>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Raquel Stephen, filling in for Evan Dawson.

In an article entitled Why Team Sports Build Strong Friendships on the Yale Wave by Yale University, the author writes one of the most remarkable aspects of team sports is how they unite, unite, unite diverse individuals towards a common objective.

When you're part of a team, the goal isn't to shine individually, but to achieve something greater together.

This shared commitment fosters collaboration, improved communication, and mutual respect.

Organizers of the Hood to Hood Basketball tournament say their event shares similar principles.

It fosters peace, unity and brotherhood.

This year marks the second season for the basketball tournament that began June 7th and takes place every Sunday for the duration of the summer.

Hood to hood allows neighborhoods to create their own basketball teams meet at Gateway Park on Mount Hope Avenue to compete for a trophy and bragging rights.

Organizers say the tournament is about bringing men together from all sides of town who might not usually get along, but they can leave it all on the court.

On this our of Connections, we will talk to a few of the organizers about the camaraderie within sports and how they hope this basketball tournament and other initiatives will reduce violence in the community.

And what more of a role civilians can play in cutting crime.

Joining us in studio, we have Jamie Anderson, aka snooze.

I'm gonna call you snooze so you can get comfortable.

He is the co-founder of Hood to Hood Basketball Tournament.

I have Norman Simmons, the community organizer of Hood to Hood.

I have Raheem Jaden, is that correct?

Yeah, I'm pronouncing it right.

Okay.

We know you as Bill's right, right.

He and gate and founder of Guns Up.

Gloves that way.

Guns down, gloves up.

No.

Yeah yeah yeah.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Gloves.

It did me the same way.

Guns down, gloves up.

Which is another what I like to call hood initiative that gives opportunity for individuals to resolve conflicts inside a boxing ring.

And D-wil, the founder of church in the wild, a Nonconventional approach to ministry.

And I like to say Williams likes to meet people where they are.

Sounds good.

Welcome, guys.

I feel outnumbered, I feel outnumbered, okay, like, and we have Jeremy Hart here as well.

Um, 5 to 1.

Okay.

So take it easy on me.

Okay, fellas.

Take it easy on me, okay?

No, I want to start off with the word hood.

>> That comes with a negative connotation, right?

But with this tournament, you're taking that and turn it into something positive.

Can you speak on the word hood?

And what does that mean to you?

>> Well, actually, it definitely means, you know, it's more than just a hood.

The name.

It's your neighborhood.

It's where you grew up.

You know, we can't deny where we're from.

You know, people grew up on all sides of town.

So we came together, we thought about the name and we said we were going to go on the Hood to Hood tour, and that's us playing against everybody and everybody playing against each other.

So it was just a positive vibe.

It was a great name.

We thought it was great for what was going on in the city and it stuck and I like it.

>> Yeah, and I want to I want to open up the question to everyone here.

Right.

Um, the word hood can sometimes have a negative connotation, especially with our counterparts.

Um, how do you reclaim that word and make it something positive?

>> Well, we from the hood, um, and it comes from the word neighborhood.

I don't know why it has a negative connotation.

Maybe because it comes from, you know, people of color, but when you know, the MLG movement started, I was doing hood prayer, right.

And hood stood for hand of our deliverer, you know what I'm saying?

So it's not about it's not about what the word is or what you think it is.

Come, come, talk to us.

Come holla at us.

You know, because it's not always what you think it is.

You know what I mean?

>> Oh, yeah.

This is about to be a hood forum right now.

>> Yeah, yeah.

And it's also when we get a little deeper about us, define that lie of white supremacy.

So a lot of stuff we do is enriching African principles and we don't even understand it.

Right?

So even how we pour out liquor when somebody die, that's an African spiritual type of thing.

So as we talk about the hood, when we talk about village, right, it's different villages, right?

If we look back in time over history, um, different cultures.

And that's the same thing, right?

Somebody from Clinton doesn't have necessarily the same culture as somebody from Thurston, but we got the same principles.

Yeah.

We love each other.

You know, we respect each other.

Right.

And a lot of times we will not show that.

Right.

So that's where the conflict stuff comes in.

Again, I get deep talking about the way white supremacy has an effect on that.

But again, it's about reclaiming what we already have, right?

And just learning ourselves more.

So that's where I come in, in the sense of just me learning myself, my understanding how this stuff is already ours.

So just again, showing up as we are like us five doing this room, it just kind of gives a different notion in a, in a, in a larger masses that don't understand.

Mhm.

>> I think we need to look at the beauty of it too.

You know what I'm saying?

What a hood does is it represents it represents unity and community, right?

Just like you said, from as soon as he said, Thurston, everybody who I used to be with is just in my mind, you know what I'm saying?

And that's love I could go to.

I could go to Jenny.

It's the same love.

I could go to fight village.

And they have their own hood.

And it's like it's a community of people, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

So you can't be looked at as, oh, hood ghetto thugs.

Criminals.

Nah, that's not what it is.

>> Because I actually got a lot of calls from a lot of people saying, I think you should change the name, you know, people of, you know, stature of where they at.

You know, I think it's a it's giving a bad look on your on your league.

