighting a prominent Black family with superpowers fighting a strange drug destroying the community.
Season 1 kicked off where there was a drug, called “Green Light” affecting the Black community or the community of Freeland. Black Lightning is just a regular guy, principle at a high school who happens to have super powers. He generates his powers from electricity. He sees there’s a problem with this drug and he wants to solve it by taking on some bad guys who’s selling it. He went head-to-head with them. He has two daughters. One already has super powers, but then he finds out that the other daughter has super powers as well. Now this is a family with super powers – fighting crime in the city. In Season 1, I (my character, 2 Bits) was one of the guys selling Green Light. Black Lightning comes to me and says, you can’t do that anymore. I’ll make a deal with you… if you stop selling, I won’t hurt you and as a matter of fact, I want you to be my informant. We make the arrangement and I became his informant.
Season 2 brings us to him still fighting this war on drugs. I feel like Salim Akil uses “Green Light” as a symbol to crack/cocaine and how it took over the Black community. He uses that very cleverly. They found out that “Green Light” was a governmental drug that they were experimenting on the community. So crack was a drug the government used to experiment on Black bodies.
The show is very, very pro-Black. He tells stories very subtly and if you aren’t paying attention, you might miss it, but for those who are paying attention… they get it.
So Season 2 brings Black Lightning against the government. It’s now between him and the ASA, which is the governmental organization that is doing the experiments. 2 Bits (my character) was doing his thing and Black Lightning helped him buy a bar. Now Two Bits own the bar that everybody in the city comes to. So, 2 Bits is kind of like a street hustler with different avenues of making money, but drugs is no longer a part of that. He’s becoming a businessman.
In Season 3, we see that the governmental agency is now coming in and taking control of the city and saying that they run it and anybody that we find with super powers will be taken into prison camps and experimented on.
So, the end of Season 3 it came up to where the lead bad guy, Tobias Whale is locked up for doing his dirt and then the ASA capture Black Lightning. They tell him if he wants his daughters to live, then he will let them do experiments on him because they know he is super human. So, he agreed to save his daughters.
It has historical references and the music is soul and hip hop. It’s a Black show, which is so dope.
Photo Credit: phyllis.iller
Artwork: C.fluxsing
I like Marvel and of course I’m a huge fan of Black Panther, but I do recall the thoughts that ran through my mind while watching the Black Lightening series on Netflix earlier this year. As Jason was summarizing all three seasons, I remembered the discussion I had with someone about the correlation of government, drugs and the Black community. I instantly picked up on the symbolism. It even made me think of the vast disappearance of our Black sisters, the Black Market, and our children being literally ripped from our arms while just walking around and doing our every day tasks.
If you haven’t seen Black Lightning or if you do know anything about this Black comic that has a strong historical reference directly tied to the Black community, then I encourage you to check it out on Netflix now.
In playing the role of 2 Bits, Jason admits he’s been afforded the opportunity to include elements of himself within his character making it even more real.
The writers have been listening how I talk and watching how I move. So now they can write better for Two Bits. They allow me to bring part of myself into the character. Which is really dope. So now it’s like a collaboration. My gratitude is to the writers for being more elements to the character and to the show.
Looking forward to becoming a series regular on the show. Like on every episode, LOL! But seriously, I look forward to this show continuing to make a statement. Because the show really does make a statement. I more people are beginning to listen and pay attention. I want that to be like almost what the show stands for. It stands for people are aware of what’s going on and that people are mindful of their history. Hey, like I want more seasons! I want the show to continue to flourish and have an impact on the Black family.
Even beyond Black Lightning and his dream for a transcendental thinking school, Jason is committed to giving back by providing opportunities for other actors.
Look I want to be one of the names mentioned as a great actor. That’s something I strive for, but also, I want to provide opportunities for other actors and writers. Starting a production company is another goal. That’s in my vortex and I’m walking in the path of manifesting that.
Jason also shared that while in Atlanta, he’s creating a series with up and coming actors, writers, directors and producers on mental health. The series called, “Sour Milk,” about post traumatic slave syndrome, a term coined by Dr. Joy, which will focus on the severe post traumatic trauma that the Black community has been plagued with since slavery.
It’s going to highlight a different area of trauma that we have dealt with and still dealing with. Essentially, we want healing to come from it. How can we heal from this trauma?
I love that Jason has a message and his passionate connection to everything that he does. This actor believes in mastering the person that dwells on the inside. He’s not worried about following another actor’s path. He’s focused on himself, his goals, and the belief he has within to make his dreams come true. I think it’s a beautiful thing to realize the god in you and walk with confidence in all you do. Jason is doing just that and he’s inspiring those who look up to him or want to walk in his shoes to simply be themselves.
Never let anybody tell you that you’re not enough. You are more than enough. You have everything that you need inside of you. Everything that you need is there for you to do whatever you want to do in life. So be like YOU. Don’t be like me. Don’t be like Obama… we can take pieces of that but be YOU. Create a legacy for yourself and for your family.
Creating a legacy, he is. Jason is also in the “Wu-Tang, An American Saga” series as a Jamaican drug lord.
I want to create avenues to where we are in control of content. We’re in control of distribution… that’s what I want it to evolve to.
I’m super excited about what Jason is doing and the opportunities he’s creating and building with other creatives. Look out for this monster of a being and support his work.
This is The LSherie Alert.
Photo Credit: phyllis.iller
Artwork: C.fluxsing
Jason Louder is a native of Atlanta, GA and has appeared on mainstream networks including TVOne, TNT, Hulu, CBS and more . Louder’s resume includes skillsets and a background within voiceovers, theatre and character development.
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