NEW VISION IN BUSINESS - April, May 2006
By Ytasha L. Womack
Photographs by NV

Attorney, Television Producer, Best-Selling Author, Celebrity Wife, Mother, Tonya Lewis Lee, Esq. Is patiently…
HAVING IT ALL

A graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Tonya Lewis Lee handled First Amendment and corporate law for Nixon, Hargrave, Devans and Doyle in Washington D.C. before ditching the corporate life to pursue her true dream of writing and producing. After a failed attempt to launch a magazine the mother of two crafted ideas for television programming and books. She co-authored the children’s book “Please Baby Please” with husband Spike Lee. She co-authored the fiery novel “Gotham Diaries” about high profile New York City living. Later, she’d add award-winning executive producer to her credits. She executive produced the documentary “I Sit Where I Want: The Legacy of Brown Vs. the Board of Education,” which won a Beacon and Parent’s Choice Award. And among her other projects is the popular “That’s What I’m Talking About” series that she executive produced this past February for TV Land.

BUT ITS NOT EASY, chimes Lee. Multitasking, or rather balancing the multitalents that typifies career women of today, the desire for self-fulfillment, the hopes of achieving personal dreams and entrepreneurship requires a fortitude that’s unyielding. It’s tough enough holding one job, but three? Entrepreneurship, over lofty corporate jobs, are you serious? Add in kids, marriage, haters and critics and life quickly morphs into a must-see juggling act. Yet it’s a choice more and more young women make each day. Here, Lee shares her journey.

Why did you become an attorney if your true passions was the more creative side of business?

My father was in corporate America, he climbed the ranks, and I wanted to do the same thing, but knew I didn’t want to go in business. I went to law school, in part because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. If I was in law school, I buy myself three more years. Then in law school, the reality of life set in, I saw how much I could make. I went into corporate law, and wanted to go into entertainment, as a way to back me into a creative or at least be around creative people. Then when I got married, I tried to start this magazine, with a friend of mine.

That’s a big transition. What was that like?

I was married in ’93, and I was pregnant six months later. I met Spike in ’92, we married in ’93, had a child, moved from D.C. to N.Y., but one thing that was great was that it was an opportunity to work on my writing. I had been writing for ten years, before I showed anyone anything. The children were small, once I got into the routine; it was good to have a space to work. I wasn’t getting paid. I was really trying to work on my craft. I took magazine classes, worked with some creative people, we put together a wonderful prototype but we weren’t able to get the magazine going. We got the prototype done in ’96. I went to Time Warner, the Conde Nast, The Source, private investors. We got close, but then I was pregnant with my son. I had a 2-year-old daughter. I didn’t have the energy to push it that much further. I felt like I was banging my head against a brick wall. It was painful. Sometimes when we’re pushing and pushing, we have to accept that it’s not quite ready yet. Let it flow. I had two children I had to figure out how to raise. It’s still a part of me. I couldn’t do it all at the same time. I had to step back. People I was working with were not happy with me at all. But if it’s meant to be it may come to be.

“In my work, it is really important to me to create images of people of color who represent what I know to be true. It was about wanting to put something on TV for my kids, too.”

What amazes you about parenthood?

How hard it is. I don’t think anybody knows how hard it is to be a parent until you get into it. It’s not easy. It’s a wonderful challenge, I guess my children have focused me on them and children and how impressionable they are at a young age. Part of my doing children’s books is because both of my children went through an understanding of their skin color. Not in terms of race. My daughter would say her skin color was gray. She attended a school where there were only a few black kids. I saw how it was processing in her mind. I said, my kids need to see images of themselves that reflect a regular kid – loving your brown skin and loving your hair. I wanted my kids to see themselves.

I grew up in a predominantly white community. I caught a lot of hell. I started off in N.Y., New Jersey, and moved to Milwaukee and St. Louis. Milwaukee was a rough time for me. I can joke about it now. We were out promoting “That’s What I’m Talking About” and I remembered how in third grade this kid called me nigger everyday and the teacher didn’t protect me. I said “I wonder what he’s doing?” My friend said, “I can’t believe you’re still thinking about those things. He’s probably pumping gas somewhere.”

What do you want your work to accomplish?

In my work, it is really important to me to create images of people of color who represent what I know to be true. It was about wanting to put something on TV for my kids, too. I was trying to write projects, and, developing a TV concept it’s like developing a line for my book. It’s just bringing it to life. It’s so interesting. It stems from a need for my children to see something.