And I came to you remember, because I came to Noem and I talked to him and I'm just like, I don't see how they can picture that as something negative when.

Look at what's going on, what we're doing in these last.

Okay, we had 12 weeks last year plus two weeks this year.

That's 14 weeks of nonviolence.

So how could you even correlate that with something negative?

I just didn't understand.

>> MM.

Jesus came out of a hood, right?

They was like, you go to the word, you say, oh, you talk about you talk about something from Nazareth.

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?

>> Right.

>> Right.

I think that's.

>> In the Bible somewhere.

>> You know what I'm saying?

Right?

Right.

Like, come on, what are we talking about?

>> I love it so the hood.

So hood is the culture, the culture that you create among among people from different neighborhoods, right?

But you all stand, like Norman said, on the same principles.

And that's the beauty of the hood.

So when we have a tournament like Hood to Hood, what was your mission behind creating this experience for all neighborhoods?

>> Well, I'm a first start off by saying this, um, it's definitely started off with this.

People probably think it started off last season, but it didn't.

You know, Jeremy Hart back here, we've been playing against Frost for over 15 years in football and basketball.

We've been playing against Avenue A for years in football and basketball.

So we just decided to you know what.

Let's just make it something together where every team can get in, you know, every neighborhood could get in.

And with that, you know, we're all teams are making people accountable.

So everybody's accountable for everybody out there.

It's not just us, them, them versus us.

It's not that it's all of us as unity, standing strong together.

>> And we also grew up in those times just where basketball tournaments was good to go through.

We had the neighborhoods all out, the elders out.

So for us, it's that time to kind of be the leaders of that.

So this hood, the hood, that's the whole goal to when bringing people together, just to bring back that enriched feel of the 90s, right?

But there's always problems, right?

Every era, every decade, but it still was like some nostalgic type feeling about the era that we grew up under.

Yeah.

Right.

And so for us, it's just to latch on to our elders, right?

And follow that wisdom because we're the ones kind of doing the action.

Um, that's why this is powerful because we're creating a space for that.

Yeah.

Right.

We got the product like Nipsey had, but not Nipsey Hussle.

You know, I love him.

We bring people in with the product and it's basketball.

>> Yeah.

I was going to ask like, why basketball?

Right?

Because we see kickball, kickball games, we see softball games.

Why basketball.

>> Basketball brings people together on a different level.

People don't know, man.

Like you got, you got I got teams that's they streets didn't even get along.

But they playing together for their street, for their neighborhood.

I'm talking about they haven't talked in years.

Yeah.

I got, I got, I got people that I got people that hasn't played basketball in 15 years, ten years.

They going to the gym now and working out.

So basketball was just a choice because I felt like it could make people connect to their inner self and their youth again.

>> Ooh.

>> And real quick, I just want to shout out too, you know, as you talk about the beginning of the start up, you know, a lot of people behind the scenes, that's what I'm saying.

It's a collective effort.

Yeah.

But I want to make sure I shout out Shaquita, because she played a big part in kind of getting all of this started as well.

>> Yeah, I had, when I walked in, one of my producers say, so women can't be a part of this is only for men.

She's raising her hand and.

>> I've been getting beat up by my mom, my friends for weeks.

It's it's funny you said that, Rocky, because this morning a female inboxed me and said she has a squad, so I gotta find another squad for them to play.

It's crazy.

You said I gotta find another squad for them to play, and I'm gonna put that on my cousin to help me.

That'd be.

>> That'd be tough.

>> But also in a selfish way.

We need this.

Like, black men need this space.

And so in a selfish way, you know, I love our women.

I big up my women every day.

But this is a space for men to engage impact intentional, you know?

And so that's my answer to that.

You know, we're very intentional about having men in this space, right?

>> And talking about intention, right?

I want to talk about like the teams and putting it together, right?

Who competes against who?

Like, is that intentional?

Like, oh, I'm going to take this hood that probably doesn't get along with this hood.

>> All call outs are mandatory.

>> What do you mean by call outs?

>> Like if you call me out, your team call me out.

I gotta put that on the schedule next week.

We gotta put that because all call outs are mandatory.

However, it is a system that we have, you know, because like I said, you know, not everybody is prone to, you know, being on the same place as space.

So we sit down and we make a schedule.

We have people playing at certain times, but however, everybody's going to play each other eventually.

So that's that.

>> And it's not based in what's going on in the town.

We're not here to solve no issues.

We're not here to meet like we're to create another solution.

Yeah.

And that's why I love Jeremy and the role he plays, because he kind of that connection to the West and the East, you know what I mean?

Um, in the sense of all of us talking, respecting each other.

If it's something that happens in the space, wherever, correct it, because we got different voices from different places.

So this is just a solution.

This is not here to be in place of what's already going on in the town that we all kind of know about.

>> Yeah, yeah.

And I was saying that it takes a special person to even put this together where you can be that liaison, right?

Or that neutral voice for all the hoods, right?

So are you that person?

>> We all are.

You know what I mean?

However, you know, I have a personal connection with probably every team in the league with more than just 1 or 2 people.

So I do have that.

But I have a team of leaders.

These people are people in the community that people respect.

These are people that come to when they have problems, you know what I mean?

