Bring it On: Fight to the Finish

Universal Pictures Presents… Bring It On: Fight to the Finish.  Available now on DVD.

Lina Cruz (Christina Milian) and her gal pals Treyvonetta (Gabrielle Dennis) and Gloria (Vanessa Born) are looking forward to winning the Spirit Championships, but when Lina’s mom remarries, her world takes a tailspin when her family leaves her comfy East L.A. neighborhood for Malibu. Lina’s faces new challenges with a team that’s no where near as good as her former high school squad, but it’s up to her to give the Malibu Vista High Sea Lions a sultry cheer squad makeover and turn them into a top quality, championship team. Lina meets her nemesis, Avery (Rachele Smith), captain of the Jaguar cheer squad,  but the plot thickens as Lina’s feelings Avery’s brother, Evan,  start to escalate.

Fused with a hot soundtrack with some of today’s hottest artists, an amazing cast, and all the fixings that make a great teen romance flick, see how Lina takes on the challenge to defeat Avery’s Jaguar squad as she works her magic to try to bring the Sea Lions to a championship victory.

Swagga’ Like Theirs…The Bed-Stuy YMCA’s Brooklyn Piranhas

Brooklyn youth are doing it again!  Straight out of the YMCA’s Bedford-Stuyvesant branch are the Bedford Piranhas.  They’ve got swagger, a style, and are executing their aquatic skills for all to see.  Ranging from the ages of 7 to 17, these piranhas are taking no refuge, and are out full swing and taking the city by storm.

Say it LOUD! spent some time with the team.  Check out the video to get the 411:

The Art of Sophia Dawson

Find more videos like this on johnny bonds

1. How have you and your work grown since our last interview in 2006?
Art IS a growing experience so myself and my work has definitely grown and changed. For one I paint larger (at least 6ft in height) for each piece. With more time and practice my style has definitely changed and I have developed new techniques in approaching each piece. I am able to work both from life and photography now and am using these aspects in all of my latest work. Most importantly I am beginning to develop a sort of narrative and story behind my work that means something to me. Before I was just making paintings to please other people.

2. Describe your most exciting, challenging, and worthwhile experiences at the School of Visual Arts?
This semester at least once a week my class of about seven students spend our three hours walking around new york city and looking at art in galleries/ museums/ etc. It put me in the position to finally begin to pay attention the prospering artists of my time. I have been exposed to so many different possibilities of what art is and can become. I am also now able to appreciate different artists of different genres and backgrounds.

3. What are your goals after graduation from SVA?
After graduating from SVA I plan to get my Masters in Fine Arts and also to do commission work making large powerful murals in public and popular spaces. INCLUDING THE WHITE HOUSE!!!

4. What was your inspiration for Wet Paint? What was your experiences at the opening?
Wet paint is a dedication to my God Mother Leslie Macayza Wages. She was a beautiful and well respected model of the eighties and also one of my role models. Unfortunately about three years ago she was incarcerated and the work deals with both her and my struggle as a growing woman. Though Leslie is locked up, in her mind she is FREE.”as free as she has ever been”. WET PAINT deals with the idea that this woman’s life is not over, but has rather just begun. The paint is still wet.

5. How do you see your work evolving within the next five years?
Within the next five years I see myself continuing to paint and using other women and men that inspire me and motivate me to do my best in life. I will begin to incorporate photography, video, and the digital world into my art to allow it to grow and become more than just paint on a canvas.

6. How do you see you work influencing others?

The message behind my work is definitely my key weapon in influencing others. My goal is to change the lives and minds of people so that they can understand that their destiny is not left up to chance but it is a matter of choice.

On the Phone with Paul Wall by Xavier Douglas.

Xavier Douglas is a Sophmore at the Urban Assembly Academy of History & Citizenship for Young Men.

Xavier Douglas:  So what have you been up to?

Paul Wall: I’ve been on the road. I’m about to go back on the road with Slim Thug.

Xavier: I heard you have a new album Fast Life.
Paul: It comes out May 12th.

Xavier: What can we expect from that?
Paul: Well, we have a nice list of productions and collaborations. We have Travis Bakar, Plain Skillz.  On the collaboration side we have Too Short, Gorilla Zo,Yung Joc.   We have Trey Zero little Ki Ki. We have Akon on the album, Webby, Mouse, Baby Bash, Pitbull.  I have Chamillionaire, it’s almost like a compilation.

