ANGEL KELLY-RACE, SEX AND SPIRITUALITY - Part 1

 

ANGEL KELLY-RACE, SEX AND SPIRITUALITY

PAMELA MOORE'S INTERVIEW WITH MARY E. LA LUNA, ARTSEES DINER, FEATURED HOST FOR BLOGTALK RADIO,  SEPTEMBER 4, 2013. 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artseesdiner/2013/08/27/angel-kelly-race-se...

 

Relationship and Journey, with God:

 

Before I went into the adult (movie) business, at the age of eighteen, I'll never forget - on a New Year's Eve night I was baptized with the faith of the Lord, believing in Him; accepting Him as my savior. That was before I went into the business, and before I began all of the experiences that I had in my life that were incredible and made an incredible impression. The Lord is the most important … (I don't want to say thing, that doesn't even sound right)… and He is not a man; I can't even begin to describe God. God is a blessing, God is grace, God gives you grace. God gives you hope. God saves your day.

You know what I'm saying?

The Lord has been incredible to me throughout my career. I know a person probably says " How could you possibly be saved by the Lord doing what you do?"

No, that's not it. The Lord has brought some incredible people into my life. And the Lord held onto my hand and saw me through something that the average person would say, "Oh that's crazy", you know what I mean? He keeps me through until the end.

I would never, in my career, ever have one bad thing happen to me. Never. Never. Never, had one bad thing happen to me. No I was not beaten, I wasn't raped, I wasn't a drug addict, none of those things. He brought me to a lot of places around the world, a far north as Ottawa, Canada, all the way over to Milan,Italy; as far south as Mexico, west to Hawaii. He brought me to some incredible places meeting a variety of people. You never would think that someone in the adult business would have someone else addressing them as "Miss." But my fans were the best fans I could ever have. I was " Miss Angel".  I was "Miss Kelly." 

I was always respected, never got disrespect when I was in the business. 

And I don't know if the timing of when I went into the business is why I had such success. On top of the "who you know". That was an important factor. 

 

There were not many black adult actresses in the business, and so it was all new. All I know is that the Lord brought me through that time and period in which I've heard horrifying stories from other females or men who have been in the adult business.  I'm talking about horrific stories, tragedies. I did lose some good friends who had suffered - I can't describe - some of those bad things, and the Lord brought me through. It's as if He wanted me to see the wonderful things that I could have, and the wonderful things that were out there to have.

Then it came to a point in my career, honestly, where I was, like, "I don't want to do this anymore." And I honestly walked away from the adult business, with my head intact, with my right mind. You see that only came from the Lord. You can only have your right mind from the Lord.

I walked away from that situation with my first child. It's like the Lord took me away from all that fame, all that money, doing all those wonderful things - He stripped all of that, all the way down, and started all over with me. You see?

 

What was the Turning Point?

 

For me, I was accepted as the first black adult actress. For me it was a racism thing, where I hit a block, a stumbling block. I want to say that the era when I was there, the 70s, 80s, was a totally different era from the 90s until now. It became more superficial because I can tell you that the females I was around at the time, we really set out on a conscious effort. We had a little social club called the Pink Ladies Social Club, and it was a club to support the women in the adult industry. To give them protection as far as information to protect themselves and to be strong women; to be respected, because of class. 

At one point, it was illegal to make movies when I was in the business. After I left the business -  you can get a license to shoot an adult movie now. It's funny that now that they've made it legal, it's like they took away something extra. It's like now everybody's man-made you know, the lips, the breast, the butt….liposuction. Everybody's a man-made film star, nobody's their original self. 

 

What Drove You to Enter the Adult Film Industry?

 

It was a crazy background. I was married at 18, I used to be a model. Coming out of high school I met someone that was very, very special that I agreed to marry, fell in love with, thought I was in love with; thought I knew everything. And we really experienced a tragic few months together that kind of sent me into a shock wave honestly. I mean at 18, how much can you know? How much can you understand about life? You feel for these young people these days, they're going through so much and they think they know everything. They think they've got it all figured out. And that is like the biggest joke I ever heard.

But until you go through and mature and become older, do you ever understand. Boy when I was 18, I had no idea.  I thought I knew it all. And I did not.