Jeremy is somebody, somebody will come to you or can you I don't want this to happen.

Can you help me solve this?

You know what I'm saying?

So it's just it's just our team.

It's just the way the team is set up, man.

It's beautiful and I appreciate it.

I want to shout out my staff, man.

I love each and every one of y'all.

And y'all doing a great job.

>> And the self-awareness and the growth that comes from it.

I remember last year, I found myself a lot of times having to check myself because I was showing up with the stuff I still go through, and that's what I mean.

The space is good for us to kind of find ourselves with other men who share that alpha, you know, Top dawg type energy.

We got to check ourselves.

And so deeper as we talk about, you know, who's running.

And I think it gives us a space to really be self-aware and check ourselves with what we need to check ourselves and also face the things that we kind of go through mentally that we don't be able to talk about.

Oh yeah.

You know, it was a dude that came and said, yo, I'm glad we're here, man.

You know, I'm glad he ain't canceled last year.

I'm glad he ain't canceled me.

You know, my baby mama was getting on my nerves.

I needed this, right?

Right.

So stuff like that, it's an outlet for us, you know, on a deeper level, you know?

So I just wanted to add that in as well.

>> Yeah.

And I know, I know it's it's intentional.

Everything is intentional, right?

And even the location, this is Mount Hope is there, was it intentional to have it in like a neutral space?

>> I mean, everywhere we go is going to be a neutral space, I think because we was last year, we was at Baden Street.

That's neutral this year we at Mount Hope, but we also have number six through 20, I guess.

What is that?

22 school now.

22 school now.

So we have that too.

This Sunday.

It'll be at.

22 school.

So, you know, we're going to go and make sure it's comfortable for everybody.

So everything is intentional of locations as well.

We're not going to go into location where we know that something can just happen.

And it's people's mothers out there, grandmothers, children, fans, and we're not going to do that.

So yes, that's intentional where we are too as well.

To avoid, you know, things because certain certain areas just have, you know, just certain things going on.

I don't want my kids seeing certain stuff.

I don't want my family and friends coming out here and seeing certain things.

So yes, it is intentional on locations.

>> And we're saying that too, though, that's the work.

So, you know, my vision in deep time, we are able to be in those areas as a community, but it takes time to build that.

And that's kind of where we're at now is kind of building this.

We like three years in.

Yeah.

So it's going to take time to understand and figure out ways to identify how can we be in these areas where it's safe and everybody feel comfortable because part of the work is doing the work, right?

So we can't say we're just going to isolate certain people, certain areas, certain areas of the town, just because of something they had going on before this even started.

We started it for that.

And so in my vision, in the future, we're able to kind of make this a way where we can bounce anywhere, everybody feel comfortable.

>> To piggyback off that majority of the courts in the city are very nice and kind of put together.

A lot of them just don't have parking.

And with that type of crowd, we got to think we got 16 teams with 12 players, a team.

How much?

That's what, 100?

What?

How many?

That's the that's a lot of team players.

So imagine the fans coming to.

So we got to think of of spacing you know traffic.

And we got to think of the neighbors.

They.

We got to also think about the people that live in these communities.

They can't park, they can't get out their driveways.

So like I said, everything is definitely, you know, straight forward.

And we know, you know, we're yeah, we know what's going on.

>> Yeah.

And, and I want to talk about, um, have you, are you a player in the, in the tournament because.

>> I've seen you last.

>> Year and you're like, nah, I'm good.

>> I just having so much going on, but I'm there every week.

I support it, you know, like.

>> What do you feel about like, what do you feel about this, this, this type of event?

>> And I love it because it's just like what I do, you know what I'm saying?

So it's like, it's bringing, it's a respect thing.

It's, it's bringing people together.

Um, having fun.

Um, and just have something for people to look forward to.

Because every Sunday I wake up, okay, let me go over here.

You know what I'm saying?

Like I put myself a part of the team regardless because this is my family.

Yeah, yeah, I'm coming regardless.

Whatever you need, then I'm going to do it because it's like, it's like I don't every opportunity, you don't need to get paid for, right?

Help your community.

I really stand on helping my community.

So it's like, it's a good thing happening.

And I can relate to it because I'm doing it as well.

It's just in a different form.

So I love hood.

The hood.

>> Yeah.

Let's talk about what you're doing.

Right.

Because it is, it is, you know, you are taking sports and, and allowing people the opportunity to like, put the guns down.

Right.

And just nice little traditional way of, uh, you know, secured supervised, right.

A little duck out, right?

Yeah.

Um, talk, talk about your, your, your initiative.

Right.

And what started, what made you start that?

>> Uh, so, um, people might not know I'm a content creator.

I do YouTube skits, all type of thing.

So one day I was doing a video, uh, fight village and um, for some reason, you know, like we said, we're from the neighborhood, but we call it the hood.

So instead of like arguing with your friends or your family, let's put on a boxing glove and settle it.

So I bought the boxing gloves for that, right when I'm chilling in the neighborhood, we're not about to argue this is boxing out.

So I'm walking back to my car after my video.

Some ladies see boxing gloves in my car and say, can we fight?

I said, no, females get too serious.

They don't play fight.

Men can play fight.

Females don't.

