'A man on a Mission with his Skateboard' by Brendan Whitt

Ja' Ovvani Garrison

What is passion and how can it contribute to a cause? As America frantically tries to figure out how to enrich and cultivate those at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder to keep the country globally competitive, there are hidden gems that are already doing the necessary work to uplift their communities. Ja’Ovvoni Garrison is a 26 year old skater from Cleveland who is carving out his own mold to make things happen.

Ja’Ovvoni started skating around the age of 12 when his mother bought him a cheap Walmart skateboard. Ja’Ovvoni skated with his friends, watched skaters like Rodney Mullen and Kareem Campbell, and frequently played a demo of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater which he had gotten with a pizza from Pizza Hut.

By 16 Ja’Ovvoni had finally gotten his first real deck. “It was really just my grind to learn.” he said when asked what has kept him on a board all of this time. He basked in the challenges that life and skating presented to him. “My aunt inspired me to make a plan for it.”

The sun was shining radiantly over the Cle. I waited anxiously for Ja’Ovvoni to call and tell me that he was out side. We got in his car and talked for a bit as he checked and sent emails. I asked him some follow up questions about Skaters Next Door and Skate RTA, his urban apparel line, before we pulled off to go pick up his friend from work.

Blought #30: Obama's Cookout

In 2008 America elected its first black president, Barack Hussein Obama. He ran a successful campaign and completely obliterated senator John McCain. I remember that historic day like it was yesterday. I didn’t have to go to school because of an allergic reaction to something I ate the night before. I sat at home and watched King of the Hill reruns and Loverboy starring Patrick Dempsey and Kirstie Alley (Don‘t ask why).

When Obama became president every black kid from 17 all the way down to five probably realized it was possible to be or achieve whatever you worked hard for. At 17 years old, Brendan Whitt wanted something sensational. Obama was going to tell us all of the secrets. Why was the FBI stalking MLK right before he got killed?  Did the government create crack? Did American Jews receive reparations? Everything was going to be revealed.

I couldn’t wait to see Jay-Z shoot a video on the White House lawn. Most importantly, I was waiting to hear the first president say “nigga” on live TV. Like in a, “The Republicans still trippin’, so me and Joe said ‘fuck them niggas.’ And we got it done.” kind of way. The entire state house would have erupted in applause and cheers. Of course, I was wishful thinking.

Blought #29: What the 2016 Playoffs Mean to Certain Legacies

Courtesy of ESPN

The Warriors have broken the Bull’s 72-10 record by going 73-9, Kobe Bryant, one of the games all-time greats has finally called it quits and the Playoffs are finally here. Last year’s playoffs seemed to be lacking its usual excitement. The East fielded a sub par list of playoff contenders, half of which missed this year’s playoffs.

The 2014 NBA Playoffs also saw a plethora of Superstars (Kobe, Kevin Durant, Mike Conley, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh and Kyrie Irving among a few others) who either missed the entire season or significant time during the regular season and\or playoffs. In 2014 the playoffs lasted 89 games and saw 109 man games missed. The 2015 playoffs lasted 78 games with a total of 182 man games missed.

LeBron and the Cavs (or what was left of them after Kevin Love and Kyrie went down with season ending injuries in the playoffs) fought valiantly against the budding legend of the Splash Bros., Draymond Green and the Golden State Warriors. After a somewhat epic Finals that lasted six games, Golden State captured their second title in the Bay (the franchise also won two titles as the Philadelphia Warriors in 1947 and 1956).

Blought #28: Solving Mysteries to Learn Lessons

From left to right: Eric Anderson, Casey Daniels, Laura Walter,

Kevin Keating and Shelly Costa participate in a panel discussion.

During my final semester at Cleveland State I enrolled into Dr. Anup Kumar’s "Specialized Writing" course focusing on writing narrative long form journalism. One of the most important pieces of advice that I can still remember Dr. Kumar offering the class was learning to have the ability to read a piece on a topic that you may not be familiar with, but one that you can learn from. I personally preferred a good op-ed piece on a pressing sports issue while Dr. Kumar made us read an article about Joan Rivers during the first week of the course.

After taking Dr. Kumar’s class I especially learned to appreciate journalism that focused on technology and science even though I need Wikipedia open to fully understand Einstein’s theory of gravitational waves. When Lee Chilcote, co-counder and cordinator of Lirerary Cleveland invited me to Literary Cleveland’s Winter Fictionfest I was elated.  The workshop and mini-conference took place at Loganberry Books on Larchmere in beautiful Shaker Heights and focused mainly on the elements and style of mystery and suspense fiction.

Why Can't we Quit Reality T.V.

In 1992 MTV premiered their groundbreaking television series The Real World. The brain child of the late Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray placed seven to eight young adults from 18-25 in a house together where their lives would be taped. The show garnered high praise for their discussion and depictions of issues that affected the youth at the time such as sex, AIDS, substance abuse, race and religion.

I can faintly remember when I was in middle school in the early 2000’s when some old British rocker and his family had a show on MTV. The Osbournes continued what the Real World started while ushering in a new age of American television. A year after The Osbourne’s premiered, a group of washed up starts including rapper MC Hammer, Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe and former child star Emmanuel Lewis all moved into a house and lived together while the cameras rolled.

Hipsters, Yuccies and the Black Urban Creative

America loves to bash hipsters

So the end of the hipster has finally arrived, or so they say. The (seemingly exclusive) white kid who attends college for a liberal arts degree of very little merit in this day and age who fashionably wears old dingy and ratty clothes and whose Ipod is filled with obscure indie bands that you never have nor ever will hear of has been replaced.

So I bashed them a little bit, but who doesn’t enjoy taking jabs at hipsters? The hipster has taken a back seat to the new young urban individual known as the “Yuccie”. The offspring of the Yuppie and Hipster cultures, Yuccies combine social awareness and enterprising creativity while tackling the new world around them.

Blought #27: Cable's Deathbed

The model used by Adelphia for my family's cable box from

the late 90's the mid-late 2000's

As far back as I can remember my mom always had a cable subscription. I can remember watching old Nickelodeon shows like Legends of the Hidden Temple, Rugrats and Fox Kids’ X-Men on a black tube TV.

Then came the big clunky cable box. Now I could watch the animation giant Cartoon Network and their Emmy award winning programming (See Blought #11: The Evolution of Cartoon Network) along with a slew of HBO and Starz channels.
I remember sifting through the guide in awe that I didn’t have to watch the TV Guide Channel anymore to find out when something was coming on. Even better, by that time I was 6 and able to read a description about the upcoming episode of Sponge Bob or Dexter’s Lab.

Then 2008 happened. Mom took some employment hits and our cable subscription was severely downgraded, and I’m pretty sure we weren’t the only American family to cut down on our cable during the Financial crisis. It just so happens that around that time my mom began to get these weird red envelopes in the mail and inside would be a DVD. At the time I had no clue what Netflix was.