(upbeat music) - [Jerome] "A Slice of the Community" is made possible by the support of the First Horizon Foundation.

(audience cheering and clapping) - Hello, and welcome to another episode of "Slice of the Community."

I'm your host, Jerome Moore.

And today, we're live in studio, joined by an audience with 100 Kings of the 100 Black Men in Middle, Tennessee.

Now on stage, I'm joined by program manager, Julisa Maxwell, and 6th grader, Richard Garvin III.

The third is important.

We talked about that third.

(laughs) How y'all doing?

- Good, we're doing great.

- Julisa, how you doing?

- Yes, doing great.

Happy to be here.

- I'm doing good.

So, Richard told me backstage, I was like, "What are you getting into?"

I'm like, "Who are your favorite basketball player?"

He's like, "Nah, I don't do sports."

I was like, "All right, well what you do?

He said, "I do acting."

I said, "Oh, okay."

I said, "Who's your favorite actor?"

He said, who did you tell me?

- Denzel Washington.

- Denzel Washington.

- Oh, come on, Richard.

- Then I asked you, what's your favorite movie, what did you say?

- "Gladiator."

- "Gladiator," the second one.

I said, "You seen the first one?"

What'd you say?

- No.

(audience laughs) - You gotta see the second one, but see the first one, all right.

But thank you both and just thank all of the 100 Kings and the program for being here.

This is amazing.

This is our first episode to where we have our youth to join us live and just be a part of the series, so this is a big deal.

I'm excited about this.

- I'm very excited.

- Yeah, I'm a little nervous.

You a little nervous?

- Yes.

- You look... That's all right.

It's okay.

It's okay.

But I'm getting some of these questions, getting into this interview, all right?

And if you get a little nervous, that's okay.

Julisa can just answer the questions for you.

That's cool?

Put her in the hot seat.

(Julisa laughs) You can tell me all her deep, darkest secrets and everything too, okay?

All right, but no, I appreciate you, Richard.

One, just thank you for being brave to be a part of this, 'cause everybody can't do this, whether you're a young adult or you are an adult-adult, right, and so thank you for being here.

But there's a lot going on in the world today when we're talking about youth in general, especially young Black men.

And so, I'm just curious, when you think about the community, when you think about the world, what would you wanna see change, or what would you make different?

- I would wanna see less violence.

- [Jerome] Less violence, what do you mean by less violence?

- Just like less things that kids don't need to experience, like school shootings and stuff like that.

- How does that, when you hear about school shootings or some students your age have just recently been a part of a school shooting in Antioch High School right here, right in Nashville, Tennessee.

How do you wrestle with that?

How do you unpack that as a 6th grader?

- I usually talk about it with my parents and try to stay calm, and yeah.

- I think that's good advice we all can take, just staying calm.

And again, just I think being a young person, right, Julisa, in this time and age is a little different.

So I'm curious, how do you support the young men when they're going through situations like this, whether they experience it directly or indirectly?

- Yeah, I think one of the biggest things is creating a safe space for students, so that they can express those feelings, express their confusion, express their anger, because all of those emotions are natural emotions that they have to learn to process.

And so, I think we, as adults, the best thing we can do is provide and keep giving them communities to be a part of, places and people to connect to, so that they feel safe and that they can actually process and stay calm.

- Yeah, so when you think about the future and what you want to achieve, what does that look like?

- I wanna become, I mean, I wanna be on Broadway.

- [Jerome] You wanna be on Broadway?

- [Julisa] Come on.

- Oh, okay.

(Julisa laughing) So, you said Denzel is your favorite actor.

You had told me that, right?

So, are you trying to accomplish, of course, to be on that tier of acting, better?

You wanna do Broadway, you wanna do movies, you wanna do both?

- [Richard] Both.

- [Jerome] Both, okay.

What's your ideal role as an actor?

- [Julisa] Action, comedy?

- You can play me.

(Julisa laughing) I think I need my own movie, you know what I'm saying.

We kind of got similarities.

- Yeah, you're similar.

(laughs) - [Jerome] Yeah.

- Just like comedy shows.

- [Jerome] Comedy shows, okay.

You pretty funny?

- [Julisa] Tell us a joke.

(Jerome laughing) - Put you on the spot, tell a joke.

- Tell a joke.

(laughing) No?

All right, fine.

- You don't think so?

But you can play comedy.

If I gave you a script, you can make it happen.

- Mm-hm.

- Okay.

- No problem.

- No problem.

What is one of the favorite things you enjoy about being a part of the 100 Kings Program?

- Just always feeling like I belong, and it's just really fun and glad I have this experience.

