Dr. Tonea Stewart remembers a time she encouraged a young lady who loved singing and acting to leave Mississippi and attend the University of California, Los Angeles for theater after she graduated college. The woman did not believe her skills were honed enough outside the confines of Jackson, Miss., but Stewart was firm.
“Let me explain something to you,” the professor, an actress herself, said. “A lot of creativity is born out of pain, and Mississippi has a lot of pain. It’s highly creative. We have world-class writers, singers and creatives that come out of here.”
“You should pursue it,” Stewart insisted.
What Stewart did not know when she gave that advice, though, was that the graduate needed to remain in Mississippi to tend to her disabled mother so that her sister could attend college. She had to abandon her dream for the time being because Mississippi had next to no active outlets for professional acting.
Years later, the former student attended a screening of Maximus Wright’s film, “Soul Damage.” She felt the film suffered because of a casting choice that resulted in a subpar portrayal of a key character. Sensing an opportunity, the woman introduced herself to Wright and told him she believes she could embody the character more accurately.
Dr. Cynthia Maxie Milton got her first speaking role in one of Maximus Wright’s films at the age of 40 after letting the craft go due to the lack of outlets in Mississippi. Photo courtesy Dr. Cynthia Milton
The following year, she landed her first speaking role in a film in Mississippi at the age of 40. She actualized something she thought was impossible, and she was proud. That woman, Dr. Cynthia Maxie Milton, went on to become the public relations director for the Jxn Film Festival.
“And that’s what that is about. It’s about dreams. It’s about us telling our own stories. It’s about moving forward. It’s about economic development,” Milton said of the Jxn Film Festival at a press conference inside the Capri Theater on July 10, 2023.
“I so wish that that 21-year-old me would have
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