The King Is Dead

 It would take some kind of inner fortitude to take on the role of James Brown, the Godfather of Soul. A very complex character with an ego as big as his talents, with fears and frailties to match. 

How about Jackie Robinson? How to portray a not just a baseball legend, but a civil rights icon without turning him into a cardboard cut-out without any doubts?

Then there's Thrugood Marshall, from crusading lawyer to Supreme Court Justice. Focusing on one career-defining case and give the world a glimpse into the story that made the man.

And Black Panther. The super hero movie that would be Hamlet. A make believe story that made us want to believe. 

Chadwick Boseman did all of that. And more. But if his career contained only those four roles, it would be titanic. Mister Boseman died over the weekend, yet another frustrating punctuation mark in a year that has been full of heartbreak and disillusionment. But somehow, his passing couldn't help but lift us up at the same time. It was just this weekend that Major League Baseball players chose to honor the memory of Jackie Robinson by draping his number 42 jersey next to home plate as players stood in solidarity with black lives lost. Chadwick Boseman, a graduate of Howard University, must have smiled.

Here in Oakland, we felt as if we had lost one of our own. It was Oakland native and Oakland Tech grad Ryan Coogler who directed Boseman in the first super hero movie to receive an Academy Award nomination for best picture. It is no simple coincidence that the story of Black Panther begins and ends in Oakland. 

Don't think I didn't notice that. On opening night, it was a premiere event like few had ever seen, at least on this side of the bay. Finally, kids at my school had a hero who looked like them. Wakanda was a country full of possibilities and hope. And in the end, spoiler alert, T'Challa begins his mission to spread that hope to the world starting in Oakland. That Halloween, there were more Black Panthers than Scream or Spider-Man combined. Which is why, on Saturday night just a few hours after word of his passing, a tribute to Boseman appeared in the form of a projected image of him staring into the heavens on the side of the Grand Lake Theater. We know where Wakanda is. 

Thank you, Chadwick Boseman. You stomped on the Terra and made us all remember heroes are made from the inside out. He will be remembered. Aloha, Mister Boseman.