On this week’s episode, we check in with Scottie about her month-long stay in LA and what she's looking forward to for her upcoming birthday. We see you, Libras. Then, we sit down with our good sis Ashley Blaine Featherson-Jenkins, who plays hard-working Joelle Brooks on Netflix's Dear White People. We catch up with Ashley about her Vogue-covered wedding and the importance of her tribe after moving to LA with $800 and a dream. Finally, we chat about Dear White People’s contribution to the culture and get the tea on their final, musical season.
Okay, Dear Black People
Scottie Beam You're listening to OK, now listen, a biweekly show where we chat about what's on our minds, what we're binging and what's blowing up our timeline. I'm Scottie Beam, media personality, content creator, music enthusiast and wing connoisseur.
Sylvia O'Bell And I'm Sylvia O’Bell, culture radio host, producer and lover of Beyoncé.
Scottie Beam And we are still here and we are still strong.
Sylvia O'Bell Here! Here!
Scottie Beam I'm still standing, I’m still strong! Barely, guys, we have been shooting for five days straight.
Sylvia O'Bell I want to know, Netflix is we are earning every dollar,
Scottie Beam Every single cent.
Sylvia O’Bell Every cent this week. You know, we say, yeah, let's make the most of Scottie being in LA, and they say, heard you. Say Less
Scottie Beam Every single day. Another set, another set, another set.
Sylvia O'Bell Another car, another location, another script, another interview. We working on something really special. We can't tell you guys exactly what, but you'll see it soon.
Scottie Beam You're definitely going to enjoy it.
Sylvia O'Bell It was quite the experience.
Scottie Beam It definitely was. But it made it amazing, like ten times amazing because I got to do it with one of my closest friends. So, I love that Sylvia.
Sylvia O'Bell I love my work wife. Cuz listen, this a lot of hours to be spending on one person, child, that’s a lot of trials and tribulations and moments and emotions, but there is nobody else I would rather do it with. And I just am happy that we survived.
Scottie Beam I’m so happy.
Sylvia O’Bell We did it. We did it, Joe. And I just think that the theme of our week has really been about community, right? We talked about it on set on our last day. Shout out to the production team we worked with, Stony and Yates, Black owned.
Scottie Beam Black owned.
Sylvia O’Bell Black crew, Black talent, Black leadership in all roles. And it was such a great experience. And I mean, also it speaks to our fortitude, I really feel like, Scottie, because we have not done video all pandemic.
Scottie Beam And that's all I've been saying I wanted to do, I love video.
Sylvia O'Bell Loved it, forgot how much energy it took,
Scottie Beam Takes a lot.
Sylvia O’Bell It was like running the marathon with no training.
Scottie Beam Yes. Especially after the pandemic.
Sylvia O'Bell After the pandemic. But yeah, I had a great time. It's also sad to me though, because it means that we are near the end of your time in L.A. and while I have spent more hours with you this week than I have the last two years, I will miss you. And I just want to know when you're coming back, because I…
Scottie Beam I will say to you and everyone here in L.A., I had a great time. I don't have anything negative to say about it because it truly was special. But yeah, I did enjoy my month here in L.A. I definitely will have another month in L.A. down the line. But as people know, it's Libra season.
Sylvia O'Bell It is
Scottie Beam OK?
Sylvia O’Bell It is.
Scottie Beam Shout out to all my Libras in the world,
Sylvia O'Bell Every single one of them. We know them. They're all born next week. This week.
Scottie Beam We are here in attendance. So I have to go home and, you know, revel in my Libraisms.
Sylvia O'Bell Yes. Shout out to Michala, I know she is watching the clock.
Scottie Beam Yes, child.
Sylvia O’Bell She don't get Scottie by a certain date, we go, we gone hear about it.
Scottie Beam My birthday is coming up. It is on Sunday, October 3rd.
Sylvia O’Bell It is.
Scottie Beam I am very happy to celebrate it this time. I am not having any sort of anxiety about it yet. Usually I do.
Sylvia O’Bell Growth!
Scottie Beam This year I'm not, and maybe because I'm coming off of working. So I'm, I’m on a high. I’m on a high right now.
Sylvia O’Bell You’re on a high. And like I think there's a calmness that comes with your thirties right? Now you're about to step another foot into the year. You know, I think it's like a bit more of a steady feeling decade for me. I feel like every moment of my twenties was like, oh, ha ha ha.
Scottie Beam Right.
Sylvia O’Bell You know, I mean but?
Scottie Beam I feel very blessed and happy to really be here. I am so grateful. Also being on Ulta Beauty’s Muse 100
Sylvia O'Bell Yes! Muse 100!
Scottie Beam That was a very spiritual moment for me as well.
Sylvia O'Bell Our must, one of our favorite muses. Absolutely had to be on that list of 100, get the hell out. What do you mean? What? Yes. Duh.
Scottie Beam It is, it is a blessing and it's really an honor to, to even be thought of, thank you so much.
Sylvia O'Bell Yeah. Well you all give Scottie a lot of love this week. It is her birthday week, indeed.
Scottie Beam It is.
