Here, We're Going to Go Together: A letter from PHAME student Omari Williams-Reid

I wish I could take more classes at PHAME.  I’m an outgoing guy.  I love being with people.  And at PHAME, it feels like all of us are on the same page.

Five years ago, I had never heard of PHAME.  I was always working, working, working, and I was an actor then too.  I had played Othello, I was an extra on Grimm.  I worked at Starbucks in between gigs, and my girlfriend and I were talking about moving to LA so I could pursue acting full-time.

And then one day, everything changed.

I had a massive stroke at work.

My old life was just . . . not gone, but I had to relearn everything.  My name.  What my house looked like.  How to talk, how to walk.  

It was the worst for my mom.  She spent two months with me in the hospital, reminding me to slow down.  Having my mom with me though, was so good—especially going home, when it was so daunting to think of how much work I had ahead of me.

PHAME has really helped me in my recovery.  Not just because being able to do something new is good for me—and I always want to be trying something new!—but because I’m doing the things I’ve always loved, with people who are right there with me.

Relearning Shakespeare after the stroke is hard.  Even harder because I have aphasia now, where I can’t always get the word I need.  But at PHAME, I can do it.

And here at PHAME, your support matters.  It makes a difference to me, and to all my friends here. 

Your contribution will be doubled.  Thanks to a match of up to $7,500 from Postal Annex+ on NE Broadway, the PHAME Board, and Sheryl Manning and Stephen Janik, your support will go twice as far when you make your contribution by December 31.

Before I found PHAME this summer, I was alone in some way. 

Now I’m relearning how to laugh with people, that way of interacting with friends.  Being at PHAME, I don’t feel like I should be the star.  Here, we’re going to go together. 

And you’re a part of that too.

I love having that whole energy where it’s not just me, where I want to put people around me forward—and your support does just that.  It means that all of us can find a place that feels like home.

It’s funny, sometimes I’m amazed at how far I’ve come in the last five years.  I’ve had so much love and support from my mom, my brother, my niece and nephews, my aunts, and my whole family.  I relearned how to play saxophone, I’m acting again.  I do photography.  I’m singing and making films and taking Zumba and playing pickleball.  And I’m here at PHAME.

Before I was always at work, I loved work.  I was always doing something before, but I’m doing something different now.

I’m still here.  And this time, I’m here for something else.

It makes me so happy to do my own art.  And to be in this community.

Thank you for considering your gift to PHAME.  Please make your contribution today.

Sincerely,

Omari K. Williams-Reid
PHAME student

P.S.  Your contribution has double the impact when you give today.  And it matters—to all of us who find a home here at PHAME.