We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dr. Shanessa Fenner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dr. Shanessa below.

Alright, Dr. Shanessa thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful projects that I have worked on has been my Doctorate in Educational Leadership Degree. This terminal degree was very rigorous, kept me focused, and allowed me to write my dissertation on a subject that is very passionate to me: the African-American male.

My dissertation is entitled Characteristic Profiles of Low and High Achieving African-American Males in Selected North Carolina Middle Schools. It is a qualitative study and I enjoyed interviewing African-American males about their lives and the experiences they endured. The Black male has so many obstacles and stereotypes they will face in their lifetime and they start experiencing these things at an early age.

This was meaningful to me because I got an up close and personal look of the things the males have gone through and how they continue to prevail and show America that they do not fit the stereotype.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am presently a writer of 16 publications and all of them are different. I love to write, interview people, and discuss topics that people feel uncomfortable to discuss. Some of my favorite articles have been about racism, colorism, Black America, politics, etc. I have interviewed celebrities such as Maya Angelou, Babyface, Iyanla Vanzant, Zane, Melissa Morgan, Nikki Giovanni and plenty more.

I am also a TV show host and I love TV too. It is fun to interview and meet people from all walks of life. I love making connections and learning new things about people. One of my favorite interviews was with the late great Congressman John Lewis. He is very authentic and tells it like it is. He told me to always stand for what is right no matter what.

I am also a songwriter. I have co-written two songs that have been published on two artists’ albums. I was also featured on Carl Marshall’s song “Leave That Man’s Wife Alone.”

I am a former radio personality and I had my own radio show titled “Real Talk with Dr. Shanessa Fenner.”

I was an actress on two local soap operas. It was fun and exciting for me. I learned a lot and met great people.

I am a hair model and was a spokesmodel for an African-American hair company.

My main occupation is an elementary principal. I love my babies and I instill in them that they are smart, talented, and able-bodied individuals who can do what they put their minds to doing. They are our future and I want them to be successful in our global world.

I am intrinsically motivated and I don’t believe in leaving a stone unturned. It is hard being a Black woman in America.
You have to work twice as hard to have half of what others have.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect is that you are able to be your true authentic self and express yourself in a way that reflects who you are as a person. So many times people want you to be who they think you should be. That is being fake. There is only one you and no one can take that away from you.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day and I make sure that I fill every moment of it by doing the things that I love–education, writing, etc. We all have been blessed with our many talents and we all have room to shine.

I also love how being creative allows you to delve into your creative thoughts and innermost self to learn that you can do many skills and talents. I have found that when I spend time by myself to allow time for introspection, there are so many creative ideas that I bring into fruition.

Being an artist allows you to share your art, talent and skills with the world as well as make a difference in the lives of others. There are so many times that I have been contacted by individuals telling me that they read one of my articles and it made a difference.

For example, I wrote a piece on domestic violence and a female thanked me for writing the article. She said that she had been in a domestic violence relationship and had been contemplating leaving the relationship. She said that when she read my article, she made a decision to exit the relationship.

I have also written articles about life as a principal and teachers have contacted me wanting to come and work for me. Individuals have watched my TV show and contacted me about a show idea or topic. It is a beautiful thing to have the right and freedom of expression.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yes, those resources are people. I wish that I would have connected with more writers, radio personalities, songwriters, TV hosts, etc. so they could have shared their journey with me. Networking is so powerful and those connections are very meaningful.

It would have been nice for them to share their challenges and given me advice so that I would not have to experience some of the things I have experienced. I have been writing for over 20 years now, so when I first got started I wish there would have been blogs, forums, discussions, networks, writing conferences, writing seminars, Facebook groups, clubs, and more.

I wish that some of the magazines I wrote for conducted regular writing sessions with their writers. One of the publications I write for would have writing sessions that were very informative and helpful especially for a new writer.

Contact Info:

• Linkedin: Dr. Shanessa Fenner
• Twitter: @ShanessaF
• Youtube: Dr. Shanessa Fenner The Bronco Exchange

Image Credits
I have the rights to the pictures.