My Relative, GW by Lumina Kay

My Relative, GW (George Wayne): author/journalist, former celebrity columnist for Vanity Fair magazine

Lumina Kay | Year 10

Q: What was growing up in a big family like and how do you think it shaped you?

A: We were the best family ever! I don’t think any of us thought we were a big family. It was only six of us and the two boys were away at boarding school from the age of twelve. So, my sisters were the only ones (mostly) at home. It was six of us, plus Percy, who was the most incredible houseman, gardener and cook my mother had employed to help her out. Only Mum would be smart enough to hire a houseman who could not only do housework, but yard work as well. Percy was amazing. We had the most incredible childhood, especially growing up in the Caribbean. Hopefully one day your mum could take you kids.

Q: What is your favourite thing about home?

A: My favourite thing about my tiny home in Manhattan, West Village, is waking up every morning and being thankful that I am still here and still feel okay, going into my shower with my favourite radio station Q103 blaring from the radio in my bathroom and I shower and meditate and get the best ideas while dreaming. The shower beating on my head is actually like being under the Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios. Another must if you ever visit Jamaica!

Q: Who was your biggest inspiration in terms of writing?

A: My biggest inspiration as a writer all came from my amazing father, who I couldn’t wait to come home to every day so I could get the Daily Gleaner newspaper from his Samsonite attaché case and his weekly ‘TIME Magazine’, international edition, which he always brought home from work. My love and my career all began with my dad coming home with the newspapers and the foreign magazines. True story!

Q: When did you know you’d ‘made it’?

A: I realised I had made it when I first became famous! I was seventeen years old and on the Munro College championship quiz team of JBC Schools Challenge (which is a legendary live TV show in Jamaica). Being on Schools Challenge is like being on American Idol, but only for smart people! It’s a high school quiz bowl competition the whole country tuned into back in the day. In 1977 and 1978, our team made it to the finals two years in a row! This was my first brush with being ‘famous’. I was getting fan mail from people writing to me because I was the quiz team star, and all the boys who used to try to bully me as a freshman all wanted to be my best friend when I was on the quiz team.

The first time I became internationally famous was when Claudia Schiffer, a famous supermodel, sued me for 30 million dollars in 1992, all because I printed a triptych of her in my artisanal, home-made ‘zine called ‘R.O.M.E.’ Today, it’s a collected and cherished magazine of the definitive ‘90s counter-culture avantgarde of New York City. An issue of ‘R.O.M.E.’ was the subject of an NFT Auction in Miami Beach late last year.

Q: What is your favourite interview?

A: My favourite interview will always be with the Hollywood A-List superstar Mark Wahlberg, who I still consider one of my closest friends today.

Q: What’s the hardest part about journalism?

A: The hardest thing about being a writer is when you have writer’s block or are just too lazy to put pen to paper. But when the deadline is absolute like this one, you get it done!

Q: How did you get started in the business? Did you have problems with being taken seriously?

A: No one takes you seriously when you don’t have produced and published work to show them. So, I started R.O.M.E. and that catapulted my career!

Q: When did you know that this was the right job for you?

A: The right job for anyone is doing a job you love doing so it never feels like a job. That’s advice for everyone. Do what you love doing, Andy Warhol once said, and you will be able to make a living from it!

Q: What was your first interview like?

A: My first celebrity interview was with Iman for my column ‘Resident Alien’ for the Jamaica Daily Gleaner.

Q: Do you think you’ve influenced other POC to follow in your footsteps?

A: GW has influenced many! Nothing makes me feel older or happier than when some kid tells me they moved to New York to pursue their dream just from reading my interviews in Vanity Fair for 24 years.

Q: Do you have any exciting plans coming up/to look forward to?

A: I am once again in creative fecund and so grateful and so thankful that my Act III is shaping up to be as #epic as I keep dreaming it will be! Lots of exciting creative genius continuously flowing, and I pray to God to keep me healthy and make the rest of my family even more proud!