“Give us a day out of the week and just a strip in Shawnee Park. Invite all of the kids and shut it down. Just give us a few hours and let us ride. Let the kids watch us go back and forth. We don’t even have to be out here, but at Shawnee Park. All we gotta do is shut off the strip and they can go around the circle, to keep the traffic moving, while we do our shit.” - 502 Mud Boyz

“This is not a bad neighborhood, it’s not a bad part of the city at all. I love the people and this neighborhood. I was born and raised in this neighborhood. I was raised right there on Madison. I’ve been in this neighborhood my whole life and I’m 60 years old. It’s some really good people in this neighborhood. There’s some real nice people, man. 

I’d like to see our young people get themselves together. Instead of fighting, help one another. If you’re doing good, share some of your portion with the other man. Help each other. 

We need better government and better representation. Look at this shit! Ain’t no way in the world people are supposed to be homeless, with all of these vacant ass homes. Some of these churches will tear down a nice structure just to make a parking lot, while somebody in that congregation is struggling. They could take a house and charge somebody $25 a month until they get on their feet but they rather tear the damn thing down and make a parking lot. It’s that crazy ass shit. 

Keep your eyes on the prize. If you go rob a bank, take God with you. If you do anything, take God with you. Pray everyday and give thanks. Even if you got a bucket or a pot, say thank you! It sure beats getting locked up. (Laughs) Keep God with you and share this space with someone.” - Pervis, Russell 

"I want people to stop the killing and just be friendly to one another. I just wish the best for everybody." - Robert, Shawnee

“Remain positive and keep going after your goals. Keep doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking.  As a matter of fact, I’m going on eight years sober. So, I came from nothing. When I started my sobriety journey, I started off as a server, at my current job. I’m now a manager and I’ve been that for two and a half years. As long as you have people continuously helping and praying for you, keep working towards your goals, no matter where you’re at, where you live, or how you grew up. 

I was the only child, so I wasn’t raise like that. I just experimented few things in life. I ignored a lot, the obvious one was my mom. I was in the streets and thought that I knew it all. I had my first child when I was thirteen. So, that started the effect of me thinking that I was grown. One thing led to another. 

The most blessed moment is when I found and started loving myself right in the midst of and in spite of.” - Bridget, Algonquin 

"My defining moment in wanting to become a barber is when I was taking my daughter’s mom to her house and we rode past a barber shop. It belonged to this well known barber named Big Don. He was working at the time and it was sold out. He had the nicest car in the parking lot. That steered me into thinking that I could make a living with this. So many people miss out on their gifts. I had a gift, dealing with these clippers about 23 years ago.

Riding past Haskin's, right across Victory Park did it for me. I think that was the moment I knew that I needed to be in the barber shop. My first week in the shop, I knew I was going to make it. The second week was kinda rough. The first week, I came in at the right time. I started on a Thursday, it was busy. It was a bunch of walk-ins and the shop was on Broadway. That started it for me and let me know that I’m gonna be alright at this.

What motivates me is watching younger barbers, that used to be customers, turning into the talked about barber. I’ve had the pleasure to witness that a couple of times. You know, guys that I’ve seen go to barber school and now they’re the household name. That motivates me. 

I remember walking in here and no one could see my vision. The barber that moved in here with me couldn’t see it either. He was like, ‘Man, we ain’t gonna make no money, right here!’. You can make money anywhere, it’s you. It’s not the location, it’s you. Now, location plays a part on the traffic but once you get a good barber, you don’t want to have to keep traveling around, trying to find somebody else.

My service to the community has been positive. There’s been a lot of guys that have come to me for advice. I’ve even came in here needing advice. I’ve cut a lot of prominent people over the years. I ask questions. If I don’t know something, I’m asking questions and a lot of people have helped me. One of the most humbling experiences that I’ve had is when we moved over here. All I had was money to buy the building but not money to renovate the building. My customers all pitched in and helped me in some kind of way. That let me know what kind of impression I had on people. We’ve had guys that would come up in here and picking up sledge hammers to knock out walls because they want to see you back in business. That touched me so deep. Plus, there was 50% of the people in here who were helping and I had never cut their hair. That lets you know that this is more than a business.