Xavier: That sounds cool.  I can’t wait for it to come out.
Paul: Thank you.

Xavier: Who inspired the album?
Paul: Well we call it the Fast Life because that’s the name of a store that my friend owns in L.A. It sells different clothing lines, one of my friends own a clothing line and I own a clothing line. I love the name the Fast Life.  It’s just that fast up-tempo lifestyle of grinding, non-stop hustling trying to achieve your goals.  For me it’s to support my family and ball out of control.  So, I’m grinding non-stop, from sun up to sun down. I’m trying to stack my paper up and the music is just a reflection of that.  It’s motivated by that same universal theme of grinding.

Xavier: What was it like for you as a teen growing up?
Paul: I had my fair share of hardships, but I try to focus on more of the positive things I had growing up.  My mother was a really big inspiration for me and I did a song about her on this album.  It’s kind of like a “Dear Mama” type of song. I don’t think there are enough songs about our mothers in hip-hop or just music in general.  There are only a few, so, I felt like doing one to show the love I have for my mother.

Like I said, I had my hardships growing up but I wouldn’t trade my childhood for nothing, because it helped make me who I am today.  If you don’t have sorrow you can’t appreciate the sweet. If I didn’t have those hardships I would take a lot of things for granted.

Xavier: What are your views on education?
Paul: When I graduated from high school I went straight to college, the University of Houston.  I went there for three years. I stopped going because my music was taking off for me.

I feel like you can only learn so much from books, I think we learn most on the job through experiences and other people.  But, at the same time you have to have the compromise of what you learn from the books too.  You can’t learn everything just from people. You have to learn from the books too.    You have to compromise because there are some people who put all their eggs in the book basket and some people who put all there eggs into learning from the streets basket or from other people.  You can’t do one or the other, you have to have that compromise of both in order to be well rounded enough to be successful.

Xavier: There is so much going on with Barack Obama being President and all. What is your advice to the younger generation?

Paul: It was so great seeing him get elected.  It’s just been a huge change in the atmosphere not only in the country, but, all around the world.  When George Bush was in office, everybody was depressed, everybody was complaining about everything, but know body wanted to do anything about it.   Everybody kind of just accepted where we were.  As soon as President Obama got put into office, elected, now people are motivated to go get it.  They are ready to grind and make a change for themselves instead of waiting for someone to do it.  To see people get off their butts and go grind is a beautiful thing.  Even I feel more motivated now.

Xavier: It’s good to hear you say that.  What things would you like to see change in the world?
Paul: Man, I support these troupes so much, I just hope that he can find a way to bring them home and create some type of peace. But, that’s a lot to ask, I’ve been over there and seen it first hand, doing tours with the U.S. soldiers.   It’s not something that’s likely to happen any time soon, or, even in our generation or the next.  These wars have been going on for years, so it’s kind of hard to ask somebody to do that.

Also, hopefully he can find a way to bring this country out of this recession.

Xavier: I heard you were doing another film with Raquel Cepeda.
Paul: Yeah, yeah, yeah, with my boy, my partner Johnny Dang who I did Grills with.   He’s from Vietnam.  We already started doing a documentary on Vietnam and Iraq, about comparing the wars and the effects that the wars have on the people.  We went to Iraq a couple of times. We plan on going to Vietnam pretty soon.

Xavier: When do you expect it to be done?
Paul: I’m not sure.  It will take a while.  When we went to Sierra Leone, it was the same.  It took a long while for it to be done.   For this film we are going to focus on the war and the after effects and how things are going to be for the Veterans when they return from the war.   I think we have heroes fighting for our freedom and the freedom of others and we should respect our heroes.   But, when they return home they don’t get that same respect.

Xavier: In what ways do you give back to the community?

Paul: We always have something going on, whether it be with the Boys and Girls Club or  I do a lot with the Robert Clemens foundation here.  He does a lot for the youth in sports.  We stay busy doing things with the Make A Wish foundation, going into schools and speaking with the kids.  We just did something with the Grammy Foundation.  We went to a school in Galveston, Texas, a school that was hit by the hurricane.  They lost every single instrument in their music program.  So we did a big fundraiser where people donated their instruments.  We raised $50,000 in money and instruments.  Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child was with this program too.   It was called the Grammy’s Giving Back to the Gulf.

