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Did you know that rotary has a YouTube channel? Explore inspiring stories of Rotary projects from around the world. Meet Rotarian change makers and catch video versions of this podcast. New content drops every week, so don't miss out. Subscribe to otary International on YouTube. We'll see you there. Welcome to the Rotary Voices Podcast from Rotary Magazine. I'm Linda Yu. In 2019, Kat Graham visited Nakavele, one of Uganda's largest refugee, where she met with a rotaract club that is possibly the first to be based in a refugee camp or settlement. At the time of her trip, Nacavele was home to over 90,000 displaced people from the region. Cat was traveling with Rotary International, representing the organization as an ambassador and meeting the people who benefit from and participate in Rotary's work there. As an actress, singer, dancer and producer, Kat has made a career of telling stories. Her advocacy work is no different as she highlights the experiences of people pushed to the periphery and empowers them to make their voices heard. Kat serves as both a Rotary celebrity ambassador and Rotary's champion of women and girls empowerment. Outside of the organization, she's a Goodwill Ambassador for the unhcr, the United Nations Refugee agency. Her work with refugees is inspired in part by her grandfather, a Liberian refugee, as well as her grandmother, a European Jewish woman who escaped the Holocaust. Kat and her husband, Bryant Wood, are also major advocates for mental health, something Cat prioritizes as a multi talented person in the spotlight. Her career began at the age of five when she began acting in commercials. She she went on to make her film debut in the Parent Trap, backup dancing for artists including Bow Wow, Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams before landing her most well known role as Bonnie Bennett in the wildly popular CW show The Vampire Diaries. At just 15, Cat started producing music, soon collaborating and touring with Will I am of the Black Eyed peas. She's released four albums and two EPs over the course of her music career. I recently sat down with Kat to discuss her long history with Rotary, her impressively successful career and her motivations to empower people all over the world. So obviously the very, very first question is, what drew you to Rotary?
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B
Oh, there's so many reasons to love Rotary. I think the mentality that every person can make a difference and creating a network of support for each other that benefits the world is really my philosophy. A lot of people feel very powerless or they feel limited to their circumstances, their finances, their environments. And what Rotary does really beautifully is it really empowers everyone. When I think of the stuff that I've done with Rotary or when I went with Rotary to Uganda and I'm meeting the first Rotarians that built a Rotary Club out of a refugee camp. There's a lot of very active boots on the ground, people that are getting to work. So I just felt that it was a perfect fit. I mean, nobody can empower you like a Rotarian. You know what I mean?
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A
So talk about going to Uganda and to that refugee settlement. And what was formed within the refugee camp was a rotoract Club. Right. That was at Knockiveale.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So talk to me about that experience for you.
- [04:09]
B
Well, it was one of the first trips I took with Rotary. What was really important was not just that we went, but the narrative that we brought with us and that we shared with the world. Right. A lot of what I do at Rotary has always been about female empowerment. Like, regardless of your circumstances, you can make the world better. And I always, like, use my peeps at Rotary, and they use me to try and like, okay, how do we tackle these issues? It's just you'd be surprised at how many different things you can do within Rotary. And when people are like, well, how do I get involved? It's like, well, you have to be. You have to know in your heart what you want to build for the world, for your community, or for yourself. It's not a, you know, one size fits all. You can literally find any and everything in Rotary for something that you're passionate about, whether it's animals or the environment, women's health, man's health, men's education, like, you just. You name it and it's there.
- [05:11]
A
Now, between your acting, your music, your writing, your career's going full blast, and yet you take the time to serve as a celebrity ambassador for Rotary. As well as Rotary's champion of women and girls empowerment, you're also a goodwill ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency. So what motivates you to commit to these roles despite your busy, busy career?