The happiest moment of life is when my kids came into the world. My happiest moment, pertaining the to barber shop, is when I got to cut Muhammad Ali. That was probably the stand out moment, an honor. But definitely, the happiest moment of my life, hands down, is that I have 4 children and being the first person to hold them. Ain’t no accomplishment greater than that.

Don’t give up because failure comes first. The person that fails and gives up will be the failure. It’s gonna be bumps but the key is to get up. I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s been some nights when I didn’t think that it was going to work. Just keep your head and know that God has a plan for you. I think that’s the advice that I can give anybody. It’s going to be bumps but you can’t give up. As long as you got that ‘I won’t be denied’ type of attitude, you’ll be alright.

Parents need to step up. Parents gotta start listening to the teacher before they pass judgement. They have to realize that their kid might be an angel but they’re not an angel all the time. I see so many parents that are ready to tear into a grown up over their kid. You think that you’re being a good parent, you’re not. You need to put your kid off to the side and let them see you talk to a teacher and someone of authority. If a kid sees you being disrespectful to another adult , what do you think he’s going to do? Ain’t no more respect. The reason why we have so many young dudes out here being disrespectful is because nobody showed them. No matter what you might think of a person, whether it be the police or someone working at McDonalds, when that respect is lost and you don’t show it, that little one behind you is watching you and doing the same thing. We’re all caught up in our lives and forget that we have these little guys watching and will end up acting just like you. 

Everybody needs to have an eye. When I was a kid, I cursed a lot. I grew up on Shawnee Terrace and my friends were all in that area. I would change the way I talked because I didn’t want to hear somebody’s parent tell me that I couldn’t come on their porch because they heard me cursing. Now, everybody is just minding their own business and don’t want no parts. You have a lot of people that are spectating and saying ‘I knew that was gonna happen’ and not preventing it before. We need to look out for one another and be nicer to each other. 

We need more of our own. I’ve been in stores and watched foreigners treat our kids like they’re stealing and will charge them extra if they’re not with an adult. We need to get our own and support our own. We don’t support each other at all. You’ll take some trifling shit from a big store. I seen it at Target or JC Penney and we'll take it. We won’t even take the time to call their corporate office but if it’s a small store, a black business, it’s the opposite. We won’t even mess with the store any more. That’s the mentality.” - Dontay, Owner of Clippa City, Russell

"We need some centers around here. There's only a few and you have to travel far to get to them. That'll keep everybody out of trouble. You feel me?" - Young homies, Portland 

"We need more stores in this area. You know, somewhere where we can get some quality stuff. We got a million Dollar Stores but we need better stores for a better shopping experience. That would be the biggest improvement that I can think of. Also, they need to fix the sidewalks and streets to make them a little better.

My advice to the world is to let things go. If something bothers me, I just tell myself to get over it and move on. There's other stuff to do besides being angry and depressed. Drop all of that and move on. Find something to do and not something to sit on." -  Dave, Russell

"I think that education is your key out. Without an education, you can't even go to McDonalds, now. So pay attention, work hard, and focus on your education." - Regina & Tina, Shawnee

“I was looking at a life sentence and beat the 85% by one month. My charge was that man and then I didn’t start the 85% until June of ’97. I was under the old law, where they make you do half of your time. I did 10 flat, for 1st degree manslaughter. This neighborhood, right here, I grew up in this whole area.

Back then, this neighborhood was an alright lil neighborhood. It was where you could fight and be friends on the same day. Everybody knew each other. We got along, kicked it and stuff. If we fought, we were friends on the same day. Now, this neighborhood done totally flipped a script. It done changed. This young generation, man, they’re ignorant. Some of them will listen and some of them won’t.

It’s kinda hard to create that connection with the young generation because you have to be on their level. What I wanna do is be a motivational speaker because I feel like I can get with a lot of people. I can go to group homes, prisons, and schools to talk to the troubled kids and stuff like that. That’s some of the things I really want to do if I can keep the demons off of me. I wouldn’t mind helping these brothers out.

