We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andra Douglas a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Andra, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Above all, perseverance. One story that illustrates this is my book; Black & Blue; Love, Sports and the Art of Empowerment. I wrote the book over a twenty-year period. I never intended it to take that long but the story continued to build as the years went by. Each day of the 18 years that I owned the team, there was something that was worth writing down; humorous, sad, inspiring, thrilling, poignant, memorable —a veritable color wheel of emotions and events that I wanted to somehow capture. I took thousands of pictures and filled up large bins with handwritten notes and hoped that one day, with paint or words, I could weave the story that needed to be told. Each person to enter Shark waters had a worthy story and when they are mixed together, the tales are endless. In 2017, I began threading things together and, in early 2019, the book was finished.
I began trying to sell the idea of the book in the early 2000’s. I had written several chapters and sent it to agents. One responded. He submitted it to major publishing houses but, though I received positive feedback, I was always told the timing wasn’t right and that no one was interested in women in sports. I also pitched it as a reality series in 2010 and, though everyone loved the Sharks, the networks, once again, could not, sell the idea of women in sports. Nonetheless, I persevered and kept writing, feeling one day, its time would come.
I finish the book in 2019 and made the rounds to agents yet again. No one bit so I decided to self-publish. I designed a cover, found a self-publishing company and published my book replete with endorsements from people who had read it, including Billie Jean King. I posted the book on amazon.com and sold some but I still believed the story was bigger. Football for women is soooo much bigger than the game itself. Our stories are too rich, too powerful to be left untold.
So, I sent Black & Blue to an old friend in LA and explained why I thought it would make a wonderful movie. I’ve always seen it as that, even more than a book. He read it and agreed, and, between my book and his connections, Julie Bowen and Universal Television optioned it. We are currently in development for a series based on Black & Blue.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
My work and my life are about empowerment. I’ve been fortunate to have participated in college sports at an elite level, hold an executive position as VP Creative for WarnerVision Entertainment/Atlantic Records in NYC, own, run and play for a successful woman’s tackle football team, write a book about my experiences and have Universal Television option it for a series and, last but not least, I am an artist who has had successful art shows. My goal is to bring creativity, intelligence and strength to everything I do.
I left Florida for NYC in the 1980’s to earn a Master’s in Communications from Pratt Institute and though Florida will always be ‘home’, I never went back. Originally from Zephyrhills, I attended Florida State University, playing rugby and excelling at golf while majoring in communications design. I graduated and left for NYC where I became Vice President of Creative for a division of Atlantic Records. After that, I was an independent consultant for the entertainment industry with clients like Disney, Macy’s, Universal Records and BMG Music.
In 2000, I acquired the NY Sharks, a women’s tackle football team and played quarterback for 5 years. After 18 years of owning the team, it was time to sell but we retired as the “winningest” and longest operating women’s tackle football team in the world.
In 2003, I established the Fins Up! Foundation for Female Athletes, a foundation that provides opportunities for 13-17 year old “at-risk” girls to learn the sport of football and the life skills that are learned through competing in team sports.
My first book, “Black and Blue; Love, Sports and the Art of Empowerment”, touches on my life experience as a non-conforming female growing up in a conservative rural environment, and the subsequent unfurling of my life as an empowered executive and pioneer for women in American football. I strive to inspire and empower women and girls who have been told ’no, you can’t‘ but are determined to do it anyway.
Raised on a ranch with a father whose church was nature, I learned by being still and ‘seeing’ colors, animals and seasons. Through my art, I try to capture these passing moments. In the show titled ‘Elegiacal’ I touched on rural scenes with a wistful tone. I returned to these moments with my show ‘Exit 65’. Themes of loss, adventure, mystery and celebrations of landscapes and passages are evident in this work. Distant blurred images of people in motion as well as abstracted images, oddly enough, create a drama of stillness.
Though I no longer suit up for the Sharks, I will always be inspired by the women who play. In my show ‘Phizog’, I focus on the diversity of the players, capturing fleeting moments of their emotions. Defined by the courageous spirit of the 100+ women’s tackle football teams throughout the world, and inspired by their determination to play, I offer this work as a tribute to the female football players of all leagues and ages who are fueled by the force of their convictions.
All of my images are layers of mixed media on digitally manipulated printed images. My perspective is intended to communicate “made in America for the world.”
Today, I live with my parrot, ‘Poi’, in New York’s Greenwich Village where I continue to create mixed-media artwork and am working on my second book, Changing Cadence, which captures the heartbreaks and thrills of 2018, the final season of the New York Sharks.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
The sport of women’s tackle football is probably the best topic that demonstrates resilience. There have been three iterations of women’s tackle football leagues. One in the 1930s, one in the 1970s, and the current one which began in 1999. Each time, including the most recent, women were consistently told to stick to sports like gymnastics or swimming. Tackle football for women held no place in American society, despite the fact that women’s interest in the game, both viewing and playing is astoundingly high.
When I purchased the New York Sharks in 2000, there were huge struggles ahead of us. There has been minor improvement. The players still pay for their equipment as well as a fee to their team in order to cover the costs associated with an eight game season. They must use their own insurance, not a league insurance like the NFL, and they sacrifice many things, including time with their families, the risk of injury and stereotyped mockery, simply for wanting to play the game. The fact that the current iteration of women’s tackle football leagues is still going on after nearly 25 years without major sponsors, very little press and often sub-par facilities for practices and games, shows us that our resiliency has paid off.
Though we have a huge distance to go, the women longing to play and their determination have kept the dream alive. Today, there are female coaches in the NFL, female head coaches in high schools and peewee leagues and there are children who now boast about their mothers’ stats as a running back as opposed to their brothers or fathers. Though still not exactly main stream, women’s tackle football has grown exponentially. There are over 100 teams across the nation and the number of teams in Europe is booming. And it’s all for the pure love of the game!
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Giving credit with generosity of heart is the best way to maintain positive high morale. After all, that’s really what we strive for at the end of the day; acknowledgment…love, a place to belong where we are appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Website: Andradouglasart.com, nysharksfootball.com, AmpliFLY.com
- Instagram: @andradouglasart
- Facebook: New York Sharks, Andra Douglas, Andra Douglas Art, AmpliFLY
- Linkedin: Andra Douglas
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1733583505/ref=nav_timeline_asin?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1.
Image Credits
All images were created by the artist, Andra Douglas