Xavier: What are your goals in music in life?
Paul: In music,  my goal is to just become a better musician album after album.  My goal is not to put out platinum albums but to become a better musician.  In life, my goal has always been to just have a family that loves me.  I have the wife. I have the kids, so it just has been a wonderful thing for me.  My goal now is just to be able to spend time with them, support them and give them the things I didn’t have growing up.

Xavier: That’s cool.  Thanks for the interview.

Paul: Thank you.  Much Love and Respect.

One on One with American Violet’s Nicole Beharie

American Violet

In Theaters – April 17, 2009

Set across the landscape of a small Texas town, and on the eve of the 2000 presidential election, American Violet is the compelling story of Dee Roberts, a 24 year old single mother of four, who is wrongly accused and incarcerated during the Hearne Drug Raids.    Roberts  risks loosing it all, including her four young daughters, as her determination to clear her name from behind bars leads her to go against the norm by taking on the town’s district attorney, and the criminal justice system. With a strong cast that includes Academy Award® nominee, Alfre Woodard, and Xzibit, American Violet is a must see film.

SIL! had a chance to kick it one on one with American Violet’s leading lady, Nicole Behari, who gave us the 411 about discovering acting, and her experience with working on this phenomenal film.

SIL:   Where are you originally from, and what inspired you to become an actress?

Nicole Beharie:  I was born in West Palm Beach, Florida.  My father was in the foreign service, so I did a lot of moving to West Africa, Nigeria, Panama, London, and up and down the east coast.  After my parents divorced, I spent a great deal of time in Orangeburg, South Carolina, a really small town similar to the one in the film.  I was also in Atlanta and Maryland.  I don’t really have a home, so I’m going to say that Brooklyn is my home.  Home is whereever the family is.

SIL:  With moving around so frequently as a youth, what inspired you to become an actress?

NB: You kind of hit in on the head, because I think the moving around and the adaptations that happen with that has a lot to do with my choice to become an actor.  I also have an ear for different accents.  Every time I moved, which was like every three years,  I had to understand what it was like to be there, and just sort of fit in without getting beat up – bottom line!  With all of that moving around and  just to keep myself company, as a child, my little brother,  my neighbors and I would put on plays in the living room.

When I was in elementary school and middle school, I always thought that I would do something along the lines of my parents, either in mass communications or working in foreign affairs because that’s what my family did.  Ultimately along the way, everything that happened to me kept pushing me into this field.  Every time I shied away from it, things would happen.  I’d get a scholarship, or I auditioned for every theater school in high school, every theater school in the country, and I got into quite a few of them.  When I got into Juilliard, I was like you know what?  Maybe I can do this.  Maybe this can work out for me.   From there, things just started falling into place.  I feel that somebody upstairs is really  looking out for me.

SIL:  How did you land the role of Dee Roberts in American Violet?

NB: Well, my agency sent me a stack of scripts when I first joined them, and I think they were just sending them to me to give me an idea of what’s up the pike, just really keeping me busy and not really thinking this girl is going to go after anything.  I read them, but none of them were really that interesting, but this one stuck with me.  I read the script again and then I had a dream about it.  When you start dreaming about things, in my mind that means something.  I read the script and I was like I can’t be this woman.  She has four kids and she’s older than me, so I don’t have that life experience.  I called my agent and I asked where the audition was cast, so I said well let me just go in.  I went in for that part, and when I went back in for the call back, I met with the writer and the director and they told me about their involvement, and the fact that this was a real story.  When you actually meet the people who have met the people, you actually hear what they say and what they’ve seen; the hardships and the real courage it took.  I was like even with the least part, I just want to have some involvement in this, because I believe in it and I think it’s an important story. I will play the baby mama or play anyone else.    A few days later, I got a phone call while I was painting my apartment and it was one of the happiest phone calls that I’ve gotten, ever.

SIL:  This is a true story and you have to play a real character, someone who is present and existing now.  What kind of preparations did you have to make as an actor to portray this role?

NB: Bill Haney, the writer, did a documentary with the ACLU about the real Dee Roberts, the one who the story is written after.  I just saw footage of Dee and her family, the people in the town, the D.A., her daughters, as well as her brothers and all of the people who didn’t make it to the film who were involved.  I feel like that was the story,  and what made it real for me.  It made it undeniable and it made it a real responsibility that you can’t play around here.   It’s not like I’m doing a film about someone who can’t possibly show up one day.  This woman can show up one day.