The happiest moment of my life is when I had my son. I got one son and he just turned 5 years old. He’s named after me, Lil Earl. I had to change some of my ways when I had him. I had to quit gang banging, cause I’ma Crip. I’m real close to Victory Park because I got family members over there. I had to change a lot of things, like drinking and smoking. Being a father, I don’t want him to be like me. He can wear any color, I don’t want him in no gang. He can wear red, yellow, blue, orange, whatever he wants to wear. I don’t want him in no gang, man. My son inspires me.

I have congestive heart failure, so I have to change some of the things that I’ve been doing. I have to change my eating habits, too. I realize that I can’t do some of the old stuff that the Pearliza used to do. I was a bad person. Who wants to walk around and watch their back 24/7? If I keep on trying to do the things that I was doing in the 90’s, I’ll get killed out here. God’s not going to let me stay out here.

We need more role models in the West. We need more guys that are my age, the OG’s, that the young people look up to. We need more of them to stay on the them and give them the best advice. We need more people that are trying to help. As you can see, they’re trying to bring the gang banging back. If we can get all the OG’s from every neighborhood to have a meeting, whether you’re in the East End or Newburg, and come together and maybe we can help some of these young guys. This era now, you ain’t crackin unless you have a gun, smoking loud, wearing Jordans and Rock & Revival. So, if you ain’t got none of that, you ain’t jumping.

I would like to open up a place for inmates that get out. Instead of going to a halfway house, they’ll have a place to go. A lot of guys feel like they don’t have any family, so they go back to the streets. Next thing you know, they get caught up selling drugs and doing some of the things that they were doing. They end up getting sent back and end up getting institutionalized. So, I would like to open up something for them and for the youth to go shoot ball at. Remember when they had St. Anthony’s? They stopped it because kids was going in there and tearing stuff up. I used to hoop in there back in the day. Now, they don’t have nothing for the kids to do. 

My advice to a young person is if you got something good and God gave you a talent, go on and do that.”-OG Earl, Russell

"We need this, something positive." - Stephon, Russell

“I’ve been doing this for about thirty years but I’ve been here for two. This location is the one of the busiest locations in West Louisville. I always wanted to be in this spot and when the opportunity came, I took it. If I go, somebody else will snatch it. I’ve already built my clientele and I’m not trying to give up my clientele. I’m here for a reason. Eventually, I’m going to buy this lot and build. I gotta start somewhere and this is where I’m going to start. It might take another year or two to get to where I’m going but I’m going to get there.

I live in the Highlands, I moved out of the West. I actually left the West End and moved to Atlanta. I lived there for about twenty years and came back. I’ve only been back in Louisville for about eight years. I had some ups and downs. I’ve been shot and robbed since I’ve been back. I was living a crazy lifestyle but I had to give it up. I have always been blessed with the skills to cook. I didn’t need anything else. People have to eat every single day and all I need is my skills. 

I’m just thankful for being here. When I wake up, I gotta give thanks. Sometimes, you have to bless somebody because you were blessed. I’m just thankful for the opportunity to bless others. If you pass it down, a lot of people might be in a better place than before. A lot of us can be selfish and being selfish won’t get you too far in life.” - Yaya (Owner of Yaya’s BBQ), Russell

"One of my proudest moments of being a dad is seeing her go to school." - Mike & Nevaeh, Parkland

"When you’re young, you make mistakes. When you grow up, you see that you grow apart from some people. You may have thought that people were going to be in your life forever, but as you get older, you see that ya’ll are going in two different directions. What you always believed to be true and the people that you believed to always be around may not be there later on. You have to be to differentiate the two. You gotta figure out who’s going to be there, who’s going to stand the test of time with you, and who’s really there for your best interest.

My advice to the world is to love and laugh more. Everybody’s so serious, nowadays. What happened to the good times where we can just sit out without the bullshit? I don’t even like going out anymore because I don’t want to get shot, at the club, trying to be cute. I want to go to concerts and stuff like that but I fear.

