Tameka Foster-Raymond Creates Series Honoring Late Son ‘The Odd Life of Kile Lyles’

Tameka Foster-Raymond Creates Series Honoring Late Son ‘The Odd Life of Kile Lyles’

Tameka Foster-Raymond and her sons have developed a series in honor of black families and her son, Kile Glover, who tragically lost his life July 21, 2012. THE ODD LIFE OF KILE LYLES is a ten episode, 3-D animated series centered around Kile, a young boy living a normal life by day and saving the world before bed-time. Kile and his friends, the viewers, navigate life and it’s challenges together, merging current events with Kile’s majestic world of villains and champions. Foster Raymond explains,

“My son was always fascinated with acting. His dream was to be able to become different characters and see himself and people who look like him on television.

Tameka & Kile

For his Seventh birthday, he went to Nickelodeon’s Kid’s Choice Awards and I knew then that I needed to make this dream a reality. It’s our job to live for him, to make sure that his dreams of seeing little boys who look like him and his family on tv a reality. I’m happy to lead the charge in realizing that for Kile. Our super hero.”

The lack of representation in the animated world is one of the main reasons why the family of Kile Glover decided to stick to animation for the series. Before the 1950s, animation featuring African-Americans was reserved solely for minstrels. In the 90s, African American families started to gain traction in animation, but more so as culture critiques and parodies of very niche segments with the classics of BeBe Kids and the PJs. Whole everyday families weren’t seen in animation until 1999 with Little Bill, and then The Proud Family in 2002. The first Black Disney princess did not make its debut until 2009!

 

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A post shared by Tameka (@tamekafoster) on Jun 27, 2019 at 11:32am PDT

The Odd Life of Kile Lyles picks up the baton and carries on the legacy of not only Kile, but Black animation. To bring the two worlds together, Tameka Foster-Raymond and Usher Raymond’s 10 year old son, Navyid Raymond, voice Kile in the series. The projected cost of the animated series is 1.1 M . To help Kile and his family achieve this goal, an Indiegogo campaign has been established. To find out more and support the campaign click here.