Sylvia O’Bell I want to ask you before we move on, what's a birthday wish for your 31st year of life?
Scottie Beam I really don't have anything. I think that's my wish. My wish is to remain the way that I feel right now.
Sylvia O’Bell OK.
Scottie Beam To keep it going. That's pretty much it. I'm so blessed. And I get really emotional. So you know.
Sylvia O’Bell I know.
Scottie Beam But I have to remain grateful for these moments and times. You know, it's just something that a lot of people don't get to experience and I hope that more people get to experience.
Sylvia O'Bell It's beautiful, love to hear it. Yeah, this week we have a very special guest on the show.
Scottie Beam Absolutely. Yes, we're about to sit down with our girl, our homie.
Sylvia O’Bell Our good sis.
Scottie Beam Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins.
Sylvia O'Bell Hey, new last name added.
Scottie Beam OK, you may know her from Dear White People as Joelle.
Sylvia O'Bell Yes. And she's also just very fabulous beauty queen to follow on social media. She always keeps her foot on everybody's necks. This wedding content? Our girl Ashley has just not stopped. I don't want the content to stop coming from the Bachelorette to the wedding to the bridal shower to the honeymoon in the Maldives. My God. The melanin was shining.
Scottie Beam I loved it.
Sylvia O’Bell I have been loving it. And we are so excited to talk to her about the final season of Dear White People, and building the tribe and her life as a newlywed. Just like Black love. We love to see it.
Scottie Beam Fills my heart up.
Sylvia O’Bell OK, we are here.
Scottie Beam In the flesh.
Sylvia O’Bell With one of our favorites,
Scottie Beam Absolutely.
Sylvia O’Bell Netflix stars Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins.
Scottie Beam Aye!
Scottie Beam Mrs. Jenkins.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins She’s here!
Sylvia O’Bell She’s here. She’s with us. We gone talk.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins She’s in the building. She’s married.
Sylvia O’Bell And she’s married. And we’re happy about it. So, first of all, thank you so much for coming.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I'm obsessed with you two. Obviously, I wouldn’t have missed this, duh.
Sylvia O'Bell And we were like, so Ashley, right? Cool. Like, there was just no way we weren’t making this happen because it's very natural with all three of us. Like, it's just we all are fans of each other. We all support each other. So we're very happy to come together for this moment. So first off, like we just say congratulations on your wedding.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Thank you.
Sylvia O’Bell Like, it was so beautiful, it looked, it looked so beautiful.
Scottie Beam What a moment. I kept saying it's like I was being an Instagram stalker and I'm like, what a moment!
Sylvia O’Bell Every Moment.
Scottie Beam I felt like I was there. I was like, look at us.
Sylvia O'Bell I felt like I was in the audience like, oh, you know, Ashley’s wedding was beautiful.
Scottie Beam Should’ve been there. It was crazy.
Sylvia O’Bell I had the time my life.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oh, my God, I'm obsessed.
Sylvia O’Bell But talk to us about it because we loved, you know, from the bachelor party to like the wedding ceremony itself, all the beautiful Black women, everybody was dressed up. It was looking good. Vogue covered your wedding. And we do love to see Black women live out their love story.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah.
Sylvia O’Bell So how are you feeling on the other side of it now that you're finally done with all the wedding things?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oh, my gosh. Here's the thing. Marriage is super cool. I really, I highly suggest it. Like, don't feed into the hype about, Like, “Don't get married, nothing changes. It's stupid. It's a piece of paper,” Like and I said this in the Vogue coverage that for so long they told us we couldn't get married, you know what I mean? Like, we didn't have so many rights that we have now. So just like I'm emphatic about voting, I was very emphatic about getting married.
Sylvia O’Bell OK.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Actually, initially we were just going to call it a celebration. I was like, well, Darryl, we got to be a little bit more specific. What are we celebrating? Why are people coming? So it was a wedding, but we, we wanted it to be a celebration or call it a celebration because that's really what it is. It's a celebration of your love. And, you know, for me, we really did it big. And it was so beautiful and it was so centered and focused on Black love.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah,
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Unapologetically. And I think that as Black people, we have to do that out loud because it's infectious, you know, and that's why I was so excited and really grateful that Vogue covered it, because we don't have that type of representation, those types of publications
Sylvia O’Bell For sure.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins People aren't reading Vogue and seeing Black people get married even though we're getting married all the time. So I felt really proud to be two dark skinned Black people, Black love, you know, getting married, being happy, having a beautiful bridal party and just having, you know, the time of our lives, was, was great.
Scottie Beam Yeah. I mean, first of all, Black love is spiritual.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yes.
Scottie Beam Just seeing two Black people at the altar to me is something that.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yes.
Scottie Beam that speaks to my heart and my spirit. But also I knew that you got engaged during, like, smack in the middle of the pandemic, correct?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, September 18th, 2020.
Scottie Beam So you were like planning a wedding.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah.
Sylvia O’Bell In a pandemic.
Scottie Beam in a pandemic.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah.
Scottie Beam What does that look like?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Horrible.
Scottie Beam OK.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah it's bad.
