JDew will be presenting his show One Voice: A Black History Narrative at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 29, in Stratton Hall. Tickets are still available online or by calling Programs & Productions at (864) 770-1372.
Krystal Allweil (BJUtoday): Hi, everyone! Welcome to BJUtoday. I’m Krystal Allweil. Jeremiah Dew graduated in 2007 with a degree in Mass Media. And since then, he’s been entertaining the Greenville area. One of his roles he had was the Director of Fun for the Greenville Drive. And one of the other ways he’s been entertaining the area is with his One Voice show. So, how did you get started with that?
Jeremiah Dew (JDew): Well, One Voice: A Black History Narrative, I’ve been doing for about 10 years now. And originally, I was a camera guy for one of the voices inside the show. Not all the voices are me playing characters from yesteryear and today in black history. But several of the characters are also community members who give a video testimony. So I was in the room while one of these characters told his story, and it really changed my life and was the genesis for the show.
Allweil: So, what do you enjoy the most about doing this show?
JDew: Well, as a performer, maybe the most I enjoy is taking a bow at the end and getting, you know, applause. Maybe that’s it. And then it’s over. Right? But God’s given me a lot of talent and opportunity to be able to really take this show and other things around the community in front of a lot of live audiences. So, I love being able to perform, and I really love learning about these folks in a long form story-telling format as opposed to out of a textbook one or two chapters at a time, or tweetable quotes. But really understanding them more of as a person.
Allweil: And now, you graduated over 10 years ago. Campus has changed a lot since then. So, what have–what’s stuck out to you as some of the biggest changes?
JDew: I would say the–one of the biggest things that I’ve noticed is how, I would say, is the student body. The student body mindset has shifted from–A lot of the students now are, I think, a little more interested in Christian service after school, living a godly life today. And I’m not saying that was completely different when I was in school, but maybe I was just around a different mindset where folks felt that they weren’t here learning by their own choice but maybe their parents or generationally, it would just be a thing that they did. And now I think that’s different.
Allweil: There’s a different mindset for sure.
JDew: For sure. Yeah.
Allweil: And the campus has definitely changed, too. What are some of the noticeable changes?
JDew: Sure, yeah. Well, when I started, there was a different gym, you know, the art museum was still, you know, obviously before renovations. And the dining common. I’m telling you. Whatever’s going on behind on the scenes in the dining common is different ’cause it’s a completely different menu and, uh, atmosphere in there. So, yeah. There’s a lot of things inside some of the buildings. The buildings, some of them look the same on the outside, but on the inside there’s a lot of changes.