Right?

>> What?

>> So everybody around me.

>> Said, is that a is that a rule?

Like is that a universal law?

Okay.

>> I get very serious.

>> I don't want to get jumped, so I'm gonna just take.

You ain't gonna get.

I know how to pick my battles.

Okay?

>> So so basically everybody said, no, let them fight, and we're not gonna get serious.

So I let them fight, I record it, so I have a main camera, but I'm like, I'm not about to record on my main camera.

So I just recorded on my phone.

So about two months later, something said just posted, I posted on Facebook and 100 inboxes.

I want to fight, I want to fight, I want to fight.

So we start doing the fights at what they call it now.

Trent Jackson, Pamela Evette.

Number nine, number nine.

So I started doing the fights on the courts and stuff like that.

So now it's gaining traction.

>> Yeah.

>> So I'm like, I mean, it was a lot going on during the pandemic.

I didn't call it guns down, gloves up.

Remember what I'm saying.

I'm not the first person ever in the world to say guns down, gloves up.

But in Rochester, New York, guns down, gloves up.

It's 100% me.

Definitely 100%.

>> Everyone knows that.

>> So when he does that, now it's time to get people that's really beefing with each other to put the guns down and come fight.

So we start doing that.

And it was never a thing that, oh, I feel like somebody's going to come over and do something bad.

People represented and respected me because they're like, this guy's trying to really make it out.

You get what I'm saying?

And he's doing something good for the community.

So it just went smooth.

Pray to God nothing ever happened because we we structured things right.

But that's how everything happened with guns down, gloves up.

It started of me doing a different YouTube video and I recorded a boxing match in the neighborhood Fight Village, and it just blew up since that day.

>> And I know this can't it comes with its own risk and negative comments, right?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

How do you what are some of the comments that you're hearing and how are you?

How are you like combating that?

>> People tell me all the time, get headgear, get this and that.

If you gonna keep telling me to get it, go buy it for me.

But guess what?

We got mouthpieces and they sign waivers.

If they don't want headgear, they don't need headgear.

We make sure we make sure everything is good.

These are grown people fighting.

If you're under 18, I make your mother call me on FaceTime or sign the paper and say that you can fight.

So there's nobody under 18 fighting.

If they're fighting, they got permission from a parent.

So if somebody's 18 and older doesn't want headgear and signs the waiver, then they can fight.

Yeah.

You feel me?

>> So so you have you have your rules.

>> Yes, we have rules.

Yes, we have a referee.

Shout out to the team.

Uh, we got cameramen, we got security.

We do it all, you know?

So like, and the people respect it and support it.

>> Yeah.

I don't think people know how organized or how organized this is, right.

Because it looks like you just show up and.

>> Oh no, no, no, we protect.

So this is the thing we protect.

We protect our fighters 100%.

So we know that things can happen in the physical sport like that, that somebody's like, oh no, I want to take off the gloves.

Somebody possibly go get a gun or something.

So we protect the fighters and anyone that's coming to watch at all times.

That's why if you see me post a video, that fight was probably a day before, but I'm acting like it's today.

>> Yeah.

>> So you probably know where the location at, but you don't know what time this fight is.

I never dropped times.

I never dropped the same location.

So you never know where I'm at.

That's just the not have shootings or things like that because it's a physical sport.

>> Yeah.

>> And I just want to piggyback and give him his kudos because again, back to that village concept.

We grew up in five Village where it's time you got issues.

You go around the corner and y'all get it on and y'all come back.

We had boxing gloves with the older dudes that box the younger dudes, and that's how we really get out what we have to get out.

So they're.

>> Seeing.

>> You know, to see little kids bring this into fruition.

I'm just so proud of him because a lot of this is enriched, again, back to stuff that was passed down to us already.

>> So yeah.

And, and D-will your how do you, I know your, your ministry is different, how you reach the hood and kind of foster peace and unity within the hood.

It's different.

How do you feel about initiatives like hood to hood or guns like.

>> Like just sitting here?

I'm my, my, my brand is called way bigger, right?

So I'm always thinking the grandest of schemes, like even when it come to bills, I call bills, one day I'm in, I'm in Buffalo sitting with millionaires.

>> We got something going on.

>> They talk about boxing.

And I could easily be like, oh, I'll do it.

>> Yeah.

>> I said, nah, let me call Lil Bro because bro already doing this.

Yeah bro.

Let's take this to the next level.

So even when it come to hood the hood, I'm like, there's a whole evolution.

I've been getting cussed out every week because I don't be at Hood the hood.

I be tired, y'all do it.

Yeah, yeah.

Sunday I'm thugging it with Jesus.

You know what I'm saying, right?

By the time I get out of church, I'm biscuit calling my phone.

Why you ain't up here?

I'm like, bro, you up there, bro?

But I'm seeing, I'm seeing the evolution of hood to hood.

Like they could do every sport.

Like, remember we kicked off the kickball thing and had every hood.

Yeah, we can police our own people.

>> Yes.

>> You know what I'm saying?

Like, and even when it comes to issues of conflicts, there could be a whole conflict corner.

You got a problem?

Like the Bible said, you gotta you gotta act with your brother.

You go to him.