Sylvia O’Bell There are so many moving parts.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But you know what? We got kind of lucky, like, September 2020 to September 2021, it was kind of the better zone, although I did get a little crazy last winter. And as we got closer I was like, oh my gosh, with this Delta variant, I was like, Lord, listen, we cannot. But you know, we have COVID protocols in place. We asked all of our guests to be tested, regardless of vaccination status. And we had a COVID free wedding, 180 people.
Scottie Beam What are the tips that you would give to somebody who's planning a wedding right now?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Do all of the things. Like have your bridal shower, do your bachelorette, ask grandma and mom for advice, you know, get together, do all of the things, because I'm so happy I did, you know, some of my favorite moments are from my bridal shower. So my favorite moments in life are from my bachelorette. I understand why you do all these things leading up to the wedding. Traditionally, you do them because you're solidifying and you're honoring kind of the life that you had before you enter into this union.
Sylvia O'Bell Rites of passage.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, they are rites of passage. You know, like it was so beautiful. And I because of covid, chose to do all of my stuff. I mean, my bachelorette was at the end of July, but I chose to do like my bridal shower on the same weekend as the wedding just because I didn't want people to have to travel multiple times. And it was so beautiful that two days before I got married, I just was surrounded by all of these women who prayed for me and and spoke life into me and celebrated me, and it just was all Black women are just women of color, really, that were there, that were just smiling at me. And I was smiling at them. And it just was,
Sylvia O'Bell It looked gorgeous.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It just was lovely. And it just it fed my soul so much. And, you know, that is the thing that does change when you when you get married, you are entering into a union. It's not just you and you have to,
Sylvia O'Bell Yeah, that's the scary part.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins That's, that's the scary part. But I'm going to tell you, it's the most beautiful part because you really are truly never alone. If you have the right partner, you really have someone that's always, really got your back. In house, somebody that has your back. And you, I'm just so grateful that I got to honor my girlfriends and my mothers, and my mother's mothers, and my aunts and cousins, and whoever it may be that was there, my sisters, to say thank you for making me the woman that I am. And enjoy it, have fun, have fun, and take all the pictures of yourself by favorite pictures of myself in life or from my wedding weekend. And like, just take pictures. Don't don't if you're shy, decide not to be shy, take a Xanax or something. I don't know what you have to do, but like do all of the things.
Scottie Beam Make sure you document it.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Document it.
Scottie Beam Because it is history.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It is, and it's personal history, it’s legacy.
Sylvia O'Bell And your family history, it’s becoming your family's history.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Like our great, great, great grandchildren will look at these pictures and be like, that was my great, great, great grandma.
Scottie Beam Yes, girl.
Sylvia O’Bell Like, I love looking at my grandparents.
Scottie Beam Yes, it was me.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It was me, I was pop, pop, pop!
Sylvia O'Bell I mean, I love looking at my grandparents wedding photos, like, they're just so classic and beautiful to me that like and that's like what we're giving our future grandkids and stuff like that. That's definitely beautiful. You mentioned having a lot of people there, and giving you advice. Do you have a piece of advice that you were given about marriage? I'm sure, you know, I feel like at the wedding, like everybody shaking your hand and telling you something, but, is there something that you felt like, wow, you know, I love the way they put that, to pass on? Cuz we are very unmarried hosts, and I feel like our married listeners usually don't benefit from our you know, relationship advice.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Let me see. I'll give three quickly.
Sylvia O’Bell OK.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You know, everybody says, well not everybody, but a lot of people say keep God first.
Sylvia O’Bell Yes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins That's really real.
Sylvia O’Bell That third string.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins He's got to be at the center. Think about it. We're too human. People are just too human, humans are too flawed to not be grounded at the center through who and what you believe in. And it might not be God for you. I don't know what it is for you, whoever the listeners are, but you have to make sure that you have a strong spiritual foundation and that that's in the center of your marriage. I do believe that. Something else is that, like, you have to master compromise.
Sylvia O'Bell Oh, baby,
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You have to master it.
Sylvia O’Bell Say it again.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It's not just you. So you have to put your needs, oftentimes, after somebody else's just because you love them. Right. That's it.
Scottie Beam Forever.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But if you think about it. Like Scottie, I, just because I saw what you did with your mom with Strong Black Lead. You and your mother had this beautiful bond that even I can see, I've never been with you both in person, but your mom loves you wholeheartedly. And so much of why you guys have that bond is because she had to compromise even as a mother. She had to say, my daughter needs this, so I'm not going to have that. I need this. So I'm going to make sure I do this to make sure she has that. It's the same thing in a marriage. And I think oftentimes the reason why, the reason why marriages fail, is because people are unwilling to compromise. You're just saying this is what I want.
Scottie Beam Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You got to fall in line. And that's why you hear couples say there's years where I kind of took the backseat, you know, or there's years where he took the back seat, you know, or whatever it may be. It’s because there's going to be times when you are, you are both going to be able to do everything at the same time or whatever. But there's going to be times you have to support that person. And again, simply because you love them.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins That's it. And the last thing I'll say is just always remember, should you choose to have kids, to keep your marriage first because the kids are not all right if the parents are not alright.