It’s our youth. Somebody gotta get ahold of them and give them some guidance in them before we make any kind of progress. It’s not even the adults, for real, it’s the kids. They got their own mind frame, thinking they’re grown and that they don’t need adults. They’re just out here doing their own thing, thinking that whatever works for them works for them. Whether it be in jail or in the ground, they don’t really care. Somebody has to get a handle on our youth because they’re not giving a fuck. We’re not going to be able to procreate or have a future if these muthafuckin kids keep killing each other or killing us. 

In Louisville, we have a high crime rate. You look on the news and it’s mostly kids. It’s the lost kids out here doing dumb shit. You also have the ones that have parents at home, not doing what they need to do and trying to be friends. Do you and get a handle on this youth. I’m having a problem with that, too. I got a teenager, too. It’s hard.” - Shonda, Russell

"This is where I'm from. Basically, man, you get what you give, in the West. I'm from here and I never been no where else. To me, it's home. The people around me make the West home. We're friendly and chill. You see a lot of shit going on but all of that's for a reason. It's not even like how the news makes it. They make the West seem like it's Monsterville. When people come down here, we open our arms. 

The West needs better housing, better cops, and better roads. You got the cops that patrol and ride pass and mean mug you, then back up and ask you what you're looking at. I almost got arrested for walking, yesterday. They're starting to fuck with people for no reason. I came from a place where police didn't have control over anything. We didn't need them because we looked out for each other. Now, you have people with these guns. 

We need something like this because it's coming from us. People out there don't know what's really going on inside. They tell people what they think but we don't feel that. They need the information from the people on the inside. I hate how the news will stress shit and make it something that it really isn't." - Shawn & Jay, California

"Stop labeling everything. Everyone identifies themselves as something. The problem with that is that it's divisive. We're all the same creature, we're all human. Instead of going by race, we should consider each other as the same creature and the same family. We wouldn't be so divided but together. That's why I don't like labels. Like, my daughter's half Hispanic but she doesn't look half Hispanic but white. Someone will come up to her and say that she's white but she's actually half Puerto Rican. A lot of people wouldn't notice that and that's why I don't like labels. 

It's hard to get away from labels because everyone is proud of their heritage. When you go to fill out your paperwork, they always ask you about your race. They should just do away with all that shit. It doesn't matter if you're a Pacific Islander or Latino. It's just silly. When people do the Ancestry.com, you see that everybody has a little bit of everything in them. I mean, some white people have a little bit of African and Indian in them. You can't tell by looking at them. If you're going to fill out your paperwork, you should fill in the 'other' circle. All that stuff is superficial.

One of the happiest moments in my life is raising my kid. That's what we're here for. Regardless of what you believe in, the human race needs to continue. If you believe in God, it's your responsibility, as a believer, to propagate the human race. If you don't, it's still your obligation to propagate the human race. So, we're on this earth to raise our kids and it's not about ourselves but watching how they go through life. I feel like I passed up a bunch of stuff to raise my kid. It's not about me, it's about her. It's my chance to sit back and watch her story unfold. All I do is make sure to help her out and see to it that she finds her own way through life. " - Lex, Russell

"There's nothing like the West. It's the neighborhood that I love. I've been here all my days, since 1948. We came from Alabama. My dad came here after he left the military. I came here when I was four and been here ever since. I've been in Shawnee since 1970. When I first came here, we couldn't move in this neighborhood, now we own the neighborhood!

I don't know everybody like I used to because I'm older but everybody takes care of everybody. It's a quiet place. It's one of the few places in the city of Louisville where you can enjoy yourself. It's nice. That's why I stayed here. I wouldn't move anywhere else. Now, the wife may not agree with me but I love the West End. There's a lot of history here and a lot of good folks. 

The happiest moments of my life would be the transitions of change. Well, it was very inspiring. I bought my first house. I never owned a house. I got my first good job, the only job I had. You know, I was blessed with the changes. I know that and it comes from the man above. My parents didn't get a chance to do that. Well, they did it a little bit before they left  but they got their own. It was great for us to have our own and to be able to say that it's our own and it doesn't belong to someone else. We worked hard everyday and raised our kids. That's the joy of my life.

