Actress, activist, writer: these just a few titles in Tigist Selam’s extensive list of careers. The Ethiopian-German by way of Nigeria, Argentina, and Germany made her way to New York City in 2004 turning it into her personal playground, as a host of Tadias Magazine, the founder of her own non-profit, and now a budding actress.
Ms. Selam most recently stepped out in her actress role, playing one of the Fort-Greene women, in Nelson George’s (Good Hair) Left Unsaid, a web series rapidly attracting a heavy following around the globe. AfriPOP! caught up with the Renaissance woman to discuss growing up black in Germany, working with Nelson George, and what comes next.
AfriPOP!: You grew up in Nigeria, Argentina, and Germany, could you identify the differences between growing up in each country?
Tigist Selam: When I was living in Nigeria, I was really young, so I don’t necessarily carry that experience, all I know is that my parents said they would never go back to Lagos, because they just had such a rough time over there, and their stories are insane. But when I was in Argentina for 3 years I was a little older, I definitely remember the warmth of the people and the Latin American way of life, even though Argentina physically is very European probably one of the most European cities in Latin America, you still have the “Fiestas” and the kind of “manana, manana” [“tomorrow, tomorrow”] kind of thinking and that Latin American flair. When I went to Germany it was very different. It wasn’t a warm welcome from my family, so all of a sudden I’m seeing, “oh ok, the whole world doesn’t really want the best for you,” and it does matter what you look like. So it was harsh, in Spanish I kept begging my mom to let me go back to Argentina, to Buenos Aires because my friends were there, and that’s the way of life that I knew. My mom was pregnant with my brother so it was really tough, perhaps tougher on my mom because she had to deal with all the racism. I just knew that I saw her crying, and saw her suffering; I just wanted to go home. My mom stuck to my father, because my father actually stood up for my mom. He said this is my family and this is my wife and these are my two kids, and we stayed. We ended up staying like 10 years, and during that initial transition not being welcoming, I always wanted to move to the states, when I was legal. As soon as I was, my mom let me go. When I was 16 and I moved to my aunt’s in California. Yeah Germany was never really home, but then again where was home? I’m mixed race, I speak different languages, I grew up quite bi-culturally, and multi-culturally and so there is not necessarily a place called home, but Germany was definitely not it. I think finally after living in California, and London, having lived here in New York its definitely become a home now, even though its exile in many ways, the whole world is exile and home at the same time for me, because I’ve travelled so much, and I’ve lived in so many different places.
With that being said would you ever go back to Germany?
I mean I always go back, and for a split second there was this whole movement going on in 2006 in the film industry, and the fine art industry it was really happening for them, so I actually considered moving back to Berlin, but then I was like yeah no, Berlin is still Germany. I just can’t deal. If I have the option of living in New York I would chose New York. I visit often; my family still lives there, my friends still live there, so it’s great… to visit.
Tell us about your role as an activist.
Through my mom, this whole philanthropic way of living is so deeply engrained within me, that having my own philanthropy was always on the radar for the last 10 years, and now I’m just in the process of co-founding my own non-profit which is called the Ethiopian Educational Project. What it basically does, is collect money and send it to Ethiopia for any kind of school supplies, any thing that supports education.
What else inspires that draw to helping Ethiopia in particular?
My mom is still very much afro-centric, she’s very Ethiopian (even if) she’s lived a lot longer outside of Ethiopia than inside. Even in Germany, because my German family was absent, I only had my Ethiopian family, and where I grew up in Bonn at that time it was the capital, I grew up with all these international kids from the UN, the embassy kids, but within the Ethiopian community itself. You always had to go back to Ethiopia. Even though my mom couldn’t go she would ask my dad to come with us, just to connect and look out for the family, and she still has a lot of family there.
Even here in New York I’m very much tied into the Ethiopian community, and I’m a host of an Ethiopian lifestyle magazine, which is the leading Ethiopian lifestyle magazine in the world. So I’m very much plugged in and very connected. Also why education is so important to me, its just who I am. I went to a private school for the gifted in Germany, and when I got to America I skipped 11th grade. I got my BA when I was 20 I got by MA at 22. I got accepted to the school of oriental and African studies to do my PHD when I was 25, so at heart I’m very much a nerd. I love to read and to write, and to learn things everyday, and I know every time I learn something new my mind expands, and just without education as in systematic schooling, but just even a book, or through travelling, or a conversation I know through personal experience how empowering that could be. My first year in New York I was teaching my own curriculum all over the South Bronx, for an afterschool program. That was great too because I had no idea about Dominican or Puerto Rican culture. All I knew was hip-hop, and all of the sudden, was confronted with child prostitution, and drugs, and just violence on so many different levels and I learned so much from these kids, and it’s just something I encourage people to do, to stick to school.
How did Left Unsaid happen?