The first time I saw the film was at a festival. I was seeing it for the first time with the audience, and the real Dee calls me over. She’s like, “Nicole, come sit besides me! You’ve got to watch this with me girl! Sit beside me!” I’m like look, I’ve  never had such a large part in a movie and  I hadn’t seen my face yet in this concept, so I was freaking out. I was afraid to see myself, and the little issues that you have with your face, or what you say, or your quirks. I love Dee, because we had been talking throughout the film.  When we were in New Orleans shooting, we actually hung out a few times and just kind of talked beyond work.  She was really excited about the movie, but when she called me over there I was like No!, No!, No!  Bill looked at me like, Nicole you’ve  got to go over there.  I sat down beside her and she held my hand throughout the whole entire film.  It was an experience that took me beyond myself.   I was like this woman is reliving something that I can only imagine and I got close to, but I don’t have the smell.  I don’t have the taste, or the other hours that aren’t captured in the film that she lived.  She was holding my hand and she was crying.    She seemed really pleased with the whole thing.

SIL:  How would you describe Dee Roberts?

NB: Brilliant, she has resilience, she has faith,  and a real sense of purpose.  One thing that she told me was that this situation changed her.  Before this happened, she was doing hair shows.  She’s a waitress, and  was just kind of enjoying life, but from there she ended up working with the ACLU, and just saw the world differently and this just broadened everything for her.  During the Jena Six trial, she drove out there during that whole thing.  That’s just the woman that she is.  She supports her four daughters, takes care of everything, and is still part of her community.  I don’t know if I could stay in a town where people are questioning my character all the time, especially in a small town.  Dee is resilient and she has faith and a real sense of purpose.  Working with the ACLU, she just started to see the world differently.

SIL:  How was the role for you emotionally, not only as an artist, but as a female?  On what levels were you able to connect to her character.  How much of that did you take on?

NB:  I felt that to be the best of my ability, the first thing I had to do was deal with her actual experience before she was falsely accused of selling drugs, and before the raid happened.  To actually get into the place where I actually have these four children, and to really love and understand what that means.  To have the family, have the community that she had with her church, with her mother, and the relationship that she had with her boyfriend, which was an abusive one, and then what it means to have four daughters that you’re raising on your own with the help of your family.  Going from there, just having that experience and then having an experience that takes you out of the civilian mentality, and understanding what that means, and how that checks you as an individual, as a citizen, as a young Black woman, as a mother, and what it means to be all of those things.

Seeing the real Dee and hearing her talk about the loss of trust, her environment, and what it meant to be isolated, not just by the white people, but the Black people, and also feeling like she isolated her children.  She had to make these decisions.  We make decisions that we don’t necessarily love,  but they’re not to the same degree.  We make decisions all day, and this really forced me to think about what I would have done.  Would I have taken the plea bargain? Or, would I have thought it out having these daughters, especially knowing what my babies father was like.  When I think about her, and her choices, that alone gave me the ammunition to get the experience and have the emotion.  It’s really not about the emotion, it’s about the situation.  Once you are in that dire situation, you’re just kind of calm and you’re not working for it.  What if that was me?  It could be, and that’s the thing that blows my mind about this story.  You look at it and it may seem isolated, but it’s not. It happens everywhere.

SIL:  I read that 2 million American’s are incarcerated, but 90% of the people just go ahead and take the plea bargain, even if they are innocent.  So the baic synopsis of the story is that you have Dee Roberts, single mother of four, and she’s set up during a drug raid?

NB: Well, the government has these raids, especially in this town, that they do periodically.  The raids are really there to fill a quota system, so that the government makes money.  It’s sort of like a war on drugs thing; you get a certain amount of people, you get a stipend for your budget.  Dee was just one of the people that the informant, who was by no means a legit informant, had given up and here she is in prison.  Of course she would be someone that people  would question because she has four kids, and the question would be how are you supporting these four children.  The same question arises in the community.

SIL:  Since this was around the time of the 2000 election, how much of this  do you think was based on politics, as opposed to 30 people being sent to jail?

NB: I think it’s mostly politics and the way that people are accustomed to seeing things run.  This man [Calvin Beckett] was still the D.A. after this trial happened, which says something about the community and about the power, even after everyone knows what happened.  I think the politics is that he’s looking for re-election and the people who are voting. This is what I think is one of the amazing things that happened in our recent election, because we have people voting who have never voted before, so maybe he won’t be re-elected in the elections coming up.  People will be energized getting out there, realizing that it does count.  But the people who were voting at that time where the people who felt protected by the status quo.  People felt that him putting young black people who live in the projects in jail, was the right way to do it.  That’s nothing but politic and him trying to make state power, which he’s been very successful at doing, unfortunately.

