DREAMS DON’T EXPIRE!
By Charles M. Anderson | @ Chacarlo
Nia Miranda reminded me that dreams don’t expire! Not our dreams, and not our ancestors’ dreams. The prayers they whispered, the futures they imagined, the freedoms they never fully saw are still working through us. Covering us. Guiding us. Calling us forward.
In a moment where so many creatives feel pressure to move fast, monetize everything, and perform identity for the algorithm, Nia is doing something more radical. She is taking her time. She is not rushing. She is remembering. She is reclaiming. She is dreaming with intention. And in doing so, she is proving that the long game, especially for Black women building careers in public, still matters.
Her Instagram bio reads: “Detroit made. Hollywood paid.” But scroll a little deeper and you’ll find something more layered. While many know Nia as a Detroit girl, fewer understand how deeply she aligns with being a Naija girl, too. Her Nigerian identity is not a trend she’s rediscovering for aesthetics or engagement. It’s something she is actively learning, studying, and reclaiming in real time, using social media not as a stage, but as a bridge.
She shares her journey honestly: taking Igbo classes, reconnecting with language, and setting clear intentions to work on the African continent in meaningful ways. In an era where influence is often reduced to visibility, Nia reminds us that impact lives in intention. Her platforms don’t just showcase her career; they document her becoming.
That idea feels especially timely right now. Across the United States, there is a quiet but powerful reverse migration happening among Black Americans. As someone doing my own ancestral research, I’ve been inspired by how deeply our family storylines are intertwined with this country’s history. Black folks from the Northeast, the Midwest, and even the West Coast are returning to the South, not out of nostalgia, but out of necessity. To reclaim land, lineage, food, ways, language, and community that were once disrupted. It is a movement rooted in remembering.
Nia is part of that same remembering, but she’s extending the journey even further. While many are returning South to reconnect with roots in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and the Carolinas, Nia’s path has taken her to Memphis, Tennessee, and across the water to Nigeria and Kenya.
Her layered identity shows up beautifully in G.R.I.T.S., a new ALLBLK series where Nia stars as Bria, a feisty, complicated young woman navigating ambition, friendship, and becoming in the South. Bria is often labeled a “mean girl,” but Nia approached her character with compassion. She sees Bria as someone hardened by experience, not devoid of softness. She wants audiences to feel conflicted, frustrated at times, but still able to recognize the pain beneath the armor.
Nia is also clear about the power of representation. The leads of G.R.I.T.S. are all brown-skinned women, centered without apology. She hopes the show affirms Black women who have been told, explicitly and implicitly, that they are too much or not enough. Her message is simple and resonant: “You are already enough.”
Photography by Jamal Josef | IG: @JamalJosef
Behind the scenes, this role demanded even more. The night before filming began, Nia lost her father. With every reason to step away, she chose to lean in. Not to avoid grief, but because she trusted her relationship with her craft. She discovered something profound: even in deep pain, she still had the power to remain disciplined, professional, and to use performance as part of her healing.
She studied harder. Trained for a Memphis accent. Sharpened her performance and even returned to roller skating, a childhood joy that unexpectedly became a required skill for the role. Nothing was wasted. Not the grief. Not the preparation. Not the memories.
And through it all, Nia hasn’t lost her humor. She laughs easily. She proudly calls herself funny; because she is. She reminds us that joy is also part of our collective legacy. That Black culture lives not only in survival, but in the debates that will never die—like sugar versus salt versus cheese versus shrimp on grits.
For up-and-coming actresses navigating both Hollywood and the algorithm, Nia Miranda offers a different blueprint. Influence doesn’t have to be loud to be lasting. Visibility doesn’t have to come at the expense of depth. And success doesn’t require abandoning who you are or who you come from.
Because if our ancestors taught us anything, it’s this: Dreams don’t expire. They wait. They mature. And when the time is right, they meet us exactly where we’re ready to carry them forward.
