Beenie T. Mel

A Short Biography

Born in Africa, raised in Italy and India before coming to the United States as a teenager, Ben is a proud world citizen interested in telling global stories about the resistance experience. A screenwriter by trade, he dabbles in both fiction and non-fiction works to continue his journey as an activist and artist.

Why I write.

Stories of Black Lives and Oppressed Lives, all across the world matter!

Artists are the gatekeepers of truth. Our mission and our purpose is to use the gift of art to inspire others to see themselves in a higher realm and order.

Harry Belafonte

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.

James Baldwin

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Africa to me... is more than a glamorous fact. It is a historical truth. No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Maya Angelou

“We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

Toni Morrison

In all areas of life, if you do not understand the system of race supremacy and racism, everything else that you do understand will only confuse you.

Edward Said

Writing

"Sankofa II" Afrofuturism Adventure. "The Martyred King" Adowa Series II. "Untitled New Project"

Reading

SPRING NONFICTION READING: "Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad" Timoty D. Walker "Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday" Angela Davis "Afro-Latin America, 1800-2000" George Reid Andrews "How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America" Manning Marbel "Elite Capture" Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò "Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision Barbara Ransby FICTION READING: "The Summer I Ate the Rich" Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite "A spell of good things" Ayobami Adebayo REREADING: "Unesco African History" Volumes 1-4

Watching

"Mandalorian 3" Disney "Poker Face" Peacock “Reservation Dogs, season 3” FX "Godfather of Harlem, season 3" AMC "The Last of Us" HBO Rewatching: ATL, Boondocks, The Wire

Editing

"Adowa Series II"

Listening

RFI Afrique. Radio Ambulante NPR Talking Heads. Scriptnotes. Tightrope. Revisionist History and Lots and lots of foreign podcasts for research.

Learning

Spanish/French/Italian for research purposes. Swahili for travel purposes.