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Beyonce Invites Child Prodigy James Martin to VIP Concert Experience

Earlier this week, Atlanta Black Star highlighted 20 Black Child Prodigies Mainstream Media Doesn’t Talk About, and today we learned of another talented young man in our community – courtesy of pop star Beyonce.

Beyonce uploaded video of a meeting with 18-year-old James Martin and his family to her #BeyInspired Video Series. The meet and greet took place backstage during her Aug. 31 performance in Philadelphia.

At 17 years old, Martin graduated with a 3.9 GPA and a degree in biology with a concentration in molecular biology from Florida Atlantic University.

The 32-year old performer told Martin and his family: “I wanted you to come here. I wanted to shake your hand because I’m so proud of you and it’s just incredible how brilliant you are. I just wanted your family to have a good night. That’s it.[…]How do you do what you do? Just born that way?[…] I just wanted to tell you, to look at you in your face, to tell you how proud I am.”

Martin said his mother instilled discipline in him from an early age: “My mom had to beat into me the concept of discipline, where you have to understand that if you have a test two weeks from now, you don’t start studying the day before. You start studying that two weeks before”

On the topic of his future plans, Martin added: “I was accepted into a Princeton undergraduate research program in molecular biology, so I’m going to be working there as a research technician and then hopefully move onto graduate school for my Ph.D.

“My hopes and dreams are to one day be a researcher, be a professor at a reputable university. And teach on one side, because I love to teach, and still on the other side still have my own research project.”

We are proud indeed!

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