All this internet bickering and battery.

Nah, come to me and let's holler.

Let's talk.

You know what I'm saying?

And let's squash this because it's a way of conversation that could that could get a lot of things.

You know what I'm saying?

Before it goes to the next level.

And if it need to go to the next level, oh, we got bills.

Put the gloves on.

>> Yeah.

>> Put the gloves on.

>> Pride.

Pride won't allow it though.

>> You know what I'm saying.

Hey, but that's where I come in because pride gotta die.

Pride is an enemy to all of us.

You know what I'm saying?

If we see that as a as a spiritual entity that comes to kill the black man, then then let's confront that.

That's the real issue, really.

>> Ego too, though.

Yeah.

And, and nowadays with all of these cameras out, man, nobody really trying to get embarrassed.

That's where a lot of this stuff comes from.

Being embarrassed, like, and I feel like what God's doing is one of the best things that's been around here, man.

I went to one of his events, Raheem, Vince, man.

And it was it was like I was at a I'm not gonna lie.

It was like I went into an arena and I was at a real boxing match.

You you're getting searched.

You're not coming into this event without being searched.

You know, people not drinking, they're not smoking.

It's like it's a real boxing match.

And I just give my cousin this big ups man because the city needed that as well as hoodies.

>> Thank you.

>> Shout out Dre.

>> Mac.

I feel like they're the same.

Oh yeah.

The team Dre Mac.

We got the Lord.

We got Gordo.

It's a lot of people.

Vito, shout out to the whole team if I miss your day.

We got everybody.

It's a lot of people.

You know.

>> I feel this is great.

I love this, I love this camaraderie.

>> Right here.

And one thing I want to say too on air, man, shout out my boy D-will because that's what the connection is about.

D-will got me seeing the whole because I'm on my whole spiritual journey.

He got me seeing how you could show up in that different, you know, because he show up as his authentic self and I ain't no understand that.

So I was kind of prejudging Brody before I kind of got the look.

>> He was before.

>> Yeah.

So I just want to say that on air.

I really appreciate you though, bro, because you got me to really look at myself in that as well.

I didn't get to say that, but I'm saying that to you now to kind of help my growth as a black man in these spaces, you know what I mean?

So yeah.

>> That's, that's what the whole church of the Wild Thing is about, because I was raised in church at all.

So a lot of people come up like Brody always throw the pastor.

Like, I don't even like that.

Like, remember how you was hitting me?

What's your title?

I don't do the title thing.

I'm the.

>> He's like the Don.

I'm like.

>> The Don.

Don Willie Lightfoot call me that.

I don't know what else to, you know what I'm saying?

Like, like, like even when I talk to pastors, I, I tell them like, yo, I flow through through, through the fruits, you know what I'm saying?

Like my fruit speak.

I don't need to put a title on my name.

However I am, I am perceived at that moment.

Yo, let that be that.

And I'm cool with it, you know what I'm saying?

But at the end of the day, my name is David Williams.

I came into this earth as that.

I'm gonna leave as that.

I'm not going to leave as pastor date.

Nah, don't give me that.

Don't give me that.

If I flow as a pastor, then hey, praise God.

But if not, yo, I'm d-will at the end of the day and I and my whole purpose, and I believe the way that God had brought me into this because like, for one, I was not raised in the church.

I was raised in the streets, you know what I'm saying?

So that's all I knew.

But then when I had my road to Damascus experience, and I got in that word by myself, I ain't let no man from no, no pulpit tell me nothing because I ain't had no OGs.

So they wasn't going to tell me nothing.

And I had ADHD growing up, so I ain't listen to my parents.

Jeremy.

No me like I was wild.

So I got this for myself, you know what I'm saying?

And I, and I got understanding and I was discipled by the Holy Spirit and, and, and it clicked like 2013 was like, yo, I'm a container of all this information.

I need to be a conduit of it.

I'm going right back to the streets.

I'm in my first day on, on Genesee Street.

I remember Hot rod see me and I'm like, I'm telling dudes, yo, come here, come here, come here.

I just wanted to pray.

Hey, ain't nobody seen me since I left Miami.

People thought I was still robbing things, you know what I'm saying, people was running like, I ain't going to dwell.

But even in that, me, even when doing hood prayer, just being authentic.

Yeah, just being me.

I don't want to.

I don't gotta preach to you.

You know what I'm saying?

I don't gotta preach to you.

I'm gonna just be me and let and let me become a Bible and let you ask the questions.

Because that's what I hate about some of the Christians out here today.

Y'all, as soon as you walk by somebody, do you know Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?

Man, what in the Jehovah's Witness is you doing, bro?

Jesus wasn't even moving like that.

It's all about relationship.

And my thing is I want to bring relationship to people to, to introduce them to a relationship.

And Imma give you 100% of me.

I ain't about to sugarcoat nothing.

I ain't about to cover nothing up like bills be out with me bills where you just see me at last.

And you was like the pastor.

>> Oh, studio.

>> Studio.

>> Studio, lounge.

>> I'm standing next to bills.

I'm praying for a girl right in studio lounge.

>> Do you will?

Okay.

I want to touch on that.

Right.

Because you're you're walking a fine line.

