J. Quenton Cooper/Courtbouillon
Keke Palmer
NEW ORLEANS (April 13, 2018) – Actress and singer/songwriter Keke Palmer advised students to be persistent and disciplined in everything they do and to believe in and love themselves during a Brain Food appearance March 19 in Georges Auditorium.
Palmer was one of the many prestigious guest speakers on campus recently, including rapper Remy Ma, radio personalities Mia X and Downtown Leslie Brown and CEO Valeisha Butterfield Jones.
Palmer recounted her own struggles to adjust as an individual in the limelight and her humanitarian efforts as she advised students about their future career ventures.
Palmer said her No. 1 piece of advice would be to believe and truly love yourself. Once you can do that, everything else will follow because once you love yourself, you will want to push yourself to be successful. Success is dependent on you, she said.
“In order for my character to be successful, I must dig really deep into it,” Palmer said. She covered her different acting roles over the years including “True Jackson V.P.”; the film “TLC: Crazy, Sexy, Cool,” during which she able to shadow the singer Rozonda “Chili” Thomas for her role in the movie; and her lead role in the movie “Pimp,” for which she said she had been preparing since the age of 18. Her most recent role is her new character Gigi on the Fox hit series “Star,” created by director Lee Daniels.
Palmer credited her community involvement to her parents since she watched them give back throughout her childhood.
“They always showed me that it was a very important aspect of life, and it adds value that you can’t get from anywhere else,” Palmer said. “My mother felt that it was very important because of the kind of place that I came from.”
She noted it was important to be able to visit schools to let students know that entertainers are human – that she is a regular person who believed in herself, had the support of her family, made her dreams come true and that you can, too.
Palmer said she has worked with different organizations such as Urban Farming, in which they go into the inner cities to help kids create gardens to have fresh foods; the Boys and Girls Club; and Saving Our Daughters.