I Guess We Can Start Here….
“I really dreamt this as a kid. From setting up rap shows at 16 to degrees in media & arts.
Feels like all that was for THESE moments now”
Straight up kid…..I was born on an apartment bathroom floor to a single 23 yr old mother. Like she pushed me out by herself. Completely alone. On some cold tile in the middle of the night. Its 1991. Downtown Cleveland / Shaker Heights, Ohio. Dark stairwells, water steamed hotdogs, flocks of pigeons everywhere, prostitutes around the corner on the block; those ugly beige and orange seats they had on the Cleveland RTA trains back in the day…trust me, that city slicker shit is IN me. I’m talking downtown Winton Manor Building, Prospect ave, two blocks from where the Indians play ball. 4th floor, apartment #428….the same apartment my mom is gonna die in two years later.
My babysitter is this strong mannered, mid-aged black woman named Willie. She exudes the definition of protection and love. Her partner is this loud, scruffy/pudgy but charismatic black man named Robert. These two look after a handful of kids in the building, myself included. That’s why there’s probably Jabaari, Aaron and India running around; my proverbial first set of “day-ones / “sister”. So it’s about 5 of us in this 1 bedroom apartment, the oven is doing its best to kick the freeze from this Ohio winter and I’m perched on the window seal looking up and down the strip.
At this point, my mom is around but busy trying make it happen. I don’t come from that story of a mom who was drug addicted or strung out…..nah mines was the “fly girl on the scene” type. Like went to Florida A&M, worked in media and used to be into music working with artists, etc. I literally still got her 90’s denim jeans with the spray-painted face and all on it. (A must have staple for any self-respecting fashionable 20-something in the late 80’s / early 90’s).
But for all that fly shit, Pam was more emotionally damaged. As a child (I’m talking literally adolescence) I adopted the idea that you can love with all your heart……but don’t trust anything. See my family has a lot of deep secrets. My introduction to life was a complete secret. And I still have the same questions, the same hurt and pain as that kid wondering if any of the random men passing by on the street could be my father.
If my birth was a complete secret, my sisters was a tragedy. Its 1993 and once again alone, on some apartment floor, my mom attempted to birth my sister into this world but hemorrhaged and subsequently died. On top of this, my mother had been refusing to reveal who my father is, which is a secret I still am attempting to uncover. Weird to put together pieces of your own story through phone calls to old boyfriends & detective / coroner reports. It’s been some conversations with loved ones who were around at the time, but I have to pry my past out of people who put a lid on it because the pain was too much.
I’m telling you this because I want you to know that I’ve been broken down before. Honestly it feels like I come from broken pieces. But EVERYBODYS GOT A STORY. What I have come to find is that going through all the levels of pain, love and emotion is what has really allowed me to reclaim myself.
The Rhyme and Reason Behind GoodSociety
“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change we seek. We are the hope of those who have so little, who’ve been told that they cannot have what they dream, that they cannot be what they imagine. Yes, they can” ~ Barack Obama
If you are reading this, it means you are sharing in my testament to life; to the game we play. GoodSociety is the actualization of dreams I have harbored since childhood. Despite struggles, I have been supremely blessed to have a life “enriched with diverse experiences and perspectives”. From standing on beaches in the Caribbean, holding koalas at Steve irwin’s zoo in Australia, watching lions on game preserves in South Africa, to attending school in the 3rd grade for months in Zimbabwe.
I remember going to private school with the polos, button-ups and 80-person graduating classes. But I ALSO remember seeing the parents of friends in my neighborhood chop crack on the sofa at 13. I remember the armed robberies and me getting jumped just because I happened to be from this section of the town. Or getting calls telling me of friends who got murdered or passed away from addictions. I’ve felt worthless without options at times. But the spirit in me never died because deep within was an internal commitment.
This dedication took years to manifest in physical form. I have alienated friends, thwarted familial pressures, and risked personal comfort and safety to establish this movement. But fortune favors the bold. All the time I had spent searching; looking for answers, wondering, stuck in these phases of cross-fertiilization and stimulation…..I was really searching for myself. And GoodSociety has become the answer to that question.
Sometimes those lacking in hope sometimes only need to be shown they can have the power to dream. This Klub is really a vessel; a platform to help empower and bring light to those who have far too long been overlooked. Its for the creative voices and minds who have the potential to transform not only the globe, but human interaction and thought itself. This brand and the members who compose it will dedicate themselves towards bringing these opportunities to fruition. We’ve waited too long. We must become our own saviors. Away from any prejudice or judgements from those who never sought to understand us. Living as our true and most comfortable selves. So stick around. It’s going to be a journey.
