A Different World (ADW): Favorite Episodes and What Surprised Me Most About “OG” ADW Characters
Tag: books
A Different World: Favorite Characters
Calling my fellow A Different World (ADW) fans!
Now that ADW 2026 has launched, who are your favorite characters?
MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS: Professor Freddie Brooks, Esq., Deborah Wayne, and Kojo Achebe
Freddie was my favorite character from the original ADW. I loved her evolution from boho vegan + astrology lover + social justice activist to law student. I could totally relate to her boho spirit! Her Hillman law school journey made me think of my Howard Law journey. I always wondered what type of legal career she had and what happened to her relationship with Ron. Part of me wanted her to work on Black women’s reproductive health issues in a nonprofit organization and have a lifelong partnership with Ron that did not include children.
I love seeing an older and wiser Professor Freddie with her fabulous boho grooviness, social justice passion and activism, turquoise jewelry, love affair with Professor Baptiste (played by actor and comedian Norman Nixon, Jr., Debbie Allen and Norm Nixon’s son), and classroom discussion that referenced bell hooks’ wisdom from “All About Love: New Visions” (1999). Throughout the entire 10 episodes, I kept wondering what happened between Freddie and Ron. Episode 10 answered my question (not gonna spill the tea in case folks haven’t watched the entire series).
I also love Deborah Wayne because she represents a 2026 version of a Black American Princess (BAP) who happens to be a daddy’s girl that drives her BAP momma Whitley CRAZY!!!!! I think Deborah is payback from Whitley and all of her BAP drama. I loved seeing Deborah navigate the ups, downs, and in-betweens of her “freshwoman” year at her parents’ alma mater. I could totally relate to many of her experiences given what happened during my “freshwoman” year at Morgan State University in Baltimore. The writers did an amazing job illustrating her self-discovery journey. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the relationship dynamics she had with her parents. I also loved the Black girl self-love focus of her independent art major presentation during the talent show.
The character Kojo Achebe stole my heart with his beautiful skin, suave GQ unique style, and London accent. I am a fan of Black British culture, music, art, fashion, food, and everything in between. I totally dig Kojo’s vibe and commitment to becoming a fashion designer. I really love his relationship journey with Rashida. His last name Achebe makes me think of Nigerian author Chinua Achebe and the first time I read his book, “Things Fall Apart” during my “freshwoman” year at Morgan in 1983. Also, I adore Kojo’s parents, Abena Achebe played by Ghanaian-American actress Tina Tena Ansah, and Chukwu played by Richard Mofe‑Damijo, the veteran Nollywood actor. I became a fan when I fell in love with his character Tega Castle, the husband, father, managing partner, and law professor in Castle & Castle, my favorite Nigerian legal series (two seasons on Netflix).
Photo Credit: Netflix
Celebrating Older Americans Month in May: Highlights from American Change Agent Book Discussion at Next Chapter Book Shop & Cafe in Hagerstown, MD
Did you know Older Americans Month is celebrated in May?
HISTORY
In 1963, President John F. Kennedy and members of the National Council of Senior Citizens met and decided to designate May as Senior Citizens Month to to acknowledge and celebrate the contributions of past and current older persons.
When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Older Americans Act in 1965, the Senior Citizens Month became known as Older Americans Month. Its purpose shifted to highlighting the need for services and community support for older Americans. The Administration for Community Living promotes the annual observance.
HOW I AM CELEBRATING OLDER AMERICANS MONTH
This year, my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke and I are celebrating Older Americans Month by encouraging folks who are over 60 to share and document their life stories and lessons learned with their family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, community, fellow club/church/group/service organization members, and/or online network in small, medium, and big ways.
On May 2nd, we had an opportunity to share some of my dad’s life stories and lessons learned during book talk for his memoir, American Change Change Agent: A Life & Legacy of Seeking Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion (2025) at the Next Chapter Book Shop and Cafe in Hagerstown, Maryland.
During the discussion, we shared why Hagerstown is important to our Leak/Leek family history in America. In the early 1840s, Peter and Catherine Leak/Leek and their 14 children escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad and traveled approximately 410 miles to freedom in Amherstburg, Canada. Leonard Leak/Leek, my father’s great-grandfather was one of Peter and Catherine’s sons. Read his obituary below.
