Terisa Griffin
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I recently got the opportunity to meet the very talented and soulful singer, Terisa Griffin. Below are
some excerpts from my interview with her:
LB: What things are you working on in regards to your music career?
TG: Things are going fabulous, and I’m currently working on my next album.
LB: I see that you’re hosting an event here in Chicago on July 27th at the Green Dolphin Street
restaurant, for your foundation. Can you tell me more about this event?
TG: It’s called Better Love Yourself. It really came from my last album. One of the songs that kinda
stuck with a lot of people was a song called Better Love Yourself. We had an overflow of response
from people. Lots of women, and men too, saying that they had given so much in life to family
members who didn’t appreciate anything, lovers who didn’t appreciate anything, and they lost
themselves. They were really touched by the song. And the latter part of that song is talking about
the life you’re living, and mending your spirit, because if you love yourself, starting there, then you
can pretty much conquer the other things in life that you want to do. But if you’ve already given
everything that you have, then you’ve forgotten yourself as well. So start back loving yourself, and
only do those things that you’re going to feel good about. That’s where the organization Better Love
Yourself came from. Its more of a healing, and in the process of healing, you also want to give back.
You come to this event, you get your spa treatments, for guys we even have a shoe store.
Hopefully we’ll have neckties and something more unique for them this year. This year we have a
coed shoe store, and other things, so that the guys will feel like they can love themselves as well.
Lots of gorgeous women. But In the middle of all of this, we’re giving trunks away to kids going off
to college. I think some of your first self-esteem issues away from home, happen when you’re trying
to better yourself. You go off to college, and then you’ve got the roommate with everything, and you’
ve got the same old comforter that you’ve had for the last four years at your mothers house. It puts
you in the funkdafied mood of damn, I came here and I don’t have anything. How can I fit in? You
start trying to keep up with the Jones’s, already getting yourself in debt; getting a credit card real
early. Let’s try to start them off with a positive image if we possibly can, so that they don’t have to
borrow their roommates iron. So in the process of loving ourselves, we give back. And then there’s
a concert after the pampering, and the presentation of the trunks. Here in Chicago, we have the
fabulous trumpeter Orbert Davis, who’s donating his Quartet and himself for that night. We’re really
excited about it. We have some really great donations this year. Nielsen ratings is a part of our
sponsorship, American Family Insurance, CDC (Coleman Development Corporation) which is a
construction company, and tons of individual sponsors. People have donated their time with on the
street promotions to help promote this, and V103 is our partner, and we are doing this in five
cities. So we’ll be in Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, and Philadelphia doing this same thing.
LB: That’s a very wonderful program. I know it’s a lot of college students out there men and women
who are definitely looking or need support and help in finding themselves, loving themselves, and
also getting tangible things that are needed for college. What does an individual who is college
bound, or has an interest in going to college have to do to get involved in this particular program?
TG: Well if they applying for a trunk, then they would go on our website, which is www.
betterloveyourself.com, and there’s an application on there. If they want to become a mentor, and
we mentor a lot through email. Kids love to email. That way they don’t have a face on their mishap.
The other part of our mentoring of course, is gaining trunks. If they want to give to us, there’s an
address there, and they can call us up at (773)667-9608. We would be happy to pick up whatever
the donations are. They can mail them in. We are a 501(c)3, so the donations are tax deductible.
LB: I know you probably get thousands of applications. How is it determined who gets a trunk and
who doesn’t?
TG: Believe it or not, it’s a pretty easy process. We start with a 2.5 GPA, because we aren’t so
much concerned about you having a 3.8 GPA. Usually the kids that excel in college are the ones
who did mediocre in high school, because they learned how to study. Kids who flew through their
studies in high school have to actually hunker down and figure out how to study. At least a 2.5
GPA, and then they have to tell us something about their self-esteem, how they handle peer
pressure, as well as why they think that they deserve the trunk. We read about those stories, and
sometimes its so heart-wrenching, that I let some of the ladies in our committee sit down and read
these letters and these applications and they are in tears, and these women run out and work
harder. So its inspiration for us too. We have a selection committee, and we pick those heart-
wrenching stories based on need. Believe or not, our African American kids do not apply enough. If
anything, we need to learn that rejection is not a bad thing, so send it in.
LB: I know you said that you’ll be hitting a few other cities, and that’s a wonderful thing. Are you
going to have motivational speakers at the events?
TG: In Chicago, we have Darlene Hill and Troi Tyler for our hosts and Orbert Davis is performing.
In Philadelphia, we have Jean Carne as our partner in entertainment. We have Alison Crockett in
Detroit. She’s a neo-soul D.C./New York artist. In Memphis, we have an international blues artist
Ruby Wilson.
LB: Its definitely good to have something positive like this in the community for our young people.
Are you performing at the event also.
TG: Yes, I’m performing at every event. Let’s just pray my throat knows it.
LB: And if people also want to find out more information about you, where can they go?
TG: If people want to find out about my shows, they can always go on my website www.terisagriffin.
com
_____ Leroy Burton
some excerpts from my interview with her:
LB: What things are you working on in regards to your music career?