People might say you're walking a fine line between the hood.

Racquel and being.

>> Righteous cared what people have said.

>> Okay.

>> Have I ever.

>> No.

But what you was saying is true, though, because I can I can definitely relate to that because, you know, I can be Jamie and I can be Snoop.

I'll meet you.

Where you at?

You know what I'm saying?

I'm not a person that I know my people.

You know what I'm saying?

So I know how to talk to you.

I know how to come at you.

I'm not going to address everybody the same.

So what D-will is doing is an amazing thing too, though, and I want to shout out also Justin Morris Biscuit because my dog, he really been doing this for so long and he, he told me something way back about how they was trying to get people into church.

And that's why peaches dressed the way they were.

They was they had the target of they was getting trying to get pimps and.

Um, you know, people off the street, you know what I'm saying.

So and, and this era, the way he dressed now is the way these people in the street dressed now.

And he can grab so many people with just they want to talk to him like, okay, well, you here, let me see what you got.

And that's how that's how you can touch so many people by just being your authentic self.

Like you just.

>> Said, there's a whole idea.

It's just not being the product of our environment, but making our environment the product of us.

So that's why I wear that honor.

Shout out to Dr.

Leonard Brock, the neighborhood scholar, you know, because I really I embody stuff like that.

I show up as myself as a scholar, the same like he will show up in his capacity.

But I really do that in every, every space that I'm in.

So, you know, I try to influence my environment by who I am, right?

And not the other way around.

>> And I know you said I was walking a fine line, but D-will wasn't clubbing.

I was getting a bag.

>> But okay, I'm just saying, you know, because you if you.

>> He was close.

>> Yeah.

I'm not saying some people may perceive it that way.

Right.

Where they may see you out in the club, but they know you for being a for being a disciple or ministering.

Right.

So there are some people that may look at you that way.

>> Like what I would tell.

>> Him, you are of the hood.

>> Pray for me.

That's all you gotta do.

Pray for me.

Keep my name out your mouth unless it's in your prayer closet.

Pray for me.

Because if you see me, if you see me going left.

I bet you Grace is over there to pray for me.

Because you know what I'm gonna do for anybody who I see.

That I might perceive doing the wrong.

I'm gonna pray for them.

I'm about to dog you, or I'm gonna have a conversation with you so I can actually actually understand what's going on.

Because the people that came up to me like, yo, when I said I had 50 d-will.

What are you doing here?

Oh, I'm working, I'm working.

I got a whole sprinter outside.

I'm the one who brought Babyface Ray here.

I'm getting a bag and I'm about to leave.

Matter of fact, I'm here praying to because I'm in the midst of people.

That's what exact thing Jesus would have did.

I'm in the midst of people, and I'm just I'm just scanning the crowd the whole night.

And I'm actually and I actually was grieving because I'm like, yo, I came from that.

But the fact of the matter is, I'm free now.

What a free man look like.

Not going to places where people in bondage at and not wanting to push that same freedom at.

>> You gotta let your light shine.

>> But that's, that's the thing with our community.

Yeah.

If they see someone at a certain statue, right?

For example, Jeffrey Rogers, right?

Mhm.

They see him, right?

And they say that he can't go out and party.

Right.

But people that work at channel 1310 and whatever other news channel they go out as well.

But, you know, the difference is he's in our community.

So we're going to see him out.

You're not going to see these other people from channel ten.

They're out in the suburbs.

So you can't do that just because you see someone out, uh, at a club or something.

This is his environment.

This is where he wants to party at.

So let them party where they want to party at or be where they want to be at.

You don't know what they're doing.

They're just like you say, he was making some money and then praying, fake praying.

But he did what he did.

But you can't judge people just for being in a certain environment.

Yeah.

>> So do you believe him being from the hood?

Right?

Makes his ministry more authentic.

>> Yeah.

And we got to be great.

I think in Rochester too, man.

We we got a tendency of being ungrateful and not giving the people the appreciation that do show up in these spaces because we got so much people who do get educated, who do get enlightened, they leave.

And that's been the way of the town.

So we got to select individuals that show up in their true, authentic self and their judge.

Right?

I remember I ran for city council.

All they talked about is me being from Fight Village and all this other stuff, not who I am and what I can do in my actual skills to do.

>> This work.

>> That's a fact.

So we got to really show appreciation, especially to people like D-will, because we're spiritual people.

If we don't even know it, right, we're really in bondage because we don't know our connection to the divine power.

And we got people like him and Justin that's showing up authentic as their whole selves.

And also, you know, kind of talking the word that we need to hear.

And so to me, I think it's just appreciation, man.

And people like us, we got to be the change agents.

Yeah, right.

When we see that on social media, because there's a lot of stuff that goes so corny on social media, nobody addresses it, right?

Because people got a name.

Yeah, you know what I mean?

And that kind of undermines the work that D-will is going to work that hard to do.

Sometimes up is.

>> Even though I argue with Kuz all the time.

Jamie right.

I tell him you gotta stop responding.

Yeah, you have to because it's so much things people say say about me on the internet.

I'm not about to respond.

But as soon as I respond I made your day right?

So certain things you're just not getting out of me.

