july 9, 1999 sister 2 sister magazine interviewed by niki turner The "Different World" Moon Child who Grew up on
a Reservation
When most people think of Cree Summer I'm sure their minds automatically
take them to her crazy character, Freddie from "A Different
World." But Cree is so much deeper than that.
She's not only a actress, but a singer and songwriter as well. She released her debut album earlier
this year titled Street Faerie which was produced by Lenny Kravitz. The album
includes a song called
"Miss Moon" that was inspired by her long-time friend, Lisa Bonet. Once Cree started
talking during our interview I knew that htis would be one of my most interesting interviews ever. She's had
life experiences that are probably very different from your own, but there are underlying stories that every
woman can relate to. Stories of first loves, best friends, and a will to suceed. Personally, I related to
Cree on different levels. First of all, she's interracial, like myself, with a white father and a black
mother; and also like myself, she's determined to do what makes her happy in life. Now
I gotta admit that there were a few things that I couldn't relate to like growing up on an Indian reservation and
her image of God being a brown goddess with long hair and elfin ears! But that's Cree. The woman
spews
love and her own spirituality and she definitely is true to herself. Check out what she had to say and prepare
to be intrigued.
niki:how are you? cree: i'm lovely today.
niki: now where have you bee, cree? what
have you been doing for the past years? cree: what have i been doing for the past few years? i've been living,
writing music, singing.
niki: you had a very interesting childhood. cree: yes, this is so true.
niki:
what was it like living on an indian reservation? cree: it was quite magic. but that's also tempered with the romanticism
of looking back on something. i guess what it was like was like i didn't go to school, i was surrounded
by incredible ceremonies. i used to dance the powwow, sing medicine songs, do sweat lodge, i grew up in
a house made of mud that my dad built with his own hands.
niki: how was that? cree: it was a lovely
place. it was a beautiful home, i mean, there's comedy in it, too. he used to have to chase the pigs away
because they would try to eat the house.
niki:really? how big was the house? cree: one room. we
slept in a loft.
niki: it was just you, your mom and your dad? or do you have brothers and
sisters? cree:
i have a brother, but he came ten years later when we moved to the city. it was lovely, what can i say? it was
a conscious childhood i had.
ther was no television. i didn't see tv until i was eight. i remember
the day that my dad brought home a record player. that was an incredible day.
niki: and that happened
after you all moved all of the reservation? cree: no, that happened on the res.
niki: now when you lived in the
mud house, did you have electricity? cree; no, this was a little town that was close the reservation. it was
this really ramshackle [place]. we were only ther for about six months. my bedroom was a closet,
but i had a really, really beautiful blanket hanging from the top of it, so it looked like a room. my parents
just recently informed me that the closet wasn't relly deep enough for me, so you would
juse see these
legs hanging out of this closet when i was sleeping! but to me, that was my space, man. that was
my room.
niki: you also lived in a school bus? cree: yeah, we traveled in a school bus for a long time. it
was like a mobile homw, if you will. [laughging]
niki: and where were you all traveling to? cree: we were
traveling to canada. we were spending time in british columbia. we's pitch a teepee and sleep in there sometimes.
we lived in a commune called music church for a while. there were families living there.
niki:did
you ever enter a public school system? cree: yes, i finally entered a public school system at the age of like nine
or 10, i'm not exactly sure.
niki:and what was that like? that had to be culture shock for you? cree: that
was really no fun. i didn't enjoy it. that was tough for me because when we moved tothe cityk, we stayed
with some friends of the family who were very, very kind to us and they let us live in their basement. but
it was a very affluent neighborhood. so it was pretty obvious that we didn't lie in the big house that we
were in. we lived in the basement fo the big house, which was really one room connected to a suana. so
everyone knew that i was the girl who lived in the basement of this house. i guess that was the
first time that i realized that we didn't have any money. and i guess that i just wsn't very hip when i
got to school. i had long braids and moccasins and a secondhand dress. i just wasn't cool enough and i really
hated school. i think that's why i was there for six years.
niki:what did you do after six years? cree:
when i dropped out of school? i was 16. i spent a lot of time in my
room smoking pot and talking about all the
things i was gonna do with my life. i'm a testament that pot dreams do come true.
niki: now that's an
interesgin one! cree: two of my very best friends dropped out of high school with me and that was lots of
fun. we used to go on adventures. i was probably the only 16-year-old in the city with a car. my
first car was a 1969 morgan plus four speedster, which is a fabulous old english race car. so my girlfriends
and i were probably the freaks we still are today.