That was a complete organic experience, I left to LA for a year, and went running back to NY, I was completely not inspired, and I had a really rough time figuring out those people, for the first time. So when I came back to NY I was so full of ideas, and wanted to do all these different things. One of the first few days of being back in NY I had an audition, in DC and I booked that, and Nelson George had a book reading of his book city kids, so I came to the city for that, and at that time I lived in fort Greene. I knew Nelson George when I was at Goldsmiths University. When I was in London for my MA, I used to write about hip-hop and music and stuff I would use him as a reference. I met him and we talked about all kinds of things. He asked where I lived in Fort Greene, and he said that’s my block, so we basically live right across the street from each other, and that’s how we just started talking about different projects. Then he started telling me all these different stories of different women that he knew, and he grew up around a lot of women. He wanted to create a platform to tell these stories. He had a thought about like a Jim Jarmusch Coffee and Cigarettes, urban version, of women coming together from all different kinds of places telling their story. It was very interesting. It started off with a story of five different women and just grew up to be a story about 15 different women, and it was just great to be part of that process because it was the first thing that I did like that. From being immersed in pre-production, to post-production, and even now I’m the official rep of the whole film. Even now being in Miami for the premiere was just insane, and to see that on the big screen. It was an unbelievable experience, but it was very organic.
How was working with Nelson George as a director?
Because we connected on so many different levels, it was the best experience ever as an actor, because we did so much. Some directors are kind of selfish, and they just give you the script, and then they leave you alone, but nelson was so generous with his time, it was a life changing experience, and I don’t use that term lightly. He kept on giving and giving and giving. He really took my input, and allowed me to add my touch to the whole thing. He was very open and I like that. Not a lot of men can pull that off, and also to be able to write for women. It sounded like he knew where we were coming from, and it wasn’t misogynistic or male structured views. It made me see that a men can also write for a woman, and very accurately so. I learned a lot, it was exactly what I needed then.
How has it been received as a web series?
We’ve had 40, 000 hits on the Leftunsaidseries.com website and we just put it on YouTube just last week, and for us not having any PR, no official premiere, it just played at the [American Black Film] festival, I think its doing incredibly well. I’ve gotten so much unconditional support from the African and specifically the Ethiopian community, because they see for the first time somebody that is Ethiopian, and they can identify with that, and its been incredible, and I’ve gotten so many directors to read other scripts. So for me it has been incredible and life changing just in terms of career. The thing that its online its so new, because independent films you don’t ever see them, and now the availability is great, and it’s the future because people can watch it on their own time, people and watch it in parts. People can watch it all over the world. This girl I got my MA with who lives in Hong Kong, contacted me and said I’ve been watching Left Unsaid, and I’m just like “Holy Moly!” that’s so crazy to me. Even my family in Ethiopia can watch it. It’s such a blessing. Sometimes I say it takes away from the cinematic experience to watch it on the computer, but still its great. I hope to see more of that.
At what point did you decide to go into acting?
As you know, my parents are upper middle class, my father had the same job forever, and my mom is a trained nurse. My parents in a way are very solid people and never were into the arts. The only person in my family that was into the arts was my grandmother who was a painter and passed away when I was 12. Even in Buenos Aires I always wanted to be an entertainer, I was on stage when I was 3. When I was in Germany I started classical training at the school for the gifted in theater and voice, in Germany the training was intertwined. You train in all three so it was voice, theater and dance, and I continued to take a couple of classes even in undergrad. So it was always there, it was just not something I wanted to do professionally, because first of all my parents were really against it, so that was always in the back of my mind. And I wasn’t quite sure if it was something I wanted to do. Then when I came to New York, it was just so clear to me that I was going into the arts. But I just wasn’t quite sure what medium. I wasn’t sure if I just wanted to write, then I realized words weren’t enough, and I wanted to be able to express myself physically. So I started to audition for schools and classes, until I got accepted into this private theater group. It was just mind-blowing. Also because I came from such an intellectual background, all of a sudden I was thrown into the performing arts where it was not thinking but feeling, it took me a while to get used to it. It was something I was pushed to do professionally because of my parents; even though it was from a protective standpoint and they said, “Oh Tigist, you’re too smart.” But now they are more ok with it, even though they still don’t understand the art. I know that I couldn’t just do the arts, I need something to ground me, which is why I do the activism, and I need to write. I can’t just do one thing; I need to do all of these things to maintain a balance.
So what’s next for you?
I’m writing my own script about the immigrant experience in New York. It talks about New York, and how it’s very much conflicted on many issues, even just being on the subways you have to deal with people; you have to engage; you have to acknowledge. There are so many different people and we all have different stories, but let’s celebrate each other. I remember seeing the Haile Gerima film Teza, it was the first film shot in Ethiopia and Germany, and it depicted that entire immigrant experience in Germany very accurately. I remember how validated I felt, it was my story, and I was crying and crying. It was the first time someone actually took the initiative to do something like that. Whether that was his intention or not, but it was something that was done for me and I want to do it for others. It’s going to be funny and its going to be dramatic, and there’s going to be sex, it’s going to be good. Also I’ve been reading a lot of scripts, and (am being ) more selective of projects I’m taking on right now. I just want to do whatever I want to do, and hopefully I’ll make a decent living out of it.
Be sure to check out Left Unsaid at any laptop near you. You can also keep up with her at twitter.com/tigistselam, and on her Tumblr .
Photographer: Hannan Saleh
