our raund table discussion it's on i caught up with the gram my awar winning entertainer to talk about her career, her 13th album

and how she has done all of this as a mother of four. i was saying to you when we sat down, it's hard for me to ble believe that it had been 25 years since the world had been introduced to you. did it seem like that or did it fly by? >> it's both. sometimes it seems like yesterday, sometimes it seems like -- it is an eternity. you know, i won when i was 20 years old. at 46 years old i think of how much i've learned. how much i've changed. how seasoned i've become and how much of my innocence was taken away at such a young age. i look at my daughters who are 22 and 20 and cherish the fact that they can still be themselves and not be judge d ad not worry about who they are and being judged at such a young

age. when i watch kobe go through all of his trials and tribulations at such a young age it brought all the things i had to do and really i was given an analogy of a tree going through a storm, the limbs may be broken, it might be swaying back and forth t does not change the make-up of the tree. when the storm is over, the tree is composed of the same material. i've been asked how did you get through it, once the dust settles you are who you are. >> you know what is unique during the time you went through your crisis and today, it seems as though there's so many crises today, every other day we find someone in a scandal and crisis, it's off the back page and they go on. for you it lives. there had to be a sense of

living through it and shining through it. >> it also is an interesting situation because miss america was something i never aspired to be. i won the whole thing within six months. i was in college, majoring in musical theater then i was this image that completely changed my life. so when it all went away and i decided to resign and get on with my life t didn't take away any of my talent or drive but it changed a lot of perceptions. that was the biggest obstacle for me, to be taken seriously. you know, still, to this day, being respected, to me, is the gravy for me. >> you're quick to say your age. >> 46, yeah. >> you're quick to say you've been in the business x number of years. not that we couldn't count that. but here's the truth of the matter, vanessa, many people try to shy away from that. particularly females in this business. you don't seem to have struggled

with it much if at all. have you. >> i celebrate it. i love the fact i've been in the business so long. on the set of "ugly betty" the young cast members come to me for advice. i live being the old, wise sage that i can have the answers for nursing what did you do when this happened with your agent, how did you overcome this, what happened on broadway? i love being able to be a resource. >> when beauty was great deal of who you were and are, how do you reconcile so easily that beauty is timeless in one sense but with a society that is so youth oriented. >> mm-hmm. >> we often miss the beautiful women who remain in their 40s, 50s and 60s. how do you resign yourself to that? >> i'm lucky that i have been provided good genes.

i work out hard. i take good care of myself but also am happy that i have a job now and i play a strong, powerful woman and her age is a joke but also something that is not an issue. we're in our fourth season of "ugly betty" and i play a strong woman who's creator of a fashion magazine, though it's fictitious, no one says it's a black woman, this is a strong woman who is fierce. >> i know you want to fire me so go ahead and do it but if you expect me to gravel or apologize i think you ought to know you're talking to the wrong woman. good luck finding someone else that can do what i do. >> claire. we want you to stay. >> how much of what you've been able to do has affected your personal life, good or bad, in terms of balancing the career and the time it takes to grow to the levels that you have seen and still being, you know, a good mom and a provider and -- >> it's tough. i mean i've had two failed marriages. i've had moments where my, you know, i had to be there for my

kids because growing up especially the teenage years there are times i have to say no to jobs because i had to be home to be the mother to be there or to set guidelines. so i wish i could say that it's easy and there's a balance, but i haven't been able to find a balance. i work really hard sometimes and sometimes i'm off. i feel guilty at times and sometimes i bring everybody along and it's all great. i don't have the answer. ♪ at 46 years old, yes, i can dance like beyonce. do i want to do that at 46 years old? no.

♪ candle light and glass of wine ♪ ♪ sharing that special time with you babe ♪ ♪ feels like a dream but i'm still awake ♪ >> let's talk a little bit about the latest project. i appreciated what you said when saying, hey, i'm 46, it's the music. there's so many people in their 40s frankly, and i'll say this, i'm not asking you to, who are doing the same music they were doing when they were 20 and they sometimes wonder why their record sales aren't necessarily the same. >> right. >> i'm not sure you want to see a 50-year-old woman singing what a 20-year-old woman should be

singing. >> right. >> talk to me about this. because it seems to be a personal album, too, based on what i know of your background as some of the songs you selected for this album. >> this album is called "the real thing" and it is kind of a look back at songs that influenced me. i love brazil, i love latin music. that's what i relax to, i salsa when i can. it just makes me feel tropical and free and wanting to throw back a mojito but makes me feel alive and to have a visceral feeling. and when i do my set, i do have at least three of the brazilian-ish type of songs i sing and love. >> we should note that that is a sergio mendez/stevie wonder composition. >> yeah. so between the real thing, bill wither song, "hello like before"

again, beautiful bosinova but reminds me of "grandma's hands" and "ain't no sunshine" and use me the stuff i would listen to growing up that is still part of my soul. so, it was great to be able to revisit some of the old stuff, but also at 46 years old, yes, i can dance like beyonce, do i want to do that at 46 years old? no. ♪ when are we going to learn that we don't have a choice we both know how it ends ♪ >> if it came out organically from something i was singing, fine. but i think, again, like you said, people seeing someone of a certain age try to recreate what they've done for the past 20 years doesn't do them any service. >> as you said that, maybe we should revisit this. i don't know. before we let you go, let me ask you, in terms of your entertainment legacy, you know, when we talk about people, there are always things that we denote, speak to who they are,

personify them, what would you like that to be for you? >> most people that have any kind of connection, it's usually to a moment and if i can continue to create moments, whether it's singing "save the best for last" and saying oh, my god that saved my marriage, whether it's a moment on broadway where i would do a scene and it's made somebody want to be a musical theater because i've made a difference, as long as i can continue to make these moments, whatever the medium is, i've done my job. up next, our round table discussion. are you reaching out to the next generation? >> to be a call and i fully

agree with that. i think it should come from our community. i don't think we can always wait for someone else to step up and do what the men and other people in our community should be doing. [ michael hall ] we are only as good as the things we make today. and today we're making 5,400 welds, in the body of the new jeep grand cherokee. ♪ that might seem like a lot, if you're building a car. but not if you're building a company. ♪ the new jeep grand cherokee. ♪

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young people face a world of problems today and often don't know where to turn. many believe that mentoring is a way to keep them pointed in the right direction. joining me today are three people who have taken on the task of mentoring and changing the lives of many young people. philip banks, president of 100 black men of america, which founded the all boys eagle academy school, we should note that's the new york chapter, beverly bond is an activist and founder of black girls rock, a non-profit that serves to empower young women. we'll get into that in just a minute. and bill strickland president and ceo of manchester bidwell corporation which founded the craftsmen guild to provide training to the youth in pittsburgh. welcome you all, greatly appreciate it.

>> mr. strickland, let me start with you. you've been doing this a mighty long time. >> 40 years. >> the idea of mentoring is something that i think was years ago almost a given. you knew you mentored young people and some way, somehow we lost our way in doing that. talk to me about this, what seems to be thankfully, a re-emergens of people involving themselves with young people. >> well, i've committed myself to this work because i, myself, was mentored by a public schoolteacher who found out that i had value, possibilities, so i'm living out the example autobiographically of someone who said i had value in spite of what the school system said, the streets taught me. he helped me get into the university of pittsburgh as a probationary student. i graduated from pitt with honors, now a trustee of the university of pittsburgh and i was at commencement speaker and got up in front of 13,000 people and said don't give up on the poor kids they might end up

being the commencement speaker some day. people are a function of role models. you to have positive images in front of you. the degradation of the streets and poverty and drugs have destroyed those for kids to see positive role models. >> beverly, we should know sometimes it only takes one person literally to change your entire life. you've been able to touch a huge number of young girls to empower them, not only with the love and the knowledge of music and talk to us about what you do, but also the confidence of going forward and doing and believing what you can do. >> absolutely. you know, i think the statement in itself, black girls rock, is something that needed to be said and something that we all needed to hear, not just little girls, but all women of color. because it wasn't something that we were used to hearing, used to seeing, the messages of the media were not telling us that. it was to me the statement itself was like an affirmation. i originally i was going to a t-shirt line and this is way bigger than something for me. this is something for all of us, this is something that needs to be said.

>> you know what's unique in the industry that you have made a name for yourself, and the music industry and particularly the slice of it that you do, deejaying, is truly an old boys, male network. you've been able to not only knock down barriers, but mentor young women to say, hey, even though it's not our world yet, there is room for you in this world? >> absolutely. i think that, you know, i think women's voices need to be -- we definitely need to represent music. i think a lack of women as far as rappers and deejays, i think that has a lot, it contributes to just the lop-sided imagery of women. we need to be there. >> philip banks, talk to me a bit about, obviously, 100 black men mentor on many levels across the country nationally with the national efforts as well as local chapters but eagle academy, founded for all boys, is interesting in the uniqueness

in the sense of not only was it to give them an academic environment that maybe is better suited than having little girls in the hallway all the time and chasing, also the idea of teaching them manhood. >> right. that's what we do at the eagle academy. we understand that teaching them leadership and character development what is we focus on. there are seven communities here in the city of new york that populate over 70% of the new york prison population. and we've committed to put a school in each one of those particular communities. the uniqueness of our school, it is a public school, but we have the youngsters going to school six days a week, but the mentoring is the uniqueness of the school. we believe they'll be what they see. >> mr. banks, how do we get out of the cliche nature of what we've fallen into, the idea of each one teach one, they will be what they see, et cetera, how do we take it from that to actually a move of action? >> well, you have to get involved. obviously a lot of people who don't get involved really don't recognize the crisis that is

happening in our community. >> it is a crisis. let us say that out loud. >> and it's necessary for, as you said, there needs to be a clarion call, i fully agree with that. too many people in our community, i think it should come from our community, i don't think we can always wait for someone else to step up and do what the men and other people in our community should be doing. >> bill strickland, talk about the indelible mark mentoring leaves, not to the one who mentors but to the mentoree, the idea it can, as i stated earlier, not only shape your life but really make you who you are for the rest of your life. >> when mentorship is done correctly, it is a transference of values and a world view. it's not just be good because being good is right, it's a way of thinking, it's a way of scaling your values, way of seeing yourself and it sets up the relationship of responsibility. what these folks do is to transfer responsibility for the next group and consequently that gets transferred and that's how

you break historical patterns. it's through subsequent generations. it's not just one group, it's the experience that gets translated for many groups. >> beverly, i know you have seen throughout the young women or throughout the years with the young women you work with, the idea that they do take this from the time you meet them to when they're done with your programming, go on through life. i'm 50 years old almost, a year shy of it, and my mentor, i still call to this day and i'm a grown man, and say should i do this, what do you think? >> right. >> it does stay with you. >> yeah. >> the girls we mentor in our program are between the ages of 12 and 17 and i think that's a vulnerable age for them. i think it's an age where people are not necessarily paying attention to the kids anymore. know what i mean? i think that group really needs the help. they are in statistics, they are at high risk for all kinds of behavioral and sexual behavioral problems, and i think it's important to go in there and intervene and let those girls be kids, teach them and let them know that they are going to be

the future curators of our culture. >> too often we spend too much time with the regurgitation of the need to form another group, another think tank, another grant that's given to think about it, when we have these things that work, why not replicate them? >> right. >> we've got to actualize these words into real life experiences so that we can create human beings who can make a permanent contribution in these communities. >> i thank you all for joining us today and salute you for all of what you've been doing. greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. >> we'll be back right aft ♪ [ boy humming ] ♪ [ humming ] ♪ [ humming ] ♪

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that does it for this edition of "our world with black enterprise." until next time, i'm ed gordon and thanks for making our world until next time, i'm ed gordon and thanks for making our world your world. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. i use capzasin quick relief gel. [ male announcer ] starts working on contact and at the nerve level to block pain for hours. capzasin. takes the pain out of arthritis.