TG: Things are going fabulous, and I’m currently working on my next album.
LB: I see that you’re hosting an event here in Chicago on July 27th at the Green Dolphin Street
restaurant, for your foundation. Can you tell me more about this event?
TG: It’s called Better Love Yourself. It really came from my last album. One of the songs that kinda
stuck with a lot of people was a song called Better Love Yourself. We had an overflow of response
from people. Lots of women, and men too, saying that they had given so much in life to family
members who didn’t appreciate anything, lovers who didn’t appreciate anything, and they lost
themselves. They were really touched by the song. And the latter part of that song is talking about
the life you’re living, and mending your spirit, because if you love yourself, starting there, then you
can pretty much conquer the other things in life that you want to do. But if you’ve already given
everything that you have, then you’ve forgotten yourself as well. So start back loving yourself, and
only do those things that you’re going to feel good about. That’s where the organization Better Love
Yourself came from. Its more of a healing, and in the process of healing, you also want to give back.
You come to this event, you get your spa treatments, for guys we even have a shoe store.
Hopefully we’ll have neckties and something more unique for them this year. This year we have a
coed shoe store, and other things, so that the guys will feel like they can love themselves as well.
Lots of gorgeous women. But In the middle of all of this, we’re giving trunks away to kids going off
to college. I think some of your first self-esteem issues away from home, happen when you’re trying
to better yourself. You go off to college, and then you’ve got the roommate with everything, and you’
ve got the same old comforter that you’ve had for the last four years at your mothers house. It puts
you in the funkdafied mood of damn, I came here and I don’t have anything. How can I fit in? You
start trying to keep up with the Jones’s, already getting yourself in debt; getting a credit card real
early. Let’s try to start them off with a positive image if we possibly can, so that they don’t have to
borrow their roommates iron. So in the process of loving ourselves, we give back. And then there’s
a concert after the pampering, and the presentation of the trunks. Here in Chicago, we have the
fabulous trumpeter Orbert Davis, who’s donating his Quartet and himself for that night. We’re really
excited about it. We have some really great donations this year. Nielsen ratings is a part of our
sponsorship, American Family Insurance, CDC (Coleman Development Corporation) which is a
construction company, and tons of individual sponsors. People have donated their time with on the
street promotions to help promote this, and V103 is our partner, and we are doing this in five
cities. So we’ll be in Detroit, Memphis, St. Louis, and Philadelphia doing this same thing.
LB: That’s a very wonderful program. I know it’s a lot of college students out there men and women
who are definitely looking or need support and help in finding themselves, loving themselves, and
also getting tangible things that are needed for college. What does an individual who is college
bound, or has an interest in going to college have to do to get involved in this particular program?
TG: Well if they applying for a trunk, then they would go on our website, which is www.
betterloveyourself.com, and there’s an application on there. If they want to become a mentor, and
we mentor a lot through email. Kids love to email. That way they don’t have a face on their mishap.
The other part of our mentoring of course, is gaining trunks. If they want to give to us, there’s an
address there, and they can call us up at (773)667-9608. We would be happy to pick up whatever
the donations are. They can mail them in. We are a 501(c)3, so the donations are tax deductible.
LB: I know you probably get thousands of applications. How is it determined who gets a trunk and
who doesn’t?
TG: Believe it or not, it’s a pretty easy process. We start with a 2.5 GPA, because we aren’t so
much concerned about you having a 3.8 GPA. Usually the kids that excel in college are the ones
who did mediocre in high school, because they learned how to study. Kids who flew through their
studies in high school have to actually hunker down and figure out how to study. At least a 2.5
GPA, and then they have to tell us something about their self-esteem, how they handle peer
pressure, as well as why they think that they deserve the trunk. We read about those stories, and
sometimes its so heart-wrenching, that I let some of the ladies in our committee sit down and read
these letters and these applications and they are in tears, and these women run out and work
harder. So its inspiration for us too. We have a selection committee, and we pick those heart-
wrenching stories based on need. Believe or not, our African American kids do not apply enough. If
anything, we need to learn that rejection is not a bad thing, so send it in.
LB: I know you said that you’ll be hitting a few other cities, and that’s a wonderful thing. Are you
going to have motivational speakers at the events?
TG: In Chicago, we have Darlene Hill and Troi Tyler for our hosts and Orbert Davis is performing.
In Philadelphia, we have Jean Carne as our partner in entertainment. We have Alison Crockett in
Detroit. She’s a neo-soul D.C./New York artist. In Memphis, we have an international blues artist
Ruby Wilson.
LB: Its definitely good to have something positive like this in the community for our young people.
Are you performing at the event also.
TG: Yes, I’m performing at every event. Let’s just pray my throat knows it.
LB: And if people also want to find out more information about you, where can they go?
TG: If people want to find out about my shows, they can always go on my website www.terisagriffin.
com
_____ Leroy Burton
Click here to check out photos from
the 2008 Better Love Yourself
the 2008 Better Love Yourself