Sylvia O'Bell Talk about it.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It is true. If the parents are stressed out, and not putting themselves first, and not doing date nights and doing self care. Then the kids are messed up.
Sylvia and Scottie Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins So that, you know, again, I'm three weeks and a day in. But, OK? I'm almost at a month, OK? But that is something that, as we just think for the future that we're going to always keep in mind.
Sylvia O'Bell Yeah. And even though you are only three weeks in, and a day. What I do love about you and your husband.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins So crazy.
Sylvia O’Bell Your love story is that it was over a good amount of time.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah.
Sylvia O’Bell And you guys found your way back to each other kind of a thing. It seems…
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins We really lost each other, if we're completely honest. Yeah, but we compromised in a way like honestly, it's funny. I never I've never said it that way. But we... Basically to make a long story short, we were just on different pages for a long time. And I think at a certain point we realized we both wanted the same thing, which was to be together. And so one of us had to get on the other person's page so that we could make it work. Yeah, but sometimes in relationships you you have to give that time, because what happens is that if you don't compromise, if you don't come together at the right time when you're supposed to, and if somebody unwillingly becomes a participant in a relationship,
Sylvia O'Bell Right, like, meet someone before they’re ready.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Right, or if you pressure somebody, or if you give someone an ultimatum.
Scottie Beam You’re not getting the full person.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You're, you're not getting, and you're not getting someone who wants to be there.
Scottie and Sylvia Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins The thing about Darrell and I is that we both want to be here.
Scottie and Sylvia Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Nobody was forced. Nobody had an ultimatum. Nobody was threatened. Nobody, you know, it was, we looked at each other and we're like, we love each other. Why aren't we doing this, for real for real? And we did. And honestly, it's so funny. For years I thought that it was him. I was like, this is it's Darrell. He needs to get it together.
Syliva O’Bell Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Doesn't he realize what he has in front of him, like he's just out here living his life?
Sylvia O'Bell Look at the material.
Scottie Beam Sounds about right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But oddly, once we got together, which he, it was him. He was like, we need to do this when you get together, you know, it's time, you know, like officially asked me to be his girlfriend, like, took me out to dinner and was like, “Will you be my girlfriend?” It was so cute. I was the one that struggled in the beginning. It was me. I was like like,
Sylvia O'Bell You don’t like being a girlfriend.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins No, it wasn't about being a girlfriend. It was about losing, quote unquote, kind of, my independence.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Like I remember having, like, we moved in together and I remember being like... I went through like that transition of oh my gosh, this is, this is beautiful, but it's a lot and my life's changing. I was overwhelmed.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Still happy in the overwhelmed.
Sylvia O’Bell Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But overwhelmed. So I say that to say, oftentimes, ladies, you think you're waiting on this guy. You're doing this and this and this and that. And then it happens. You get what you wanted and you're like, who? OK, was I preparing myself?
Scottie Beam Yes, because we're so used to the fight. The thing is, we're used to the fight. We're used to the, I'm going to fight for what's right and what I deserve. But then you're like, OK, you're going to get what you are, what you deserve.
Sylvia O’Bell Peace times.
Scottie Beam And you’re like, woah. Wait, peace. Wow.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But not only that, but we're so concerned about men getting their lives together and straightening up and recognizing what's in front of them. But women, I think sometimes we feel like we just got it because we're women. We just got it all together. We know what to do. We know how to do this. But we are so focused oftentimes, I think, on the men that we're not focused on ourselves and preparing ourselves for that next step in our lives. And we need to prepare ourselves too. We can’t expect this man to do X, Y and Z, and we're not doing X, Y and Z for ourselves. So I say that to say I think I neglected that a little bit within myself. But obviously it all worked out.
Sylvia O'Bell It all worked out in the end, girl.
Scottie Beam That's absolutely true, though, but I did want to talk about your tribe. Yeah, because you have a very strong tribe here in L.A.. Yeah. And I seen, you know, I think you took a picture of a billboard, I'm sure, on the insta story. And you said I came to L.A. with 800 dollars.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yes, I did.
Scottie Beam And now I'm here.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It's surreal.
Scottie Beam How important has your tribe been throughout this journey?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I don't even think there's a word that's been created yet to describe how impactful my tribe has been. Yeah, I moved out here. I was, just turned 22. The musical theater degree coming to L.A. with no TV or film credits really at all. And just wanted to do what I love to do every day. That was always, I never wanted to be a star. I never was like, I need to...
Sylvia O'Bell To be famous.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I never wanted to be famous. I always just wanted to make a living doing what I love to do, which was performing.
Scottie Beam And that's how legends are made, though. I don’t think they come in with the idea that they want to be a star. They come in wanting to do what they love to do
Sylvia O’Bell Genuinely
Scottie Beam What they set out to do.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah. Yeah. And, and for me, like I said, there was a big emphasis on making a living.
Scottie Beam Yeah.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Because I had been doing what I wanted to do for a long time, most of my life. But it was almost like the challenge of, can I support myself, can I sustain my life and this dream simultaneously?
