Unchained Impact: Mandela Brown

Mandela Brown has gone from an extremely talented young person who had too little focus and too little self confidence to let his talent shine to a leader, a hard worker and a star.

Mandela was one of the original members of Unchained Talent, coming in the unknown after school program one afternoon during the fall of 2004, and being a part of our inaugural show, Unified.

In his freshman year, Mandela couldn’t sit still, he couldn’t keep his mouth closed, he couldn’t listen. He was an entertainer. In our first show, Mandela acted, sang and danced, but he was afraid of what his peers would think when the school body watched the show. He wasn’t willing to take the lead role, although he was capable of it. Mandela needed some polishing, some encouragement and some mentoring.

Mandela helped build the program from its meager beginnings to a school wide, professional level program that offers performing arts opportunities and mentoring relationships to dozens of young people daily. In a community where drop out and drugs are the norm, Mandela has remained focused on creating a better school community, better opportunities for himself and his peers and improving his own self in preparation for his bright future.

Mandela is natural born leader – one is who is naturally revered by his peers – and who is wise beyond his years. He has a great sense of humor and uses it to break through tough situations or to bring people together. He is reliable, trust-worthy, intelligent, intuitive, responsible and funny. He is admired among his peers, serving on the Student Government both as President and then stepping aside to allow his best friend to run for the seat while he ran for second in command. He is loyal and dedicated to his friends, his art, his school and home family. He leans on the strength of his social connections and allows them to push him through the tough times and to challenge him to take on the next big thing in his life.

Mandela stepped into a leadership position within Unchained Talent, becoming one of the most reliable and responsible members of our new Recording Studio team, learning and running complicated recording and mixing software, creating original powerful musical works and guiding his peers in the same, all without adult guidance and on his own creative and professional strengths. Mandela also participated with Unchained Talent as an Arts Apprentice during a stipended arts apprenticeship program where he learned work and life skills to help him be a success in college and career. Mandela served as the Music Director for Unchained Talent’s original hip-hop musical, Concrete Jungle, where he wrote or directed all the music for the full length show.

Mandela’s strong mother and father encourage him to be the best he can be while being well-rooted and true to his morals and his personal ethics. In spite of the fact that he comes from a modest background, he has chosen to use his intelligence, talent and drive to pursue the dream of earning a college degree.
Mandela now attends Stevenson University where he plans to major in theater. He continues to work with Unchained Talent, but now as a mentor himself. He works closely with young artists giving them honest feedback and guiding them to become better artists and better people.

Mandela says, “I plan to pursue performing arts because my passion has been to entertain. All of my life I could make people laugh and get the attention of anyone who was around. My current interests all pertain to performing arts. I can act, I write music, and I record music.

"I have never been the type to be interested in anything else so when it came down to choosing a major, I decided to make theatre my major. The performing arts in high school influenced me to make my decision as well. Unchained Talent polished me as a trained actor.

"Performing arts have taught me how to handle real life issues such as diffusing situations in an appropriate manner and presenting myself in other fields with poise and maturity. The performing arts have also taught me to plan. For example, when you are in a production, you must practice and manage this role until it is time to perform. Thus, when getting prepared for a job interview, you must practice proper vernacular and poise in order to impress and excel in the employment world.

"The performing arts will impact my life in the future by helping me with my music. A big part of music is performing; Therefore, by pursuing performing arts it will help me progress within my music.

"Unchained Talent has affected my life tremendously. Ever since my freshmen year I have understood that the purpose in life was to perform and it was because of Mrs. Christina Youngston and Unchained Talent.

"Someday, I plan to give back to my community by creating a small theatre program close to where I currently live. There are a lot of children who have gifts in the performing arts realm that deserve an outlet and I will try to construct that for them.”

As his performing arts program mentor who has worked with him for almost five years, I have seen Mandela demonstrate his strong sense of creativity, powerful performance ability, intelligence, respect, leadership, humor, focus and integrity time and time again. I cannot say enough about Mandela who stands head and shoulders above the average student. I genuinely expect him to be an enormous success at whatever he pursues.