A Golden Milestone:
The Golden Infamous da Angel Interview
Part 1

Written by: Ccep J. Dew, West Coast Editor
All images provided by Golden Infamous da Angel and are the property of their respective photographers

 

This conversation was important to me for several reasons. Over the years, Khadija “Golden Infamous da Angel” Harris has become a good friend and ever-active inspiration of mine, both personally and professionally. She is so on top of her game that she reached out to me to ask when we would be doing our 2nd annual interview. I admire Goldie, as I affectionately refer to her, so much that I wanted to make this phone call eXtra special. It had to be a milestone in my journalistic career, as well as in my personal fight against social anxiety. So, here’s Part I of my first interview with no pre-written questions. (This is what happens when friends spend close to an hour catching up on a year’s worth of adventures…)

 

The last time we spoke we talked about your childhood growing up… We talked about “Golden Infamous the Corporation”… We talked about A Vision I Had, your modeling, and your fashion designs. So, what I want to do is just pick up on everything that happened from last year to now. You have a new book. You have the modeling agency, the promotion group… And it’s just a lot of stuff going on… Can you tell me a little bit about The Death of Innocence?

The Death of Innocence is my second novel. I worked on it for three long, hard years. It takes place in Baltimore City and it’s the story of three teenagers who decide to start engaging in sexual activity and the consequences that they have to face as a result. It deals with the things that happen when people try to play games with love and sex and how things that you do might seem harmless at the time, but they can really come back to haunt you.

 

And what inspired you to tackle that subject in your book?

Working with the youth and seeing the things that they were going through and seeing parallels in a lot of the things that they were going through. When I first started writing the book, I was mentoring in a program called “On Our Shoulders” and I worked with young adults and teenagers and, oftentimes, they would come to me and the other mentors and tell us things and a lot of the times I noticed that the problems that they had started with a relationship or sex. Like, “I got pregnant…” “I’m in an abusive relationship…” “I just found out I got a STD…” A lot of these things all start with teenagers and young adults having sex and not being sexually educated or mature enough to handle the decisions that they’re making.

 

“How Michael Jackson did his music videos and he said, ‘Okay. I’m gonna edit it… I’m gonna produce it… I’m
gonna make the music… and I’m gonna sing on it…’? That’s how I am with my fashion shows. I’m gonna choreograph it… I’m gonna make the clothes… I’m gonna perform… If I could host it I would do that, too. I
would be at the door collecting money. Everything…”

 

Your last book [A Vision I Had] you did with Authorhouse and this book you did with a different publishing house. What made you decide to change?

The reason I decided to change was because I met a publisher who I felt was going in the direction that I wanted to take my novel in. And, actually, the publisher—his name is Taavon—throughout the process of publishing my novel became one of my close friends. When we first started working together, we both had this idea of what we both wanted this novel to be and he also just recently published a novel himself. So, we were talking and communicating and we found out we had the same vision for what we wanted our novel to be. We wanted to give a message to people, but, at the same time, create a novel that’s interesting and entertaining. Once we connected, I said, “Okay. I feel like this is the person who should be helping me create my next project.” And he did. And it was hard ‘cause we started creating my project in the midst of a recession. [laughs] And let me tell you, that recession affected every single little thing. But, we got it through… We got it through…

 

Was the process different as far as the publishing? I know with Authorhouse, they pretty much—once you have your manuscript done, they pretty much do everything for you. Dealing with someone who has their own publishing house, how was that a little different?

Well, it actually wasn’t any different because he did everything for me. Everything that Authorhouse would do or that a publishing house would do, he did for me. He did my catalogue… He did my ISBN number… All of the technical stuff, he did for me. As far as the cover, I sat down with him and collaborated on the image that I wanted for the cover and we made that happen. He’s actually also a photographer, which is how we met. We met as me as a model and him as a photographer. When I first met him, I didn’t even know he had a publishing company. He didn’t even know that I wrote. It’s funny how things happen and you end up meeting people who play a part in your life. But, yeah, he did all of the technical stuff and I did all of the creative stuff.

 

Speaking of photos, let’s roll into Black Gold Models…

Yay!

 

So, Black Gold Models is your modeling agency that was started this year and online it says that there are three co-founders [Golden, Devan B. Perry, and Renard Whitfield]. How did you guys come up with this idea and decide to go ahead and start your own modeling agency?

This is a really interesting story—And, Ccep, I just have to thank you, first and foremost, because you’re the first person that I actually told that to. I don’t know if you remember that, but I remember. You were the first person that I told I wanted to start a modeling agency. And I’m the kind of person where, once I say something, I have to do it. I don’t like to put words into the air and leave them floating because I believe that words are energy, so you have to be careful of the energy that you put forth. So, when I first told you that was something that I wanted to do, I was like, “Now, I really have to do it. I gotta stop making eXcuses.” So, I sat back and I made a couple more eXcuses in my head. Then, I said, “No. I’m really going to do this thing ‘cause I told Ccep.” Everyday, I was like, “I told Ccep I was gonna do it!”