Sylvia O’Bell Yes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Now I expected it to happen much sooner than it did, OK? We all do, to be honest.
Sylvia O'Bell That patience, that patience.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins When I first got here I was like,
Sylvia O'Bell Hey God, I know you said you would never get more than that I can bear.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I thought like I was a cheetah, not a snail. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, it's weird, but, but my tribe, they've been with me since the very beginning and I talk a lot about them and I call them my destiny advocates because I believe that everyone needs to have people in their lives who remind them of their destinies, when or if you should forget what it is.
Sylvia O'Bell I love that.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, and that's what they do for me. They're more than just a tribe. There are people that reinstill my destiny within me. They allow me to do that for them. They inspire me in ways that I sometimes can’t inspire myself. When I forget who I am, they remind me without being prompted to do so. They are, they were God sent. The fact that people mention it to me, they say like, oh, my gosh, your tribe, like your, your friends.
Sylvia O'Bell Like you guys shine, it’s so evident, the love.
Scottie Beam It shows, it shows.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah. It's just, it's really beautiful. Yeah. I moved to L.A. with eight hundred dollars. Delta one way ticket, that was eighty dollars. I was like, yes, thank God it wasn't over 100 hundred. I was really like, I was yeah. Yeah. And I came in. My God Sister, Darren was, was kind enough. She was getting her Ph.D. out in the Inland Empire, which is like fifty miles outside of L.A. And she was like, you can stay with me. And I was like, great. Bought an air mattress from target.
Scottie Beam Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I was on an air mattress for six months, going back and forth. I was working at United Colors of Benetton, like this a long time ago guys, 2010, February 1st, 2010 was when I moved. And so. Yeah, so to see myself on a billboard. Yes. Smack dab on the middle of a billboard on Sunset Boulevard for show that I've been on for Four Seasons, 40 episodes, with a network and a studio, you know, Netflix and Lionsgate, who I love, you know, created by one of my dearest friends, Justin Simien, working with some of my dearest friends. It's just it's a God dream, you all, like, seriously. And what's so cool about the way God works and the way life works is that I didn't see it. I saw myself being successful. But the cool thing about dreaming is that oftentimes, if you really think about your dreams, they're not exactly how you imagine them. And that's because there has to be an element of surprise in order for you to really feel
Sylvia O’Bell And know.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And know not only who it came from, but what it means.
Scottie Beam Yes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And so, like I said, but I moved out to L.A. I knew I wanted to be happy. I knew I wanted to be able to support myself doing what I love to do. But I didn't know that it looked like being Joelle on Dear White People. And that truly surpassed my expectations.
Scottie Beam That's what I wanted to bring up, too, because I think our dreams aren't big enough. Our dreams aren't big enough, especially for God's plan.
Sylvia O'Bell All right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I just got chills. It is!
Sylvia O’Bell Like, I feel like every time it's like God's like, “nah, bigger. Yeah. Actually.”
Scottie Beam Girl, you don't have a clue. Like I know God be like,
Sylvia O’Vell Oh that's what you asking, girl. You just wait and see.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I always, like, laugh. I'm always like, God probably’s like what is Ashley about to be trippin about today?
Sylvia O'Bell If he only knew what I had for her.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I feel like he’s so irritated with me. I know he is. He's like, if she would just relax.
Sylvia O'Bell Just for us.
Scottie Beam My goodness.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Rolling his eyes. And I feel so bad. I'm sorry.
Scottie Beam Right. Because you talk a lot about, I saw your manifestation map.
Sylvia O'Bell Oh yeah.
Scottie Beam Talk a little bit more about that. Cuz I thought that was really dope that you had spoke about that on Instagram.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, So 2010’s was like a vision board, you know, decade.
Sylvia O'Bell I don't think I knew about it before that, personally.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, for sure.
Sylvia O’Bell I’m like, oh I can map something out, visualize it you say?
Scottie Beam I think Oprah taught me about that.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah, it was Oprah.
Scottie Beam It was Oprah that did it.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oprah’s taught us so many of the things that we know.
Sylvia O’Bell But she was like, let me tell y’all what the whites are doing over here. You don’t know?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins We got to get in on this. Yeah, for sure. And we did, and we took it and ran with it. We started having parties, with Moet and we was just, and brunch.
Sylvia O’Bell We made it ours.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, we, for sure, you know, Chicken and waffle vision board Parties, yeah, yeah. No, for sure. Every New Year it was like five people will be like, you're invited to my vision board party, but you have to decide whose you go, you can’t do seven vision boards.
Sylvia O'Bell You have to say, I can only have so many vision boards this year, please.
Scottie Beam I still haven't done one.
Sylvia O’Bell What?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oh well you're going to do a manifestation map.
Sylvia O’Bell I, so, tell us what that is.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins So basically I was doing vision boards and I was like, not feeling it, it's not enough. That's basically what it was. I felt literally, I was like, this isn't hitting for me anymore.
Scottie Beam Those magazines, y’all came with, like, so many magazines to cut out.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It felt devoid of inspiration and I felt like I needed to go deeper.
