
LB (Leah Byrd)
West Dayton Stories Community ProducerLB (Leah Byrd) is a Dayton born and raised writer, director, actor, editor, and singer. He has a BFA in Motion Picture Production from Wright State University. LB is most well known for his comedic web series, Hot & Bothered, which has screened across the country, internationally, and which won Favorite Youth Film at the BlackStar Film Festival. During childhood, LB spent 13 years attending a Catholic school in a small Midwestern city leaving very little room for queer spaces. Discovering queer content online was a real game changer on LB’s path towards self acceptance. This has driven a strong passion within LB to create diverse characters within his own media. LB knows first hand what representation can do to one’s mental health and is passionate about bringing underrepresented voices to the front of his work. LB is currently the Artist Commission Manager for The Center For Cultural Power’s project, “We, As Ourselves: Shaping the Narrative of Black Women Survivors” in collaboration with TIME’S UP Foundation, Me Too, and The National Women’s Law Center.
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Here on West Dayton Stories, we’re exploring the concept of Black Joy. With so much focus on the trauma of race in America, we turn to this important source of celebration, resistance, and healing. Community producer LB, who’s also known as Leah Byrd, takes us back to the time he found the joy he didn’t know he needed in his life.
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As children, our educations prepare us to take on the rights and responsibilities of American citizenship, including voting in free and fair elections. But community producer LB – also known as Leah Byrd - has some pretty strong opinions about the real effectiveness of voting.
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The coronavirus pandemic has each one of us trying to figure out just how we’re gonna get through it all. Today we hear how community producer Leah Byrd has been doing it. A graduate of Wright State University’s film program, Leah has received a lot of buzz for their comedy web series, called Hot & Bothered, for which they were writer, director, and star.