 Your voice contains the world. Welcome to Sister Power. I'm your host Sharon Thomas Yarbrough. And my first guest is Angela Angel Session. And she's definitely an angel. And she's being like an angel for best female vocalist R&B song of the year, number one chart-topping artist, songwriter of the year, top trending artist and adult contemporary song of the year. Angel Session's new single, You Will Always Be My Baby, is now released with over one million streams on SoundCloud, is nominated for second award at the Star Soul Fame Awards 2021. And my next guest, the talented Jacqueline Yvonne, has been creative all her life, beginning with drawing and painting throughout her graceful years. However, it wasn't until she picked up a camera in her early 20s that she found that what would eventually become her creative niche and tool. A visual artist emphasizing storytelling, issues impacting both youth and adults. She incorporated both film and photography. More than three, she has been producing more than 300 projects over the past few years. Angel and Jacqueline, welcome to Sister Power. Thank you so much for having us today. Pleasure. Yeah, the pleasure is wonderful. This has been taking a time, but before we start, we wanna give a shout out and thank our friend, Luelle Hill Dudley. She made this possible for us to come together. Yes, she did. Thank you, Luelle. Yeah, thank you, Luelle. Love you. Luelle, thank you. So I wanna start with you, Angel. I tell you, this list for you ladies goes on and on. It's so impressive. You've worked and recorded with Lenny Williams, Frida Payne, The Delfonic, Brenda Holloway, The Dramatic, The Late Ollie Wilson. Love Ollie Wilson, we used to go see him at Marley Gibbs Memory Lane. So he was one of the best song artists. Mary Wilson of the Supremes, Marisa White, Lee Stinger of Earth Wind and Fire, The Dells and the Star Listings. What was that experience? Tell us about working with those giants. Well, first of all, I love working with each and every one of them. It was, first of all, like learning from them as a young artist at the time of meeting them. I was the new artist on Vote Records and working with these legends. It was a dream come true because my mom used to listen to them a lot when I was just a little girl and playing their music all the time and had all their records. I would have never thought a dream to even meeting with them and one day recording with them, but I love their records. I mean, I just love music so much. Listening to my mom play her records over and over and she would always tell me, when are you gonna go outside and play? And I just didn't want to because I just love listening to this music that just drew me in. So finally getting a chance to meet with them and recording background vocals on their records and doing duets with them and touring with them. It was just the most wonderful thing because they're very down to earth. You know, Mark, William Hart of the Delphonics was definitely, you know, a good friend of mine that I love, you know, learning from him and Lenny Williams, learning from him and Maurice, you know, and so many. And even when I recorded with Ollie Woodson, I remember the day he had a really bad cold and I felt so, I don't know, like intimidated singing with him because he sounds so wonderful. And we had to be in the booth together to do the song, Val. And he told me, girl, no, don't worry about it. Go ahead and sing, girl, you got it. And so I did and the song turned out beautiful. And it's just refreshing, you know, and just being with them is just a wonderful humble experience. I mean, just for the people, you know, like me and the audience watching them perform, especially Earthlin and Fire and Ollie Woodson and the Temptations and the Supreme, you were just in all of these legends. So moving on to you, Jacqueline, how long have you been involved in filmmaking and with that question also, tell us what type of projects have you produced? Well, I've, the indie filmmaking about 15 years, maybe a bit over 15 years, but I've actually been in production, you know, table access production for probably 25 years. So, but in terms of focusing on the indie films, I work primarily with short films. And I recall my very first short film was Who Let the Dogs In? And it was with my dogs and it starred a gentleman, Paul Williams, who played the neglected husband. So the dogs receiving more attention than he did. And then the second short film, and Angel, you will know, Pauletta Hickerson, she was the actress that starred in my short film called People, which was a thriller. And Pauletta is better known as Percy May today. She is a comedian best known for her clean comedy. And so those were the first two films. So primarily short films, however I have done two feature length documentaries. One was called The Out of the Darkness, which focused on suicide loss and suicide survivors. And that was a really powerful documentary because it really talked about the suicides. And it also highlighted the 1200 people at that time that had jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge. So it was really a very powerful piece. The second documentary feature length documentary was one called Park Angel. And it basically was based upon an adult behavioral gate program for adults that had a mental challenges. Very powerful documentary. And I loved working on that. I really felt that I walked away with 30 new friends and just so much about this beautiful, compassionate, caring, very open and want to be just like everybody else for people. And so that was a really wonderful opportunity for me as well. Yes, sounds like it. Isaac, we spoke Jacqueline and I told you I'm one of the committee members for the