Scottie Beam Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins So, you know, I had been, you know, really doing a lot of manifestation and really working on that in my life and figuring out what that meant for me spiritually, mentally. And I said, you know, I think the reason the vision board isn’t hitting for me is that it's just vision. It's not deeper. It's not I'm not manifesting these things. So really, for me, what it is, is there's more intention behind it. So I'm cutting out these things that are speaking to me that I'm really making, it's not just I see it and it looks cool. It's like, it has to hit. We all know what that feels like, intuitively. And then I'm making sure that I'm taking time on each of those things to manifest it in my life. Sometimes that meant prayer, sometimes that meant just closing my eyes and really visualizing it, not visualizing the pasting on the paper, but visualizing what that cutout meant in my life.
Sylvia O’Bell Right. Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And what that looked like in my life. And then deciding and declaring that it is a map to the life that I want to create in tandem with God, I always made sure, which I wasn't doing before, too, to write the date that I did it on the back, because that was very important, especially for the way things manifested after I did the manifestation map. It literally all happened within a year, almost to the day. It was really kind of eerie how that all, how that all happened.
Sylvia O’Bell Wow.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins So, yeah, it just, it's, it's putting more intention behind it. Is really what it is.
Scottie Beam I love that.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah. And you know the way you went above and beyond for that map and even in manifestation and like even just putting so much thought into things, it reminds me so much of your character, on Dear White People, Joelle. I always felt like there was a lot of similarities. And maybe it's because Justin's a friend of yours that he put in your character that is in tandem with you as a person.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, there are definitely through lines, for sure. That is something that I really love about Joelle, is that she's so intentional.
Sylvia O’Bell Yes.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And she fully knows what she wants and she's excited about going after it. But she's stressed, especially in this fourth season. The girl is going through it.
Sylvia O'Bell Yeah but a lot of times she be doing it to herself, though.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins No, she’s always doing it to herself.
Sylvia O'Bell It’s like, nobody told you to do all of this.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Nobody
Sylvia O’Bell They actually told you to not.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Literally reading the scripts, but just literally just give me, like, anxiety. I'll be like, oh, my gosh, Joelle, why are you doing this? Because, too, I think people forget like we meet her at 19, we leave her at 21, you know, in the school year. But, like, I'm so much older than she is. Just Ashley is. So I'm you know, I look at her sometimes it's like a little sister. When I’m playing her I don’t. But when I watch it, I'm always like, oh, man. Like, she's going to learn. She's not there now. And I understand the struggles of like that 19, 20, 21 phase of life, college life.
Sylvia O'Bell Child, baby, what a time to be alive.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins But it’s, there’s many things about Joelle that either I didn't go through or I worked through already. So sometimes it makes me sad to see her go through it all. Yeah, the poor girl.
Sylvia O'Bell So what do you love most about playing Joelle over these last four or five years now?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It's been five years to four seasons. Yeah, um. Just what she represents in the world and the history of television. That to me is the most important and poignant part of Joelle is that she's a beautiful, young, talented, brilliant, dark skinned, natural haired Black girl on television, striving and doing her best, being a good friend, being a good person. Got to be a doctor. Like, she's just wonderful. She really is wonderful. And she is the type of character that I would want my future daughters and sons to look at and be inspired by. So to play someone that's so pure at heart and funny and fun, it's just really, you know, oftentimes for actors, that's a once in a lifetime opportunity. And I hope that I have many, many more. But should I not, to have been able to play Joelle, is… that, that's really like, we go back to when I came here.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I didn't have that specific dream, but that was God saying, no, we gotta dream Bigger. You have to plant yourself in television history as a character like this, and I feel like I did.
Scottie Beam Yeah. Let's talk about this final season.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Let's talk about it.
Scottie Beam Girl when they called you, when they called you and said,
Sylvia O'Bell Paint the picture, paint the picture, take us there.
Scottie Beam And said, “Hey Ash. Hey Ashley, hey girl,”
Sylvia O’Bell Boop boop bu-doop.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins What type of dialing numbers were that??
Sylvia O’Bell That was the Kim Possible beeper!
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oh! Oh, my Gosh.
Scottie Beam When they called you up and said, This final season, we gon to do a musical, what was your first thought?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins God, you're listening.
Sylvia O’Bell OK.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I went to school for musical theater.
Scottie Beam Yes, I know!
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Like y'all like, that’s what I’m trying to tell y’all.
Sylvia O'Bell This was the role I was born, I was born to do this!
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Literally! And it's so funny because as the cast, we joked that I was the only one that really felt that way.
Sylvia O'Bell Right, I imagined that.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Everyone else was like, hold on. Wait, what? And I was like shouting in my living room, you know, I was but I was screaming, hopping up and down, calling my mom like, it was, everyone else was stressed, had to get a drink or something. I don't know, I’m popping champagne. It was very different. I was like,
Sylvia O'Bell Logan, probably similar, “I know this bitch Ashley is just thrilled.”
