Angelo Ellerbee – “Before I Let You Go”

Multimedia marketing and public relations guru Angelo Ellerbee, whose career helped launch or heighten some of the iconic masters including  Dionne Warwick, Kool and the Gang, Melba Moore, Michael Jackson, Mary J. Blige and James Mtume, will be unveiling the fourth in a series of motivational  books titled “Before I Let You Go” (with a foreword written by the Grammy winning legend Dionne Warwick). 

A portion of the proceeds from “Before I Let You Go” will benefit the Newark-based WOW Community Center, a nonprofit organization that provides outreach and support to the LGBTQIA youth. The book shares wisdom to help others achieve their life goals, both professionally and personally. 

I spoke to Angelo about his writings and the message he hopes to share. The book will be available on August 24 via HOV Publishing. 

INTERVIEW

What inspired you to write this book?

It’s a template to my life and career….Really, I wrote the book for everybody. I wrote the book for the LGBTQ + community, the people who have AIDS, the homeless, the shutouts and the victims of domestic violence….And for people to fall romantically in love with themselves. I wanted people to understand that we all go through trials and tribulations in our lives, but God gives us so many chances to make a difference in life. I love the book because I wanted people to start to understand what community is all about. And they say that it takes a village to raise a child and I say it takes a community to keep educating, promoting and delivering excellence to our community. I think what’s going on in this world is crazy. I think that as a collective, we all have to come together and understand the importance of giving back. We’ve got to give back. We’ve got to stop being so selfish. Life is not a given–it’s a gift.

How does your profession relate to community?

I share that in my book. I talk about my sexuality. I talk about the disappointments because of my chosen lifestyle and what’s in my community and PR…and the music industry. I speak of all of that. So it’s all about the challenges that I had to go through to get to where I am. When I started out, it was very, very difficult. I came from a family that understood and had an appreciation of what my selected lifestyle was going to be.

You were very lucky.

I was. I had a very caring mother. I had four sisters and a brother that loved me unconditionally. My mother and my oldest sister once said to me, “All I want you to do is respect yourself and to walk with dignity. I want you to walk with respect. I want you to walk with confidence.“ When they told that to me at 10 years old, I lived that. I just lived the way that I chose to live with all the things that I’ve just mentioned to you. What goes into my lifestyle is one of the reasons that I say that I was met with challenges. 

I know that the LGBTQ.+ community is met with challenges. I know that the homeless person is met with challenges. We go on and on and on, but these challenges, we cannot be fearful of them. We have to do whatever we have to do to survive. But I want you to do it respectfully. One of the things that I am doing with the book “Before I Let You Go” is I am giving two dollars off of each book to the Ellerbee Foundation, based out of Newark, New Jersey for the LGBQIA community. I don’t want these kids in the streets because mothers and fathers are not understanding their children’s lifestyles. I don’t want them in the streets trying to sell their bodies. So what I’m doing for one year is we will select four candidates who will go through our program. We will house them and feed them for a year. We will find schools, particularly in areas of their concerns career-wise, so that they can go through that. I wish that I can do 24 kids a year. Whatever the book raises, I have to match it. This is my community. And other communities have been so supportive of my career over the last 55 years that I have to give back. I’m not taking it with me. 

You’ve got a point.

I have to give it back to people who have given it to me. Going back into the book, I give an example of my rough times. If I could make it out of low economic beginnings in Newark, New Jersey, from the ‘68 riots and with a mother who had an eighth grade education and was a waitress…If I can make it from there, if I can build my empire from the basement of my house to where I am at today, it says a lot about faith and belief and trials and tribulations and how you find your way out. I always tell people if you see a detour in the street and you have to get to a destination, you will always find your way around the detour and get to your destination. Your faith and your belief is what takes you where you need to be.

That’s beautiful.

So it’s all about “Before I Let You Go.” I have been very blessed the past 67 years of my life to go through all kinds of things from racism, prejudice, my sexuality, being black…I had to give back. This book is a way for me to give back. I give stories and examples, encouragement and all those things that someone who is being challenged needs to have. 

Angelo, you’re not dying or anything…..

No, no, I’m not dying. I guess for me, we’re here today and we don’t know if we’ll be here tomorrow. It’s just really important from my heart that people understand the experience of loving themselves and giving that back to someone else. I was very fortunate to be mentored by Grammy winner James Mtume. This man took me in when I knew nothing about music. For someone to take me in from a fashion career to a music career and work with me for two years and trained me….There was nothing private–everything was open. He was more like a father image to me than my own father. So, just in the namesake of him and how much he gave to me, I believe I need to surrender some of it back.