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

Alright, Norma 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.

“Shop Talk the barbershop podcast” has got to be the most meaningful project I have ever created. New Year’s Day, 2022, I peeped into my father’s bedroom, ready to wake him for the day of hanging out I had planned. While my 94-year-old dad could always be found in some strange body position in the morning, there was something different about it this morning. I knew, but everything I had told myself I would do, if I were to walk into his room one day and find he was no longer with us, went straight out the window. Once my father’s transition was fully acknowledged and accepted, his life celebrated by the entire community he had served for 70 years, lauded by the, then, Mayor of Houston, and U.S. Congresswoman, the million-dollar question settled in. How do I preserve my father’s legacy? It would take a year to come to a conclusion, but the wheels had been set in motion 7 years before.

Seven years before, I had pondered the possibility of doing a podcast. I had done a little radio, and knew it was something I could do. I explored a plethora of topics and approaches with nothing sticking. I could talk about anything, but what could I truly dissect and analyze over an extended period of time? What was I MOST passionate about? I had written and self-published a book, but oddly enough I didn’t want to make that THE topic of the podcast. Not having found my audience for the book, I wondered if I would find my audience for a podcast. Still, I met with a Media Team who suggested I wait and build my brand first. I came across a challenge on Social Media to do a 30day Blog Challenge; so, I accepted the challenge, thinking I could actually segue into a podcast, even adding a Vlog to the Blog. That didn’t result in anything significant either. I did a LIVE Walking Meditation which came to its own organic end. The concept of podcasting was still evolving, and that didn’t make finding my space any easier. Between the Blog, Vlog, and LIVE video streaming, the podcast wasn’t easy to define.

Fast forward to 2023. I was thinking about my dad, one day, about growing up in his barbershop, all the things I witnessed, all the conversations I overheard, its impact not only on me, but the community as a whole. The planets aligned. The Old School Black Barbershop was an institution that held the community down and lifted the community up. Any and every conversation relevant to the survival of the Black community was had, right there, in the Black barbershop. So disenchanted with what I was seeing on social media, especially in the comment sections, very concerned about the RE-gentrification taking place in my community and Black communities across the country, I determined that the Black community sure could use the presence of the old school Black barbershop. I knew I needed to recreate that experience and take it to the people, and there was no better place than my dad’s barbershop. A City of Houston grant opportunity presented itself and I seized it.

Sunday, May 12, 2024, on what would have been my dad’s 97th birthday, I wrapped Season 1 of “Shop Talk the barbershop podcast” with a LIVE streamed tribute to him. Season 1 is 12 episodes averaging 45minutes in length, a little longer than I had planned, but I wanted to put out the most quality production I could; so, I scheduled the season for as long as I could support it with grant funding. As I seek funding for Season 2 and build my audience, on June 19th (Juneteenth), I will launch Post Season Pod-Blasts, short blasts about new topics, special emphasis on Project 2025, and highlights from season 1 episodes.

I can find nothing that I have done in the past 40 years more meaningful than sitting in my dad’s barber chair, hosting conversations about issues and concerns of the local-global-virtual Black community, exploring solutions and offering insight, bringing Black people together in a positive way. The piece de resistance is the segment of each episode called Artistic Impact, short performances and presentations from local artists that often reinforce the topic of conversation, but most importantly, tap into the heart of each viewer and listener, that each may connect to the discussions in the spirit in which they are being given.

“Shop Talk the barbershop podcast” can be viewed on You Tube:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLf1U_P3G-K7GZv9lROduP8QhE4ApvkkXB&si=B5ph8K6A82noiycq

and heard on various audio platforms accessible at:
https://shoptalkthebarbershoppodcast.buzzsprout.com/

Norma, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Keeping my head buried in the television, at a very young age, I searched for images of myself to confirm that acting was something I really could do, being a little Black girl from Texas. I discovered it was possible for more than a few of us when I entered Jr. High School under one of the best Theatre Instructors in the city and state, and my eyes were opened to a world of possibilities for Black kids growing up in the 70s. I graduated University of Houston in 1982, with a degree in English and Theatre Education and began a dual career as Arts Educator and Performing Artist. I jump started my career as a professional actress in Dallas, Texas appearing on stage, in commercials, and in film. Being a single mom, and possessing a modicum of consciousness as young, Black woman, I became concerned about the roles that were being made available to me. Realizing I might have to create the roles worthy of my talent and reflective of the Black community, specifically Black women, as I knew them, I turned my attention toward writing.
I had embraced my writing talent as a kid, writing short plays for the youth of my church to perform. I turned my attention to playwriting, screenwriting, and production. Since 1987, I have taught in public school, developed community training programs, and have written/produced/directed original works under the banner of French Creole Productions, taking the Arts to underserved communities. I am an award-winning Educational Theatre director, screenwriter, and playwright. I am a published and self-published author. I am known and respected in my circle and among those who know and follow my work for creating works that inspire, enlighten, and uplift, as well as entertain. I am proud that all of my work has remained relevant to the Black experience in America without compromise. I am pleased that my audiences find themselves in my characters and stories that are relatable, well crafted, and hold a message for them.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative is the liberation that comes with defining yourself, allowing your work to speak for you, finding your path and determining for yourself whether you have succeeded or not.
In the early years of my career, everyone wanted to define my success as “making it” in Hollywood or New York. Establishing one’s own sphere, purpose, and body of work were not understood and, therefore, deemed as “settling”. To pursue a career meant that you had to be striving for acceptance into the mainstream. While it takes some of us a minute to truly “come of age” and step into our own, I can say that the moment of embracing oneself as an artist is monumental and life altering. Defining what that meant to me, observing how it informed the way I moved in the world, and determining what my endgame looked like were truly liberating and continue to be.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

While I do have a mission, goals, and objectives that relate directly to my work in the community, what drives my creative journey as a whole is becoming and living the highest expression of myself and seeing that reflected in my work and all that I do. The more I create the more layers of myself I peel back, the better I understand humanity, and the more I want that for others. I want to inspire others to be okay with peeling back layers, discovering who they are, and feeling free to be that in the world. That my work impacts others, especially my community, that it leaves an imprint on the creative industry in the form of a body of work or some methodology, and that I am remembered by it, those things are important to me as well. Finally, there is my legacy, what I leave for my grandchildren, not just tangibly, but in how I lived in sync with the creative powers of the universe.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/normat.xyz/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/normajothomas
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NormaTxyz
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@normajothomas7637
• Other: https://shoptalkthebarbershoppodcast.buzzsprout.com