“To have power doesn’t mean you get to be mean or make people feel lesser; having power is empowering people,” Debbie Allen told a crowd of eager listeners at Hillman Honors’ Women on the Rise event in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon. The April 14 gathering was the brainchild of Hillman Grad Productions’ Head of Cultural Marketing Marquis Phifér, and a full circle moment for Lena Waithe who named her production company after the fictional college in the sitcom A Different World, for which Allen was showrunner and producer for 122 episodes.

“A Different world felt like an escape for me,” Waithe said during a panel discussion moderated by Allen. “I was, obviously, not even in high school when I was watching it, but I was experiencing college life and what that meant. And it meant community. It meant chosen family. It also meant being involved in the politics of the day. It taught me so much; not just about who I was as a person of color, but what it meant to be a good friend. What it meant to be not just a good student, but a good teacher.”

Waithe was joined on the panel by Jojo T. Gibbs, star of her coming-of-age BET series Twenties, D. Smith, producer and director of the Sundance Audience Award-winning film Kokomo City, and Independent Spirit Award Winning director A.V. Rockwell of A Thousand and One.

During the event, which was hosted by NAACP Image Award nominee Gia Peppers, and attended by aspiring creatives as well as actresses Ashley Blain Featherson-Jenkins, Christina Elmore Duke, and Aisha Hinds, each woman talked about their entry point to Hollywood and the key learnings they carry with them as they move to their next tier of success.  

Smith, a former Grammy-nominated music producer, spoke about her experience sleeping on friends’ couches for three years after being shunned by the music industry when she came into her identity as a trans woman.  

“Once I transitioned, people just stopped coming. They stopped calling. And I honestly lost everything,” she shared. 

Searching for a way to get out of her circumstances, Smith asked someone to purchase a camera for her and went on to create her debut documentary about four Black transgender sex workers. 

 “The most potent thing that I learned is that you can’t be creative and jealous at the same time,” Smith told the audience. “You have to check your ego to move, because God, the universe is literally activated by how you operate, and you have to humble yourself.” 

Gibbs, who got her start in stand-up and currently stars in Civil War, also spoke about the personal responsibility that comes with growing fame. “I prayed and asked God for where I am right now for years, since I was a child, and I don’t think it was until recently that I realized the duality in asking God to be a pioneer in your family and the responsibility and expectations and entitlement that comes from some people concerning you having the capacity to do what you do,” she said. “Things come up in your family, they’re gonna look to you. Things come up with your friends, and you’re seen as the one that can handle them. A lot of expectation may be put on your shoulders so you have to learn how to create boundaries, but also to show up for those people because you were the person ordained to be in that position and if God puts you in that position, then you’re able to do it.” 

It’s that reality that has led Rockwell, who’s currently writing her next script, to redefine her definition of strength, particularly as a woman from whose had to be self-reliant for most of her life. 

“To be an artist outside of the corporate space, you don’t have those routine check-ins every six months where someone asks, ‘Hey, how you doing?’ so I’ve learned to check in with myself constantly in all of the ways that everyone has shared. How am I doing? What do I need to work on? Especially limiting beliefs,” she said. “Yes, struggle exists for our people, but I don’t identify with it. I’m aware of it, I navigate as it comes, but that’s not my identity.” 

At the end of the panel, Allen was presented with a framed playbill of Purlie, the musical in which she got her start on Broadway in 1970, and a framed commencement program from her graduation ceremony from Howard in 1971. In accepting the gifts, Allen said, “I’m 74 and I have more work than I’ve ever had right now. I’m working on two movies, a Broadway show, Grey’s Anatomy, and I’m trying to write my memoir.  

“I’m saying those things to say that the road goes on and you just gotta stay on the path,” Allen continued. “Stay in the light and keep going. Keep plowing and being curious. The things I don’t know, I’m curious to figure out and that will keep you forever young.”