The biggest influence of my life was my father. He set standards. He didn't live that long but he set standards. He worked hard. He had nine kids and he provided for all of us. We didn't have everything but we had what we needed. 

Do the best that you can do. Have a little faith, as faith will help and guide you. You will get the desires of your heart. You have to keep on keeping on. Don't quit and don't let anyone turn you around. Make up your mind and then trust the Lord. 

There's no other school like Male High School. Male High School is one of a kind. It's the greatest of all time. My was 1958. There were people that tried to stop us but we just kept on pushing on. There's nothing like Male. It's all about the Bulldogs and that purple and gold. Make sure you put that in there." - Mr. Lawrence, Shawnee 

Check out Walt's interview with the fellas at 35 Ky Sports Radio! Support your local podcasts coming out of the city!

"I used to have two construction companies and then the economy went bad. A friend of mine owned this building and it used to be Screaming Eagles and the Elks Club. I was looking around for something so I wouldn't sink and I knew that when the situation is bad that people are going to drink, regardless. I was either gonna get me a liquor store or this building. The man offered to sell me this whole building and I knew I could work with it because all of my friends do construction. So, we came in here and got it together. I seen Louisville growing and I didn’t want to be just a Band-Aid. So, I wanted this to be a cornerstone. I reached out and tried to buy this old junkyard, back here. I bought it and got it cleaned up and created more parking spots. Then, we just kept on woking to get it where it is, now. 

I hate when they say that there’s nothing west of 9th Street. My opinion is that when people leave their jobs and go home, there’s nothing that draws them out here. Then if you look at the weekend, you’ve got the whole damn state of Kentucky down here. So, Cole’s is like a magnet. This is probably the only spot that you can cater to the whole city. We got a stigma because we’re in the West End. If this place was somewhere else, the stigma wouldn’t be on us. No matter what, it’s Cole’s. I take the negative and try to make a positive out of it. What you see on TV can either make you or break you. They really don’t research the truth, but deal with the situation by what they hear. So, if something happens down the street and they can’t get to it, they’ll park right in front of my place and put their cameras on it, so everybody can see Cole’s. They’ll do it even if we’re not open. But if something happens here, people will think that we’re bad. Yet, we have more security, metal detectors, police and bouncers. So, I took that and ran with it. We are probably the only place that lets people use the building after funeral gatherings, baby showers and anything else. If people need a hall, they can use Cole’s. 

Really, the West End is like it’s own little entity, it’s own little city. I told the Mayor that if you look down here after nine o’clock, it’s just us and Mr. Jerry, cooking in that trailer. We’re in Louisville but we ain’t. You come from Market to Algonquin, we’re just existing. They ain’t really putting anything down here. I’m 60 years old, now, and 28th Street has been the same since the riot. Think about it, they don’t want us on Bardstown Road. When you do go down there, it’s nice. They got nice lights and it looks like a whole different atmosphere. We’re trying to generate that around here and give people a nice little spot to come to. Everybody respects each other here. 

I always worked with kids, you know with the Flaget Rams. My son was six years old when I was the president of the Rams organization. As time progressed, those kids are adults, now. The kids out here in the streets, aren’t bad but in a situation. They know me. If they don’t know me, they know my sisters, because they’re all school teachers. If they don’t know them, they know my son because he coaches them. We’re a product and affiliation of the hood. We are the product. That’s why we all respect each other. That’s how we got to be where we’re at. My goal is to do more for the kids aged fourteen and down, so we can bring more awareness. All the other stuff, I can’t control it but I’m working with the kids. These kids are going to be good kids.

