The 2025 HBCU First LOOK Film Festival (HBCUFLF) is pleased to join forces with Spelman College and BWFN (Black Women Film Network) to present a masterful Elevate Through Mentorship conversation between trailblazing Urban One Founder & Chairperson Cathy Hughes on the power and importance of mentorship with her mentee, Sheila Eldridge, CEO & President Miles Ahead Broadcasting and founder of the HBCU First LOOK Film Festival on Friday, March 21.
Energized by its 2025 mission to Elevate Future Storytellers, HBCUFLF is once again touring HBCUs and bringing in speakers who not only serve as role models but also impart the tools for HBCU students to take control of their own destinies and make their marks. Hosted by Spelman College, which has nurtured and championed Black women’s excellence for nearly 150 years, this Let’s Talk stop in Atlanta spotlights women for a special Women’s History Month edition.
“It is truly an honor to host this incredible event,” said Barbara Chirinos, Artistic Director of the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Center for the Performing Arts, where the event will be held. Cathy Hughes, who became the first Black American woman to chair a publicly held corporation in 1999, is a titan in every sense of the word. Today, Urban One is a multi-media conglomerate creating original content across radio, television and digital media. It is the largest Black American owned, diversified media corporation in the nation and reaches more than 80 percent of the Black American market through Radio One’s more than 55 broadcast radio stations; the cable networks TV One and CLEO-TV; syndication company Reach Media that produces The D.L. Hughley Show among others; the digital platform iOne Digital, home to Bossip, HelloBeautiful, MadameNoire and more; and the cross platform marketing company One Solution.
Ms. Hughes, who rose from a working single mother to her only child Alfred Liggins III, her business partner, heading Howard University’s campus radio station WHUR, to leading a premier multimedia corporation in an industry dominated by men, is not just one of one; she is the blueprint of making the impossible possible. As a former radio talk show host, sharing information and wisdom to lift others up is a life-long mission and she is eager to share it with the Spelman and AUC (Atlanta University Center) community which also includes Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College.
Prior to Ms. Hughes’ Elevate Through Mentorship conversation, BWFN Chair Chiquita Lockley, a Spelman alumna, and BWFN board member Mercendez Springer, who graduated from Clark Atlanta University, share how they were able to Elevate From AUC into careers as filmmakers and producers. Lockley is best known for the documentary Eggs Over Easy exploring fertility options for Black women and Springer is a respected reality television producer with credits spanning from The Rap Game and Iyanla, Fix My Life to The Real World and Married at First Sight who also serves as festival director of the BWFN Short Film Festival.
Founded by Spelman alumna Sheryl Gripper in 1997, Black Women Film Network is one of the most prominent organizations supporting and championing Black women in film, television, and beyond in the industry. BWFN will honor Ms. Hughes March 22, the next day, with the 2025 Sheryl Gripper On Her Shoulders Preservation Award honoring her as a First, Only or Different (FOD) trailblazer in the entertainment industry who has pioneered a space of excellence and achievement for Black women.
Florida A&M University alumna KJ Rose, best known for her esteemed work as a performance director to Grammy-winning artists Lil Nas X and hip-hop legend Nas, will close out the program with the motivational session Elevate Your Dreams created to empower and inspire students to tell their story and activate their own power.
“To be in the presence of Cathy Hughes, a true visionary and mentor, as well as other powerful voices like Sheila Eldridge, KJ Rose, Chiquita Lockley, and Mercendez Springer, is a privilege. Their leadership, perseverance, and commitment to empowering others is the epitome of what it means to elevate future storytellers. I am excited to share this moment with the Spelman community, as we continue to inspire, uplift, and build on the legacy of excellence that these women represent,” added Chirinos, who is also Artistic Director of the Mary Schmidt Campbell Center for Innovation and the Arts at Spelman.
Students from Spelman, Clark Atlanta University, and Morehouse are welcome to attend the mentorship session of the HBCU First LOOK ‘Let’s Talk’ series featuring Cathy Hughes taking place from 1-4pm in the LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Samuel L. Jackson Center for the Performing Arts on Spelman’s Campus March 21
Founded by Howard University alumna Sheila Eldridge, the HBCU First LOOK Film Festival is inspiring a new generation of minority talent and storytellers in the film, television, and broadcasting industry by teaching HBCU students practical skills to improve their craft, creating platforms to showcase their work, connecting executives and students to build a pipeline of talent and career opportunities that is a celebration of Black filmmakers rooted in the HBCU culture.
Past sponsors and media partners include AARP, HBCYOU, Andscape, NBC, TVOne, Oxygen True Crime, HBCUGO.TV, Howard University Television + Film, Howard University Television (WHUT), Howard University Radio Network, SiriusXM Channel 141 & 142 and the Cafe Mocha Radio Network.
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