African-American Film Festival here. And hopefully sometime next year we can view some of your films. That's been the hope. Before we move on, I want to ask you ladies, how did, because you're both your actors, you're storytellers, visual artists, how did COVID affect you, Angel? It just makes me a, I don't know, more empowered woman just to be, you know, to inspire other women, you know, to be all that you can be and to always trust in God most to anything else because, you know, I can never do this by myself so I don't never credit myself or anything or any gifts that God has given me but just knowing it's all for God's glory. And this is the purpose of why I'm doing it, you know, and to be inspiring by other young, beautiful women from all around the world, you know, and letting them know that whatever you have, that's possible, you know, you can dream big but just work at it but most of all trust God and just let Him lead and guide you and whatever that means and do it all for His glory. Oh, do it all for His glory. So, Angel, I mean, Jacqueline, though you're in the film festival business, how has COVID affected your filmmaking? Well, it actually had a big impact on the filmmaking industry, particularly that first year when we were on lockdown, those of us that were responsible weren't trying to be in a group of with film crews and actors live. So we were pretty much affected, you know, from COVID. I ended up having to really think out of the box because I just wasn't making any film and none of my colleagues that I knew were making any film. So thinking out of the box, I had to come up with more creative things to do. And so I've worked with you. One of the things that I did with my youth was have them do self taping exercises. I put together a film project, it's on COVID and based upon the pandemic, I wanted to find out how they felt, how they were bearing through this pandemic. And so I put together an information sheet about the project. I put together activities for them to do and how to hold the camera and different techniques and things like that. And so they would self tape, email me the footage. I would give them suggestions and maybe talk to them about changing the background or projecting more, speaking up more, different things like that. Some of them would get discouraged and I try to let them know, you know, if this was an actual film production, we might be doing 50 tapes for one scene. So that would kind of help them along. But we had to kind of think out the box and we ended up with a beautiful 15 minutes short kids on COVID that was fantastic. Kids did a great job. And also we did a film called Free Milk and it was, this was eight adults, four women and four men all under 30. And I say that because I'm a mature woman working with these young people. And so we ended up doing a short film called Free Milk that really debated the concept of Mary or move in or Mary. And it worked out excellent and the whole film was completed on Zoom. So, and it's a comedy. So if the whole film was completed on Zoom and it turned out really great. Oh good, that sounds a lot. It's good to hear some good news, you know, from COVID. So, Angel, how did you feel having your albums introducing Angel's Sessions and Love Right released on Itchy Bond Records and Stack Hope Records? How did I feel having those released? Yeah. Man, it was like, it was totally like a blessing because prior to that happening I had been shopping a deal for like a lot of years I started this thing since I was a little girl in 1992 when I had my first manager and she had a husband who was a role manager of SWV Bev DeVoe and so many other great artists. And so she had started her company called Majestic Management. She was looking for a young female artist. And so she auditioned, came to the Bay Area and auditioned six girls. And she ended up picking me and one of the reason was because she said we're both from Louisville, Kentucky and that's where I'm originally from. And that's where she was from and she loved my personality. And so we started kind of like from their bonding together and recording so many songs as a songwriter, I had like over 500 songs eventually before Love Right, Itchy Bond came around in 1998. So I was shopping, I was doing all kind of audition I performed in front of lots of label. It was this company, it was this thing in Los Angeles, California called Best of the West Competition, Budweiser Best of the West Budweiser Competition. And that was before American Idol and all that started. So the Budweiser Competition was huge at that time in Los Angeles, California. So you had Sony in Universal Warner Brothers, all the labels were there, RCA labels, everyone was there scouting talent. So I was there and I auditioned and I've had many opportunities when there were times that I would get really nervous that that time was scared to perform in front of all these people, 700, 800 people at that time was a lot of people at that time for me. So I had stage fright and I remember RCA wanted to sign me and they kept saying, you know what Angel, well I know girl RCA wants to sign you. And I was like so scared like in my mind I'm saying, well, please stop telling me that I just don't want to keep hearing that because you're gonna make me mess up. I got on stage and I did mess up and it was just a terrible thing. So when I finally met the late Fred Pittman and he knew all the old school acts, all the legendary acts that I had actually got just to meet later on to sign them to Stack's Boat Records. He was looking for an artist that he wanted to sing his song called She Was Never Heard That He Had Written and in hopes that if that single does well, we'll do an album. But Ichiban said, no, we want