My dad also shared life stories that highlighted the importance of his lesson #2: Relationships are essential to your development and the impact you make on the world. His sharing sparked a discussion lively discussion among audience members.
FYI Chapter 22 in American Change Agent is entitled “A Legacy Gift for You: Lessons Learned.” It contains his top 10 lessons.
VISIT HERE to learn more about and purchase American Change Agent.
Many thanks to Dr. Genie Massey and the Maryland League of Women Voters for organizing the event.
Special thanks to Melissa and Bryan Noel, owners of Next Chapter Cafe’ & Book Shop, and their amazing team for hosting the event.
A deep bow of gratitude to my brother Matt for taking photos and recording videos during the book discussion.
MY SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO SHARE & DOCUMENT YOUR LIFE STORIES & LESSONS LEARNED
1) Reflect and journal about the top one to three lessons you learned during your teen years, 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s in your personal life, relationships, career, health, or finances. Look for any themes of resilience, intentional living, practicing gratitude, setting boundaries, asking for help, overcoming doubt and fear, or embracing change and joy.
2) Share what you have written with your chosen network of folks who would benefit from your lessons learned in a conversation, letter, email, blog, social media post, artwork, video, audio recording. and in-person or online gathering.
3) Consider turning your life stories and lessons learned into a Word or pdf document and/or an e-book with photos.
4) Write and publish a book.
Finding Spring Refuge in Creativity
Hey Groovy Folks!
How are you taking care of yourself this Spring season?
This Spring season has given me several opportunities to find refuge in my creativity and the creativity of others. These opportunities have served as a lifeline that leads me to peace, comfort, and joy, especially when I feel anxious about what’s happening in the United States and the world.
What are you finding refuge in?
FINDING REFUGE IN MY CREATIVITY
I started working on a new digital collage series entitled “Celebrating Black Joy in My Ancestral Womanline’s Friendships.” I created four collages featuring my grandaunt Paulyne Roberts (“Aunt Paul”) and her best friend Cleo, grandmother Frederica Stanley Roberts Leeke (“Freddie” and “Grandmommy”) and her girlfriends, and grandaunt Mabel Roberts (“Aunt Mabel”) and her sorority sisters.
The background for each collage comes from a photo I took of fabric from a dress I bought at Katuka, my favorite Afro-Brazilian boutique in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil in 2023. I used Canva to create small strips of the fabric and placed them in different directions in the main photo. The strips created a different fabric design. I included photos of the original fabric, dress, and Katuka boutique. I added Ghanaian Adinkra symbols to each collage.
Click the button to read my blog about these collages (additional photos of collages are included).
SPRING PRESS
Special thanks to my Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Sorors for featuring my debut spoken word album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter (released on November 20, 2025) in the Spring 2026 issue of The Aurora Magazine. It is an honor and blessing to have my creative work dedicated to my mother, ancestor, and Soror Theresa B. Gartin Leeke featured in our international publication during the month she joined our sorority in 1959 (April 26th).
Click here to learn more about my mom “Tee.”
Go here to learn more about and buy my album.
What communities feed your soul?
What communities welcome you and/or feed your soul?
Four years ago, I was seeking out local intergenerational creative communities and discovered Creative Mornings DC. After the first gathering, I knew I had found a welcoming tribe of like-minded folks and a source of inspiration. After attending a few gatherings, I felt the call to serve as a volunteer. Fast forward to now, I am still growing and cultivating my connections with folks organically by attending gatherings, volunteering, and meeting up one-on-one and in small group settings. Visit https://creativemornings.com/cities/DC to learn more.
Last year, I set an intention to spend more time in Baltimore getting to know the creative communities. Why you might ask? Because I’ve spent the past six years (since the global pandemic) visiting friends who live in the city and exploring various art, culture, and history venues. Baltimore has also become my second home again. The first time was way back in the 1980s when I attended Morgan State University (Class of 1986).
This year I decided to spend time with the Creative Mornings Baltimore community. Last Friday, I attended my first gathering at the Maryland Center for History and Culture with my soul sistalove Ayesha. As soon as we walked in and talked to the volunteers, I could feel the groovy vibes. The conversations I had with the diverse folks made me feel at home. The golden nuggets I received from the four speakers who shared their thoughts about the meaning of local were just the medicine I needed. All of it fed my soul in a deep and meaningful way. I’ll definitely be back next month! Visit https://creativemornings.com/cities/bal to learn more about the community.