niki: oh, so you're still really good friends with them?
cree: with one of them in particular. one of the girls i wrote one of the songs, "soul sister," on the record
about. and we use to drive around and go on adventures.
niki: what kind of adventures? what were
you all doing? cree: we were, and still are, voracious readers. it wasn't stated that we were a book
club, but we would eat books and then talk about them all the
time. it was really important for us to know
more than everyone else. we were conscious of that. we kept journsal that we would write in all the
time. we were constantly writing poetry and stories. and we wer all very obsessed with frank
zappa and it was our job to know every zappa record ever made. every cut. every lyric. we were
big comic book collectors. we were freaks.
niki: now when you first go to school you said that
you had that hard adjustment period because you were different. so what was connection between you and these
two friends? did they have similar backgrounds? cree; they actually didn't go to school with me. i met tham at,
of all things, the mall. i acutally met one of the girls because everyone felt that we looked alike.
when she would walk down the street people would say, "cree, cree..." one day i was walking through the mall
an she said, " are you cree?" and we became friends. it's probably because we didn't go to school together
so they didn't know yet how uncool i was.
niki: so what was your parent's reaction when you decided to drop out of
school? cree: they were so glad. there was more time that i could hang out with them. my father
colects antique cars and rides motorcycles. it was more
time for us to talk about bikes. we would
go riding together. my mother
went to college for acouple of years. i think my father has no formal
education. he let school in the sixth grade.
niki: are both of your parents native american? cree: no,
no one is. my mother is african-american from louisiana, to beaumont, texas to north richmond, california. and
my father is... we don't knwo what he is. he was adopted. my last name is francks. summer is
my
middle name. i don't know . francks sounds a little german to me. so i
don't know
what he is.
niki: oh, so you're interracial like. cree: yeah, that's what i am. i'm not on of thsose people
who runs around and says, "i'm part cherokee and my great-grandmother was a blackfoot." as far as i know
i'm just whit and black.
niki: so you all were welcomed on this reservation even though you weren't native
american? cree: yes, we were. we were very welcomed as a matter of fact. we were adopted into the
tribe. my parents were married on the res.
niki: what tribe was it? cree: the plains cree indians.
niki:
and that's where you got your name? cree: i'm sure that's where it came from.
niki: does it have a meaning? cree:
it means indian.
niki: oh okay. that makes sense. now how di dyou get into voicing cartoons? cree:
when we moved to the city, my father became a very big voice- over man in toronto, canada. he was working
on a cartoon called "inspector gadget." he was playing dr. claw. they were looking for a little girl to do the
voice of penny and i had gone with him to work one day and he said, " why don't you give cre a shot?"
and they were like, "well, all right." and i got the job.
niki: how old were you? cree: 12 years
old.
niki: and how long id you do that? cree: i guess about two years.
niki: did it pay well? cree:
it paid great. as a matter of fact, that's probably why i had the confidence to drop out of high school
niki:"i
have a job!" cree: well, i was pretty self-sufficient by that age of sixteen. definitely. i was doing maybe 12
to 13 different animated shows a year all through my
teenage years.
niki: what other ones did you do?
cree:all the care bear movies, all those little horrible cartoons like "my little pony," "strawberry shortcake"....
niki: i used to love "strawberry shortcake?"! who did you do from "strawberry shortcake"? cree: i was
the black chick, lemon meringue.
niki:did you ever have nay formal training in music? cree: no, none at all. i
think, like a lot of artists, it's through osmosis and through passion. it's through a high, deep respect and
admiration for music that we're drawn there in the first place. no, i think it's more intuitive.
niki:
how did you go from voicing cartoons to "a different world"? cree: well i came to l.a. when i was 19; (a) to get out of
my mama's house and be grown (b) because i thought i was gonna continue to do animation and live radio
theater; which, when i got to the states, i discovered just didn't exist at all. so strike one off the list
of aspirations.
niki: you were doing all of those cartoons in canada? cree: yes, so i moved here and hooked up
with all the animation houses in the staes and started working. that's how i was paying my bills when i
first
moved to l.a. then somebody saw me and said, "this girl lisa bonet just left `the cosby
show' and they're holding auditions and you should go try." i was like, "yeah okay, whatever. i've got nothing
to lose." and i got it. score, present. it was a pretyy amazing experience to be 19, fresh into
town, no friends in the city and then all of a sudden i've got this great
family.
