Prideindex - Herndon Davis' New Horizon

Noted author, lecturer and TV host Herndon Davis took a bold step when he recently expanded his hour long television show, The Herndon Davis Reports; a weekly news program for the GLBT community, online. The show was a follow-up to the highly controversial, “Black, Gay & Christian” an inspiration guidebook which aims to reconcile sexual orientation and Christianity. Mr. Davis spoke to Legends about his book and the retooled signature show which abandons the all gay strategy in favor of a newsmagazine format that will showcase all human diversity.

LEGENDS: Please describe your current or most recent project and the motivation for your project, and any notable challenges you encountered.
HERNDON DAVIS: The Herndon Davis Reports: http://herndondavis.com - This weekly television show was initially geared towards blacks gays/lesbians but I’ve since re-tooled it into a multi-media (TV, internet-radio, video streaming) diversity newsmagazine speaking to diversity of all kinds (sexual, ethnic, cultural, spiritual, political, economic diversity).

Book Projects: My books are meant to uplift black gays/lesbian spiritually and to inspire and motivate them to rise above fear, ignorance, and intolerance in order to embrace a God of never-ending love who desire only their continual good and well being. Each person who reads my books will hopefully impact another, who will then impact another, and so forth. However these books are NOT meant to change the minds of anti-gay individuals, but instead they are meant to be an inspiration to men,

About Hernon Davis

Site: http://herndondavis.com

Age: 34

Zodiac: Taurus

Marital Status: Single

Residence: Los Angeles. Originally from Mobile, Alabama

Favorite Foods: Chicken Alfredo pasta

Favorite Movie: A tie between "Red Violin" and "Lillies"

Gadget: Laptop

Drink: Apple Martini

Singer/performer: India Arie

women and children to embrace their sexuality and spirituality as one complete thriving being.

Articles/Columns/Essays/Op-eds - These are meant to do the same thing as my books, but I also explore issues of diversity, spirituality, and sexuality across the board without significant regard to race or culture, as these issues are more universal in nature.

Screenplays/Film - While still in development, these projects speak to diversity, coming of age and romance. I have written 8 so far and shot two of them as shorts.

LEGENDS: What is your earliest memory of being a writer?
HERNDON DAVIS: I wrote a daytime soap opera on construction paper and recorded in my father’s old tape recorder.

LEGENDS: When were you first published? And under what circumstances?
HERNDON DAVIS: I self-published “Black Gay & Christian” under extreme circumstances. I was unemployed yet spending all of money and resources to getting this book out because something inside of me (i.e. the Holy Spirit) was pushing me to do it and to do it now!!

LEGENDS: How do you identify and nurture ideas for new projects?
HERNDON DAVIS: I pray and meditate asking my Creator which footsteps, paths, and directions that she/he or it intends for me to take. I then take those footsteps on blind faith, asking that the Creator put me to “sleep” allowing him to have her way within the project itself.

LEGENDS: Please describe 1-3 authors/writers/performers that have influenced your artistic style?
HERNDON DAVIS: James Baldwin for his critical essays, JB Phillips for his spiritual analogies, and Dr. Stanley for his continuously uplifting messages.

LEGENDS: What 2 books and 2 CDs should everyone own?
HERNDON DAVIS: Dr. Charles Stanley‘s, “How To Listen To God” and Max Lucado’s “Just Like Jesus”, Jill Scott, (1st CD) and India Aria, (1st CD)

LEGENDS: Do you believe LGBT authors have an obligation to the LGBT community? Why or why not?
HERNDON DAVIS: Yes I do. No one likes to bear the label of role model, myself included, but we must recognize that God has given each of us a gift. In the case of writing, the power of expression and thought are our gifts as writers. We have the obligation to represent the very essence of ourselves through everything that we do without compromise.

LEGENDS: What is the biggest misconception about you and/or your work?
HERNDON DAVIS: That my work is too gay. If one reads my work carefully, they will see that there are universal messages of hope, inspiration, motivation, and healing for everyone, not just the gay community.