- [05:33]
B
Well, it's part of my understanding of what I'm supposed to do while I'm here. I want to live a meaningful life, and I want to leave this earth better than I've found it. And also, there's so much work to be done. I mean, listen, I hope that through music and through my films and my work as these characters, I can support a lot of healing and the emotional life of my audience. But I also need to get to work and be boots on the ground. And I need to show this vast audience how they can also feel empowered to make this world better with the Issues that we are having around the world as it relates to the refugee crisis, as it relates to women's rights. You know, this is not the time that we can slow down or go quiet. And we have to be really strong and diligent in how we tackle these things and come at them from the right way, with the right teams, with the right people, with the right support so that are not suffering. And this idea that we're not connected, that, oh, it's happening in China, it's not going to affect what happens in Africa. Oh, it's happening in Eastern Europe, it's not going to affect what's happening in Miami. I've seen that the wheat shortages that happen because of the war in Ukraine affect the farmers in South Sudan. I've literally, physically seen it. And the reality is that what affects one part of the world will eventually affect all of us. Injustice to one is injustice to all of us. And we are all responsible for each other as a human race, regardless of our race or our sex or our religion. We owe it to each other as a human race to protect each other. This is a global community. The issue is that people don't view it as a community. But there was people in this world, young and old, that I believe don't have that attitude, that are like, I'm gonna make a difference. I can make a difference.
- [07:43]
A
Looking into your family's history, I understand you have refugees and immigrants in your family. Is that what kind of inspired you to become an ambassador for the UN Refugee agency?
- [07:54]
B
When you have refugees on both sides of your family? The stories that they tell you. Right, like when my grandmother was hiding under the stairs when Nazis were storming to haul her off to a concentration camp. Or my father's side of the family telling me that they were jumping out of windows while their house was set on fire, and they were dealing with the coup in Liberia during the Charles Taylor regime. So I have the privilege and the responsibility to them to make sure that their voices are heard and then they're not silenced in the noise of entertainment. Right. I don't want to be part of the noise. I want to be a part of the solution. And it's so easy for what I do for a living to be used as a distraction from what's actually happening in the world. But the goal is to help tell stories of people that have had to fight for their life and fight for justice to be served and believe in themselves. And I'm hoping that I'm playing those characters and any sort of space that I'm not attacking. I can do as me, as Katerina. I can do it as that as best as I can.
- [09:10]
A
Now, an important part of this podcast is also going to be looking into your life and your career. So let's talk about that a little bit. How did you get started? You were a little, tiny girl. How did it, you know, like, zoom became who you are today?
- [09:24]
B
When my parents got divorced, I think I was like, four or five. My mom moved us in with my grandma, and my grandma helped raise me. And I started acting pretty much immediately. I was doing, like, commercials and Disney and, like, little things. And then I did, like, guest star spots, the ones that everyone does, like CSI and Malcolm in the Middle and Lizzie McGuire and all the Disney stuff, whatever I can get my paws on.
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A
And.
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B
And then I was backup dancing simultaneously for, like, I've danced for Pharrell and Gwen Stefani, Missy Elliott. I was, like, doing the Fanta campaigns. And then I booked Vampire Diaries, which was, I would say, the thing that launched my career, and that was in 2009. And then simultaneously, I would do other films. And then when the show ended, I ended up being a part of the strong black lead campaign with Netflix. So I did about, like, three or four or five films with them. Got into, like, everything from being the first black April o' Neil on Ninja Tur, trying to survive the end of the world and how it ends playing Morgan Freeman's daughter in Poison Rose with John Travolta to dropping albums. Right. So I'd worked with Babyface and Prince and all of these really incredible people, and I just have been consistently putting out projects, I would say, since then.
- [10:44]
A
So of all of the roles that you've played, is there one that just stands out because it meant so much, either for some personal reason or because of, you know, the performance they got out of you or the message that you were able. You feel you were able to carry. What role was most important to you?
