Meet Denise Wilkins | Writer, Director, Producer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Denise Wilkins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Denise, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
Well, I grew up in the Washington, DC Metropolitan Area. I really wish I could say I was raised in a family who shared a lot of love, but that is not my story. I was born in the late 50’s and raised in a toxic environment. During that time black families were striving to live the American Dream. My mother lost her American dream as she woke up to realize that her fine, hungry jack, teddy bear, kind of man was suffering from a terrible case of schizophrenia. Our happy family crumbled quickly. I was about 4 when my mother had to have my father committed to a mental institution. Being the eldest of 3, all of the responsibility fell on me. I was old enough to remember my mothers sorrow, her disappointment. My mother changed after my father left and her relationship with me changed as well. She was always harsh and short with me, there was no patience. She constantly pushed me away. I felt so unloved growing up. I didn’t know if it was because I looked like my dad or what but it appeared as though I represented her greatest disappointment. I represented the dream she would never know. One morning when we were rushing for school, she was agitated with me and so was I with her. We made it to the front door when she asked for kisses from my sister and brother. I stood back observing how gentle and kind she spoke to them. I guess you could say I was jealous, but when it came to me she spoke in an angry way, “C’mon Denise, give me a kiss!” I looked up at her and in a child-like way I backed away from saying, “I don’t want to kiss you, I hate you!” She glared into my eyes and with a definite distaste for me she said, “No Denise, I HATE YOU!” I was 9 years old when my world flipped out of control and rebellion drove my every decision.

I tell this story because those words changed my life. When you do not receive the love, attention and validation you need from home first, you turn to a cold, and dysfunctional world to meet that need. The impact of the first 34 years of my life made me the person I am today. I know what it is like to be rejected, and feel lost and unwanted. I know how effortlessly a twisted way of thinking leads you to make wrong choices that put your life at risk. I know what living, what I call, “environmental depression” is, and how it steals from what God’s purpose is for your destiny. During my time, it was the minority of youth who fell into the “sea of societies” dysfunctions. Today, because I understand the pain I am on a mission to save a generation of youth and young adults who feel that they are lost, rejected are unwanted. Today, we live I a world where the majority, not the minority of these young people are living risky behaviors, driven by rebellion.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
All my life I’ve been a creative. I’ve always loved the arts but I had never went to school for it. In 1996, at 39 years old, I established the THE NETWORK a community project. As a woman of faith I co-labored along with local Pastor’s, other community leaders and local gospel artist throughout the inner-city streets of the Washington, DC, (DMV) area to reach teens and their families in the community. We brought entertainment to the inner-city neighborhoods by providing concerts that offered food, clothing, toys and giveaways with a message of hope everywhere we went.

There was a shift after the 911 attacks on the Pentagon. God gave me a huge vision, a much need vision. I envisioned a Christian Recreational Facility of the Arts Leadership Academy. A safe, fun engaging recreation spot that trains youth to be community leaders. I envisioned a center where youth learn to impact their peers positively before their peers can impact them negatively. Although I had a shift in vision I knew the time was not yet. I continued my street outreach work and took on another position. I was hired as a Counselor/Outreach Worker for a FEMA Funded program called, Project Resilience. The Project Resilience program was run by the Alexandria Community Service Board’s, Mental Health Department of Alexandria, Virginia. There was a task force of I believe 12 individuals to include myself from different backgrounds, and ethnic groups who were hired to assess the pulse of the community. We were to provide the community with resources and counsel, helping Alexandria return to a place of normalcy. Each one of us worked in our own field. My field was working with teens 12+.
As the community return to normal, in 2002, under the auspice of the Mental Health Dept. I established what I now call, “Black Lights Performing Arts Company” (BLPAC) and CHOICES Motivational Services (CMS). Each program was a huge success in the city. I ran my programs in middle and high schools, as well as other youth facilities such as Detention centers, Aged-Out Foster Care Programs, Recreational Facilities and anywhere else I was called upon to speak to youth and their families. I combined character development and theatrical arts and wrote, directed, and produced 3 youth major stage play productions with after-school youth that packed auditoriums throughout Alexandria to full capacity.

My work with the City received high honors from the Directors of Mental Health, City Council and the Mayor of the City of Alexandria, Bill Euille, at the time. I was recognized by the “Performing the World 2 Organization, which is an internationally developed group of psychologist. They were amazed by my use of what they called “psychodrama” as a therapy with positive youth involvement never seen before. I was recognized as an innovator, trailblazer, and trendsetter whose theatrical programs changed lives.