SIL:  What were your original thoughts about the script, and how did they change after you completed the film?

NB: I know more now about the case, and I also got to shoot in New Orleans, post Katrina.  I could also relate because I was raised by a single mother, so there are some connections there.  Sadly, this is a reality in the community.  I think the awareness of the idea that there are paths in our system that are in place in schools, life, politics, and in the confines of our neighborhoods, that push us to act against the norm.  Be aware!  Awareness is key!  I want people to know that there are options out there.  She [Dee Roberts] didn’t have much, but she had choices.

SIL:  You had the opportunity to work with a wonderful cast including Alfre Woodward and Xzibit.  What was that experience like?

NB: I loved working with Xzibit.  He just made it a lot of fun, but when it was time for us to do our scenes, he just got into it.  Working with Alfre Woodard is no small thing. She was great.  She would send me flowers and check in on me by writing me notes.

SIL:  What would you like to say to our SIL audience?

NB: Continue to be honest with yourself.  It’s a constant struggle, but always make sure that you are close to yourself and that you are working on developing who you are.

*Nicole Behari is currently working on a one woman show in Brooklyn, N.Y.

For more info about American Violet, visit www.americanviolet.com

Shorts for Tots…films for the youngest viewers…

On Sunday March 1st, I traveled  into the city with two of our youngest film critics Kofi Buford and Judah Brathwaite.  The four year olds were excited to take on the role of film critics for a day.  We sat in the spacious, kid friendly Scholastic theater and watched twelve short films in the Shorts For Tots series. With an approximate 3:1 kid to adult ratio, this was definitely and event for the little ones.    Kofi and Judah along with about a hundred or so adorable youngsters, marked their pink ballot cards as they rated each film with either a “loved it,” “like it,” “so-so,” or “hated it.”

On the way to the theater we read the award winning book, “The True Story of the Three Little Pigs,” by Jon Scieszka.  This boosted our anticipation for the film version being featured in the series.

After each film, I asked our little critics what they thought, and I got answers like, “now that was excellent” from Judah, and “I loved it” from Kofi.  Out of the twelve films Judah and Kofi did have their favorites.  “I really liked the one with the ants!” Said Judah.  “Me too, that one was funny.” Said Kofi.  I agreed with them.  This film was titled, The Bridge on the River ZZZeee.“  It is a humorous, 3D animated film from France about a group of leaf-cutter ants who struggle to carry a stick on a path across high cliffs and running rivers.   The ants caused everyone in the theater to giggle, as they found inventive ways to solve their problem.  This five minute film, created by Thomas Szabo, features beautiful nature shots, amazing camera angles, and incredible animation.  It is truly a work of art.

Judah and Kofi both agreed on the Latvia film, The New Species by Evalds Lacis, as a top pick.  The New Species tells the story of bugs who rescue their parents from an entomologist who captures them during a picnic.  This colorful and sweet suspense animation, maintained the viewers curiousity, as we all wondered what would happen next.

Of course we all loved The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. In this hilarious and witty film, Mr. Alexander T. Wolf tells his side of the classic fairy tale “The Three Little Pigs.”  We find out that there is always more than one side to every story.

Check out the gkids.com website for more great films from the NYC International Childrens Film Festival.  The festival will run through March 15, 2009.

By Delphine Fawundu Buford, Judah Brathwaite, Kofi Buford

The NYC Children’s Film Festival is Back Again.

Parents are you looking for something to do with your kids of all ages?  Teens are you looking of cool weekend hangout with friends?  Check out the New York International Children’s Film Festival for young people ages 3 -18.

The New York International Film Festival’s short films are my favorite and the heart of the festival.  The short films are the best new works from around the world geared specifically for kids ages 3-18.  You can find these films playing at several theaters around the city: 

Cantor Film Ctr – 36 E 8th St DGA Theater – 110 W 57th St IFC Center – 323 6th Ave Scholastic – 557 Broadway Symph Space – 2537 B’way

Just at taste of what is in store:

Heart of Fire

NY PREMIERE
Heart of Fire is the powerful new film from the award winning director of The Story of the Weeping Camel. The story centers on ten year old Awet, who is taken from an orphanage run by Italian nuns to live with the washed up rebel father she has never met. Awet and her older sister are soon recruited, along with other children, to become soldiers for the Eritrean Liberation Front, engaged in desperate guerrilla fighting with a rival rebel group. At the rebel camp, young Awet finds a role model in the powerful and independent female guerrilla leader, Ma’azza, a charismatic revolutionary and newfound parental figure. But when the war takes a turn for the worse and the children are given rifl es and sent to fight, Awet becomes disillusioned by the hypocrisy and pointlessness she sees, and she lashes out with a pacifistic action both courageous and dangerous. Inspired by the controversial memoir by Senait G. Mehari, Heart of Fire is elevated by the expressive debut performance of Letekidan Micael as Awet, whose commanding presence conveys an undiluted sense of justice, and whose eyes never fail to reflect her chronic disappointment in the adults around her.
NOTE: Film contains realistic battle scenes, including violence and bloodshed.

Presented as part of the special series CHILDREN AND WAR.

Check out    http://www.gkids.tv/intheaters.cfm for more information.

In His Closet – Naeem Reid

By Fatima Payne

Name: Naeem Reid, Jr. Age: 15

Hood:    Park Slope, Brooklyn, N.Y.
School:  Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School Music & Art and    Performing Art
Major:   Art

SIL:  How would you define your personal style?
Naeem: Classic, clean and versatile!  I enjoy sporty clothing as well as urban wear.  Comfort is extremely important to me as well.

SIL:  If we were to take a trip in your closet, what would we find?
Naeem: A nice selection of options such as: cargo pants and  slim boot cut denim jeans.  Various tees such as, Aeropostale, American Eagle, Ed Hardy, H&M,  Ralph Lauren, Old Navy and of course the simple white tee.

Plenty of zip up hoodies, plaid button up shirts, Ralph Lauren short and long-sleeved shirts, linen shirts, dress pants, basketball Jerseys, basketball shorts, various Nike Basketball sneakers, track sneakers, boots, dress shoes, and Nike flip flops.

SIL:    What inspires your style?
Naeem: My upbringing and my hometown.  Music & entertainment, or sometimes the mood I am in for that particular day.

SIL:  Who are your favorite designers?
Naeem: I have many, but, Ralph Lauren  and Nike are two of my favorite designers.

SIL:    What are your favorite stores?
Naeem: Lord & Taylor, Swagga 360, Something on 5th, Jean Stop, Century 21, NBA store, H&M, American Eagle, Old Navy.

SIL:   Favorite Accessories?
Naeem: Watches, single earring, wrist bands

SIL:  What are your fashion “must haves”?
Naeem: A presence!  A fitted cap, a pair of stylish frames, a fresh cut, and sweaters and hoodies

SIL:   Personal style quote:
Naeem: Fashion is form of art and self expression, so on that note -
Let Me, Be Me!

U Want Game

MEET JOE BRANCH

Co-Founder -  uwantgame.org

Very few organizations work with preparing teen athletes for life after high school.  However, SIL Magazine had a chance to sit one on one with Joe Branch, co-founder of UWANTGAME.ORG, a dynamic program that mentors and guides high school athletes for maintaing the game off court on the collegiate level.

SIL:  What was the inspiration behind forming UWANTGAME.ORG?

Joe Branch: U Want Game was basically a vision from my mentor who wanted to give back.  We both were college athletes and we both saw the need to give back.  A lot of former athletes were out there without a vision or without a need as to where they wanted to take their life in sports.  We felt that instead of waiting until the college level, why not start teaching teens career development and life skills on the high school level.

SIL: Why does your organization focus on just student athletes?

JB: I think it’s a niche.  There are other organizations that help and focus on regular students who need help with school or testing,  or  that do curriculums, but this was the life that we lived, basically.  There are many kids who want to live that life as well; that aspire to be professional athletes and that pour a lot of time and energy  into being the best they can be on the field.  Therefore, we know that there needs to be an extra push geared toward those students as well.  We feel that this is something that we understand, so this is why choose to seek out high school student athletes.

SIL:  What is the process of getting students involved in the program?

JB: Right now we’re based in New York and we want to grow. Teachers or kids can reach out to U Want Game via our website, or relationships through us, or management.  We have an application and a short essay that we’d like to see.  Basically, we want to look at their road map or the journey that they want to live.  We get consent from a high school administrator or a parent, we review that and hopefully the relationship is underway.
SIL: How many applicants would you say you get at any given time?