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins One thousand and one thousand percent. And yeah, I was like, I was like, God. Wow. Like because here's the thing. Think about how rare that is. I'm on a full on 30 minute half hour comedy for three seasons. There's a little bit of music, like, I sing, you know. But it wasn't a part of the show. It just was like a thing, because we knew that Joelle had, like, that was one of her talents. Which was cool, which was great, that the writers like, infused that right? But to get a call saying that every episode is going to have music, choreography, rapping
Sylvia O’Bell That’s a huge switch.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Singing. that just is like, that never happens.
Scottie and Sylvia Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Because also people that are talking about the show, they're like, we thought is going to be like a musical episode. Not a musical season. Again, that’s God being like, nah, bigger. Like that's kind of, when I, when I look at my life and my career now, although I feel like, you know, I'm still, you know, fighting and striving and whatever, there are so many bright spots where that has happened. Yes. God has never not exceeded my expectations and, and blessed me abundantly. And this is just an example of that. It really is.
Scottie Beam Yeah. You are singing down, girl. You are singing down.
Sylvia O'Bell You know, I have, the reason why I've gotten to know you is I've been covering Dear White People from Season One.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I know! Our New York Trips.
Sylvia O’Bell All your New York trips. I was always the Buzzfeed had to do, who was doing Dear White People, interviewing, writing features, whatever. But so I was really like, Justin, you really took a huge risk and flip for making this big change for the fourth and final season. I know the Internet had a lot of feelings about it. They were like, oh, OK.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yes.
Sylvia O’Bell And I wondered if you could share what, if any way, what Justin's vision was with choosing. Was it just like a creative choice that he liked what he just like, oh, we just want to try this out? Or was there a bit more something that we may not know at home about Justin’s choice?
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You know, I think here's the thing. Justin loves music. He's a music, like Bad Hair, like Justin did, like original songs for Bad Hair. Like he's like, he's I mean, Justin can literally do anything. I wouldn't be surprised if there was an announcement that came out that he's, a, the world's leading forensic scientist. I would like of course he is.
Scottie Beam World’s leading forensic scientist.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, of course he is. That was random, I don’t know where that came from. But he could do that. So, yeah, I think Justin loves music and he wanted to do that. And also Justin wanted to showcase his cast, I think. And that for me, whether you like this season or not. The take away from me is just, there is nothing that we can't do. We completely went from being a regular normal comedy to having a completely musical season in the midst of COVID.
Sylvia O’Bell Right.
OK, Now Listen
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And Netflix did this, you know, Strong Black Lead, and Netflix did this amazing campaign, which was part of what I Instagram, which is about Black Joy. And Black Joy Matters. And part of Black Joy is song. And it's dance. And it's being expressive in all the ways and using all of our, our, our, our whole bodies, all of our limbs, you know, that's ancestral. So I think that, you know, on a really deep level, I think it's just illuminating Black Joy.
Scottie Beam Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins That's what I feel is part of it.
Scottie BeamI love that. First of all, Black Joy is number one on this show.
Sylvia O’Bell That's what we try to show.
Scottie Beam That’s what this show does.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You all are the physical manifestations of Black joy.
Sylvia O'Bell We try to be.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins That’s who you are.
Sylvia O’Bell Thank you.
Scottie Beam We absolutely try to do.
Sylvia O’Bell That’s what we try to do. And I love that you brought up all of that legacy and contribution to the culture because we wanted to ask you what you hope Dear White People’s contribution will be to the culture overall now that it's over. Like where do you hope to see it in the lexicon of things? Because honestly, we don't get many examples of Black college students lives on television.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, no.
Sylvia O’Bell We haven't had an HBCU once in a while. Between Dear White People and Grown-ish, those are really the only two that are out currently, and now Dear White People has ended. I wanted to know what you hope people will remember about it’s contribution to the culture.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Everything you know, I always reference like A Different World, like A Different World, was what I would binge. You couldn't really binge.
Sylvia O'Bell We would, we would hope it came on Nick-at-night marathon, and put your VHS in there, hit record.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It was like the prehistoric version of binging, right.
Sylvia O'Bell But same, but same.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah, but prior to going to Howard, the summer leading up to me, going to Howard, I just watched A Different World all day, every day and it like pumped me up.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I was like, I'm going to Hilman. Howard. You know, I was like, this is exactly what I'm doing. Like this is what the dorms are going to look like. Like, am I going to meet my lifelong bestiest there, which I did. You know, it was everything to me. And again, it was because I saw myself in those characters. Exactly. I saw myself. It was so clear as day. And that's what I hope Dear White People is to people 20, 30, 50, 100 years down the line. I hope they can look at us and see themselves, aspire for great things, feel bold enough to be their full, authentic selves. Cuz I think, you know, our show really hones in a lot on that. Yes, I hope Dear White People always makes people think. We have to remember our show was kind of like a 40 episode think piece.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins You know, and the cool thing about Dear White People is that it will always be relevant, which is kind of like a beautiful thing and a sad thing. And it was like A Different World. I watched A Different World probably, I don't know, twenty years after it originally aired. But everything still hit the same.
Sylvia O'Bell It still hits!
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And it still does.
