Will Smith digs deep at Brooklyn book tour stop
BY NYCKOLE MAREE
Actor Will Smith gave new
meaning to the name of his
book tour, “An Evening of Stories
With Friends,” when he
stopped by Brooklyn’s Kings
Theatre on Nov. 9.
At the sprawling Flatbush
venue, Smith dove deep into
some of the life lessons unveiled
in his new memoir,
“Will,” while in conversation
with Brooklyn boy Spike Lee.
There, he credited his late father
for instilling in him a
brick-by-brick mentality at an
early age.
When Smith was 11 years
old, he told the crowd, his father
made his brother and him
rebuild a wall in front of his father’s
shop. He was complaining
about not seeing the possibilities
of there ever being a
wall again, but his father overheard
his conversation and
gave him a valuable life lesson.
Smith cherished his words and
used them for motivation in
setting him up for the successful
career he has today.
“It was terrifying and I felt
like I had been texting, looking
at my phone, and stepped out
into the street in front of a bus
and Willow snatched me back,”
said Smith. “She saved me
from what could’ve been tragic
in my life. It shook me to my
core, as strange as it sounds,
I discover feelings at that moment.
My feelings didn’t matter
in my childhood home and
I had to really think about the
question she was asking me:
‘Does it matter how I feel?'”
Each lesson learned, Smith
said, he took in stride to better
himself. But, the Brooklyn
stop on the book tour wasn’t
all emotional — the beloved actor
also shared with audience
members his share of fun stories,
like how Quincy Jones
COURIER LIFE, N 40 OVEMBER 19–25, 2021
forced him to unexpectedly audition
for “The Fresh Prince of
Bel-Air” at his massive birthday
bash. (There was a lot of
convincing, he said, but Smith
signed a contract to headline
the iconic show that ran for six
seasons.)
The book tour also felt like
a party, where Smith brought
out DJ Jazzy Jeff on the turntables
to help him perform some
of his biggest tracks — from
“Switch” to the “Fresh Prince”
theme song. The audience sang
along and gave him a standing
ovation throughout the event.
Some of the biggest Will
Smith fans even dressed as
some of his iconic characters,
like “Will” from “Fresh
Prince,” and were excited to
hear their idol share some wisdom
with them.
“I seen him talk about relationships
and life lessons that
he shared on social media so it
will be great to actually hear
him talk about it in person
and shed light on some of those
points,” said attendee Calvin
O’Neal.
Smith’s new memoir, “Will,”
co-authored by Mark Manson,
details Smith’s life in chronological
order, but also speaks to
certain emotions in psychological
states and ideas that were
equivalent during his life.
“It starts with fear, chapter
two fantasy, then performance
and power, it goes through the
psychological states that I was
experiencing,” said Smith.
“The book arcs from fear and
the fi nal chapter is love. Mark
really found a way through
my life as I was trying to run
these different ideas and different
experiences to fi nd my
way to love.”
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The city is looking for ways
to offi cially honor Brooklyn’s
own Michael K. Williams, the
acclaimed actor famous for
his role as Omar Little on The
Wire, and who died earlier
this year at the age of 54.
“We’re going to fi nd a way,
before I leave offi ce, to properly
honor Michael K. Williams for
all he has done for this community,
for all the people he mentored,
all the people he loved
and supported,” Mayor Bill de
Blasio said Tuesday at an unrelated
event in Flatbush. “We
want his name to be up there
as an inspiration to all.”
The mayor referred to Williams
as “one of the great actors
of our time, in what was,
to me…the greatest television
show in the history of television,
The Wire.” Those opinions
were shared by many: the
HBO program, which aired
from 2002 until 2008 and provided
a starkly realistic look
at the gritty underbelly of
gangs, policing, politics, and
other institutions in Baltimore,
is now widely lauded as
one of the greatest television
programs in history.
Williams’ portrayal of
Omar, a widely feared stickup
man who operated under
a strict moral code, has been
particularly singled out for
praise both during and after
the show’s run, with the actor
bringing a certain depth to
his performance that is hard
to replicate without lived experience.
The actor was born and
raised in East Flatbush, specifi
cally the Vanderveer Estates
apartment complex (now
known as Flatbush Gardens),
and his experiences growing
up in the neighborhood, and
the characters it produced,
informed his performances
throughout his career. Williams
had a troubled adolescence
marred by addiction,
abuse, and crime (he got his
trademark face scar after being
slashed in a barfi ght in
Queens), and as a young adult
he found a home as a dancer
in lower Manhattan gay bars,
leading to gigs as a tour dancer
for prominent musicians before
he turned to acting.
When Williams was cast as
Omar, he brought his experiences
growing up as a Black
man in Brooklyn and within
the LGBTQ+ nightlife scene
of Lower Manhattan to a character
at that point rarely seen
on American television: a gay,
Black gangster.
Williams never forgot his
Brooklyn roots and remained
a fi xture in the neighborhood
even after he moved out of his
childhood home. “He was a
regular guy,” a Flatbush resident
told the New York Times
in September; he would visit
often to see old friends, and
often organized youth events
and food drives.
He was a tireless advocate
for the community as
well: he co-founded We Build
the Block, an organization
dedicated to creating a new
community-led public safety
model to replace policing, and
he had consistently advocated
for such models and pilot programs
in recent years.
Unfortunately, the actor’s
dedication to his craft often
came at the expense of his
health and wellbeing. While
receiving acclaim for his role
as Omar, he was privately
struggling with addiction to
the point he would often fi nd
himself sleeping at a drug
house in New Jersey.
He relapsed several times
over the course of his life, and
his addiction would eventually
claim his life. Williams
died at his Williamsburg
apartment in September from
an overdose on a combination
of Fentanyl, p-fl uorofentanyl,
heroin, and cocaine, according
to the Medical Examiner.
His death sent shockwaves
around the country, but nowhere
more so than in his
home borough of Brooklyn.
Off to a fresh start
City to honor Michael K. Williams
BROOKLYN
Not forgotten
Actor Will Smith. REUTERS/Ringo Chiu/File Photo
Michael K. Williams in 2010 Photo by Tim Pierce via Creative Commons