From basketball standout to TEDx stage, Flint man shares story of resilience through poetry

FLINT, MI – Judson Anderson’s life changed abruptly during a Flint Northwestern prom night as a high schooler, a moment that derailed a future that seemed well within reach. The Flint teenager and Mr. Basketball finalist was injured when a gun discharged and a bullet traveled through the outer portion of his leg, affecting his foot and toes. He was carrying the gun as a precaution, Anderson said, in a neighborhood where violence was common. His lateral movement was never the same. The injury eventually derailed Anderson’s plans to play college basketball and possibly move on to the professional scene. “When you can’t fly like you used to,” he said, “it just wasn’t fun anymore.” The injury didn’t just sideline Anderson; it unraveled a path he’d built towards a future in basketball. He suddenly found himself without direction. What followed were years marked by questionable choices, including two prison sentences, violence and loss. Decades later, Anderson’s rewriting that story using poetry and public speaking to process his past and help others navigate their own. Anderson grew up in Atherton Terrace with instability all around him. He lived from house to house and relied on basketball as an escape. Anderson described the neighborhood as one where violence was a constant reality. As a high schooler at Flint Central, his hoop dreams seemed like a reality. Anderson was named All-State and a Mr. Basketball finalist. He traveled nationally for AAU tournaments. It wasn’t until junior college when he realized the basketball path was no longer viable. That’s when he returned to Flint and went into “survival mode,” as he put it. Without basketball to anchor him, Anderson said he struggled to adjust. In his early 20s, Anderson was jailed twice: once for counterfeit money and another time for drug charges. “I was in college one year and in prison the next, man. You know, it just made me realize how fast things can change,” Anderson said. Jail time was followed by several near-death experiences, like when he was shot in the back in his early 30s. The bullet passed dangerously close to his spine. Anderson was also stabbed 13 times in a nightclub attack. “They didn’t think I was going to make it,” he said. Years later, Anderson faced another kind of loss that would reshape him deeply. One morning, his partner collapsed inside their home. He thought she dropped something, until he walked upstairs to find her struggling to breathe. Anderson called 911 and began CPR. She was rushed to the hospital and went into a coma for days. The couple later got married. After several more years together, she went to the hospital for what seemed like minor pain. But by the next day, she had died. The couple were together for approximately 10 years. Her death came after years of turbulence that had already tested Anderson in many ways, but this time around something had changed. “Maybe I have a purpose,” Anderson said, reflecting on the series of events that had defined his life to that point. After her death, Anderson turned inward and began writing and reflecting more often. He was searching for meaning in the pain. That’s when poetry, something he’d dabbled in for years, became something more. Today, that transformation is playing out on stage. Anderson spoke about his story in a TEDx Pontiac performance in May, which can be viewed at this link . He’s looking forward to a similar TEDx performance at an upcoming convention in Detroit this fall. He started a YouTube channel, “Life Being Revealed with Judson Jaye,” after his wife’s death. Anderson blended storytelling, humor and poetry during the talk, which drew laughs and applause from a crowd of hundreds. His new goal is inspiring others through self-awareness and emotional growth – themes he discussed in his TEDx performance. “Poetry is very revealing,” Anderson said. “It reveals secrets that you’re hiding from your own self.” He doesn’t know where he’d be without poetry at this point in his life as a 51-year-old man and father. Anderson now lives by the following mantra: Struggle is a part of life in which the strength of your resolve is tested. “It’s just a beautiful space to be in my life. It’s peaceful. It’s healing,” Anderson said. Standing on the same court where his future once felt limitless, Anderson knew his path didn’t unfold the way he imagined. But the passion never disappeared. It just found a different stage. “Protect your passion,” he said. “That’s what I’d tell (my younger self).” The struggles that once defined him are now what he uses to reach others. “This life is for the living,” Anderson said.