JB: We have about twenty-five to thirty students in our program right now.  That’s really the amount that we need to have.  We don’t want to get too large right now, because we want to be able to have a good impact.  We have about twenty-five to thirty mentors as well, so there’s a one on one mentor ration as well.

SIL:  How are the mentors selected?

JB: The mentors are selected through the management team.  They have an application that they have to fill out also, and basically we want to know if they have a sincere vision to help these high school student athletes.  Some of the mentors are former collegiate athletes as well, so it’s like a niche market, like we’re building the game behind the game.  These are all of the mentors that have walked this path, some of them walked the path with mentors before, and some didn’t, so the ones that we have are eager to give back.

SIL:  So how do you build the relationships with the different schools?  What high schools in New York are you working with now?

JB: We’re at [Benjamin] Banneker High School, we have kids in Bishop Lockland High School, Xavier, St. Michaels, Boys and Girls High School,  and we have Manhattan Center also.  We have about five or six high schools.
Some of these relationships were developed from my previous job at Nike, where I did a lot of grassroots marketing, so these were the relationships that I had then.  Now, it’s just a matter of going back to these guys and letting them know that we’re building a business, or building a program and a curriculum off the court for these students that want to be a part of it.

SIL:  There are many athletes that tend to put sports before education.  What does U Want Game offer that  instills  the importance of getting an education as well?

JB: I think when you’re working with a student athlete, you don’t want to deter their dreams of being a collegiate or professional athlete. There is a hunger, desire, passion, or work ethic that you have to have at a very early age to reach these goals.  What we want to do is coincide with that and make sure that they understand what we call the plan B, but we want to pull out what else that it is that they can do with their lives.  As our mission says, we want to build the game behind the game, so if its writing skills, interpersonal skills, if it’s public speaking skills, if its about the basics of finance, our goal is to teach them.

SIL:  So, if they have a dream or vision of playing sports on a collegiate level, the program basically prepares them on how to balance this?

JB: Right, within the three years, we’ll have career panels and workshops where they’ll meet various authors.  We have something that we call the book of the year, and an author will come to speak with them.  We have something where mentors can speak to them about the academic, athletic experience, and how to balance things. They are talking to them about what college life is really like; the time they’ll spend in the weight room, the time they’ll spend in study hall, the training table, road trips, and different things like that.  Then, each year we’ll go to at least one college for a visit, so they can ask the questions that they have.

SIL:  Is this a major challenge that a lot of high school students going into college face, trying to juggle all of that?

JB: Oh, yes!  I think college is new for everyone and everyone is prepared in high school in a different way.  I went to a college preparatory high school; some people go to a public school to focus.   I wasn’t a primadonna student athlete, but I worked hard and I received a scholarship.  There is a lot given to high school student athletes.  Once they sign a letter of intent, things change, there’s a new crop of freshman every year, so you’re just another one of the guys or young ladies once you get to the college level.  It’s like you’re a brand and you have to say how can I best sell my brand, or what can I do to enhance my brand on this level.

SIL:  What makes U Want Game better than a PAL or YMCA?

JB: Well, I think what makes us different is that again, it’s a niche market.  All former collegiate athletes are mentoring high school student athletes, and its all
focused on off the court development.   It’s male and female, and there are three years instead of one year.   There is a certain amount of structure that we have, and a certain amount of support.  There is a certain amount of guidance and a certain amount of access that we provide for kids that really want to go to the next level.  We think it’s a unique experience being a part of U Want Game.

SIL:    Where would you like to see U Want Game in the next couple of years?

JB: First, I’d like to see a first class of mentees graduate in New York City.  I’d like to see some large scale programming events around the country that we’d like to do; we’re working on some things like that, some symposiums.  Also, I’d like to see us branch out into other markets as well.

SIL:   Since you were a former collegiate athlete, that experience must have an impact in terms of how you are rearing teens?

JB: Yes.  There’s nothing that they’re going to go through that I didn’t go through, so a lot of times you might have a mentor or somebody that they don’t really relate too, but we can relate.  I go to church, I liked girls when I was young, I had to lift weights, I played three sports in high school, so there’s not much that a kid that is 16 years old in high school is going through that I hadn’t gone through.

SIL:    Is there any advice that you’d like to share with our SIL audience?

JB: I would just like to say, give back!  Be a mentor, have a vision, ask questions, dream big, and have a passion.

If you are a high school athlete or a  mentor interested in becoming involved in the U Want Game organization, check out their site at info@uwantgame.org for the latest 411.