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B
I know the role that is most important to my audience, which was for eight years, was Bonnie. But I would say the character that I really loved the most was I was in a film called Cutthroat City. We shot it in the ninth Ward. And the film takes place right after the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, where FEMA had dropped the ball and not supported the community. Having actually shot it in the ninth Ward and seeing that a lot of the community still didn't even have. I think we shot it in 2019, still didn't even have access to electricity. Some houses didn't even have running water, being like, okay, these are the kinds of things I should and expect myself to be doing. I love thrillers, I love rom coms, I love all of those things and I will find my way forward in them. But to be able to play a character that's rooted in real history so that we can grow from it, so that we can hold people accountable. I think that was my favorite film that I've done. It really made me feel like I was in purpose for sure.
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A
Let's apply that to your music too, right? So your music has. It's always been a part of your life, but now you're able to put out your own music, your own message. So what's the most important thing for you about that? What's in your music and what's the most important thing that you've put together?
- [12:34]
B
You know, I'm grateful that you're asking that question. And I kind of have this moment where I'm like, I'm grateful about the new project that I'm doing, Pele, which is named after the tribe that my family is from, which is, I think, one of the largest, if not the biggest tribe in Liberia, called One World One Song. And I'm about eight songs in on it. And it's an album where I'm pairing activists with artists. But it's an international album, so each song represents a different country. I've got one song for Asia, I've got a song for France, a song for Africa. I've got a song for the us I've got a song for the Northern Triangle. So that's been the first time actually in my history in music where I'm in full alignment with what I'm supposed to be doing. I love the music that I've done before. I'm re releasing Torogato, which is kind of like a trip hop kind of vibe. It's like if you like Massive Attack or Portishead or FK Twigs, it's kind of like that vibe. But I've done everything from dance pop to R and B and I've had a really good time with it. But it's not enough for me to create art for art's sake at this point with everything that's happening in the world. And Nina Simone always said that the best artists represent the times. So that's where I'm at. I've just been kind of putting out everything. I put out the Revenge EP and putting out a song called if I Run for the soundtrack of the film that is coming out. And then I Have to re release Toro Gato. So I, I do have a couple other lifts before my Humanitarian World album comes out, but I am focused on Pele right now.
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A
So you speak English, you speak Spanish, you speak French?
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B
A little bit.
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A
There's Hebrew, there's some Portuguese.
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B
I picked up my Italian again today on Dual Lynch.
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A
You did too.
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B
I had like a 100 day streak and then I blew it. I'm back in it as of today.
- [14:36]
A
When you can communicate with people in their own language, what does that mean to you? What does that mean to you in terms of what you feel like you can accomplish as an ambassador?
- [14:47]
B
What I've noticed from doing mission trips for like 15 years now, if we're coming there to tell stories, it's my job to connect and help people tell their stories in the most authentic way, to help bring support to them and to the community and to the organization. And language is also an energy thing. So it's about not speaking down to children, but playing marbles with them on the ground. Or it's allowing a woman who only has coffee to offer you, but to allow her to give it to you. I don't speak Arabic. I wish I did. But there are certain cultures that are really, really fun that love to dance. You know, when I go to Africa, we're always dancing. They're always singing. You know, I play a lot of music. I met with a lot of Afghan girls that just, they love Frozen and musicals. So we just sang the songs and they don't speak a lot of English, but we find things that we. That I connect with them and so that when it's time for them to tell their stories, they feel comfortable. And it's about finding what they like. Syrian women or women from Yemen. You know, I love to cook and they love to cook. And we don't really need to talk, you know, because that's your language. It's our language. Right. It's also about finding those things as well.
- [16:15]
A
Earlier in our hour here, you said, I feel like in my life, however long I'm alive, I'm meant to empower people. Talk to me about that. Specifically as it relates to your work with Rotary.