FYI Creative Mornings is a global community that is free to join. It has chapters that meet in-person all over the world. It also offers online workshops and resources for creatives. Visit https://creativemornings.com for more information.
Februllage Days 16 (Toilet Paper), 17 (Mathematics), and 18 (Costume)
This week has been a slow one for me. My body has summoned me to rest and sleep deeply. Translation: No digital devices in my bedroom and earlier bedtimes than usual. It’s been dreamy, definitely needed, and delicious to experience!
DEE-LISH-SHUSSSSSSSSSSSS. Yes, I had to spell out the word in all caps and the way I say the word.
And HELL YEAH, it’s EXTRA just like the name of one of my favorite my lip glosses by The Lip Bar. For inquiring minds who might want to know, I am not an influencer for this brand. I just love wearing it cuz’ it is a lovely vegan brand created by an African American woman who was born in my home state of Michigan.
Okay, all that sleep and rest coupled with the Lunar New Year and New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aquarius on Monday created space for me to flow in and out of my ancestral dreams. I don’t remember what the dreams were about. I just have this inner knowing that my loving + wise + well ancestors are reminding me of the power and choice I have to dream, be, live, love, and create freely. They keep telling me they are working on my behalf so that I can relax into a more Jupiter expansive being-ness that opens a portal into my inner truth, beauty, joy, magic, play, and fun adventures.
The Februllage collages I have created for Day 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper), Day 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics), and Day 18 (PROMPT – Costume) were born from my journey into this new portal of expansiveness. Check them out below.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 16 (PROMPT – Toilet Paper)
“Pandemic Memories” is the title of my Februllage Day16 digital collage. This collage gave me a chance to make playful art from the rolls of toilet paper and masks many of us kept stocked in our homes.
I started the collage with a photo of a bathroom in the Hackney apartment I stayed in during my visit to London in 2023. I added a photo of myself wearing a mask from 2021 in the mirror. Graphic images of masks and rolls of toilet paper were also included.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 17 (PROMPT – Mathematics)
“Black Mermaid Mathematics” is the title of my Februllage Day 17 digital collage. This collage celebrates the soul sistalove bond I share with my cousin Gail and my childhood and adult passion for numerology and mermaids of African descent. I started the collage with an AI-generated background of numbers and added one of my favorite photos of my cousin Gail and I when we were young girls. I added different mermaids of African descent. The mermaids also represent my connection to Oxum/Oshun and Iemanja/Yemanya, two Afro Brazilian/Yoruba Oxisas/Orishas.
FEBRULLAGE DAY 18 (PROMPT – Costume)
The Costume prompt made me think of Mardi Gras which was celebrated on February 17th this year. I love Mardi Gras and New Orleans art, culture, history, and spirituality. My love affair with New Orleans and Louisiana shows up in my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One.
“Great-Great-Grandmother Ida Mae at the Mardi Gras Ball” is the title of my Februllage Day 18 digital collage. My imagination took over this collage and explored what my great-great-grandmother Ida Mae Goins Bolden would have looked like if she attended a Mardi Gras ball.
Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae was born on December 10, 1866, in Michigan. Her birthday is eight days before my December 18th birthday. We were both born in Michigan. She was a daughter of Franklin Goins and Polly Mary Rickman Goins, sister to three sisters and two brothers, wife, mother, aunt, and grandmother.
She married my great-great grandfather William Henry Bolden on December 29, 1887, in Decatur, Indiana. Together, they raised five children, Ada May Bolden McWilliams (1889-1947), Arthur William Bolden (1890-1943), Clyde E. Bolden (1891-1916), Iona Hazel Bolden Johnson King (my great grandmother), and an unnamed child who died early (1899).
While reading her death certificate, I learned she died of cancer of the uterus, rectum, and bladder on March 16, 1917, in North Vernon, Indiana (Jennings County). The cause of her death is something I will explore in another collage series.
I used Canva to create AI-generated ballroom background. Mardi Gras confetti graphic images and a sign decorate the entire collage. I added a woman of African descent dressed in a Mardi Gras mask and costume. I included a black and white photo of Great-Great Grandmother Ida Mae as a young woman in her early 20s. I think the photo was taken before she got married in 1887.
