so when I was 27 I threw myself a huge
party riseling San Francisco it’s got a
college a few years before I’d moved San
Cisco couple years before and I throw
myself a party you know big shindig
drinks we raised all night but my
roommate made a cape that actually
looked like me so imagine this big
chocolate cake on table and I threw
myself a party when someone asked
they’re like well why are you throwing
self a party I said you know I’m
throwing this party because I’m alive
and I hadn’t lived through cancer and I
hadn’t lived through a natural disaster
as you might think from San Francisco
but at the time I’d heard a statistic
that the average life expectancy for a
young black man in the city in an inner
city was 27 so it’s about 1995 right and
I’m thinking I just aged myself but it’s
about 1995 and I thought to myself I was
I forgot that part there is me age 27
and I thought to myself I’m alive and
you just throw myself a party I didn’t
expect to be alive how did that happen
happen because of this one so I was
raised by my grandmother in Harlem and
she was determined that I wouldn’t be a
statistic right that I was gonna go to
college I was going to graduate from
high school I was going to live my life
and be happy and so she made sure I went
to school I got a scholarship to a
private school in Manhattan went to a
high school graduated went off to
college and then mood San Francisco
there was a film major in college so my
college friends are here and I lived my
life and it was great and so by the time
I got to 27 I was like yeah it was
great she was right all right and you
would think at this point in time right
I would decide you know you should share
this story you’ve done this work you
should share it with other people share
with other young black kids share it
with the community but for me at that
time I was like I have no urge right I
didn’t want to be a role model I’ve been
hearing I was supposed to be a role
model from the time I was 14
and when you hear that at a time you’re
14 you run the other way right you do
everything the opposite of what it is to
be a role model so by the time I got to
27 I was like definitely I didn’t want a
role model right I was just living life
I was going on as doing my stuff but the
universe has her way and you become a
role model whether you want to or not
you also become a role model because
that’s what we want you to be one so
that’s right so so I had moved and went
to grad school I had moved to Chicago
and I was working in high school in
Chicago is working for an odd youth
development nonprofit in Chicago and we
went into high schools and we wrote
reports about the high school experience
and it’s the first time I’ve been to a
high school I haven’t been in a public
high school in 20 years no idea what it
was like I got to a really cushy private
school well friends drove cars I had no
idea what’s going on and suddenly I was
walking through a metal detector and the
police offer armed guards in a high
school and they were searching my bag
and I was like well how do you learn it
was like a prison how do you learn in
this sort of environment how do you get
anything out of being in that
environment
what are you being told your worth is in
that type of high school environment so
this thing started pondering and working
in my mind and then moved to San
Francisco I went to another youth
development organization and by some
lucky chance I became the executive
director of the organization and we were
in a school in Oakland and I was sitting
there and the teacher came and I went
just to talk and meet the class and the
teacher says hey this is actually the
guy that runs the organization and the
students in the class looked at me one
of the mixer was like are you for real
you don’t run this thing that’s like yes
I did and that’s why I was realizing I
was like I was I need to be a role model
out of necessity what was I doing with
my life if I was living why was I not
living for others why was I not doing
what I was supposed to be doing so I
took some more stock I started in that
at that time I went to my organization I
started going the classes when teachers
would ask me to come I would talk about
my experience talk about moving from
Harlem and living in Los Angeles for
while and living in San Francisco I talk
about traveling I talk about these
things and for many of the students
they’d never seen a successful black man
they didn’t know what that meant
and here I was I traveled I actually
been to Europe a couple times and
they’re like you’ve actually been on a
plane so I was sharing that experience
and it was really important to me to do
that so I started doing a lot of that
and sharing that experience currently I
run an organization is called eight to
six national and we’re a network of
creative writing and after-school
tutoring programs we’re located in seven
cities we work with about 30,000 kids
every year and our goal is to get kids
really excited about writing and
understanding that writing is a pathway
to future success so they can write
their own paths forward we work and we
do this with about 5,000 volunteers who
work with us every year so these
volunteers are coming and spending in
hours sometimes more than an hour on a
daily basis with our students and our
volunteers are coming from over there
every race every gender their teachers
their doctors they are mathematicians
they’re everything we will take if you
have a couple hours to donate to us to
work with our kids we will take it
because the kids need to see role models
they need to see change engines they
need to see people who are willing to
work with them and be really invested in
their success one of our signature
programs is called the young authors
book project and so we publish
everything the students write so with
this project the students will work with
their volunteer on its topic it might be
