Hailing from the Motor City, Treavion Davenport, also known as Trea “The Storyteller” is a sought-after author, film, TV, and podcast producer and ghostwriter. She is the co-author of a spicy urban fiction novel Sugar Mama: A Keilanii Jennings Saga and a gritty self-help page-turner Living for the Sacrifice: A Hood Hero’s Guide to Success.
When she isn’t creating content like the Big Texas Bossin’ podcast, and bringing characters to life on pages, stages, and screens, through her production house Persnicketee, she’s running the successful PR and strategic branding firm, Trea Day, LLC and public relations and event planning learning hub, PR University.
The branding guru launched and re-sparked the careers of popular music talents including multi-platinum neo-soul singer Chrisette Michele, rappers Kash Doll, Gucci Mane, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta’s Rasheeda, and Grammy-nominated Charli Baltimore.
Davenport and her clients have appeared in media outlets including People, CNN, Black Enterprise, Bloomberg, Forbes, Sheen, and Rolling Out among others. In addition to ideating and implementing strategic brand and reputation management activations, launching communication plans, publicity campaigns, and producing red carpet events, Davenport has produced and directed documentary including Living for the Sacrifice: A Hood Hero’s Guide to Success available on Tubi, and reality docu-series such as Love Against All Odds and Beyond Love – in development.
You are a branding guru. Tell us when your love for PR began.
I first understood what “PR” is when I was cast as an extra on a Bobby Brown music video in Hollywood, California at the age of 19. As I sat among the other extras waiting on instructions I noticed a woman with a phone and a planner moving about the set, talking among the key players and the talent. I was so fascinated by the way she worked the room, calmed the artists, and made things happen. The extras were supposed to just look pretty and be quiet, but I couldn’t resist asking around to find out who she was. That was the first time I heard the term “publicist”. I did some digging and gained a better understanding of what PR is and what a publicist does and I knew from that moment on what my major definite purpose in life was – I had always been the unofficial spokesperson for my talented friends, was very outgoing, and had majored in journalism at Michigan State University until I took a chance and moved to Hollywood, but from that day on I’d been shot by the PR cupid.
You re-sparked the careers of popular music talents including multi-platinum neo-soul singer Chrisette Michele, rappers Kash Doll, Gucci Mane, Love & Hip Hop Atlanta’s Rasheeda, and Grammy-nominated Charli Baltimore. Was there synergy between these talented people?
For Gucci Mane, Kash Doll, and Chrisette Michele, I was their first publicist.
They all have natural, undeniable talent and a determination to make it in entertainment – I coached them on PR and handling media, crafted the narrative, and delivered the message of their shooting start to the masses.
For Charli Baltimore, she had enjoyed a rap career and was known for her infamous relationship with Notorious B.I.G. – following his passing, she had faded to the back. In 2013 she met my friend Brian Maurice Brown who started his recording label BMB Records primarily to give her a platform to reignite her career. By this time I had a ton of experience in public relations – so with Brian’s guidance and support, I jumped into action to launch a reintroduction campaign that resulted in global media hits and a nomination for a 2014 Best Female Emcee BET Award.
What does it take to be a global Star?
One can have the most connected publicist, powerful agent, influential management team, and even come from a famous family – but global stardom starts from within. Star power is not something that can be purchased and taught, it is innate. That natural element, coupled with consistency, good timing, and a bit of luck are key ingredients to global superstardom.
Tell us about your gritty self-help page-turner Living for the Sacrifice: A Hood Hero’s Guide to Success.
Living for the Sacrifice is the fascinating outline of engagement of one of the most intuitive and interesting men of our time; Brian Maurice Brown aka Peanut. A former drug kingpin-turned Grammy-nominated music exec, Brown is the complex subject of this American Gangsta meets The Secret-style masterpiece. Peanut was bred on the same Detroit streets that took the lives of his parents while he languished in the shadows during a 5-year stint as a fugitive profiled on America s Most Wanted as a suspect of a vicious murder and narcotics empire that extended across the country and outside U.S. borders. After serving nearly 10 years in the Federal Correction System, he has risen to success in the entertainment industry, yet his proudest accomplishment is being a loving father to his children, loyal husband to multiple wives, and protector, provider, and stabilizer of many. His mere existence despite the traumatic and astonishing lives he’s lived is unfathomable. Brown’s philosophies on love, life, leadership, and self-assessment; lay the groundwork for a new approach to personal, spiritual, and professional fulfillment.
Why was this story important to create into a film?
I’ve known the lead Brian Maurice Brown since I was 18 years old. Even then he was an intriguing, powerful and intoxicating character. He’s only a couple of years older than me, but he seemed so much older, wiser, and more worldly – he was actually. He was highly active in the drug game, but ironically I never knew it. He never led with any stereotypical thug persona or flaunted his lifestyle. Instead, he went through great lengths to take care of his family, his friends – including me, his neighborhood, his basketball teammates, and even strangers. He was known as the “Robin Hood from the hood”. When charged with writing his story, self-help book Living for the Sacrifice: A Hood Hero’s Guide to Success, and subsequently turning it into a movie, it was extremely important to me that we present his life and purpose so that audiences can see perhaps a glimpse of what I see in Brian, that he’s so much more than a street hustler and a womanizer, but rather a special man who longed for love and acceptance from the time he was a little boy!
As the Producer and Director of this powerful film, what did you learn during the process?
I learned how important putting together a knowledgeable, supportive and optimistic production crew is. As a 1st time filmmaker, I was the least experienced person on the crew – it was important that I surrounded myself with the best in film production, but moreover, the right personalities and spirits – PR and team-building had always been my specialties, so having experienced professionals who had no problems bringing me up to speed and teaching me along that put me in a terrific position to learn!
What is your mission for the film?
Awareness, interest, and opportunities for growth and continuing storytelling in my unique and compelling way.
How will this film catapult you into your career as a Producer and Director
Now that Living for the Sacrifice is available on Fox Entertainment’s streaming platform Tubi, potentially millions of people can enjoy our film. Certainly having a well-received and positively reviewed creative work in the public domain allows other creatives to see your work and know that you are serious about your craft.
This bodes well for my future goals to be a celebrated, award-winning, sought-after filmmaker and storyteller.
Who would you like to work with?
Ava Duvernay. Issa Rae. Lena Waithe and other powerful, compelling, creative female storytellers.
Share your upcoming projects
Well, I’m earning the moniker “The Storyteller”, that’s for sure – currently producing a feature-length film that focuses on the formative years of Brian Brown’s life, up until the time he became America’s Most Wanted fugitive. I’m in post-production of a reality series, Love Against All Odds, that follows three unique couples as they navigate insurmountable circumstances and working on completing the follow up to my and co-author Lalanii Wilson-Jones’ racy urban novel Sugar Mama, the memoir of highly lauded humanitarian, activist, and recording artist Trae Tha Truth and my very own memoir and self-help book series.
I remain at the helm of my PR, Publishing, Production, and Planning agency Trea Day, LLC ideating and executing strategies for clients ranging from innovative African American woman-led electric vehicle charging and energy efficiency company CEO Natalie King to beauty brand boss Damienne Flagler.
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