YOUR INVITATION
Click on the video below and listen to my song, “Ancestral Medicine” that is featured on my debut album, Thriving Mindfully As Theresa’s Daughter. Also, reflect on the question.
What personality traits or experiences you share with your loving + wise + well ancestors
Something Powerful Happened Last Night: Reflections on Unity & Presence Book Club Reading of My Debut Novel, “Love’s Troubadours”
Something powerful happened last night as I sat in community with the members of the Unity and Presence Book Club in Odenton, Maryland.
As we discussed my debut novel, Love’s Troubadours – Karma: Book One, I witnessed the powerful impact of what I co-created with Creator and my loving + wise + well ancestors.
I experienced in real-time the beauty and blessing of having the book we co-wrote be examined inside out. It was a joy to listen to everyone’s reflections and insights. It was one of the most soul- affirming and fulfilling experiences I have had as a writer.
It was also inspiring and encouraging as I prepare to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Love’s Troubadours with some new stories in 2027.
Special thanks to the Unity and Presence Book Club for reading my book and inviting me to lead their first discussion for 2026.
Love’s Troubadours is a self-love and yoga-inspired novel about Karma Francois, a thirtysomething, California-born BoHo BAP (Bohemian Black American Princess) with Louisiana roots and urban debutante flair. When the novel begins, Karma’s life has taken a sudden drastic turn. Her relationships and the museum curator career that she struggled to form in New York City have crumbled, leaving no viable options to rebuild. Relocating to Washington, D.C., Karma struggles with denial, depression, and debt. A lack of full-time employment opportunities forces her to craft a gypsy existence as a Jill of Many Trades: yoga teacher, art consultant, and freelance curator. Unable and unwilling to appreciate these jobs as gifts, she wallows in a pool of lost identity—and doesn’t see a way to keep from drowning. When she looks in the mirror, Karma sees a woman whose choices have dishonored her true character. Now, for the first time in her life, Karma must learn to see herself for who she really is.
Stay tuned for upcoming posts about the making of the novel and what’s next.
Reflections on My Father
In honor of Father’s Day (which is every day), I am sharing an excerpt from American Change Agent, the book my dad, Dr. John F. Leeke, wrote about his life and work in diversity, equality, and inclusion. This excerpt is from Chapter 21: Our Father’s Journey: How My Children See Me (pages 428-429).
Copyright 2025 by John F. Leeke and Madelyn C. Leeke
Before former Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant coined the phrase “girl dad” and it went viral as a hashtag on social media after ESPN anchor Elle Duncan shared a memory of her conversation with him during a tribute to his life in 2020, my father lived and breathed it. For those who don’t know, a girl dad is a father who wants his daughter to be treated equally. That means he wants her to have the same rights, opportunities, and privileges as any boy. For as long as I can remember, my father has shown me a fierce love wrapped in an endless bow of support and freedom of expression. His personal investment in my well-being as a child, teenager, young adult, and now as of this writing a 59-year-old woman is beyond words. He and my mother taught me I could be and do anything in the world because it was mine.
There are moments I can remember when he showed up in my defense as only as a girl dad could. Like the time, he met with the two nuns at my all-girls Catholic high school and told them in his loud Black man voice that they were racist due to their mistreatment of me and the other members of the Awareness Black Culture Club. He has believed in me when I couldn’t, especially during the eight times I took and failed the bar exam and each time I have written and published a book. He has even helped me write parts of my books over the telephone when I was running out of creative energy and patience. He has listened to me in my craziest moments and advised me before and after I have taken several risks in my career.
Ours is a rich, layered, and intense relationship that has allowed me to explore and express myself; experiment with my life, career, and creativity; and passionately pursue my healing and wholeness with confidence, freedom, and a safety net that he will always be in my corner no matter what. Being Dr. John F. Leeke’s daughter has given me the honor of sitting in the front row of his life as a digital senior citizen activist, blogger, podcaster, storyteller, and author. As time moves us forward, our relationship is blessing me and my brothers with perhaps the greatest honor: supporting my father as he walks the path of a wise person in his aging process. What a gift to behold!
WATCH ASK DR. JOHN, A FATHER-DAUGHTER CONVERSATION VIDEO SERIES
The video features a discussion my dad and I had about fatherhood.
ABOUT BOOK