When the FEMA Funded program closed, I continued running The NETWORK full time and then wrote, directed and produced under my own Theater Company, the stage play, “Black Lights Shining in the Darkness!” A black light is a purple light that when you turn it on it exposes what cannot be seen with the naked eye. The Black Lights production is a practical, true to life stage play that exposes what folks cannot see with the naked eye. I had a youth and adult cast and we put the production on 4 times. We had a huge following of youth and their families packing the theater each time, inviting other to see the production..

You asked if it was easy?

I would have to say no, it was never easy. I worked really hard to include my children in my community work but my youngest son Justin who had suffered multiple TBI’s, ( the first in a doctors office at 5, and later as he played contact sports growing into his teens, i.e. football and boxing) had fallen into a horrible depression that he self-medicated and was murdered in February 2010 at 22 years old. Living with my son’s constant battle with depression throughout the years was the heart behind all my writing. I saw first hand the dark media climate that was rising and claiming the lives of many youth through the 80’s and 90’s.. Everything I wrote was driven by my desire to see my son and other youth rise out of depression.

After Justin’s death in 2010, I laid my work with youth down. Somewhere around 2011/2012, I picked up the vision of the Recreation Center and in 2012, led by God, I began to establish the new foundation. By 2014, Justin L Davis Foundation (JLDF) became a 501(c)3 non-profit, prevention, intervention, and solution driven organization. The target audience is still male and female youth and young adults and their families. In 2017, I moved to the Houston Texas area where I currently run BLPAC community project. In 2019, I received an honorary doctorate degree from Juliana King University. On September of 2022, I put on the Black Lights Production with a cast and crew of 40 talented and amazing youth and adults. The production was a huge success. Our future goal is to travel with the production just as the play Hamilton travels. We believe youth all over the United States needs this message. It is life changing…

How did I overcome the challenges?

Purpose is my LIGHT. After the loss of my youngest son, I rose out of the ashes to turn my “PAIN into PURPOSE.” With a God given youth vision leading my way, I pushed forward. I believe without a doubt that the seed of depression that led to Justin’s death, fell into God’s rich soil. With all that I have experienced from my childhood, to adulthood, also raising children is a progressively dark society, and loosing a son, that I can be used to bear much fruit in the lives of other youth. I see Justin in the life of every child who is saved by our message and one day our Outreach Center.

I want people to know that…

These are dark and evil days and it calls for a different plan of action. I want people to know that this is time for us to put the youth at the forefront of our agenda. Now is the time to build, or refurbish the prototype to this vision. It is time to provide them with an 80,000 sq. ft state-of-the-art safe Recreational/Outreach Teen Center where we can equip them with core values and the tools they need to stand while so many around them are falling. I believe it is time for Christian leaders, angel benefactors and philanthropist to lay down their isms and schisms and to UNITE picking up the power of God’s love and showing the world how WE stand behind our youth.

What I have learned…

I’ve learned that youth are tired of the world that surrounds them.
I’ve learned that if I build it, they will come
I’ve learned that if I give them a platform they will LIBERATE THE SOUND OF STANDARD
I’ve learned that the most powerful way to change a generation is allowing Youth to Reach Youth!
I’ve learned they are ready to be Black Lights that Shine Bright in the Darkness

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Shopping at Memorial City Theater District
The Downtown Aquarium
The Zoo
Willies Seafood
Pappadeaux
Snooze
LaPeep
Galveston Beach

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Often times folks find their relationship with God by going to Church. Well, again not my story. I was 34, and at the end of my rope when I met God in my living room. I was home alone with the bottle of pills, ready to stop the pain of a failed life. God met me at my desk with a vision that pointed me to what I am doing today. So, I will have to give all honor to God.

When I first started going to Church I use to hear the little old ladies sitting in the congregation jump up during testimony time and shout out, “If it had not been for the Lord on my side, I don’t know where I would be!” Back then I would sit there and think to myself, that is just some type of cliche. Well, after 30 years on this journey, I will have to concur. This journey has driven me through high roads, low roads, side roads, and cross roads. I have driven around hills, through valley’s, been lost in the wilderness, and held up in the desert, often times settling at the most beautiful green pastures described in Psalms 23. All in all, it has all worked for my good. Therefore, my testimony is that this journey has been most definitely, AMAZING! Today, I stand to tell my story declaring, “IF IT HAD NOT BEEN FOR THE LORD ON MY SIDE, I DON’T KNOW WHERE I WOULD BE!” I would probably be in a mental institution like my father. Thank God for Jesus!

Website: www.jtscconnect.org and backlights.org

Instagram: #blpac22

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/

Twitter: @JLDFoundation

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wefightyouthdepression