an album on Angel. So we went into my catalogs and all the songs I had, I placed these seven songs of mine on that album. And then the rest of the songs were placed by Preston Glass, who wrote for so many great artists, you know, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, he worked with Norton, Michael Warden. And so he produced on my album, my first album and my second album and many other great producers. And so that album came out, Introduce to Angel. And so of course I was ecstatic because I didn't, you gotta understand, being a young artist wanting so bad to have a record deal and so many, you know, today it seems, it's not easy today, but it's a little easier to do it yourself because you have social media. But back then you had to package it up and go to the post office and mail it off and have meetings. It was a lot of grinding. I had a lot of grinding to do. So when I finally was able to do that, it was totally a wonderful thing. Even though it didn't do what I wanted because they eventually folded in 1999, which is what led me to Backspot Records because Ichiban label folded in 1999. And so when I went with them, I was able to work with these other great artists that also were, that was the deal. Hey Fred, you can get these artists, we'll sign Angel, but you gotta get all these great artists and we'll deal with Angel and that's what he did and that's how the love ride became. Congratulations, congratulations, you take some millions. So Jacqueline, what inspired you to get involved in photography? I started, I actually got involved many years ago. I won't say how many years ago, but I found a Nikon 35 millimeter film camera at a thrift store. And so I just fell in love with that camera and took off running. And so I was just taking pictures everywhere and I had this opportunity, two opportunities that came to me very, very early on. The first one, I had a chance to photograph Brock Peters in his home. And Brock Peters was the gentleman, the black man that played into kill a mockingbird. Tom Robinson was his character and into kill a mockingbird. And it was exciting for me to be able to be in his home and photograph him. I also photographed he and his wife together and then I later found out that my photograph of him and his wife was the only photograph of any photographer that they actually displayed in their home. So that was really exciting for me. And then the second opportunity came when I had a chance to do a casual photography shoot with Muhammad Ali in his home. And listening to Angel talk about how frightened she was at one time, I was so scared being in the company of someone so great as Muhammad Ali, I could barely hold my camera. So what he did, he literally walked up to me and started doing magic tricks for me. And he did several magic tricks and that is the only thing that calmed me down where I was able to go ahead and complete this photo shoot. A lot of people don't realize that he was a magician as well. He was also an artist. So those two opportunities really inspired my photography and I'm still a photographer. I've been doing photography for many, many, many years. And so that's how I got started. Wow, that's the story. You know, the late, great Muhammad Ali and... Rock Peters. Rock Peters too. That's true Hollywood. That's Hollywood all the way. Angel, what did it feel like being a supreme with Mary Wilson, the late, great Mary Wilson? Wow, now I'm glad you asked that question because that was totally a great experience. I've been knowing of my friend Karen Newman. She had been touring with Mary Wilson at that time. Was around seven years prior to me meeting Mary. And I'll go back to the story of 1999. Mary Wilson was auditioning for the new screams. So I auditioned to be a part of that. But at that time there was gonna be, if you guys remember, the supreme reunion with Diana Ross, Mary Wilson, and I forget the other supreme name. And that situation was kind of a lot going on in the media at the time when it just wasn't working now and Mary was not happy about it. She was a little upset because the finance wasn't what she asked for. So when she tried to put this supreme together, it didn't work out. So I didn't hear back from her until 2004 when they were actually looking for another supreme because they had a young lady and then they had to let her go. And so Karen said, hey, angel girl, I've been telling Mary Wilson's manager all about you. I know you can do it girl. I'm like, really? You think the deal have me tour with her? She said, yeah girl, I'm trying to work it out. She said, but the manager's gonna call you. So be expecting your call and they're gonna put you on the plane. You're gonna be here really fast. She said, just wait for the call. So I'm like, okay. So she set it up, the manager called me and he heard my love write album and he said, I love your voice. You're perfect for this. We were looking for a soprano and we wanna fly you in to Mary Wilson's house. She lived in Vegas at that time. We're gonna fly you in. We're gonna have you to meet Mary, spend some time with her, let her talk to you, let her get to know you and then go from there. And I said, great. And so she flew me in, went to her house, had dinner with her. She talked to me all about the Supremes, all about her background where she started, how she was the one who started the Supremes. She told me a lot of great stories and then she told me about their shows and what to learn here. She told me all these beautiful gowns and dresses we're gonna be wearing. And then I had to sign an disclosure contract agreement saying that of course that I would not be a Supremes as far as doing my own thing, which I wasn't gonna do that. But it was just a contract