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B
So much of my own personal suffering came from feeling like I didn't have any power. I grew up poor and a single mom raising me who had multiple jobs. And I felt powerless in the industry as a wannabe working kid, I felt marginalized. I felt like a token. And then when I was with my father, there was a lot of abuse. And so I felt that so Much of my own suffering comes from feeling powerless. But what happens if I change the way I think about myself? And what happens if I change the way I think about the world? And I push that idea out into people, and would the world look different to me? And would it behave differently towards me? And so that's where I think Rotary steps in. Because so many people feel powerless, and it's not just because they don't have a bazillion dollars in the bank. People give themselves a hard time because of their age, because of their education, because of their finances, because of their sexuality. And if we could just stop giving ourselves such a hard time and start accepting our own power as people that can really make a difference, and we start building that idea with other people who might have their own versions of feeling powerless, then that's.
- [17:59]
A
That's Rotary, and that's what you can accomplish for them. You can talk to a little girl, you can talk to a woman. You can make her understand that she's not powerless.
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B
There was a woman that Rotary actually helped me connect with. Her name is Charlie. And she goes to different prisons in Colombia, in South America, and she educates them on their health. Right. And makes sure that they have tampons and pads. If they see that there is a need, like what Charlie did with going to the prisons in Colombia, who's doing that? I mean, it can be as niche as you can dream. It really can be. What's really interesting is that I feel like I'm always put in these positions to, like, try and destigmatize a lot of things. But with Rotary, if people think it's a boys club, like, it's just guys, it's not, you know, And I want my. The people that want to be close to me and my fans and, like, come on mission trips with me, like, be a part of Rotary, be a part of what I'm a part of, because I've got. I come with a lot of young girls that are fiery and full of energy to make this world better. And so that's what's so great about Rotaries that I can, you know, put them to work. And it can be something that empowers them for what they're really excited about.
- [19:21]
A
Right in the midst of all of these other things that you're doing. I'm sure some of it comes about because you have placed mental health, your own, at the forefront, knowing that you can't accomplish a lot unless you are mentally healthy yourself. Am I right to talk about that?
- [19:39]
B
Totally. Totally. I wish People knew how much I do work on my own mental health. I even wrote a book called Seasons of you that helped me through really, really tough times. Because you can plan out your entire life and then heartbreak comes. You get fired, you get dumped. You are dealing with the loss of someone and the blindsidedness that comes from being a human on earth is inevitable. Mental health is so important, and it's something that people think that, oh, if I just maybe light some incense and meditate, it'll go away. No, it's something you have to fight for. There are so many different things that you can feel and that directly affect you and can break you down and you have to fight like hell for your life. Even though I do feel like I give a lot of my time to the organizations that I support, there's only three. I would say that I'm. I'm pretty active. It's Rotary and UNHC are and. And glad. But I give from my overflow. And I don't think that is even talked about enough. If I wake up sick or I'm feeling depleted or I'm processing something, I will put myself first and I will say, I need to take care of this and I'll let you know when I'm back. But it takes work. Takes a lot of work and a lot of awareness. You have to check. People don't check in with themselves. People don't like, say, or, how are you? Are you okay? Do you want some tea? You know, they do it for other people. And I think that's really important, especially for Rotarians, because they do so much for other people that sometimes they don't take care of themselves. Because in a lot of ways, being a part of Rotary means you're a leader, which means you set the tone for your group. So if you are showing up whole, complete, strong, nourished, and you have boundaries for yourself, then everyone that follows you is gonna be parallel to that, you.
- [21:39]
A
Know, or do better for themselves too.
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B
Exactly. Yes. Yes.
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A
Thank you for spending the time with us. You are one fabulous human being.
- [21:48]
B
How are you? I love being a part of this family. I'm excited for the next trips and all the things we do.
- [21:56]
A
Good. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it so much.
- [21:59]
B
Of course.
- [21:59]
A
And hope to hear your music and see you on the big screen.
- [22:03]
B
Thanks.
- [22:10]
A
This episode of the Rotary Voices Podcast was produced by JP Swenson and edited by Wen Huang. Production by Yoo Sue Kim. I'm Linda Yoo. If you enjoyed the show, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share it with your friends. The Rotary Voices Podcast is produced by Rotary Magazine, the official monthly publication of Rotary International. Thanks for listening.