The Homecoming Issue: Behind the Scenes with Brian Tyree Henry

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00:00Hey there, I'm Brian Tyree Henry and you are joining me behind the scenes for my Ebony cover

00:04shoot October issue. You have to have tenacity in order to matriculate through Morehouse.

00:10It was an interesting time for me, you know, because I got in there at the beginning of 2000,

00:14the turn of the millennium. It was also a time of my life where I was really trying

00:19to figure out who I wanted to be and Atlanta, Georgia definitely helped with that. My community

00:24of Spelman was thick as thieves, very tight. I mean, we did some of the most kamikaze missions

00:31when it came to plays. Like one semester I was playing Tartu for Moyer and then the next semester

00:37I was doing an original work by Anna Deavere Smith. So, you know, what was also great was

00:44that we were able to go on into the community of Atlanta. So, you know, we were doing a lot

00:48of theater around the city, but it was just like we, it was like a troop, like a traveling troop

00:52of these black students, like doing theater and it was great. And I just remember immediately,

00:57I was like, oh, these are my people. Like this is where I need to be. The mystique of Morehouse,

01:01you know about it before you even embark on the journey to get there. And so I remember

01:06finally getting to Morehouse and I remember orientation, right? And I remember thinking

01:13very, I just remember thinking, I was like, is this what I really want? You know, like,

01:18is this what I really want to go through? Is, do I feel like I can be who I want to be here? I mean,

01:23like everything that they told me for some reason, I was like, I feel like I have to find my own way.

01:29I don't want to be so rigid within the construct of what this is. What I learned from the lesson

01:34of that is that that's what college is supposed to be about. You know, you finding out who you are,

01:40you experiencing the world the way you want to fight it for your individuality in a way.

01:44And the history and legacy of Morehouse is so deeply rooted in such a wonderful way.

01:49But at the same time, I was like, I really think I have a sense of who I am and who I want to be.

01:54And yeah, I pushed back a lot, more than I should have. But at the end of the day,

01:59I don't think that I'd be sitting here. I don't think that I would be the man in the world that

02:03I am now had I not gone through that experience at this institution. I think knowing that in this

02:11industry, they don't make it easy. Still today, they don't make it easy. It allowed me to have

02:16more freedom because I was like, well, I'm not doing it for you. I'm doing this for me and I'm

02:20doing it for the people who recognize and see me. I think about a lot of the characters that I

02:24have portrayed and most of them are characters that most people wouldn't even allow in their

02:30living rooms. Like if you don't go into certain areas or you aren't in certain places, you probably

02:34would never even interact with them. And so for me, I'm always like, but there's still people

02:39that exist and that you need to know. They're relatable to us. They're our cousins. They're

02:43our friends. They're people like you interact with them. And so I just try to keep the truth

02:48of that. I just try to always play all the different men that I knew in my life and try

02:54to make sure that they see themselves reflected and make sure that they feel like, oh my God,

02:57like, man, we know this dude. Doing theaters is one of my favorite things in the world

03:02because that curtain comes up and then you have two hours maybe to tell a story from beginning

03:06to end and there's nowhere to hide. There's nowhere to go. What's really crazy is that

03:09because we're black anyway, we're always trying to figure out how to act and be and move in

03:14different places. Like we are the, like we are the amazing shapeshifters of a culture, like

03:19because we are always told the places we can occupy, where we can be, what's dangerous, what's,

03:23you know, we always do it. We're always doing it. We have to always be culturally conscious,

03:28but there also needs to be a sense of deep pride at the end of the day. What will you fight for?

03:33What are you willing to lay down for? I have Morehouse to credit for that in a big way

03:38because it was like, I don't ever want my visibility to be squashed. We always have to

03:43find ways to move and shapeshift in order to survive. That's just a part of our life.

03:48But at the same time, I just hope that we don't lose the true identity of who we want to be

03:54because sometimes you can get lost in that shapeshifting and then, you know,

03:57there's glitches and you don't even know how to get back to who you were to begin with.

04:00What I love about being in Morehouse in Spelman is that I got to really submit the man that I

04:05wanted to be in the world and recognize all the ways and places and spaces I can

04:10navigate and shapeshift in there, but also come back to the root of who I am.

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