niki: i loved freddie
[your character on "a different world"]. she was one of my favorite characters. cree: yeah! all of a
sudden i'm a teenager making all this money. i fell in love with my first boyfriend. my very first
boyfriend i met working on "a different world."
niki: he was on the show? cree: uh huh. kadeem
hardison.
niki: really?!! wow. cree: my very first boyfriend.
niki: so how was it for you watching him
and "whitley," jasmine guy? cree: oh, that was comedy because she is such an incredible sister and deep friend.
she took such good care of me. she played a really big part in my awakening to my womanhood. she
showed me how to put on makeup and took me shopping. she told me what drink to order so i could still look
cool. took me around and introduced me t everybody. so i wasn't looking at the two of them that
way at all. i also felt kinda sorry for them because they had such a brother/sister relationship...
niki:...and
they had to be lovely-dovey. cree: yeah, and that's kind of incestuous and creepy. so i felt bad for them.
i was like, "uh, sorry." that was a really great time in my life. i don't think i'd ever do it again.
people ask me, "where have you been? what happened to you? why don't you act anymore? we miss you." the
truth of the matter is i just never felt very confident. i never felt solid. i never
flet
like i knew what i was doing. i used to leave work like, "whew!! they bought it." and htat's just
no a nice way to leave work. you should fel
like you deserve to be where you are. and i never felt
like i knew what i was doing in acting. but i have nothing but gratitude for that opportunity.
niki:
do you keep in contact with any of the cast members from the show? are you and kadeem still friends? cree:
oh yes, he's my dear heart. i love him. he just had a beautiful baby. the most beautiful little girl,
sophia. his mother is bethann hardison, a really incredible force in my life. she just turned out
to be a godmother of sorts for me.
niki: how long did you date kadeem? cree: four and a half years, maybe.
and he was really my first boyfriend. i was like, "yeah! i 'm in a new city, i got a new job..."
niki:
"...and i got a new boyfriend." cree: all the greatest presents. i really feel that way about this life.
it's
so charmed for me. i must've made some good deposits in the karma bank because i keep getting lots of incredible
gifts. even when i look back on things that i though were scary, in retrospect they were miraculous gifts,
too. but yeah, and jasmine as well. i keep in touch with her and jada [pinkett-smith].
niki:
what's you relationship with lisa bonet? cree: she is one of my best friends in the whole world. i mean, i got two
best friends really when i think about it. a girl name little wing and lisa. lisa is mky champion in
so many ways. she's an incredible mother. she's an incredible human being. she's a conscious
human being. and she's constantly going deeper.
niki: how old is lisa's daughter now? cree: zoe is 10
and an amazing young woman. she's the smartest little sister i know. and lisa, i've never seen her and
aphrodite in the same place at the same time. so her divinity blows me away. she's just like a serious
magic woman. a serious priestess.
niki: i know that "miss moon" is about her, but what is that song
about? i like the song. cree: lenny [kravitz] and i wrote that for her. i guess it's like an anthem.
there's so mnay things about being a woman we're made to believe are impure or not marvelous. and woman,
as you know, are in tune to the cycles of the moon. our connection to the moon is tangible in our menstrual
cycles. and for so long it's been something that's be regarded as the curse and this and that and
i believe it's a time when our emotions are so close to the surfacte. when we're so conncected to our emotions and
our deeper feelings. i believe it's a time when women are most powerful and most magnificent. and that
song was birthed from a time when, of course, i was cycling. the moon was full. lenny and i wer out on
a beach in nassau and we had the fog lights on the jeep shining towards the water. lisa was in front of the
light dancing and she looked like a goddess. we were like, "let's write this magic mama a song."
niki: so they [lenny and lisa] are still really close/ cree: yes. very good friends. thank god. they're
like my family.
niki: you met lennky through lisa? cree: yes
niki: and when did you all decide to work
together? cree: every time i write something i usually give it to her. you know like, "check this out. what
do you think?" and she played some for lenny and then i got a call from him one day and he was lik, "who's producing
your record?" and i was like, "nobody." and he said, "no. someone is. i am." and i was like,
"are you serious?" and he said, " yeah, i really want to do it." and that was it. and i hung up the
phone and jumped up and down. i said "thank you goddess." i thanked the goddess for another present.
