for the St. Louis American
The beauty of the Missouri Black Expo might have best been captured during a minute-long conversation between noted entrepreneur Michael Roberts and a 60-year-old African American grandmother.
She arose from the crowd during the Expo’s Quest for Success Speaker Series and asked Roberts, chairman and CEO of the Roberts Companies, how she could become her own boss.
“I’m 60 years old, and I’m tired of working for other people,” she said.
“I have a lot of ideas, but I don’t have any money. Mr. Roberts, can you tell me how I can start my own business in my community and bring my community up at the same time?”
“Action has no season,” Roberts said.
“It is never too late to succeed. You have to transform into an actionnaire, a person who has the bravado and dedication to succeed.”
The dialogue was one of many highlights during the Black Expo at America’s Center last weekend.
D.J. Williams, author of Good Credit and Debt Reduction, Josephine Goffe-Gardner, owner of Wellness Solutions and Keith Antone Willis, Sr., publisher of Who’s Who in Black St. Louis also were panelists during the Quest for Success series.
These financial role models shared tips on how to turn any dream into reality by starting with a vision and coupling it with a strong work ethic.
The Expo also featured a screening of the movie Hairkutt by St. Louis producer Curtis Elliot. Hairkutt is a documentary of his close friend Bryant Johnson’s (Hairkutt) struggle with heroine addiction.
“People need to see this, to see that getting off dope is a battle,” Elliot said. “I can’t tell you how much stress we were under trying to help Bryant. It hurt me to my core, because Hairkutt and I have been friends since grade school and he’s been cutting my hair since forever.
“When I found out my boy was addicted to this poison, it tore me up and I knew I had to do something so I handled it the best way I knew how, with the help of two of our close friends.”
Many MBE visitors came in search of information about health care.
“We had an overwhelming turnout at our booth. People were steadily coming in to get information on individual health plans,” Tracy Beavers of Mercy Health Plans said.
“We believe this has to do in a big way, with the current and upcoming MC+ and Medicaid cuts that are hitting our community hard. Children are getting cut off the plans and so are parents, so we had many people requesting quotes and other information to get started on family and individual health plans.”
On the MBE Mainstage, R&B singer Faith Evans performed hits from her latest release Saturday while old school hip hop acts Big Daddy Kane and Whodini moved the crowd on Sunday.
“I just love performing in St. Louis,” said Whodini’s Jalil Hutchins.
“The Louie crowd makes our job so much easier because they know all the words and basically sing our songs for us. The crowd is so hype, they hype us up! It’s so nice to know that we still have all this love in the Lou. Hopefully, the MBE will ask us back next year and we’ll be back in a heartbeat.”
Several local acts also performed on the mainstage. Isis Jones and Level Ground and rappers Potzie and Ruka Puff all rocked the hometown crowd Sunday.
“It’s all about love in the Midwest, and sometimes when you go to other cities, people try to hate on the Midwest,” Potzie said.
One visitor said the Expo gives her the opportunity to expose her children to vital information.
“I always look forward to the Expo because it’s so informative,” 28-year-old Andrea Dudley said.
“There are all of these informational booths geared at educating our community about issues that affect us and those that can change our lives for the better. I come because I want to expose my kids to African American urban culture at its finest and offer them the opportunity to socialize with other productive members of our society.”