 

That's how that was. I experienced something that caused me to shut down, that's the best way I can describe it.  To be totally honest with you, I married someone that I had no idea was gay. He wasn't bisexual. Really what it was…he was white, I was black, you know, that was a bit of a controversy right there to begin with, to be married, first off. With his parents and my folks and of course we're young and we're gonna do everything our parents told us not to do. So we set off to get married.

 

I would say that three months after we got married, I found out that he was not who I thought he was, and that he preferred men. That was really, really tragic for me and we ended up splitting up no more than four months after we got married.

 

So here I was, when I got married, I was already a runway model for Mademois-elle Fashion and was on tour as a 17 year old modeling, and I gave that up. I was going to college, majoring in dance, ballet, modern and jazz. I gave up college to get married. So I gave up my modeling career and here I gave up college. Now what did I have, because I didn't even have a husband anymore?

 

There was a girl whom I used to model with, she didn't have parents, she was an orphan. So she was raised as adopted. When this had happened to me it was really that tragic for me. I remember her stepping up to me, and me being really lost about what I am going to do. Where would I even begin to know?

I don't know what led me into this direction, but her simply holding her hand out and saying, "hey, I know where you can make some money."

 

And it continued on " You won't have to do anything, you'll be behind a glass. You'll dance in front of some people and they'll throw money at you."

Then she pulled out this shoebox from under her bed. Now keep in mind that we're 19 or 20 years old then. It was full of money- one's, ten's, twenties, a couple of hundreds- full of money, I said "wow, where did you get that?" and she said, "at that place I told you about where you can make lots of money.

I went onto that path, a place where I could be safe.

You might say, "how could you be safe doing that?"

How about, I didn't deal with life as what I thought it was to be. Do you know what I mean? With all that I had gone through. 

So here, in this world, it is what it is. Nothing candy-colored. There could not be any lies to it. 

It was real. It looked real, in my opinion.

Because with my husband, I had contracted a venereal disease. It caused me to be very, very ill and I was told by the doctor that I couldn't have children.

There's all of this craziness, and I'm, like, what do I have to live for? What do I have to do?

Now keep this in mind. You probably think what role did God play, but God was there the whole time. Because when it got to the point of being a film star, I came to California with two suitcases. The Lord knows this is true, there's nothing false about this whatsoever, but when I got to California, the phone rang and I answered it. My first phone call was like the most horrific, scariest, sickest sound through the phone I've ever heard. It scared me, it was so unearthly. It was like a screech, and I hung up the phone.

My friend asked what was wrong and I said, "I don't know, what that was but it frightened me to death."

Well the phone rang again. Immediately after  that. My friend said, "go ahead and answer it."

I answered the phone and it was like a Spanish-speaking woman. I'll never forget this, Miss Mary, I promise you: I was just like, "Hello?" She said "Hello, I just wanted to call you and let you know God loves you." She had a Spanish accent, and immediately I got this feeling over me that was so soothing, and I felt so much better.

I cannot even begin to explain that except I know that God was there and he was letting me know He was there. That I had nothing to fear. Even though satan was knocking at my door, ready to take me down to who knows where, God was going to always be there with me.

 

Through my career, every airplane ride, every day, whatever I did, I'm praying everyday. And I was okay, as long as I prayed, I knew He was with me.

 

(Interviewer points out that even in 1978 graduating class, most of her friends were married by the age of 21. Also ethic of no sex before marriage, interviewer married at 19, in domineering relationship).

 

Interviewer: When you're the pampered star, you shouldn't have to worry about anything. "It is your nature to nurture, the hospitality component defines who you are and what you bring forth. Right now you are still in another transition point in your life. You have a great insight. You have experienced the finest, you've experienced the mundane, raising babies, the day-to-day processes. What is your dream?

 

 What is my dream? My dream is to have my own- because I've spent the last 20 years, working for the man - and learning to respect having my own, you know what I mean? So I began to develop a company called AK Enterprise and I created an umbrella. I set out this goal to achieve specific things under the umbrella of AK Enterprise, my own company. I had a book from the first  part of my life; and now the second part as you said we go through parts, a journey, the next part of the journey. Like right now I'm on a new journey and it's incredible.

The first part of my life from what led me into the (adult) business, and my experiences in the business, until when I left the business. 

 

I call that book "The Sins of Angel Kelly", (also) the name of a movie I made back then. That title was so fitting to all that I went through, because it was an experience I had to go through, right? Then the second book would be "The M-Town Story" which is basically this adult film star in the real world.

