Who Am I?
Chadwick Boseman was born and raised in South Carolina. In junior school, he wrote his first play called Crossroads. When a classmate was shot and killed, Chadwick staged Crossroads in commemoration. Although he wanted to write and direct movies, Chadwick decided to study acting to help him relate to actors. He also worked hard studying and learning from the writings of others and admired the works of Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and other dramatists. While at college, he took some time to travel to Africa and worked in Ghana on what he described as ‘one of the most significant learning experiences of (his) life’, celebrating rituals using a proscenium stage (front of stage use only).
What Am I Known For?
During his career, he excelled as both a playwright and stage actor. He ended up with roles as two of America’s most famous history-making Black men – baseball legend Jackie Robinson and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. His most famous role, T’Challa in Black Panther, came two years after his diagnosis of colon cancer. Despite his illness, Chadwick continued to channel his imagination and creativity into his work. He is remembered as a ground-breaking actor.
How About You?
Are you able to bring creativity and fresh approaches to everyday experiences or the problems that you encounter?
Can you describe a time when you had to deal with a setback and how you coped? What resilience strategies worked for you?
Other Amazing People (you can find them on the website)
Frida Kahlo was another amazing person who used her experiences to develop her creativity. She suffered polio as a child, and this affected her legs. When she was 18, she was involved in a traffic accident, which left her in a full-body cast and bedbound for many months. It was at this time that she began to paint as a means of forgetting her pain. She became Mexico’s leading artist and remains an icon today.
Other Useful Resources (available on the website)
Find out about some other Global Black Achievers in our free resource. Subscribers can find this helpful resource by logging in. If you are not a subscriber, you can access this resource, and many more, by starting a free trial.
Photo: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia