so i'm really very, very happy to introduce this amazing writer and here he is, jamal joseph. [applause] >> thank you so much. good evening. i'm going to just acknowledge the philadelphia free library and add publicist has been working hard and all of the panthers -- we don't see 5:00 p.m. there's your greasy panther alumni. who in the house, reggie shell was the leader of the philadelphia chapter. reggie shell, we have to give him a big round of applause. [applause] sister b.c. as he call her, barbara crocs from philadelphia who was from marshall, whenever she was from new york -- i were when you in new york either at the heart of our bronx and how you take the young panthers because we were always hungry and big feet definitely go to a restaurant and give you some chicken and walters and fish and grits. and we remember brother sultana man who is going to help at the q&a later. but can i have all of the alum stan police? out the panthers out tonight, please stand. luscious give them a round of applause. [applause] i apologize a little bit. i am working with this only -- with

so, i wanted to introduce the writer, jamal joseph. i met jamal and long time ago. he used to be the chair, he used to be the chair of columbia university where i went to graduate school. and long ago, i had a friend at new line cinema, sort of a big company, makes big movies, and i was saying to her one day that i was working on this movie about the black panthers and i was doing all this research, and our berlin wanted to talk to someone. and she said, well, i am working with this fabulous screenwriter. she loves the work is minted. she was just like, he's incredible. and you should talk to him. and i thought that's so odd, you know? i didn't fully understand, was he black panther party was he a friend? it seemed very strange, two very separate things, screenwriter for big hollywood company and black panther. that was my first meeting of jamal. i found him to be incredibly soft-spoken and gentle man, and i think that was in many ways one of the first times that i sort of saw an african-american who really was working in hollywood, and writing movies. and i thought