Hilary Banks was back, this time not in a “town called Bel-Air,” but here at 保利预科.

As part of our Black 历史 Month programming, actor 和 author Karyn帕森斯, who played the character of Hilary Banks on the much-loved 1990s TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, was a special guest at a 中学 Assembly 和 Q&A discussion session on February 22.

甜黑莓

After her time on the series, Parsons founded 甜黑莓, “a content company that believes Black history is everyone’s history…. Our mission is to bring little-known stories of Black achievement to children everywhere, celebrating these unsung heroes 和 illustrating for children that obstacles can be opportunities for greatness.”

Her inspiration was her mother, a librarian in South Central L.A., who told her the stories of “real everyday people, who surmounted the odds.” One story she told was about “亨利·博克斯·布朗,” an enslaved man who in 1849 had himself mailed in a crate to freedom in Philadelphia.

At the 中学 Assembly, Parsons showed an animated film about 贝西科尔曼, the first Black female pilot, a part of Parsons’ 甜黑莓 video series. 学生 learned how Coleman overcame racial 和 gender discrimination, traveling to France to earn her international pilot’s license in 1921.

高中Q&一个会话

After school, the community was invited to the library for a Q&A discussion of Parsons’ career 和 甜黑莓. English teacher 和 DEIB coordinator Arnelle威廉姆斯 introduced Parsons 和 the panel of 高年级学生, 麦卡·莫德斯特，23岁, Mia Edwards, 23岁, 和 Sundiata Gittens ' 23， 领导讨论.

On Being Typecast 和 the Power of Being Oneself

The first question from the panel was about the character of Hilary Banks 和 whether Parsons felt she had been typecast in the years after the show. She said that when the series first began it was “refreshing to see” that Black people were not a “monolith,” that the family members had diverse personalities. 随着系列赛的进行, she felt the writers wanted to have Hilary become “a strong Black woman,可是派逊斯觉得, because the show was a comedy, it was better to allow Hilary to “be flawed.” She could be herself. “I completely admire how unapologetic she was about who she was. I admire her confidence, 她开车, 和 her ferocious ambition… when she wanted to do something, she found her way to do it…. 她可能是希拉里.”

An Inspirational Co-Star

Parsons said that her co-star on the show, 詹姆斯·艾弗里 (1945-2013), was like a father 和 had a great impact on her. A classically trained actor 和 military veteran, Avery also had a great interest in Black history.

On Keeping Stories, 历史 Alive

She repeated for the 高年级学生 the story of 亨利·博克斯·布朗, ,不知道, “How did we not tell that story?” She added, “Stories are not being lost; they are being buried, pushed away for all of us.” When discussing her book, 月亮有多高, she referenced George Stinney Jr., a Black boy from South Carolina who was convicted of murder at 14 in a sham trial 和 executed for the murders of two while girls. His conviction was vacated in 2014. She encouraged students fight against losing stories like these 和 others to time by seeking them out.

表示问题

Parsons told the students how important it is to share the narratives about Black women. “We want to see ourselves, all of us,” she said.

月亮有多高

Parsons concluded the discussion with a very colorful 和 moving reading from her book, 月亮有多高. She explained that the story originated in conversations she had with her mother about her mom’s growing up in the 1940s Jim Crow South in South Carolina. In writing the book, she tried to “walk in her shoes.”