And boy, let me tell you, in the Bible Belt, of Memphis Tennessee, is where I landed. It might have been different if I was in New York, California, maybe out in Vegas, if I'd left the business, and stepped out into the world there. But I stepped RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE BIBLE BELT.  I didn't just shake the dice, you know, this is where the Lord borne me. I was born here, this is where my family exist, and this is where I was to return. It was like bringing me up out of the ashes, everything that has happened.

 

Then I wanted to make AK Enterprise an agency - promoting management agency, to many individuals, not just hip-hop, not just rock and roll, not just classical, but I want all of that as part of my agency. I want to bring individuals who are interested in pursuing, and I want to provide them with the information in order to do it. That's half the problem, people don't know what direction to go to so they get led down the wrong road. But I want to provide that information and let them take that from there, for success. Not just artists who sing, I'm looking for musicians, I'm looking for models, I'm looking for everything pertaining to the industry.

 

The  entertainment industry is what AK Enterprise is based on and when I came to Memphis, you would think that Memphis would be so historical. But it is not Detroit, it's not Atlanta, it's not Dallas - it's Memphis, the Bible Belt. But a lot of music comes from here, a lot of artists come from here. But they're successful when they go elsewhere. I wanted to establish something here in Memphis. People from all over the country are looking for a specific type of model, male/female; or a particular type of a dancer - ballet, modern. They want to go to Memphis and see what they can find. I want to have an agency as such, that they can come to, it does not exist here. But this is what I want to make exist here. 

So I created a little tour for independent artists called the Durty Souf Tour, that's what I was calling it and I was going to tour around the different college towns in the South, giving independent artists the opportunity to perform and to sell their wares such as their CDs and their T-Shirts. If you came from AK Enterprise, I've taught you, the different things that you have, the opportunities you have as an artist, to promote yourself. So with that kind of a showcase. I give the artist the opportunity to use the knowledge they have learned. Going on, I wanted AK Enterprise to become strong, here in the city of Memphis because work with the children's hospital, St. Jude's Hospital, is incredible what they do for the children here, who are very, very sick and for their families.

When a parent brings their child here that's very sick, they don't get turned away because the child has no insurance or is desperately ill - they embrace you, they bring you right on in. Money is not even an object. They just care for the children and the parents. I like what it stands for and for what I have seen over the past seven years, so that is something I wanted to add under the umbrella to create some means where I can put our money back into; and that would be my charity torch for the children of St Jude.  For all of the sick children in America. I realize there's other hospitals throughout the country, but this is where I am, this is where A K Enterprise exists, and I wanted to reach out to the community of children in Memphis, to the schools and whatnot to give something that they may grow. So that they may be supported.

 

I just want to bring back, to put more into Memphis that I don't see happening at all right now, that I do see happening in other cities. Working right now with the incredible artists that have come out of Memphis - most recently the up and coming artist is Yo Gotti, he is really representing Memphis in a strong way, in a powerful way, as far as popularity and recognition are concerned, bringing recognition. I guess the last group before him was Three Six Mafia.

But I'm only speaking of Hip-Hop.

We've had some incredible R&B artists, country artists, all kinds of musicians that have come from Memphis. So I want to bring that kind of attention back to Memphis. I don't want them to feel like they have to go to Atlanta to be famous. I want to encourage folks to come, check out the talents we have here.

Last but not least, I have AK Enterprise but I really was interested in having my own dinner/supper club. I wanted to combine twenty years of food and beverage experience in a restaurant, that I wanted to create into a supper club where I could include some of the local entertainment; perhaps some of the entertainment outside our community coming into our community. Just like the good old days in New York, where they would have a nice club, where they would have a show, and there would be dinner served until 11pm or midnight. I all comes back to wanting it to be my own.

I have worked for others for the last twenty years, and I have learned a lot. It's like, from that, I can see that I'll be able to do much better. Make something for myself, make something for my kids. I started out with one child when I came here. I now have three children and I am a grandmother. I have a 70-year-old mother and an 85-year-old grandmother, and, believe it or not,  I'm the one who has to be there to take care of them. I want to provide some means for them to go on, especially for my children, I want them to go to college. To not have to get a job per se, but just create their own, of what they want. I don't want them just to take a job at (x place) because that's the best job to have.