What are your mentors saying?

Mr. John L. Motley passed away on Sunday, April 23, 2011.

Mr. Motley was the long time former conductor of New York City's All City Chorus.  I was privileged to sing in the Bass section under him from 1975 to 1979.  In addition, I was a member of his various off-shoot affiliations, the All City Concert Choir and the United Nations Singers.  He was an intriguing man:  Demanding, disciplined yet also funny and kind.  At all times he displayed a respect for music and the arts that was unparalleled.  His resume showed it.  My own feeble memory touches upon only some of his past accomplishments:  He was a student / friend of the late Hall Johnson, the composer/arranger of Negro spirituals; accompanist to Marion Anderson; friend to Dizzy Gillespie; associate of Peter Wilhousky; one of the heads of the music division of the New York City School Board of Education.

Mr. Motley's foundations helped me to win a spot with the Fisk Jubilee Singers (directed by Mr. Matthew Kennedy; pretty good, considering the fact that I wasn't a music major).  My other mentors have been Mr. Murray Braunstein (high school English and fiction writing), Dr. Gladys Forde (undergrad professor of Speech and Drama), Mr. Bruce Wright (undergrad Creative Writing and Journalism), the late Loften Mitchell (playwriting in graduate school) and the late Dr. Stuart M. Kaminsky (screenwriting in post-grad studies).  Strangely enough, I can imagine all of these people asking the same thing:  What's next for you, Thomas?

I have a finished novel that I need to get into the hands of a publisher.  I have acting workshop students who are hungry to find their next project.  I have media projects that are in pre-production.  I have an audition coming up for a paid commercial.   I am directing a vacation Bible school play.  I have a dozen other stories - both secular and spiritual that need to be done.  Sometimes the hardest thing is to maintain focus.

So what about you?  Is there anything undone that you need to do?  And are there any important people from your past - whether alive or deceased - who are cheering you on?

Imagine that they are standing before you right now.  What are they saying?  And what do you need to do right now?

Always B Positively Positive!