I’m a pretty intuitive person – almost to the point of being clairvoyant. I somehow have the knack to be able to connect the dots between the art and culture of yesteryear and the trends of today and tomorrow. At my root, I’m also an organizer. With me, everything has to be in a certain order. That’s a big part of what drives me. Every morning when I get up, I have to make up my bed. Call it OCD. Who knows? All I know is that my room has to look a certain way before I leave the house. I like to look back at it and see order.

Not to layer on the hubris, but my incomparable skill set includes a wealth of experience in event coordination, film production, photography, and tour management. My background intertwines the rich strands of African culture, courtesy of Zimbabwe, with the heritage of the black American experience into a vibrant tapestry woven on the cusp of the fertile Mississippi delta. And my multitimbral Digital Indie Girl hub is set to be an unprecedented force to be reckoned with in the realms of art and culture. Seriously.

People often ask how such a schizophrenic list of artistic and cultural interests could possibly be reconciled with each other. That’s easy. I told you I’m a master at connecting the dots. While I (was) focusing on a career in film at the esteemed Howard University, I was dually influenced by the dynamic confluence of art and culture of the surrounding metropolitan Washington, DC area. After graduation, I retuned home inspired with the self-assigned task of gradually transforming Jackson into one of the preeminent artistic and cultural hubs of the South. I also decided to make it my business to develop art that skillfully instigates dialogue on the hot button topic of race relations along the way. I was indeed on a mission.

With my major being film, it was already apparent that a part of me longed to be behind the camera – any camera. So when I returned to Jackson, I became the campaign photographer for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice James Graves. Unbeknownst to me, some of my photography from Justice Graves’ campaign trail ran in the Jackson Free Press (JFP), the city’s alternative weekly newspaper. I discovered just how dope the JFP was sometime later and decided to take a stab at being a regular contributor. To my surprise, JFP was already familiar with my work and offered me an internship, which soon segued into a staff position.

I’ve always believed in keeping my irons in the fire. So being that film was my first love, I moonlighted as an intern at the Mississippi Film Office while simultaneously capturing the beauty and diversity of Jackson in still frames at JFP. At the film office, I met deputy director Nina Parikh. Nina was the co-founder of the city’s Crossroads Film Festival. As fate would have it, she was also on the festival’s advisory board with JFP publisher Todd Stauffer. With my drive and developing body of work on the table, I landed the position of festival coordinator for the Crossroads Film Festival for two consecutive seasons. With that, I became the first African-American to coordinate the largest film festival in the state of Mississippi.

My position at the festival whetted my appetite for event coordination. As a result, I produced the Journey Awards, which took place in MS, under the auspices of the Canton Convention and Visitors Bureau. The awards show recognized members of the Canton community that contributed to the progression of civil and human rights before and during the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement. Losing no ground, I also began working in Jackson’s budding artist scene as an event coordinator, working alongside other passionate artists like Ezra Brown and Teneia Sanders to produce events at the nightlife venue Seven Studios.

But film somehow kept chasing my footsteps. I soon became acquainted with Canadian director Paul Saltzman through a co-worker at JFP. He told me about a groundbreaking new documentary project he’d recently embarked on and was searching for someone with enough proven skill and knowledge of Mississippi’s racially charged history to be his right hand. And with that, I became the associate producer of his 2009 documentary film Prom Night In Mississippi. Chronicling the first integrated prom in Charleston, Mississippi in 2008, the film benefited from the generous support and on-camera interviews of Charleston-native and Academy Award-nominated actor Morgan Freeman.

Prom Night In Mississippi was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win awards at the AFI, Oxford, and Crossroads film festivals. If that wasn’t enough, (Additionally) HBO picked the film up for broadcast. In December of 2011, the film was invited to screen at the White House for President Barack Obama and his staff. Its safe to say that Paul and I are a winning combination. So much so, we’ve teamed up on yet another compelling film project called The Last White Knight. Stay tuned.

With my documentary experience under my belt, I joined the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) in New York City. Soon after meeting Denise Greene, director of the New Media Institute at NBPC, I began working as the institute’s assistant director. During my time at the New Media Institute, I became immersed in the culture of public media with a close focus on new media. After my time with NBPC, I served as project/tour manager for my fellow Jackson native and lauded Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Cassandra Wilson. I also liaise on various projects with both her Ojah Media Group and her exciting new live performance venue located in Jackson, Yellow Scarf.

To my surprise, my involvement at Yellow Scarf allowed me the platform to work towards one of my goals established during my tenure at the New Media Institute: producing short film content. The culmination of my disparate, yet interrelated career experiences have lead me to the launch of the all-encompassing Digital Indie Girl. I’m developing a soul-shockin’, body-rockin’ brand that will serve as an umbrella for creatives and artists to be represented and be themselves. Period.

It’s safe to say that serendipity factors in as more than simply a passing word in my wondrous career trajectory. But it helps when you’ve got a knack for connecting the dots. Yeah, I wear a lot of hats. But trust me when I say that it’s all out of necessity. My mother always said if you want something right, do it yourself. Many times, I find myself in those situations. So whether it’s event production, photography, or other aspects of media, I know that if I do it, it will get done right. I’m a bad mama jama. Seriously.