about something about their lives some
triumphs that’s happening a tragedy we
wrote a book lash it was what is the
ideal high school look like but we write
this book the students work on it with
their volunteers the volunteers are
sharing their expertise they’re working
with the students and it becomes
published in this beautifully bound book
that becomes a testament to this work of
this bond that the volunteers and the
students do together and they learn
together from it and we hear all the
time that the volunteers will say you
know I get so much more out of this I
think than the students do but I think
it’s actually a joint it’s both of them
are getting as much as they can from the
six
it’s showing the strength of the
partnership so I ignored from my life
you know
for years I ignored being a role model
because really it was so much weight to
me there was too much pressure right but
really what it was it wasn’t pressure it
was fear right it was fear that I
actually what was I actually offering to
anybody what was my experience going to
do was my experience going to be and
instead it was thinking about it’s not
about doing for myself or thinking about
myself it was about doing for others so
my goal for this day to you is to get
you to think about what your life is
like what experience usually experiences
you have and how you can share those
with young people right so many people
don’t volunteer because they don’t think
that what they have or their skills are
good enough but to know what they’re
good enough we’ve got young people who
are dying on the streets but really
wanting to have people to talk to to
have people that look like me that
people look like us to just have people
to spend time with them and you don’t
have to be specially skilled you don’t
have to be a mathematician you have to
be an artist you just have to have the
time and the inclination and the
understanding that who you are and what
you do has worth and has value
so my call to action to you is to find
the organization that moves you find the
school that moves you go out spend some
time talk to a teacher talk to Karen
volunteer your time spend your time and
sit there with young people
it’s an hour two hours three hours you
do it one hour I guarantee you you will
want to do it more because the young
people especially nowadays need role
models they need people to show them the
way to give them the future to lead them
towards a better path right I didn’t
realize until much later my grandma’s
passed away in 1994 that this was my
best role model she had the most amazing
work ethic of anyone I still have yet to
meet she raised four kids and then she
decided to raise her daughters grandson
her daughter’s son and send him off the
college that’s a role model so just
think about what you have to offer what
you can do and be that role model it
will change your life and it will change
the life of the kids in your community
thank you very much
[Applause]
party riseling San Francisco it’s got a
college a few years before I’d moved San
Cisco couple years before and I throw
myself a party you know big shindig
drinks we raised all night but my
roommate made a cape that actually
looked like me so imagine this big
chocolate cake on table and I threw
myself a party when someone asked
they’re like well why are you throwing
self a party I said you know I’m
throwing this party because I’m alive
and I hadn’t lived through cancer and I
hadn’t lived through a natural disaster
as you might think from San Francisco
but at the time I’d heard a statistic
that the average life expectancy for a
young black man in the city in an inner
city was 27 so it’s about 1995 right and
I’m thinking I just aged myself but it’s
about 1995 and I thought to myself I was
I forgot that part there is me age 27
and I thought to myself I’m alive and
you just throw myself a party I didn’t
expect to be alive how did that happen
happen because of this one so I was
raised by my grandmother in Harlem and
she was determined that I wouldn’t be a
statistic right that I was gonna go to
college I was going to graduate from
high school I was going to live my life
and be happy and so she made sure I went
to school I got a scholarship to a
private school in Manhattan went to a
high school graduated went off to
college and then mood San Francisco
there was a film major in college so my
college friends are here and I lived my
life and it was great and so by the time
I got to 27 I was like yeah it was
great she was right all right and you
would think at this point in time right
I would decide you know you should share
this story you’ve done this work you
should share it with other people share
with other young black kids share it
with the community but for me at that
time I was like I have no urge right I
didn’t want to be a role model I’ve been
hearing I was supposed to be a role
model from the time I was 14
and when you hear that at a time you’re
14 you run the other way right you do
everything the opposite of what it is to
be a role model so by the time I got to
27 I was like definitely I didn’t want a
role model right I was just living life
I was going on as doing my stuff but the
universe has her way and you become a
role model whether you want to or not
you also become a role model because
that’s what we want you to be one so
that’s right so so I had moved and went
to grad school I had moved to Chicago
and I was working in high school in
Chicago is working for an odd youth
development nonprofit in Chicago and we
went into high schools and we wrote
reports about the high school experience
and it’s the first time I’ve been to a
high school I haven’t been in a public
high school in 20 years no idea what it
was like I got to a really cushy private
school well friends drove cars I had no
idea what’s going on and suddenly I was
walking through a metal detector and the
police offer armed guards in a high