niki:
what's it like working with lenny? cree: really amazing. first of all, he's just a very, very generous man.
he's very persnickety about pitch and so i feel like i'm a better singer now. i feel like lenny helped
me make a record i always wanted to make.
niki: my favorite song is "mean sleep." i love that song. cree:
do you? good. yeah!! that was fun to make for me because i got to be on the other side of the control booth when
[lenny] was singing. i got to tell him to do it again. "one more time please. you were a little
pitchy."
niki: how would you describe your music? cree: i wouldn't dare.
niki: i had a feeling you
were going to say something like that. i was thinking, "she's not going to answer this question, but i'll just
throw it out there anyway." cree: like, "i'll give it a shot."
niki: yeah, "just to see what she says."
[laughing]. okay, that wen as planned. so what audience do you think you will embrace it? cree: all
the freaks.
niki: i'll have to tell that to my co-worker, mary, becuase she's been playing it over and
over again. i'm gonna go tell her she's a freak. cree: that's right. remember when jimi hendrix used to say,
"let your freak side fly"? all the freaks and beautiful people will love it. everybody that believes
in magic and doesn't believe in boundaries.
niki: are you going to tour? cree: yes, actually i just got off the
road with lenny. he took me out for three weeks with him in europe.
niki: what was that like? cree:
incredible . my opening night in the netherlands in fron to of 10,000 people was like, "hello." i just remember my
knees buckling and my eyelashes sweating. and i kept forgetting to tell the audience who i was. i played
for 45 minutes and then i just walked off stage and lenny would get on stage and say, "that was cree summer."
you know, "you may want to tell them who you
are."
niki: well, that was leaning experience. cree:
and the audiences were so warm and so kind. europeans are such open-minded people.
niki: do you think you'll
ever move to europe? cree: yes, i do. i really do. what a great question to ask me. go girl. i
just say that because that was a conscious though i had on that journey, especially when i was in paris and berlin.
i don't know if it's a place where i want to live, but i never say never because no one surprises me more
than i do.
niki: so how old are you? cree: 29 years old.
niki: now see, that's a question i didn't
think you'd answer. cree: why?
niki: because some people don't like to reveal their age. cree: i dont' understand
that. i'm so proud of it. it's a badge of my survival. of the time i've been on this planet. i'm
going to be 30 this
year.
niki: do you embrace and particular religion? cree: yes, love. just
straight up "love and gratitude." definitely. my religion is consciousness. definitely.
niki:
one last question: is "curious white boy" autobiographical? i can imagine a lot of your music is. cree:
well you know, i don't have the audacity to write about someting i haven't tasted. you know? there's a lot things
i dont' know and if i'm gonna expose myself, i think i'd better know what i'm talking about. my father
is the original "curious white boy." he was the first one i ever me. i remember being in a bar somewhere
in the bible belt and i remember this white man coming over to me telling me i was really pretty for a black girl.
niki: oh really? cree: and that he couldn't believe that he was attracted to me.
niki: and what was your
reaction? cree: i went home and wrote "curious white boy." it's my tongue in cheek way of saying i see you
and i refuse to be your lab rat. sometimes it amazes
me-and i want to very careful here not to make any
generalizations because beautiful people [are] in all colors. i believe that love is more powerful than
anything. but sometime because the white race is the ones that own the buildings, the one tha signs the
paychecks, the one with the governing power-sometimes they have the luxury of not knowing about anyone else. they
dont' have to know about the asian people, they don't have to know about the black people. and so they
can approach us with this kind of ignorant curiosity. and when you say, "that hur tme," then they can say,
"oh i didn't know." we know all about them. we have to. but i don't believe it's a matter
of them or us. and that's why i think "curious white boy," to me, is so fun.
niki: so would you
date a white man? cree: oh, hell yes. of course i would. i'd date white, red, yellow. especially
if i met one with pointy ears and he was elf.
niki: what's up with the pointy ears and elfin people? cree: i believe
in magic, that's all. i truly believe in magic. i don't
care what color you are as long as you're
willing to come from your higher self as well. i'm secure in being a black woman and i'm proud of being
a
black woman. and if there' a white boy that can handle it, we'll see.
niki: you are funny. it
was wonderful talking to you cree. cree: it was beautiful to talk to you too, sister. i would love for you to
come to the show. we rock hard live.
niki: i believe you. and you have to sing "miss moon." cree:
yes. you gotta put that on when you're bleeding, you know?
|
|
|