Gilda Rogers creates a forum for spirited discussion on cable TV
In a world where truth in advertising can be hard to find, local cable show "Frank Talk with Gilda Rogers" delivers exactly what its title promises and more.
The Brookdale Cable TV show, now in its second season, offers candid coverage and open discussion of sensitive, often-avoided issues as well as a showcase for the arts. "Frank Talk" can be seen on Channel 21 (Comcast) and Channel 46 (Verizon).
"I wanted to give a voice to those who did not have one," Rogers said in an interview. "All people, everyone, has an important and interesting story to share."
A major focus of the show is the importance of a quality education and leadership skills as the most crucial weapons against racial inequality, a battle that Rogers frankly points out is nowhere close to an end in our nation today.
"I don’t think we talk enough about how much race is still a factor in this country. We want to think we live in a post-racial society," she said, "but racism is still an albatross around our neck."
Rogers said the biggest obstacle society has to face on this issue is fear.
"We [people of all races and ethnicities] shouldn’t be intimidated by talking about racial issues. We need to come together and get into a dialogue about how we feel about each other," she said.
Her show is just one platform that she hopes will facilitate that dialogue.
Rogers believes hope for true equality in our nation depends on education and she tries "to highlight people who are doing great things in education and to shed light on what’s not happening in education, and what we can do about it.
"Education is the pillar of democracy and society," she said. "It can bring you out of poverty to a broader life. It gives people hope and an opportunity to get to know themselves as well."
One individual who has given both hope and opportunity to many African American students to Darryl C. Walls. Walls, an author and educator focused on changing the lives of young African American students across the country by introducing them to active leadership skills early in their educational experience, was the subject of an episode of "Frank Talk." He is the author of "Leadership Defined" and the founder and CEO of MINDS (Mental Intensity Naturally Determines Success). His book and topic of several segments on local and regional news broadcasts.
In his interview with Rogers for "Frank Talk," Walls pointed to what he believe is the reason some African American students are not succeeding in academics today.
"Many of them feel they do not even have a right to success," he told Rogers. "They are suffering from a lack of self-esteem, and so they remain stagnating in the second stage (of a young developing leader), the ‘confusion stage.’ They don’t know what they should be or have a right to be. I bring the message that they have a right to success."
Other segments of "Frank Talk" include an intimate interview with author/physician Dr. Yvonne S. Thornton, author of "The Ditchdigger’s Daughters." Thornton tells her own story of courage and triumph as a young African American girl from Long Branch growing up in the 1950s whose father refused to give up on a dream for all of his daughters to become doctors.
In keeping with Rogers’ theme of giving a voice to those that have none is a segment on the work of writer Ntozake Shange, author of the book "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" and reactions in the African American literary community to Tyler Perry’s efforts to bring the book to the silver screen.
Other segments range from the struggles of African American students with autism to the New Brunswick Jazz Festival and the recent celebration of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson’s work "Jitney" at the Two River Theater in Red Bank.
"Frank Talk" is the brainchild of the Red Bank-based journalist, educator and community activist, who is a walking vehicle for change all by herself. When it comes to organizations dedicated to changing young lives for the better, Rogers wears many hats and can be found on many Internet sites.
She is program director of The Source, a school-based youth services program at Red Bank Regional High School. Rogers received a New Jersey Celebration of Life Annual Inc. (COLA) award for her work as a journalist in 2007 and is the author of the book "Arrested Development, the State of Black Achievement and Education in Hip-Hop America." She is also the CEO of the Beyond Group, an image-consulting agency that specializes in helping authors, artists and educators who are working for change get the attention they deserve.
Rogers’ credo at The Beyond Group is "Live freely with no expectations, value who you are, be of service to others and make a difference."
Before Brookdale Television asked her to create a show two years ago, Rogers had already created a small interactive environment where anyone from the community could be an audience for local artists, poets, authors, literary critis and educators at the Frank Talk Art Bistro & Books on Red Bank’s west side. All were welcome.
Following each presentation, members of the audience could ask their own questions in the relaxed environment of a warmly lit and cozy cafe, rubbing elbows with greatness and walking out into the night air of Red Bank perhaps a little wiser or more open-minded than when they’d first walked in. Even through the cafe/bookstore closed, Rogers has somehow ensured that every episode of her cable show still has that intimate feeling, that personal touch and an interactive nature.
Perhaps it’s a combination of the relevance to local community in the issues she chooses or her continued use of small interactive audiences or choice camera angles and soft lighting. Whichever it may be, the overall effect seems consistent whether you are watching the show on Brookdale television or on your laptop. The segment ends and you feel as if you just walked out of that little cafe into the night air of Red Bank, now familiar with the work of a writer or artist that you may not have known or perhaps newly aware of an issue or injustice.