Broadway star Bryan Terrell Clark shared anecdotes and lessons from his life Tuesday night and encouraged listeners to keep pursuing their best and truest selves on their life journeys.
Clark, delivering the 14th annual UMKC Pride Lecture, presented by the UMKC Division of Diversity and Inclusion, covered subjects ranging from hiscovered subjects ranging from his family and sexuality to finding and expressing himself through the arts and public service. Some highlights of his presentation, delivered live over Zoom, and a Q&A that followed:
Family life
He described his mother as an angel and his father as a dragon, opposites in many ways. “But they both taught me to fly,” Clark said.
His mother was a teacher who became a principal, and a Sunday school teacher who became a pastor. His blue-collar father loved his family dearly, Clark said, but ended up involved with drugs, first as a dealer and then as an addict, in and out of rehab many times.
His father’s addiction took a big toll on the family, while his mother was always taking care of others, even to the point of neglecting to take care of herself. But Clark said that when he came out to his parents as gay, it was his father who embraced him unconditionally. His father’s lesson: You have to learn to love yourself, completely. Only when his father could truly love himself, Clark said, was he able to make his addiction rehabilitation stick.
His mother’s initial reaction to his coming out was “I love you, but …” Her religious beliefs did not allow her to accept his homosexuality. But eventually, Clark said, she came around, apologized and said she loved him no matter what.
Arts and service
His mother also realized Clark’s passion for artistic expression “before I could talk.” When he heard music or saw something interesting on television, she said, he would bounce happily, immersed in the experience. So singing in the church choir was a must, and going to a high school that encouraged the arts gave him more opportunities to find and express himself.
College was a challenge, and he often skipped class to travel to New York for auditions. But when graduate school for drama seemed like the next logical step, he refused to sell himself short. He was advised to not apply to the top schools because they seldom admitted people of color, but he applied anyway and was rewarded with a spot at Yale’s drama school.
Another benefit of being at Yale, he said, came when he realized the campus was surrounded by rough neighborhoods filled with young people who desperately needed someone to see them and encourage them. So Clark stayed one summer and organized in the community, giving kids a chance to put on plays and tell their own stories.
Such involvement helped him learn about himself, too, and to find his inner resources instead of looking for definition or approval from others, Clark said. Today, his community work continues through inDEFINED, an initiative he helped found to empower young people to erase the constrictive labels in society.
Lessons to carry forward
Clark’s successes in the arts, including two stints playing George Washington in the Broadway hip-hop hit “Hamilton,” allowed him to keep learning about himself and to share his best self. It helped him greatly, he said, to trust his inner voice, follow his passion and finally quit worrying about how others saw him. Having an internal commitment to yourself is another key, he said.
“You just have to be you,” Clark said. “The labels are for someone else to understand you.”
Clark also encouraged listeners to be open to new experiences and inspirations, to find something every day that makes them happy, and to try something new every week.
Such practices, he said, help put people in the driver’s seat for their own lives and “make you a better partner, make you a better student, make you a better everything.”