When Jay Michael Martin Jr. was a boy, one of his heroes was actor LeVar Burton, whom he watched on the PBS series “Reading Rainbow.” After going through a life of hardships and mental anguish, Martin surfaced and became a local PBS host himself, moving to the national stage during PBS pledge events and emulating his boyhood hero.
Martin was the guest speaker Feb. 3 in the first event of the University of Tennessee at Martin’s ENTICE Series, which takes place through Tuesday, March 10. ENTICE stands for “Evolving Narratives: Tennessee Initiative for Civic Engagement.”
Martin is a mental wellness advocate and a mental health ambassador for Active Minds, a nonprofit organization that mobilizes youth and young adults to lead a transformative movement in mental health.
He spoke about his life’s journey and the challenges that he faced. His mother was an addict, and he was the oldest of seven children growing up in the Seattle area, so he bore much of the responsibility in taking care of the household.
“I battled depression; I dealt with anxiety,” he said. “I dealt with loss – multiple losses – and there were many days when I didn’t know how I would – well, basically, to keep it simple: I was looking for the light because it was just so dark.”
Martin still admired his mother and said she was resilient and phenomenal. She taught him how to cook when he was 10 years old.
“I didn’t know the reason behind why she wanted to teach me how to cook at the age of 10, but I didn’t know that she was already starting to suffer with her own mental health,” he said.
Martin started suffering from depression at 15 because of his situation. Not only did he have to raise his brothers and sisters, but also take care of his mother.
When he turned 18, he wanted to leave home and find his life outside of addiction, to go to college, but his mother told him that she was scared to be without him, so he found a job close to home.
When Martin was 22, his grandmother, whom he identified as his mentor, took him to see Tyler Perry’s “Madea Goes to Jail” on stage.
“At the end of that show, she asked me that same question (that she asked years ago): ‘So, who do you want to be? Where do you want to go?’ Do you think you can make an impact? You might not do that, but help people?” Martin said. “I said, ‘I don’t know.’ She said, ‘You need to know, boy.’ I said, OK, I’ll try.”
Martin went for an audition a year and a half later at a production of “Godspell.” He had no acting background, so he didn’t have a resume. He had a sheet of paper with his name, address and phone number on it. The director laughed at it, but as Martin walked out, the director called him back and said he would give him a chance.
“That started a whole new world for me,” Martin said. “Somebody – for the first time in my life – allowed me to see the possibilities outside of my family; it was somebody totally separate.
“I think it’s important that we have people like mentors in our life, and sometimes, it’s not your family but maybe a counselor in school or somebody who can see beyond where you are at that moment.”
Martin’s next role was in “Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,” where he pursued – and landed – the lead role.
In December 2017, Martin had a full mental breakdown. He went from encouraging people to sleeping in his car. At one point, he was driving his car 90 miles an hour down the highway at 2:30 in the morning, considering suicide, when a friend from Louisiana called.
“He said, ‘Something told me to call you. What’s wrong?’” Martin said. “I said, ‘Nobody will believe in me. It’s too much.’ He said, “I believe you.’
“That changed my life, and I don’t know what anybody might be going through in the room, and you might say, ‘What I’ve been through is not enough; it’s not worth talking about.’ Everybody’s story matters.”
Martin went through therapy, learning more about forgiveness and using storytelling to help himself heal. He said that forgiveness is not a weakness, but something that makes people stronger and lifts them up above the situation. It doesn’t mean going back to the same situation, but it allows people to move forward.
Martin created “The Drive Project Podcast” to help others with mental wellness issues. Later, he would become the host of “Note to Self,” a motivational series as part of local PBS station KOMO’s “ARC Seattle.” He would later be a part of several PBS pledge events on a national scale.
When his mother passed from a fentanyl overdose in 2024, Martin found it difficult to go back into the kitchen, where he and his mother connected and bonded during his childhood.
“I went into a state of shock, and I had to learn how to find me again,” he said. “It took me a year to cook; I couldn’t touch the kitchen. A month after she passed, I jumped into therapy on this date two years ago.
“It took me almost 35 years to get to ‘OK, I’ll talk,’ but I’m here to tell you that you can start talking right now.”
Martin started feeling more comfortable in the kitchen, where he could help others with their issues.
“If I can feed you, we can have a conversation,” he said.
Following the program, Martin brought in pre-cooked ground beef and a griddle and cooked up chopped sandwiches for those in attendance, scooping ground beef on the griddle and mixing in cheese, and adding tomatoes, lettuce, aioli, jalapeños and other items to the sandwiches.
UT Martin was the first stop on Martin’s university tour. He has stops scheduled at Vanderbilt, Trevecca Nazarene and Georgia.
For more information about the University of Tennessee at Martin’s ENTICE Series, visit www.utm.edu/visit-ut-martin/entice.php.
For more information about UT Martin, visit www.utm.edu or call 1-800-829-UTM1 (-8861).
PHOTO: Jay Michael Martin Jr. brought a griddle to his Feb. 3 presentation event in UT Martin’s ENTICE Series and made “Jay’s chopped sandwiches,” blending precooked ground beef with cheese slices and other fixings for people in attendance, with help from UTM students on hand. He said he always found comfort in cooking with his mother, who was an addict, and uses cooking to help reach others with mental wellness issues.