school and they were searching my bag
and I was like well how do you learn it
was like a prison how do you learn in
this sort of environment how do you get
anything out of being in that
environment
what are you being told your worth is in
that type of high school environment so
this thing started pondering and working
in my mind and then moved to San
Francisco I went to another youth
development organization and by some
lucky chance I became the executive
director of the organization and we were
in a school in Oakland and I was sitting
there and the teacher came and I went
just to talk and meet the class and the
teacher says hey this is actually the
guy that runs the organization and the
students in the class looked at me one
of the mixer was like are you for real
you don’t run this thing that’s like yes
I did and that’s why I was realizing I
was like I was I need to be a role model
out of necessity what was I doing with
my life if I was living why was I not
living for others why was I not doing
what I was supposed to be doing so I
took some more stock I started in that
at that time I went to my organization I
started going the classes when teachers
would ask me to come I would talk about
my experience talk about moving from
Harlem and living in Los Angeles for
while and living in San Francisco I talk
about traveling I talk about these
things and for many of the students
they’d never seen a successful black man
they didn’t know what that meant
and here I was I traveled I actually
been to Europe a couple times and
they’re like you’ve actually been on a
plane so I was sharing that experience
and it was really important to me to do
that so I started doing a lot of that
and sharing that experience currently I
run an organization is called eight to
six national and we’re a network of
creative writing and after-school
tutoring programs we’re located in seven
cities we work with about 30,000 kids
every year and our goal is to get kids
really excited about writing and
understanding that writing is a pathway
to future success so they can write
their own paths forward we work and we
do this with about 5,000 volunteers who
work with us every year so these
volunteers are coming and spending in
hours sometimes more than an hour on a
daily basis with our students and our
volunteers are coming from over there
every race every gender their teachers
their doctors they are mathematicians
they’re everything we will take if you
have a couple hours to donate to us to
work with our kids we will take it
because the kids need to see role models
they need to see change engines they
need to see people who are willing to
work with them and be really invested in
their success one of our signature
programs is called the young authors
book project and so we publish
everything the students write so with
this project the students will work with
their volunteer on its topic it might be
about something about their lives some
triumphs that’s happening a tragedy we
wrote a book lash it was what is the
ideal high school look like but we write
this book the students work on it with
their volunteers the volunteers are
sharing their expertise they’re working
with the students and it becomes
published in this beautifully bound book
that becomes a testament to this work of
this bond that the volunteers and the
students do together and they learn
together from it and we hear all the
time that the volunteers will say you
know I get so much more out of this I
think than the students do but I think
it’s actually a joint it’s both of them
are getting as much as they can from the
six
it’s showing the strength of the
partnership so I ignored from my life
you know
for years I ignored being a role model
because really it was so much weight to
me there was too much pressure right but
really what it was it wasn’t pressure it
was fear right it was fear that I
actually what was I actually offering to
anybody what was my experience going to
do was my experience going to be and
instead it was thinking about it’s not
about doing for myself or thinking about
myself it was about doing for others so
my goal for this day to you is to get
you to think about what your life is
like what experience usually experiences
you have and how you can share those
with young people right so many people
don’t volunteer because they don’t think
that what they have or their skills are
good enough but to know what they’re
good enough we’ve got young people who
are dying on the streets but really
wanting to have people to talk to to
have people that look like me that
people look like us to just have people
to spend time with them and you don’t
have to be specially skilled you don’t
have to be a mathematician you have to
be an artist you just have to have the
time and the inclination and the
understanding that who you are and what
you do has worth and has value
so my call to action to you is to find
the organization that moves you find the
school that moves you go out spend some
time talk to a teacher talk to Karen
volunteer your time spend your time and
sit there with young people
it’s an hour two hours three hours you
do it one hour I guarantee you you will
want to do it more because the young
people especially nowadays need role
models they need people to show them the
way to give them the future to lead them
towards a better path right I didn’t
realize until much later my grandma’s
passed away in 1994 that this was my
best role model she had the most amazing
work ethic of anyone I still have yet to
meet she raised four kids and then she
decided to raise her daughters grandson
her daughter’s son and send him off the
college that’s a role model so just
think about what you have to offer what
you can do and be that role model it
will change your life and it will change
the life of the kids in your community
thank you very much
[Applause]
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