We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Gerald Rivers a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Gerald, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Yes, I own my own Business, called Message Media Group and I use it as an umbrella for all my creative endeavors. I earn most of my living as a Voice Over Artist. I have a broadcast quality recording studio/booth in my home. I have agents and managers and clients who keep me busy. Income from this helps to make other creative ventures possible. I am a classically trained actor working on stage in Shakespeare, classical and contemporary plays as well as new works as a professional working under union contracts as an actor and a director. I work with young people using West African drumming to teach bigger, creative, life lessons of self discipline, self respect, self esteem and practicing peace, love and positivity. I am also a public speaker who uses the words, works and inspiration of the late, great, Rev, Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. to inspire people to live their best life, contribute positively and creatively to society, to do and be their best, to have compassion for others and to fight for justice and equality for all.

I got my degree in Theatre Arts from Los Angeles City College, before going to to Morehouse College in Atlanta where I majored in Business with an emphasis in Advertising and Marketing with and minor in Theatre Arts. I worked my way up as an actor and went on to become an Associate Artistic Director at the Academy Theatre in Atlanta. Toured for many years, taught, assisted with play development, studied improv and a non-traditional approach to acting, which I went on to teach and facilitate workshops across the country. I left the theatre and went on to start my first company, Rivers’ Edge Productions (“Where we meet your creative needs”). It was a small production company that help to produce, industrial videos, commercials, music videos and live events.

From there I returned to Los Angeles to pursue my career, as I felt I had hit a glass ceiling in Atlanta at the time. It was rough at first while I was able to secure an acting job here and there, I had to take on a real job in sales until I could earn my living solely from being an artist. That took about 3-5 years. When my acting starting picking up and my regional sales manager came to me and said, “you have lots of auditions and rehearsals and plays and performances and speeches and shootings and recordings. You are are going to have to choose, “Are you going to be our top sales person or are you going to be an actor?”

I boldly responded, “The next time you have that question for me, just prepare my final paycheck, because for me there is no question. I am an artist! And I never looked back. It took a little while to fully transition. But I took a leap of faith and started my next business, Message Media Group. It was work, but it worked, because I put the work and passion in at and it paid off and still is today. I am not suggesting that it is easy, there are good days and bad days and good months and rough months, but I witnessed the same thing when working for someone else’s company. So I was and am encouraged and keep going. Overall, it’s been great!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I have always known I wanted to be an actor, from the time I was about 6 years old and did my first church play. I was smitten with the response and the recognition that I could stand and smile and say words and evoke an emotional response from an audience.

As a teenager I began studying at the Sheenway Theatre Arts Repertory in south Central Los Angeles. I joined the Forensics Speech and Debate team in High School and got a scholarship that carried me through 7 years of college. Where I won National championships and received Honors in The National Forensics League in Dramatic Interpretation. I got my first degree in Theatre Arts at Los Angeles City College, where I also served as student body president for two terms. I then went on to Morehouse college where I played the lead in various large theatrical productions.

I left college and got my first job right away at the Academy Theatre in Atlanta, where I toured for several years before going on to become the Associate Artistic Director. I then left there after a few years to start my own company and a few years later returned to Los Angeles to start my current company Message Media Group LLC or MMG

At MMG we are an umbrella company supporting my work as an artist and supporting other artists and Art instructors. We teach primarily West African Hand Drumming or Djembe Playing. We currently have contracts at several different schools and churches, providing artists-in-residence to facilitate drum circles and classes. Independent of that, we provide training in acting, improv and Voiceover coaching, as well as public speaking, providing keynote addresses, Sunday morning messages, black history month presentations and MLK day speeches year round. I am the primary speaker providing, inspirational, motivational messages based on the teachings of the late great Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Presenting at schools, churches, colleges and universities, corporate structures, government agencies, prisons, homeless shelters, rehab centers, celebrations and festivals across the country and abroad for over 30 years. The Drumming program at the schools has evolved into a performance troupe book through MMG, called the Peace Players or the Peace Player Drummers. The Peace Players are a group of young people ranging from ages 8 -25 comprised of current and former drumming students who go around and perform at various venues and events, festivals, concerts, conferences, museums where they perform traditional west African drumming, promoting “Peace, Love and Positivity” through the music. We also facilitate drum circles for companies and or communities promoting the idea of working together and having fun doing it.

I am most proud of the purpose and integrity in our work. Everything we do promotes, unity, acceptance, creativity and justice, whether its recording material for the Prison Compassion project in our recording studios. Doing voice over for educational websites or being the voice of the Tobacco Free Florida project or fun with video games or performing for young people or helping to launch voice over careers or speaking as the voice of Dr. King. It is all done with purpose, integrity and joy.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One lesson I had to unlearn was the idea that things had to be done a particular way or follow a prescribed script.

I re-learned that everyone’s journey is different and unique and all their own. Former and or formal rules and conventions no longer apply to artists and creatives. Our purpose on the planet is to be co-creators with the divine intelligence governing the universe. We are to be open to new ways of doings thing and being in the world. Our creativity and innovation are our greatest gift. The way things have been done in the past is what got us here (good or bad), the way forward requires new ways and thinking and being and operating in the world.

Its a new day and a new way and the time for thinking out of the box and forging a new path forward is now. Its not about an old formula, history has now proven…there must be a better way. We cant be stuck in the old ways of doing things. We must fight conformity and accept, and present who we truly are. That is where true freedom and liberation live!

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

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is freedom and having time.

I no longer have a regular schedule, sure there are times I have to be certain places for an engagement or to teach a class. But truly, it’s different new and exciting all the time. Today I might be in an urban area working with inner-city youth and or underserved communities, tomorrow I might be standing before college presidents and chancellors and school administrators presenting a keynote address, last week I was in Hawaii, preparing to launch a drumming program on Kauai and the week before I was in Costa Rica discussing global creative contributions to improve our life condition and that of those around us and around the world. This is truly living, not stuck in the traditional 9-5 rut, where my life is like “Thank God its Friday!, then oh God its Monday!” Everyday can be new and exciting. And yes it’s work sometimes in the middle of the night or the early morning when everyone else is sleeping, but it’s worth it!

A few more things in parting, #1. “Poor people work for their money, rich people have their money work for them” #2. “The middle class is comprised of employees, people who work for someone else, the upper class employ other people people by providing jobs and opportunities for others” and lastly #3. “Working is what you do for a living, being of service and offering your gifts and talents to the world is what you do for a life!”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.geraldcrivers.com or www.geraldcriversvo.com
• Instagram: geraldcrivers
• Facebook: Gerald C Rivers or Gerald C Rivers, The voice of Dr. King
• Linkedin: Gerald Rivers
• Twitter: @GeraldCRivers
• Youtube: Gerald Rivers