- [Jerome] All right, well look, let's give it up for this young man right here, Richard.

Appreciate you, man.

(audience clapping) - [Julisa] Good job, Richard.

- And now, we're bringing to the stage... What's up brother?

- [Tyson] What's up?

- You know what I'm saying?

You a little bigger.

You look tall, man.

(Julisa and audience laugh) Man, he definitely told me, "Yeah, I do sports, for sure."

(everyone laughs) But we have Tyson Jones, a 10th grader.

- [Tyson] Yes, sir.

- How you doing, man?

- [Tyson] Good, how are you?

- I'm doing good.

Thank you for being a part of this, also being brave.

- Thank you for having me.

- So, yeah, it look like you might dunk on me on stage, or something, I don't know.

(Julisa laughing) - Show 'em, show 'em what cha got.

- But no, man, I appreciate you.

And did want to piggyback off of anything that you heard Richard say before I get into talking with you?

- Mm, no, not really.

I think he really covered it.

- Okay, all right, man.

So let's talk about you and your impact and where you see yourself contributing to community.

You know, as a 10th grader, you in high school.

What does that look like for you?

- Contributing to the community, I go out, I'm in another organization called Jack and Jill.

We go out for street cleanups.

We do a lot of community service with Ronald McDonald House, stuff like that.

- Okay, what has been the, I think, the biggest impact of being a part of programs like that?

- I think just getting to see the community and the people come together to help other people in need.

- Okay, is there something you learned about yourself?

- Yeah, that I really like to help people out.

I like seeing a smile on their face afterwards.

- Okay, is that something you see yourself doing this professionally?

- Yeah.

- So what does that look like?

- I want be a dentist.

- Oh, okay.

- Or something in the dental field.

- All right.

- You're putting smiles on people.

- For real, putting smiles on people's face.

So, you got a dental school in mind?

- No, but I'm looking at programs to get into.

- [Jerome] Okay, you know, we got a pretty amazing program right here at home.

You know what that program is, right?

- I think so, yeah.

- [Jerome] What is it?

I'm gonna test you right now.

- Is it Meharry?

- [Jerome] Oh, yeah, of course.

(laughs) - And you remember, they actually came out and did a dental program for our students this summer.

- [Jerome] Oh, wow.

- Or last summer.

- Did you get the- - No, I had missed that one.

(audience laughs) - Tyson!

It's okay.

- I think I missed that day.

- That's all right.

- You know, Tyson, part of life is just showing up, man, just being there.

(Julisa laughing) You gotta be there, man.

So, this is the most important question I'm probably gonna give all night, okay?

- [Tyson] All right.

- [Julisa] No pressure.

- What is your favorite thing about Miss Julisa for you?

Or being a part of the program?

- No pressure, Tyson.

- I think just like the atmosphere she brings to 100 Kings.

Whenever she walks into the room, everybody lights up.

Hey, Miss Julisa, Hey Miss Julisa, how y'all doing?

And yeah, just like that.

- Okay.

How does being a part of 100 Kings, you know, their family atmosphere, how does that pour back into family, back at home for you?

- I think it really helps bring people together, like bring me and my family together.

I get to bond over them with stuff.

Like, I talked to them in the car about what we did, or even at home with my dad, I talk about that, different types of stuff that we did.

- Okay, and then I know back in the green room, we was talking about sports.

And he was telling me how he do track and field.

So in my mind, I went straight to, ah, you do, 400, 800.

You said, "Nah, nah, nah, I do the field."

Now, what does that look like, 'cause you didn't break it down.

What is the field?

Are you doing the little, that thing?

- Yeah, shot and disc.

- Shot and disc.

So you're strong?

- Yeah, I like to think that.

- Okay, all right.

- Come on, Tyson.

Stand on business.

(Jerome and Julisa laugh) - So that means are you snatching people up too and- - Oh, I don't know about that.

- Yeah, okay, all right.

I just wanna test you.

I just wanna make sure that we wouldn't have no conflicts between me and you, while I was up here, we was good.

We should be straight.

- No, were good, we're straight.

- We straight.

- Yeah, I'll be ref.

- You'll referee?

No, we don't need no ref.

Because if there's a ref, that means something's happening.

- You right.

- I don't want nothing to happen, because I think he can get me.

(laughs) That would be embarrassing on TV.

- It's live.

(laughing) - Man, is there anything that you want to say to other 10th graders or high schoolers about the importance of being in the program, like 100 Kings or just mentorship?

- Yeah, I would say having somebody that guides you, like a teacher or the Black men that we get to come in to guide us, teach us things that some other people might not be able to know or some people might not already know.

They give us guidance and stuff that we might need or that we will need when we grow up.

- [Jerome] How important is that guidance to have?

- It's very important.

Like I said, some people don't have that, so it just, I think it's very important.

- Man, Tyson, I appreciate you, man.

Everybody give it up for Tyson.

(Jerome and audience clapping) - [Julisa] You did great!

(laughs) - [Jerome] All right, good job, man.

Next, we're bringing up Langston McKnight to the stage.

Everybody, welcome Langston.

(audience clapping) Now, I'm trying to be a great host, so I'm backstage, you know, I'm making sure everybody got the jitters out, right.

And Langston is back there, just on his phone.

Julisa's asking, "You don't need no music or nothing?"

He was like, "Nah, I'm cool."

And then he tells me, he's like, "Yeah, I been on TV before."

I said, "Oh."

He said, "I didn't speak, but I was on there."

I said, "All right, nevermind, nevermind, we here.

(audience laughs) How you doing, Langston?

- I'm doing good.

How are you doing today?

- I'm doing good, man.

How you feeling?

You looking down, but man, what size shoes you wear?

(Julisa laughing) You looking clean.

I didn't tell you that back there, but I told him, you looking clean though with the socks and everything.

Pan in on the socks.

- Come on, do a little feet dance, do a little feet dance.

There you go.

(Julisa and Jerome laugh) - Man, is there anything that you heard that you would like to piggyback off of from Richard or from Tyson?

- I mean, the main thing that I would piggyback, oh, piggyback off of- - See, you said, see?

It's different talking to just being on TV.

See, I tried to tell you.

You like, "Nah, I'm cool," and the lights hit you, it's different, but nah.

- The main thing I'd say to piggyback off of though, would be of how Tyson said that it's always like, it's basically always good always to have a mentor in your life, because for me, I didn't always have necessarily, oh, I have always had a mentor, but I never viewed them as a mentor, because I always felt like that I couldn't be nearly as vulnerable with them.

And so certain things like that would lead to me ending up being more quiet or not, like I said, not seeing them as a mentor to me, so yeah.

- I think what's good about mentors is they can help you overcome maybe some challenges and maybe have conversations maybe with them that you maybe sometimes can't have with your parents or with your guardians.

And so, as a young man today, what are some challenges that you believe, like being a part of maybe 100 Kings or just having a mentor allow you to navigate and work through?

- Mm, honestly, I mean, the biggest help that I had from my mentor was really within my academics, because my academics were honestly one of the biggest struggles I've had throughout my high school career.

And with that, it honestly, when I ended up getting an actual mentor and then also getting into the 100 Kings Program, it helped me out, both in terms of actually being able to- - [Julisa] Understand.

- Yeah, understand the curricular that I'm learning, and then on top of that, it also even helped me with things with the ACT for instance.

- Yeah, man, academics is a big part of the 100 Kings Program.

Academically, how have you been able to grow being a part of 100 Kings Program?

- Well, with that, I'm gonna be a little bit more vulnerable on this, but in my 9th and 10th grade years, I had a very terrible GPA, around like maybe 2.3, 2.4 maybe.

- [Jerome] Yeah, you're not alone, yeah, yeah.

- But last year, well as in last year, like 11th grade, I turned that around and got a 3.0 GPA.

(audience clapping) Yeah, and then as of last semester of my 12th grade year, I upped that and even surpassed my own expectations.

'Cause I was expecting myself to get around a 3.2 or a 3.4, but I ended up getting a 3.6, unweighted, and a 3.8, weighted GPA.

(audience clapping) - [Julisa] (indistinct) I love that for you.

Good job.

- Congratulations, man.

What motivates that excellence?

What kept you going?

What kept you pushing?

- Honestly, when I finally got what I wanted in terms of goals, like when I finally got my goals set straight into a straight path to where I want to be, I realized that I'm gonna have to work a lot harder and put in the effort, because that's the only way I'm gonna make it to what I want to do.

- [Julisa] For sure.

- Yeah, man, what does it mean to be a Black man to you today?

If you had to describe your own definition.

It can be whatever you believe that is.

- Honestly?

- [Jerome] Honestly.

Yeah, we want honesty.

- The thing that I would say that would be like me being a Black man today would be, and (stammering) it's kind of hard how I want to say it.

- [Jerome] Just say it, just let it come out, man.

Just let it come, just let flow.

- The best way for me to explain it would be, I wanna be able to surpass both stereotypes that we have, as a young Black man and also be able to show, not only other races, but even people within our own race, what we can really achieve and what we can, and our true potential that we should really learn to tap into and grow off of that.

- I think that was a good definition.

- [Julisa] Solid.

(audience clapping) - I think that was a solid definition.

(Julisa laughing) (indistinct) but let's give it up one more time for Langston.

(everyone clapping) (Julisa and Jerome speaking indistinctly) - [Jerome] Appreciate you, all right.

Next, we bring to the stage the executive director for 100 Black Men in Middle, Tennessee, Mr. Andre Lee.

(audience clapping and cheering) - I thought we'd have some theme music.

- Some theme, see that's some executive director stuff.

You want your own theme music.

- [Andre] Every Black man has theme music.

- Oh, but also, it's a Black man thing, yeah.

- [Andre] Superhero Black man, you know what I'm saying.

- What's that theme music you we need next time?

- (groans) What more can I say?

- He's a music person.

- We'll go Jay-Z.

- [Jerome] Okay.

- Let's go.

- So hold on, hold on, I wanna get something clear right now.

You know, this is the South, you know, and the East Coast is cool, but so is he number one to- - And I am super old school, and I'm not gonna throw age at you, but I mean, I started out with like Karass, one, and I just matriculated through folks that I enjoy today, like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole.

- Okay, I was gonna say, you just gonna leave the South outta here.

We can end this real quick.

- No, no, I think Outcasts, Memphis, State Fly.

(Jerome, Julisa, and speaking indistinctly) - See, I'm trying to get an understanding on what you're imparting on our young men.

(everyone laughing) - Oh yes.

- But nah, thank you for being here as well and just thank both of you all for just being a part of an amazing program and pouring into our Black youth, our Black young men, that we understand that there's so many barriers that are just different.

It's a different experience that they go through.

And Andre, I'm gonna start with you with this question is, when you think about the 100 Kings, what are some of the things that make you proud when you see the young men coming in and then graduating from the program?

- Yeah, so a big piece of it is them coming out of this shell, right?

When we think about the pandemic, it has forced them, they've missed some years of being able to build that communication skill, build those interpersonal skills.

And so when they first come in, you'll notice that they're all quiet.

You go to lunch room, go to the cafeteria, they're all at their table, they're all sitting at the table, they're all on their phone.

But then, the process of them starting to get to know each other and talk to each other, and the older students talking to the young folks, so that change, that awareness of who's coming to speak to them, the leaders within the community, becomes more and more evident as they get older, and actually, taking advantage of those individuals when they come here, that's the biggest part I get excited about, seeing their confidence grow and really, self-worth grow.

- Julisa, being a program manager, y'all had a visit here at Nashville, PBS, which was amazing, which led to this today, give the people here, but also at home, a scope of some of the programming that you all do for the 100 Kings.

- Sure, our program is robust.

When Andre came on, we worked really hard to create a curriculum that is actually an eight-year curriculum.

So, as students matriculate through our program, they're constantly getting financial literacy every time.

And Andre calls it kind of a toolbox, so we're adding to that toolbox constantly.

But we touch on Black history, financial literacy, professionalism, what life is like in middle school, high school, college.

Exposure is our biggest thing, and I think that is the coolest part of the program, how much students are exposed to corporate sponsors, just field trips, even sporting events.

They get to see a perspective that typically wouldn't be offered to them.

- Yeah, I think we gotta be at the top of the list of exposure at this point.

- [Julisa] For sure.

- Because everybody just ain't doing live television stories.

I'm just letting you know.

(Julisa and Jerome laughing) Just putting that at the top of the list.

I wanna pivot back to you, Julisa, as a Black woman, what makes you proud when you see these young Black men coming in and being able to pour into them?

Because we understand the dynamic of just their togetherness and their wholeness, which is just important to see.

And also, not only Black men pouring into Black women, but Black women pouring into Black men as well, young men especially though.

- I don't take my role lightly.

I know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

I think it's really humbling to be able to touch so many students and families.

And as a Black woman, I think being able to offer them a perspective of a Black woman.

I feel like a lot of the kings, if not all of them, know me pretty well.

I'm pretty playful with them, but sometimes I have to check 'em like, "Hey, you know Black women are not like that, right, "not even Black women, women in general."

So being able to steer them in the right direction and just offer a different perspective from somebody that they know is safe and wants the best for them, they're a lot more willing to listen and accept that.

- Andre, it's a lot going on just with our youth today, as we talked about a little bit earlier, especially with Richard.

How do you all pivot and respond to those things like violence or school shootings or anything that might be happening in the world that again, may not touch them personally but definitely could affect them in a different way.

- Yeah, so there's a lot of different ways that we do it.

I mean, the easiest one that we have is what we call King's Corner.

It's something we open with every day.

We take attendance, the kids do the King's Creed, and then we have King's Corner.

King's Corner is like a mini TED Talk.

So, it means anybody in community can come in and feed our kids information.

They can either talk about their career journey, they can talk about their passions, like they like playing pickleball now or going skiing in Denver, or an issue that's happened in the community that they wanna get feedback from the kids.

And so that allows that flexibility every session that we have.

But then we also make sure we incorporate those throughout our training, because we are year-round and multi-year for these students, and so the goal was starting with rising 5th graders, that they have a different experience.

So by the time they graduate, that exposure, access and resources has helped them to really pull together great personal and professional goals.

She talked about the tool belt, but I always equate it to Batman.

You know, every episode or comic book, Batman always seems to have the right tool for the right time, right?

- [Jerome] He needs it, you know.

(laughs) - And that's all we do for the kids.

We want them to have the right tool.

They may never need it.

They may never face racism.

They may never face some of the negative things they have, but if they do, at least they're conscious enough to be aware and know how to handle it, and that's where we come into play.

- What is, y'all can both piggyback off this answer, where does community come into play?

Because I know y'all go out and visit different professional development opportunities, but what if I don't have a young king, but I want to give back to support the 100 Black Men in Middle, Tennessee or the 100 Kings Program, what does that look like?

- Yeah, so if this were moving into like church, time, talent, and treasure, right?

We're the same thing.

We take everybody.

Me and Julisa joke about, this is 1,000 piece puzzle that we try to pull together all the time.

We're constantly reevaluating what we're doing, what's working, what's not working.

And so, bringing in the community, one, lets the students know that there's a lot of people that care about them that may not look like them.

So when we talk about exposure, so exposure expands, right?

So, but having the volunteers come in is critically important.

And what's so funny is I'm always telling parents, "You guys can come in and do stuff too."

'Cause a lot of 'em are executives or own their own business.

Your kid may not think you do anything great, but the other kids might.

- Because nah, we gonna drop 'em off.

(indistinct) - Yeah, you know?

- Here, take 'em.

- Because it's funny, because you could be Michael Jordan and I'm sure his kid's going, "But my coach told me how to do this," and he's like, "But I'm Michael Jordan, right?"

So, we get a lot of that.

(laughs) But what's great is, we've got a great parent support group.

We try to incorporate, recently we've been doing a lot more town halls.

We try to do parent info sessions, and we're averaging about 125 parents that show up to that, and because of their experiences and what they're bringing to the table allows us to look at this different, not only from just the member perspective, but their perspective and then bringing in these corporate partners, they need to see what their money is doing, and the more they see it, the more they typically give.

But there's a need, and sometimes it's harder to sell that there's a need for Black men.

If I talk about disabled vets or St. Jude, everybody's like, "Yeah, I got it."

But everybody doesn't necessarily get why Black men still need help.

And it's good when people are able to make that connection, because at the end of the day, you can't build community with just a few people in the community.

- Yeah, what does the future look like?

What does the future program look like?

What does future support, future community look like for just not the 100 Kings, but just the entire 100 Black Men in Memphis, Tennessee in general?

- Growth.

- Growth?

- Growth, I think the easiest term is growth.

We are constantly getting calls and questions about how can I join the program?

And so, like Andre said, we are constantly reevaluating, Hey, we brought these people in.

Did it work?

Did they really connect with the kids or was it not so great?

So we want students to have a positive experience, so we're gonna constantly evaluate, see what works, keep what works, and then modify as needed.

- If there's one thing, Andre, that you wanna leave with the people here and that's watching at home, what would it be?

You can do two, I'll give you two things, I'll give two things.

- Leave with the folks here?

- [Jerome] Yeah.

- I think the main thing is to meet students where they are and be open and receptive and listen.

We tend to get too wrapped up in everything that's going on, and we get busy and forget that time (snapping) goes by, and we've missed an opportunity to help a young person grow.

I think for the young men, it's about understanding that they don't have to do this alone.

Going about this journey alone is not an ingredient for success.

Bring somebody in it, because when you bring somebody in it, now it's an adventure, and you both get to experience it together.

And the other thing is don't wait for somebody to find you, find them.

The thing is, and I tell college students all the time, find somebody, grab 'em, interview 'em, because adults love talking to students.

It's when you graduate college, you become competition.

So, while you're a student, grab.

I would be shocked if anybody ever says no, and I've been doing this for 25 years and tens of thousands of students across the United States and in other countries, step up.

- All right, we're gonna save the rest for the Q&A.

All right, let's give it up for them one more time.

(audience clapping) (upbeat music) And thank you for watching another episode of "A Slice of the Community."

(bright music)