Scottie Beam I watched it again, during the pandemic.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It still hits.
Sylvia O'Bell Let me tell you, it's my favorite show. But it's crazy that it's so relevant to me going, we went to HBCUs in the new millennium and like these are in the late 80s, early 90s, same stuff.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And Dear White People will, too. Unless we change. There is a world, there is a possibility that Dear White People doesn't have to hit the same in 50 years. In 20 years. Yeah, but the way we're going right now, it is.
Sylvia O’Bell Right.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It is.
Scottie Beam Yeah. Yeah. We do have one last question.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Let's hear it ladies.
Scottie Beam What is bringing you Joy right now?
Sylvia O'Bell Right now.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Oh, it's such a good question, I had to just, you know, let it out. Yes, yes, I. Being in the season of my life, it's so surreal.
Sylvia O'Bell It’s got to be beautiful.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins It's so beautiful, you know, I'm just in a season with so many endings and beginnings.
Sylvia O’Bell Yeah.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And there's a convergence of it. And I thought that it would feel stressful. I thought I'd be in a lot of ways a lot sadder than I am. Just with Dear White People ending, just a lot of life changes. But I couldn't be happier and probably in my favorite, most exciting, most motivating season of my life. You know, I feel hopeful for the things to come in my career and the cool thing is that I don't know what it is, but that's the best part. I don't know what's to come, but I'm trusting God. And as we've talked about this entire time, I know that whatever it is is going to be better than anything I could have ever imagined, and I'm excited about that. And I'm so excited that I've been blessed with a marriage. I feel so incredibly blessed to have a partner that loves me, supports me, tells me I'm beautiful every day and wants to build a life with me. Like I was telling someone, I was like, it honestly feels like my life's just getting started. I'm 33, but it feels like September 2021, everything just is really getting started. So what's bringing me joy is just that I'm in such a beautiful season and we all know that, like, see, beautiful seasons come and go. But that's, that's part of life. Yeah. And so I'm just relishing this season right now.
Scottie Beam That's the beauty behind that, too, is you'll have this moment, and these moments to hold on to when you have harder times, you meet hardship. Here comes, Oh yes, I had this season. I have this season to relish and love on, still.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Yeah.
Scottie Beam Because people forget that moment. You know, gratitude is huge, it is super important.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins And I'm grounded in gratitude. Yes, that's where I am.
Scottie Beam Thank you so much, Ashley, so wonderful.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Thank you. I love you ladies so much. And I have to say I am so, so proud of you. This is beautiful.
Sylvia O’Bell Ashley, don’t do this.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins No, I'm serious. I have to do this. This is, to see you all thriving is just you know, we haven't always had opportunities like this. Three Black girls with our natural hair poppin, protective styles popping in a studio, talking about Black joy. Like we have to take it in. It's so wonderful. And I wish you all all of the success,
Sylvia O'Bell That feeling is so mutual, Ashley, I hope, you know, that is a fact.
Scottie Beam First of all, I hope that you leave no stone unturned. Like, I hope that you are able to be in every single lane.
Sylvia O’Bell that you want to be in.
Scottie Beam Do not ever limit yourself because the possibilities are endless for you.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Thank you.
Scottie Beam Like, endless. So I am a big fan. Huge
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Thank you. Sylvia, you've been with me since the beginning.
Sylvia O'Bell I’ve just been watching, I’m so proud.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins Like from the beginning. And I just have to say, like, it almost feels like you've chronicled my career in a way, and my first face that I would always see and be excited to see doing my first press tours for my first show was yours. So just to see you here now and to be here with you now with our sister Scottie is just so beautiful. And I just, this is also a moment I'm going to I'm going to really always hold with me.
Sylvia O’Bell Me too.
Ashley Blaine Featherson Jenkins I feel very grateful and I hope to come back many, many, many, many times.
Sylvia O'Bell Yes. We hope to have you back many, many, many times on your next Netflix show that you’re starring in.
Scottie, Sylvia, and Ashley Yay!
Scottie Beam All right, go ahead Sylvia hit us up!
Sylvia O'Bell All right. That's our show! It's been a long walk to freedom, but we made it to the end of this work week. OK? Thank you all for tuning in, and for your support and prayers during this last two weeks.
Scottie Beam Our show is a production of Pineapple Street Studios in partnership with Netflix and Strong Black Lead, honey. Shout out to our team, Our editor is Jess Jupiter, and our producer is Taylor Hosking. Our music is by Amanda Jones. Special thanks to Max Linsky and Jenna Weiss-Berman.
Sylvia O'Bell Make sure to share your thoughts with us on the episode using the #OKNowListen.
Scottie Beam Amen.
Sylvia O’Bell Follow Strong Black Lead on the socials @StrongBlackLead and follow us too. I am @SylviaObell
Scottie Beam And I am at Libra Season @ScottieBeam!
Sylvia O’Bell Birthday Beam!
Scottie Beam Dot Com!
Sylvia O'Bell Birthday Beam!
Scottie Beam Birthday Beam, baby!
Sylvia O’Bell Until next time, folks, stay blessed.