Like if I see you in person, hey, what's up with that?

>> So that's and this is my call out, right?

This is the people that support us, the people that be in your face every day.

>> That's what I'm talking about.

>> They got to speak up because if not, it's going to be continuous of the people who has this platform to continue to say the stuff that negatively undermines the work that we're all.

>> Doing, but you can't give them what they want.

>> No, I ain't talking about us in person.

Yeah.

All right.

Com.

Com always provide.

I'm talking about community.

>> Oh yeah.

>> For sure.

It's a community job to speak up and make them feel like, oh dang, I just said that.

>> Exactly.

>> Yeah.

And that's not going to happen unless the community stops sharing everything.

Stop laughing.

Oh, you're, you.

>> Know, but it's like they want to see it.

And that's what sickens me.

But that's what is so sad.

>> But fellas, hold on.

We're going to take a quick break, right?

Because I feel like y'all want to.

Y'all have a lot to get off your chest.

We venting about everything here on on Connections.

But I want to touch on, uh, D-wil said something about policing our own people.

We'll talk about that right after this break.

>> I'm Megan Mack coming up in our second hour.

It's Connections summer sessions where we bring back popular episodes all tied to a theme.

This week's theme is conversations with astrophysicist Adam Frank, and in this episode, he discusses his book, The Little Book of Aliens.

In it, he writes that we will have a true scientific view of if, where, and when extraterrestrial life exists.

All things aliens coming up during connection summer sessions.

>>, support for your public radio station comes from our members and from Bob Johnson Auto Group.

Believing an informed public makes for a stronger community.

Proud supporter of Connections with Evan Dawson focused on the news, issues and trends that shape the lives of listeners in the Rochester and Finger Lakes regions.

Bob Johnson Auto Group dot com.

>> Greece now and we're back on WXXI app WXXI Connections.

And today we are talking about, I would say, hood initiatives, right?

And how the people of the hood in the neighborhood can actually police their own people and help reduce crime.

And, and d-wil you I have here with me, Jamie Anderson, the founder of Hood to Hood basketball tournament, Norman Simmons, the community organizer of the Hood to Hood tournament.

Raheem Gordon, the founder of Guns Down, Gloves Up Initiative.

And D-will, who is the founder of church in the wild.

Um, one of, uh, one of the famous hood ministries in the city of Rochester.

And I want to talk about.

>> I love how you keep saying hood.

That's so beautiful.

>> I, you know, it's so beautiful, right?

And how beautiful that word really is and how we're reclaiming that word and making it something beautiful and powerful.

Right?

And we're actually showcasing the beauty of that culture right here.

Yeah.

Because we're all holding each other accountable right here.

Yes.

I, you know, I, I don't want to say much because there's a bunch of men in here and I don't want to, I'm outnumbered, but I'm taking note of everything that's being said.

And I want to ask you, gentlemen, these initiatives, hood to hood, guns down, gloves up.

Church in the wild.

Are we helping or do you hope that you're helping reduce crime?

We are, we are.

You're saying right now that you are.

>> That's good that you said yes.

>> Look.

>> So do not I don't want to say completely.

>> Like no, no, it's not never going to stop.

>> Let me tell you my intro into into my boxing matches.

Right?

I'm happy that you said reducing not stop.

So this is what I say.

Hey, how you doing?

My name is stupid man bills.

Um, this is, uh, guns down, gloves up.

We started this to minimize the violence in the city.

And since we did that and went viral all over social media, um, we're trying to do the same all across the globe.

So the thing is minimized, right?

There's no way we're going to stop that.

Right.

And, uh, for sure we, um, there's have, so when I first started in 2021, I feel like it was a lot of things going on and I helped reduce the violence with, um, with hood to hood.

>> Last year.

>> I don't even see people with guns, even though like when you go to certain places and stuff like that, you could see somebody moving funny when you from the neighborhood, you just know what's going on.

I don't see that type of vibe at Hood to Hood, and it's open and we're and they're policing themselves.

So I don't even see the vibe of a. I have to bring my gun just in case something goes on.

I don't see that vibe at all.

>> Right, right.

>> So it's just about minimizing you, you you can't completely stop nothing, right?

Like nothing in this world.

You're not going to.

>> But the numbers show from last year, end of July to the end of August, nobody was murdered.

And that's like eight weeks, you know, and that's because the top, like I told you, these guys as captains and and coaches are leaders.

So they got the guys practicing.

They're going to the gym, they're going to shoot around.

So they their mind is not on that.

And then and then the younger guys that's under them, they watching their older guys like, yo, they want to play basketball.

We can't be on this.

Yeah.

So and like you said earlier, it's really accountability because like I said, it's 16 different teams.

So if your team is on like nonsense, that's 15 other teams.

That's like coming at you.

So we make everybody accountable.

We talk to each other every day.

Even after it stopped last year in August, we still been in connection every day, every week, every month.

So it's a plan and it's organized.

And we got people like Norm that can reach out to certain people and talk to people and let them know because like you said, we, we like, you can see what's going on, you know, what's going on.

Yeah.

So at some point somebody will go be like, hey, man, you know, your boy need to chill out.

You know, maybe he need to take a step back.