LEGENDS: What advice would you give aspiring writers?
HERNDON DAVIS: Do not seek fame, fortune, or notoriety. Seek God instead for the direction of your writing even if it seems low key or no where down a path of success. Purse this nonetheless because when our footsteps are ordered by the Lord, success is guaranteed. Also, do not be discouraged or become motivated by what you see others doing in the writing world. Stick with being uniquely you and the rewards of being faithful to that path will appear.

LEGENDS: What led to your launching a TV show, how are people responding, what do you believe it is achieving?
HERNDON DAVIS: Up until Nov. 2004 I had addressed exclusively gay or gay-friendly audiences about my book and my path as a black gay Christian man.

I finally addressed a black heterosexual audience, most of it was non-affirming. Soon as the black conservatism kicked in, I found myself defending who I was versus sharing who I was. I distinctly remember making a comment that gays including black gays are still beaten and killed today as a result of homophobia.

At that exact moment, a black man in the audience shook his head in shock, astonishment, and disagreement. At that moment, I went off rattling gay bashing statistics, and horrible accounts of black gays/lesbians that were viciously killed over the past few years.

I literally wanted to physically shake this man into intelligence. I truly wanted to make him understand! Later on after mediation and prayer, I realized that I can no longer afford to waste my precious time and energy by addressing non-affirming heterosexual audiences to defend who I am.

Instead I realized that I must go back to my base, the gay community and cultivate, empower, motivate, educate, and inspire us to be the proud, productive, thriving beings that God, our Creator meant for us to be. So this meant no more defending who I am, but instead celebrating who I am.

I wanted an uplifting forum that eventually reached to gay audiences around the world that was for them and created by them. I initially thought about doing a national syndicated radio program, but later was encouraged by a friend that TV was really my path, a path that I was too afraid to utter until our conversation.

When I finally stated to myself that television would be the path

"If one reads my work carefully, they will see that there are universal messages of hope, inspiration, motivation, and healing for everyone, not just the gay community," says Herndon Davis.

that I would take, God took care of the rest.
Four moths later I shot the pilot for the TV talk show, The Herndon Davis Reports. Initially, the show was completely black gay focused as I wanted to bring the rest of the black gay community to a higher consciousness and pride about who they are.

Amazingly, after contacting over 100 entities for financial assistance and getting nowhere, I shot everything with my own money. I then later sat down and communicated with the American gay networks, LOGO and HereTV but I could not get onto their lineup schedules.

I also pitched the show to various PBS and other local network affiliates, but to no avail. I almost gave up thinking there was no way in the world I could get a black gay focused TV talk show on the air, until God spoke to me to try satellite television. I ended up buying time on The Healthy Living Channel, 223 via the Dish Network.

I truly thank God for The Healthy Living Channel. They have been nothing but totally supportive to me. So I had hoped that I could secure advertisers to help pay for the show once it made it onto the air.

Well that didn’t happen. One potential advertiser backed out at the last minute and the rest of them didn’t even respond to my inquiries.

So I attended a gay marketing seminar and contacted over 100 gay, black, and mainstream advertising firms, asking them for their assistance in securing potential advertisers and sponsors. To my shock, none of them responded affirmatively. They all quietly shied away from assisting me to promote a black gay TV talk show to their corporate clients.

I later found out that there is a misperception that the black gay community is not a large viable niche to pursue, which sparked my research based article, “The Black Gay Dollar: Ignored and Overlooked.”

As a result, I have proactively re-tooled the talk show from being a talk show exclusively speaking to black gay issues, to a being a multi-media newsmagazine (TV, internet-radio, video streaming) speaking to diversity of all kinds (sexual, ethnic, cultural, spiritual, political, and economic diversity).

The new broadened scope and format will hopefully bring in more advertising/sponsorship interest as I go forward with the show. To date, I’ve spent over $20,000 of my personal money on the show but I can no longer afford to continue putting money into it unless I can find more advertisers/sponsors.

Hence, my desire to go international and pitch to television networks outside of North America and also to set up extensive internet based streaming capabilities. You can hear me on the internet at http://www.gayradio.com/herndondavis/index.htm