KIMBERLY WILSON

This is a test, right? We're still rolling?  Oh, okay!  My name is Kimberly Wilson and I was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I am the last of six children. 

I was the spoiled child. 

They called me the lesson child. 

I had lessons. In Minneapolis. Skiing lessons, skating lessons, acting lessons, piano lessons, dance lessons, guitar lessons, organ lessons.  

Yes. 

And I was a basketball player. I was a cheerleader. This was all before I was in my high school, bowling league, but I loved it. Minneapolis was great for me and great to me. 

I was also Miss Black Minnesota. 1984-85. We were not a beauty pageant. We were a scholarship program. And we focused on charm, academia, our relationships, commitment. And we had training on all those areas. Literally, we had charm. On how to sit, how to be poised.  And I carried that with me. 

In my junior year in high school, so we started a theater and it's still in existence.  It was founded on colorblind casting. I went to college and studied fine arts and theater at Howard University. So, all along I did theater, commercials, print work, and I never digressed from it. I really didn't. 

So, when I came out to Connecticut, I had to bring all that wonderful theater history with me and start over basically. So, I wrote a scene called "The Three Spirits of Black Womanhood," and I presented that to schools.  And then eventually I ended up writing a full stage production. I wrote it twelve years ago, excuse me, in 2012.  And it is a story of eight historical characters starting with the Queen. From Africa. To remind everyone who sees this that our history is not a slave history. Our history is a royal regal history of the land before we were kidnapped. And displaced. In a country that we did not know and understand. 

And so, I celebrate that journey, that story. And then tell the story of the slave trade. And then I share a story of Harriet Tubman, a story of a slave child growing up on a plantation, and going to Sojourner Truth’s story.  Rosa Parks story. Maya Angelou's story.  My story.  And then I open it up to the audience to tell their story. 

And through each character I sing a spiritual that helps move from that character's story to the next character.  And so, it's a continually woven breath of a journey - from cultures past, to lives lost, to lives celebrated, into lives shared.  So, I'm doing what I love right now. 

My day job is I am the Director of Business Development and Administrative Services at Weichert Realtors Madison and Post right in Westport. And I love my day job. 

I love, I love my life! 

And I'm rowing. You know, my first competition is coming up. We're survivors of breast cancer. We came together, the Saugatuck Rowing Club in Norwalk Hospital Cancer Care Center, and our team was the first team to come learn how to row - in our healing. I have five years clean, so I went over that hurdle. She's still singing to me. She's a deep singer. 

(Singing) I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. Oh, his eye is on the sparrow.  And I know, my Lord is watching over me. 

That's how she sings.