We’re fortunate enough to have our concerts. What I do is if I make a dollar, I’ll fifty cents in the product, which is this place. We just kept on growing and growing and put it back into the place. We wouldn’t just squeeze the lemon until it’s dry, we kept the lemon juicy. That’s how we roll with it. I know if I were to sell this, the West End would be dead. Somebody would change the whole scene and atmosphere. I fixed this place so that you can come here after work, get you a drink and hang out. It’s more like you’re going to somebody’s basement and hanging out with your friends. Now, you come in here on Sundays, it’s all older people. If you drive up here on Sunday’s there’s people that are ninety years old in here. It’s old school Sunday. We give them a free buffet and they’re in here jamming. The young one don’t dance with each other, but on Sundays the older ones are out here dancing. They’re doing their thing. We cater to everybody. We’re a community oriented club. 

Cole’s is going to be here like Ford. We got a lot of people depending on this place. It’s not just us but we have others living off this like the bartenders, waitresses, and the police. If we don’t do this, west of 9th Street will be dead. We have more volume than anybody. We gotta concert Sunday night and then on Monday, we’ll have a celebration. We honor everything and respect everything. This is a long term thing, so I’m gonna be here forever. I was born down here and I’ll be planted down here. 

Research your place. When you market yourself, you want to be where your people are comfortable and don’t have to worry about anything. We’re right here. There’s a lot of money in the West End. The stereotypes about us is that we don’t know how to act, we’re this and that. We’re just as intelligent as the next man. You know, it’s just that shit happens. 

We need to vote. We need to gather together when the elections come up. Our voices need to be heard. We need to get together and say, ‘Look, ya’ll putting money in Portland, Downtown, and everywhere. But this little square, in the West End, there’s nothing going down’. They’re going to say, ‘Well, we tried to put a Wal-Mart down there but it’s didn’t happen’. That’s just one thing. They’re always gonna say that they’ve tried. If they tried, they could get anything they want done. It’s just that they don’t care. With the elections coming up, we need to put our foot down. Our officials will ride down here but won’t do nothing down here. The mayor’s cool, I like him, but it’s time to do something. 

You can talk to people and create a panel and discuss things that we need to do. Get people together and meet once a month. I hate meetings. I don’t want to meet every week, but once a month, I’ll go. We can invite them down here and they can sit in on it. Reach out to the people and do what you gotta do. 

Deal with scenario and situations. Whenever you try anything, it seems like something will go wrong. It’s never gonna go as you intend. It might flip flop but you have to deal with the situation. ” - Mr. Cole, Owner of Cole’s Place, Parkland

"Well, I'm not originally from here, I'm from Detroit. The West End kind of feels like home. You get the bad rap because we're the hood. To me, it just feels like home because everybody is actually nice. People are nicer than what everybody assumes, which is kind of shocking. When I moved down here, people were telling me that everybody was going to be mean and that you had to watch what you do and say. So far, everybody's been friendly. It's like one big family. That's what the West is to me, one big family and we have to remember that. If we forget, everything will go backwards. 

This year, I am aiming for spiritual and metal growth. You can't really do much if you're not mentally there and last year I kinda lost myself. I'm trying to play catch up and get myself back to me and move forward. This is year will be a push year to get to 2019 and everything will flourish then. I'm still working on a game plan and trying to figure out where I'm trying to go. I got to center myself and focus. 

Never feel like you're alone because you always have yourself, at the end of the day. You can't let yourself down no matter who is and isn't in your life. That's the main thing that I forgot. You're never alone." - Alanna, Parkland

"I never realized West Louisville was considered the dangerous part of town, until I left West Louisville and I started connecting, befriending, and collaborating with people who lived outside of our nine neighborhoods. Yeah, so at one point in time, my mother moved way out to Valley Station, in South Louisville. I was telling people where I was from and where I grew up and they kind of feared the environment and looked at me differently. I had no clue, as a young innocent kid growing up, that it was dangerous or it was the dark side of town, until someone else told me. To me, it was always home. 

My great grandmother had ten children and on my father's side, his mother had ten children. I have a huge family and most of them were based in West Louisville. The commute between holidays, family gatherings and feasts were always short. We knew where everyone stayed, so we had someone in every hood. The fact that all my family was down here is what definitely made it home. 

