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12 yr. old Jordan Coleman, film maker
Jordan Coleman is no ordinary middle school student, yet his voice is certainly familiar in millions of homes of preschoolers across the nation, he is the voice for Tyrone the Moose on Nickelodeon’s “The Backyardigans”, and even larger than that he is an actor, writer, producer and director of his very first documentary entitled “Say it Loud!” a film designed for the youth that stresses the importance of education for African American boys. Even at the age of twelve he is all too familiar with the negative stereotypes that are associated with African American males, he told me that he’d heard that most black boys “don’t care about school, will be dead or in jail by the time they are 25 and that more than half of them don’t graduate from high school”. He decided to reach out to these boys “because most of them want to be rappers or athletes, so I got all their favorite rappers and athletes together to see what they had to say about education”.
He used his earnings from his voice work to make this film so that he could bring a positive message to the African American Community. The film has been shown to 100,000 or more people to date; Jordan hopes that number will soon soar to one million. The film has appearances from an enumeration of celebrities and public figures including: Kobe Bryant, Ludacris, Michael Strahan, Rev. Al Sharpton, Master P, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Hurricane Chris, Ben Wallace, Jadakiss, Winky Wright, Young Joc, Busta Rhymes, and Terrence J. who all agree that staying in school with do you a whole world of good.
While he says that he’s never nervous at the question and answer sessions from his viewers after the screenings, Jordan openly admits that he was shaking before Kobe Bryant entered the hotel room at the Ritz Carlton to do an interview with him, that soon ended and they both had a great time doing the interview. It’s not very often that a young man gets to interview one of his roll models in the flesh, he is very impressed that Kobe Bryant was an A student and knows how to speak four different languages. His other roll model is Kenny Smith; these men have inspired him to become a sports caster when he grows up.
Jordan believes that the best advice he gained from all of the men in the film came from the Rev. Al Sharpton off camera, he said to him “hard work pays off”, and speaking of hard- the hardest part about doing the film wasn’t the demanding schedule and commitment, but “remembering my lines” he recalls after a long pause, he even chuckled about it.
Indeed it does, just last year the film was featured as part of AMC Theatres 2008 Summer Moviecamp and it has also been seen on the west coast, in fact- this film has been on a seven city tour already : New York City, Washington DC, Kansas City, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and Miami. When asked about what President Barack Obama would think of his film he said this: “I think he’d like it because of all of the different people who were in it and because it’s about education. I’ve been trying to get to him, but I haven’t yet.”
This honor roll students days go something like this: He goes to school, then sports practice and immediately following that he discusses the screening schedule for
“Say it Loud!” with his mom and manager Chrisena Coleman, who is a seasoned reporter for the Daily News. I had the honor of doing a phone interview with this young man this past Saturday; he had just finished up a successful screening the night before in Cleveland Ohio he told me all about the fun he had dancing and singing the songs featured in his film with his audience.
He admits to seeing that the kids who have viewed his film have changed their opinions about education, although his thoughts have stayed the same, “Education is BIG, you need it, it’s MANDATORY you HAVE to have an education to get a good job.” For more information about Jordan and “Say it Loud!” you may visit his website at www.sayitloudfilm.com the trailer says it all.
Jordan has three screenings lined up for April already in Newark New Jersey; there are more details on his site. I will be attending one of those screenings and I hope to see you there as well.
For more info: visit www.sayitloudfilm.com
Comments
Lovely story. Jordan must be quite a kid!
Jordan is quite the inspiration. Great POSITIVE story!
That is so cool! My son *loves* Tyrone, can't wait to show him the actor behind the voice and all he's already accomplished!
Robert
Thanks Robert,
It would be awesome if he could actually meet him at a screening. You should try and get one scheduled in your area.
What did you do to meet all of those famous people
God has given me favor, that is all
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