I had to agree to sign to. I was just happy to do so and started touring with her as a Supremes and in the show with Donna's Summer Song, Last Dance. So it was just a wonderful experience. And at that time I was like, when you're in the water swimming, I think about all this, whoa, like a big fan. You're just thinking, this is work, I gotta do that, I gotta do and I'm gonna be the best I can be because I ain't trying to let Mary down. And that's all I was just focused more on just, I gotta get these songs, I gotta get these steps. Okay, it's just dress fit, right? Okay, okay, I wanna make sure that I wanna look apart. My focus was so on just making sure I did what I'm supposed to do to make Mary proud. It's all about sisterhood, lifting each other up. I love that story. I'm loving these stories, ladies. So Jacqueline, what are you working on today? We just finished a couple of projects and I mentioned that one kid's on COVID. The students also just completed a project called Positively You, The Beauty of Our Diversity. And that one really focused on the cultural differences in our community and the youth have an opportunity to share their opinions on racism and the differences and what they enjoyed about our differences and how they objected to people complaining about our differences. And so that turned out really well, that was a great project. And we are looking to, we're just in a very, very early development stages of a project that we will be doing in spring. So we're just in the early stages of that. I'm working with the youth on that one. So that's it for right now. Well, that sounds like your place is full to me. My goodness, angel, angel, what is your plan for 2022? Well, I have a company called Atlas Elite Entertainment and we started that in 2017. So for 2022, I'm gonna be really focused on my two artists that I have, which is Shardell Sessions, that's my daughter. And she's an R&B recording artist and my other hip hop recording artist, Wei. And they got new projects coming out. My daughter has an album coming out and Wei has an EP coming out. And I also have, and two albums coming out. I have an R&B album coming out called Angel Sessions Best of R&B and an EP coming out, which is gonna be my urban gospel. I don't have a name for it yet. And this Saturday I'm going to the studio to record my new gospel song for that. So I'm gonna be focused on that. I got a show coming up. I think it's gonna be for the Black Expo. I think it's gonna come up in February. So I'm gonna be performing in that one. So I'm just gonna be focused on a lot of great things happening or that and whatever God has in store. That is good all the time. It's all gonna work. Jacqueline, do you have any advice for young people who either want to act or want to become filmmakers? And I get students that wanna do both. And I get students that don't wanna do any of them, any of these activities. They wanna be anthropologists or a gymnast or something like that. But what we do with our workshops is great for any of the students. And basically the thing that I would say to them is to always follow your dream, never give up, practice, practice, practice. That is so critical. What we focus on in our workshops are confidence basically and self-esteem building through on-camera activities. So the students not only act and learn critical thinking, memorization when they have to work with the monologues and scripts, they learn behind the scenes, they direct, they learn camera activity, camera operation, audio capture. So they're in front of the camera, they're behind the camera. And I recall, I think it was, I was looking at something on Facebook the other day and it said if you fall down seven times, get up eight. And that's what I would say to them. If you fall down, if you stumble, do not give up, do not be discouraged as a minor step, get right back up and keep going, practice, practice, practice and never give up. Love that, love that. I wanna ask you, Angel, the same question in closing. What advice would you give, let's just say special young girls to get into this business of singing and trying to cut records or CDs or what do you call it now? What advice would you give young girls? I definitely would give them to say to them that I really want them to just, most of all, always pray to God, hopefully if they trust and believe in God, to lead and guide them and believe in their talent. God gives us talent and praise God for these talents. Though we can, you never know, you may touch the heart of somebody, like Jacqueline and her movies and her films could touch the heart of somebody and when they watch her films, what they may learn from it. And the music, the same way, music is a beautiful thing, and just as long as you do it for the right reasons, not doing it to disrespect or degrade anyone, but just believe in yourself and don't be a procrastinator because some people may say, I wanna do it and they procrastinate, but you gotta start somewhere and thank God for social media because now you have social media, you can utilize that to get your music out there and get heard a lot faster than back of day. And it was when I was in, in their late 90s trying to do it, it was not easy at all, it's easier now. So utilize that and go for it and don't allow anyone to tell you you can't do it because there's a lot of people online that will try to discourage you and say things that will make you feel like, well, I don't wanna do it, but don't listen to the naysayers, just keep trying and just keep going and begin what you have and give God the glory. So your voice can change the world. Angela Sessions and Jacqueline Ivane, thank you for sharing your talents and wisdom. I'm Sharon Thomas-Yargrove. Aloha.