I was never really interested in what a lot my peers were. So everyone thought that because I was somewhat tall and heavy set, that I was supposed to be athletic and play football or basketball. I was also never really interested in Hip-Hop, as to perform it. I saw the movie Drumline and I joined the band. Then when I met my father's side of the family, I saw that they had a recording studio in their basement. Around that time, I was totally inspired, as a musician, to learn percussion but also to learn the art of recording. Then over the next decade or so, I devoted all my time to it. High school came around, I was about to graduate, I didn't know what to do with the rest of my life. I had a choice between studying and pursuing classical music education or be a recording engineer. I went the classical route but over time, I still try to practice that craft and fuse the two together.

At one point I traveled to Switzerland with the University of Louisville Wind Symphony. That was the first time I left the country. That was also the first time I flew on a plane. Being from Parkland, most of my life, not really traveling anywhere, it was a culture shock, in a positive way. I was around people that spoke several languages, being around an environment that was crisp clean, there was a lick of trash in the streets. The water looked like Frost Ice Gatorade. It was a totally different environment for me to experience and be in. It took me out of my realm for a minute. When we came back, I knew that I wanted to travel the world, in some way, shape or form. I wanted to see other parts of it and it was important for other people to do the same. I have family members who never left West Louisville. I have friends that never left West Louisville. That opens up your mind in a totally different way and since then, I've traveled. I haven't been back to Switzerland but I plan to eventually. 

Anything that challenges tradition inspires me. I don't even celebrate holidays. I'm interested in challenging tradition because so many people complain or so many people feel that we have this issue or that issue in the world. Well, let's do something about it. I remember when I was younger, I used to hear people say, 'There's nothing to do in Louisville,' As I got older, as a musician, I performed, composed, and taught a lot. So I have this fourth hat that I wear, where I organize events around town. Part of it was just to show people that there's plenty to do. We have these festivals in Central Park, where the kids can come and experience music and art activities. We have festivals all over the city. We have events that are for you. Anyone and everyone can come and experience. Not only to be entertained but to let go and experience something that you wouldn't experience on your block.

There are a number of missing resources in West Louisville. The fact that me, as a musician, I know people who are in the music scene who have no about certain venues and artists that exists across 9th Street. That doesn't make any sense to me and also breaks my heart because I exist in both worlds. I know the people over that make a certain kind of music, as well as the people on the other side that make a certain kind of music. Until we recognize one another, acknowledge one another and learn how to collaborate with one another, we'll never grow to our full potential, as a city, in terms of having an arts culture.

Russell, forever ago, used to be considered 'Little Harlem of Louisville'. So, where are the music venues, now? Where are the black owned stores? What happened to our culture that shifted that mindset, to the point where many of these black artists or many of these people who practice black art form don't exist in West Louisville? And if they do, it's almost like a desert, which people often call it a food desert. I like it's a culture desert as well. People are struggling to get their art heard and get their vision out. So, until we have those resources and those conversations with people on the other side, neither one of us will grow. 

We need an across the board system for communication. There's nine neighborhoods and none the neighborhoods have similar associations. Example, I've been in Russell a few months. I bought this house in August, I've been getting the Russell Vision newsletter in the mail and I love it. I'm seeing what's happening in this neighborhood, that I never lived in. When I lived in Parkland, we didn't have an active neighborhood association, let alone a newsletter that let us know what was happening in the neighborhood. So, when someone got shot across the street, where I grew up at, we had to find to find out from people next to us or on the news. We didn't get a full story or idea of the context of what was happening within our very block. So I think we need an across the board system of the communication. We have the oldest of the old that lived here their whole lives and they don't know how to connect with the younger generation. The younger generation doesn't know how to connect with the older generation and that's important if we're going to grow in any way. We also need understanding; not only of our past, but also our present and then what we want our future to look like. Within the art scene, there are people that have this notion that unless you blow up  and you make it and you're this world wide figure that you don't succeed as an artist. But if I'm a chef and I'm making some of the best burgers in Louisville and my burger spot is poppin' every weekend, I'm a successful chef, even if you never heard of me. Artists don't have the same mentality, they want to be rich and famous. They look beyond what they could be doing. We just need to have some conversations outside of our four walls, across 9th St, with some people that can inform us and let us know. Not in the sense of they're coming to save and be the great white hope, but a conversation where they're teaching men to fish. There are often times, when I find myself working with non-profits and even artists and business owners who want to get this money from somebody who already has it, these rich figures. They want that dollar but they don't want to learn how to get that dollar on their own. So, they're not teaching us how to fish, but throwing the fish. So that conversation needs to be fruitful and productive in a sense of us helping ourselves.