 

[laughs]

“I told Ccep I was gonna do it!” So, I finally sat down and I said, “Okay. I’m gonna start a modeling agency.” I didn’t know where to start. But, God works in mysterious ways, as I have seen many times in my life before and this is how it happened: I actually was talking to my best friend. His name is Devan. He has a music company. He’s a music producer and he manages different artists in Baltimore. And the name of his music group is Black Republican Music Group. And I was talking to him, telling him, “Hey, I have this idea. I want to start a modeling agency,” just to see what he would say. Just to see if it would be a good idea to him, ‘cause, by him being my best friend, I always run my ideas by him. Another thing about my best friend is that he’s the total opposite of me. He’s not the creative, artsy type. He’s the detailed, business-oriented type. So, he can see my projects in a different light.

 

Right.

I told him, “I want to start this modeling agency and I just been having this feeling that this is something that I want to do.” And he said, “You know what? I’ve been wanting to do the same thing.” So, ironically, we both had the same idea at the same time and we set out to create a modeling agency. The name “Black Gold” comes from “Black Republican Music Group” and “Golden Infamous”. So, that’s where “Black Gold Models” came from. That’s where the name came from and the idea. Then, once the name was created and the idea was created, I went to work. I started recruiting models that I had worked with, that I had known, that had been in fashion shows with me… And it was a really quick process with getting everything together. It took maybe about a month to get things rolling. I had to get all of the girls’ headshots and photo shoots and profiles and things like that. Then, we started working on our first event, which was a fashion show that we did in the summer time. Since then, the ball has really been rolling for us. We’ve done a couple of different fashion shows. I actually have a fashion show coming up in January, God willing, at Rawtech Studios in Baltimore and that’s gonna be a total Golden Infamous Production from beginning to end. When I do a fashion show, literally every single thing that happens is something that I’m in control of. Like how Michael Jackson did his music videos and he said, “Okay. I’m gonna edit it… I’m gonna produce it… I’m gonna make the music… and I’m gonna sing on it…”? That’s how I am with my fashion shows. I’m gonna choreograph it… I’m gonna make the clothes… I’m gonna perform… If I could host it I would do that, too. [laughs] I would be at the door collecting money. Everything.

 

“I’m the kind of person where, once I say something, I have to do it. I don’t like to put words into the air and
leave them floating because I believe that words are energy, so you have to be careful of the energy that you put forth…”

 

Now, how do you do that? I’m in a position where there are so many things that I want to do—we talked about that a little bit the last time we spoke—and I feel like [2010] is really the year to go ahead and do it. But, I know I’m a perfectionist and I have a hard time putting things in other people’s hands. But, at the same time, with everything I want to do, I know I won’t be able to do everything. So, how do you everything for the event, but also let someone else host? How do you determine what’s something you should do completely and what’s something you could put in someone else’s hands?

You know what? It’s really hard because there have been times where I’ve assigned tasks to people and they don’t do it the way that I would want it done or they don’t do it as well as I would’ve hoped that they would. So, now I’ve become very selective about who does what. And what I’ve done throughout the course of this year is, with the models who have been a part of Black Gold, when we do events, fashion shows, photo shoots, and things like that, I’ve watched them to see what they’re doing and what they’re bringing to the table. I actually have had a couple of models who really stepped up to the plate and said, “Look, this is something that we want to see grow bigger,” and they’ll offer to do things and they’ll step up to the plate and do things when I can’t. And that’s really, really a big help. The last show that we did, I really had a lot of help, particularly from two models: Natasha and Mia from Black Gold Models. They helped me out a lot with the last show that we did and it was a success. So, having people in your corner that are willing to put in the work that you are makes it easier, but you have to assign the right tasks to the right people. Not everybody is designed to do the same thing. And it’s also important to have people who are willing to work because lazy people don’t make things happen.

 

As far as your fashion designs, I know that you have the modeling agency. Have you worked on solidifying a complete fashion line?

I’m still working on it, actually. My fashion line is something that I’ve been working on for years and years and years, so that’s always something that’s with me. I’m actually working on designing a whole new line of stuff for my January show. I can’t say too much of what it is ‘cause then I’ll “spill the beans”. It has to be a surprise. My January show is also going to be my birthday celebration. That’s why it’s such a big event for me…

 

In Part II, the conversation carries over into Goldie’s creative process, her open mic hiatus and eXperiences with cliques and “actors” on the scene, and overcoming obstacles in relationships. Be sure to check it out next month. Until then, check out “Glamour, Glitter and Gold”, hosted by ETM East’s own Slangston Hughes a.k.a. Slick Vic Low, Friday, January 22, 2010 at Raw Tech Studios, 1 Azar Ct, 3rd Floor in Baltimore from 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. For more info, visit:
www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=196462761182&index=1

 

 

 

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