I am now feeling my age, 61, and I am going to rely on age and experience, to make these comments: Enough with the worship of pop culture heroes of dubious provenance, distinction and accomplishments. Ok, so this is a Gen X/Millenial thing that I don’t get because (a) I don’t have children or grandchildren for that matter and (b) I have better things to do than hang on to the every word and every deed and every possible convolution of possible deeds of extremely wealthy people whose careers as public performance artists are to be honest, way overblown and frankly really overrated.

There are Black artists who work in relative obscurity honing their crafts in the fine arts and classical performance arts of music and dance with discipline and commitment that no one really knows about (with the exception of Ms. Copeland). There are Black teachers, writers, intellectuals and scientific researchers whose commitment to learning and knowledge may be known within their fields, but are practically unacknowledged every where else? Why because they are not on the cover of People magazine and their conduct is now routinely the subject of the on-line gossip.

Seriously, get a grip. Use that money you’re going to get back from Ticketmaster to buy a book, or subscribe to a newspaper or better yet, go to an art store, buy a notebook and some pencils and pastels and start making your own art. Read a James Baldwin play. Do a staged reading with friends of an August Wilson play. Watch the original version of the film “A Raisin In The Sun”.