Creativity, in my opinion, is when you do something that is rooted in your own thought process. It can sometimes be inspired outside of your own brain but essentially it's when it's always rooted within your own thought process. I've seen anybody rap and play a marimba, xylophone, or a vibraphone. So, when I decided to do it, and I'm not trying to do it for the sake of doing it, but from 6th through 12th grade I played these instruments. I also grew up listening to hip-hop and nobody can tell me that you can't do both at the same time, so I do it. It's considered creative because it's never been done before but it's rooted in my mind and in my identity.

I'm most creative in the middle of the night. I have a bar that says, 'I don't write lyrics, I just dream of these songs' and it feels real. I feel like we're vessels, as artists. We don't get these ideas, they come to us from a higher being. Whether you believe in God, Buddha, Zeus, whatever god, they come from somewhere else and we act on these missions. That came from somewhere and you're the vessel that carrying out this mission in these streets, telling these stories. You're needed, you're necessary.

I grew up in a Baptist Christian church my whole life. My family has always owned the church that we went to. As I got older, I stopped going because most of my religious faith was based off my grandmother, who wanted me to go to church. Since I stopped going, between then and now, I have been around so many different religious groups and the most that I connected with the most was the Muslim community. I went on an artist retreat in Chicago and I never felt liberated, spiritually, with those people. I never knew it. Also, studying this Ali Opera and digging into his life and what he went through and his religious background. It was kind of scary to think that how is it that I'm mostly connected with this religion that we have so many layers on. You see it on the news that Muslim people are scary and they're terrorists and I connected the most with this religion. I felt at peace, at ease and so much love. I wouldn't say that I practice a specific religion. I believe in conditioning, in terms of what's best for you and your family. If that works and those are your practices, then go for it.

I don't believe that West Louisville will continue to be West Louisville within the next 5-10 years because these neighborhoods are eventually going to shift, in terms of demographics and economy. It's going to change drastically. I don't know what it looks like but I know that there will be more of a division between the nine neighborhoods. There will be a huge cultural shift, that I think is driven from money. Metro started a program where you can buy the property next to you, if it's next to you or on the same block as your house for $500. That's a steal. There's a lot of empty houses that you can get over here that's dirt cheap. Well, when I inquired about my lot, I was told that there was other people trying to get it and I don't think that it was anybody that lives behind me but people and outside developers who want to come to Louisville and do something in Russell. It's because Russell got this huge grant and Beecher Terrace will be torn down. A lot is happening in Russell that points to gentrification. The fact that I can't purchase this house or this lot that's next to me, even though I qualify for this program, is a part of that fear. They would rather give it to a developer who is going to come in and probably make it into a franchise restaurant or a business. Why start a business in this neighborhood when there's someone here who's trying to start their business, in this neighborhood that they live in, who is promising and has a track record of doing something that will positively impact the city. So, a lot of the future is totally unforeseen and beyond our control but I think that there are people who are trying to dictate that. 

Read books. That's my advice. Read scholarly books. We spend so much time on social media and there's 9 times out of 10, there's never any way to trustfully say that this is actually happening in the world. Reading books, putting your eyes on some paper, and understanding what's around you to spread your mind. We lose brain cells whenever we look at screens. We don't look at that because we're attached to our phones. I think that's the first robot killing device. I know that because I got my face in my laptop all the time. I try my best to keep technology at bay but I think that it's only a matter of time before we have a generation of youth that are more used to saying Google and Alexa than mom and dad. I think that's coming. I'm trying to go to a hidden island and get away from all that."- Jecorey a.k.a. 1200, Russell