You generated a lot of intrigue with “Gotham Diaries.” How did it come to be?

Crystal McCrary Anthony – my writing partner and I, both got married in ’93. Her husband played for the Knicks. One year we were at Cannes. Being around all this creative energy we started talking about working on something together. We were looking at one of my real estate friends who has an interesting point of view… A good broker has a really good insight into who people are – black entertainers, athletes, he gets to see interesting cross section of people. We really wanted to talk about a New York City that we know, with people of color. Initially, we wrote it as a TV show. We shopped around with a distributor and Sept. 11 happened. People became concerned about how to tell a New York City story. We said well there’s more than one way to skin a cat, so we wrote it as a book. People don’t know how much energy and work it took.

How did That’s What I’m Talking About evolve?

I did a project called “Miracle Boys,” about three brothers growing up in Harlem. People at TV Land saw it and asked us to come up with a concept for Black History Month. They wanted to do something for Black History Month that was atypical. Dust it off and make interesting. So we decided to do a talk show, politically incorrect style. A show where people have a real point of view. It’s interesting. TV Land, I give them Kudos for doing it. Although TV Land says that their market is baby boomers (they) came up when issues of race relations were part of the conversation. People today are so afraid now. In a way it makes sense. It was great for me personally to sit there and watch Harry Belafonte, Toure, and Diane Carroll. To hear Harry Belafonte ask, “When you say the N-word is a form of liberation, explain that to me.” And to see others try to explain that. To see D.L. Hughley drop knowledge on the NBA dress code – saying you’re doing business so you dress like you’re doing business. I got amazing feedback from people who saw it. I’d like to take that someplace else. One of the great things that came across is that all black people don’t think alike and that’s okay.

Do people accredit your success to the fame of your husband and not to your own talents?

It’s a funny thing. In the world in which I work, people know me for my own work. “Miracle Boys,” Spike came in to do two episodes. In TV the producers are the heads of the ship. He directed two episodes, and yet it became the Spike Lee project, it was good for marketing, but it was put out like it was his project. We had Bill Duke, Earnest Dickerson, yet it was the Spike Lee project. It is what it is. It’s okay I don’t feel like when I work with people that they feel the only reason I’m here is because of Spike. I don’t really worry about that so much. I do the work to the best of my ability.

Many accomplished women with successful husbands are encouraged not to work. What are your thoughts on that?

What choice do I really have? If I don’t work, I’m a miserable human being. When I was not producing the way I wanted to, Spike would tell you, I was miserable. Then I’m working, and my children need me. They need me to advocate for them at school. If I don’t manage my household who else is going to do it? I have to keep it in order. Spike jokes with me and says, “you’re superwoman.”

"In ’93 when I began writing, the stuff I wrote was God-awful. If I had been afraid to keep going, I wouldn’t be where I am now. You have to face your fear."

I was watching “Good Morning America” and the piece called “Mommy Wars.” Some say a woman, no matter what her situation, mothers should be working and working for pay. And other women say they should stay at home. There’s a public debate going on, and its just seems to me, you have to do what works for you and you have to figure it out. Sometimes it takes time to figure it out. In the beginning, I remember crying about it because I was not in there, in my work or working the way I wanted to be. I was really missing something. It felt like a part of me wasn’t being realized, and my time was just going by and there was no way I’d be able to work my way back.

Unless you have 10 children, your children will eventually leave. There are times when they’re frustrated about what I do. I know my daughter knows she’s going to do something important in the world. I know my son, when he looks at me, wants a woman who’s going to bring something to him, that’s strong. I think it’s important for women to have something to be passionate about besides their children and not be afraid to do it. In ’93 when I began writing, the stuff I wrote was God-awful. If I had been afraid to keep going, I wouldn’t be where I am now. You gave to face your fear.

It’s interesting too, you hear how all these college-educated women don’t want to work then they have children. No matter how wonderful you think your marriage is, you have to have a plan B. Being beholden to someone to take care of you, it’s not worth it.

What tips do you have for people who want to juggle a variety of projects as you do?

Say you have a few things that you’re working on, so you’re working this one over here while this one is dormant. If that doesn’t stick you’re working on another. You’re passionate, but you have to get one to stick and use that momentum to launch the second. It’s a tough thing to do but it’s great to manage it. Have tenacity. But if one project doesn’t work, it’s okay, work on something else. Things do not happen overnight. They think if they work on something for a year, nothing happens, now what? Couple patience with tenacity and things will come.