Maybe he did not come back or maybe he need to get out the game.

And they respect that.

>> Yeah.

And then also to add to that accountability is a love language, right?

I'm big on that African stuff because I'm really in that stage of enlightenment.

Seriously.

But accountability is a love language.

And so with that being said, you know, what we're doing is bringing back that love collectively, the love for each other, the understanding of each other.

Because a lot of times the disagreements be over stuff that people just don't understand the other side.

So what we're doing is creating these spaces for people to engage in that.

I was in the space last year with dudes I couldn't stand, but I also grew more love for them.

Being in that space of the collective men together.

Like the whole time I'm out there, I walk around talking to everybody just because I'm showing love.

A lot of times people come in that space not knowing if they're going to be accepted, not knowing if they're going to be judged because who they are and where they're from.

So again, we just all collectively bringing that love back.

And again, accountability is also a love language.

So that's also the the facet of holding each other accountable as well.

>> Right?

So when last year you got into those little situations and them little snippets of arguments, it was people that came to you.

You got to be accountable for not Norman Elder do this.

>> Elders, older OGs.

Even involved.

They pulled me to the side like, yo, Norm.

>> It's accountability.

>> You know, and and I received all of that.

So that's the that's the, the message the head of the snake takes to the to the last person.

People may perceive that somebody that don't matter.

So again, accountability is a love.

>> But the thing about our neighborhood, we're going to tell you.

>> About it.

Yeah.

>> When you come, we going to wait for you.

You kick me out.

Yeah.

As soon as you come over, even.

>> They kick me out.

You got kicked out the neighborhood.

>> Yeah, for like 48 hours.

>> We tell them, they tell me about myself, we tell everybody about it.

We going to wait for you to come over there to the neighborhood.

And.

And we all going to tell you.

>> And and the best thing about that, we we talking about it because that's where we from every hood has this type of relationship.

Yeah.

If you go to Frost and those are brothers from back in the day, all of them had something where some of them, one of them tripping, the rest of them going to get on that.

And it's respected.

And so that's what we're doing, just bringing it all together.

All the leaders from hoods, you know, and kind of showing love to each other, man.

And that goes a long way.

>> Yeah.

Is that is that on the forefront of your brain or the, the organizational process to, to help reduce the violence?

When you create.

>> Yes.

>> Events like this.

>> Yes.

I feel like it's a no brainer.

Like I feel like we don't have, have to even think about it.

Like we're doing this to reduce the violence.

We know what that brings.

Like having hood, the hood, guns down, gloves up.

Like we know that it's going to bring entertainment to the people and, and get that off their mind that I want to do this.

I want to do that because there's a lot of young people that be out there.

Yes.

A lot of young people that I see out there are in the streets does a lot of things, and they come there with a good vibe because they're trying to either see the women or they're trying to watch some good basketball.

>> Yeah, yeah.

>> So and I, and I just want to shout out our elders again in the OGs, because we had that feeling as kids, what it felt like to be in these spaces.

And part of this, the hood, the hood, all of this stuff that we got going, it made me feel like a kid again sometimes.

And that's the key to growth, to staying locked into our kids and that inner kid and that playfulness.

And so shout out to our elders and OGs before us, right?

We skipped a kind of a decade of this type of stuff happening, but we was raised around that Clarissa Street, Teddy T, whatever we could go.

>> Breaking ankles.

>> Actually, since we.

>> On the show.

>> Yeah.

>> Uncle beach.

>> So this is my big cousin, right?

This is my big cousin Norman.

So where we come from, I don't really know that many graduates.

So while I was playing football in high school, I always wanted a degree or wanted to be a certain person because of my cousin.

We always been ourselves.

We never, uh, been the person, oh, I'm in the streets, I'm this and that.

And it was cool to just say, nah, we ain't with that.

I want to go to school.

He got his degree and I end up getting my degree.

Even me and my cousin got into it before, but I feel like it was for me to do better.

But that's the type of stuff I always looked up to.

I don't know, nobody that graduated college.

We got more college guys now.

Yeah, yeah.

After.

But he was the blueprint for.

>> That probably was the first people to go to college.

Yeah.

>> Cortez.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

>> Yeah.

>> And even beyond education, like I said around all hoods is some type of that people latch on to people because what they do, even if someone in the streets, you could be a dope man with great principles in the streets.

We just make choices based on our awareness.

It's not right or wrong.

So this is what we're talking about in Fight Village goes across the board.

Everywhere, you know?

Yeah.

To kind of bring back to what we're talking about in the sense of the hood.

>> Yeah, definitely.

Every neighborhood has the same principles.

I, I know a lot of neighborhoods who don't tolerate certain foolishness.

You know, you're not about to put us in danger.

You're not about to embarrass us.

And they stand on that.

So like I said, shout out to all the teams, the players.

I appreciate y'all and we love y'all, man.

It's a great season.

We're going to keep going.

>> And D-wil your your approach right.

Are you going into these neighborhoods all the time with the intent of ending, ending violence or, or helping to, to end violence in Rochester and crime in Rochester.

>> So ending crime, that's, that's low hanging fruit, right?

I get to the root.

The root is always going to be the issue.

Like we can talk about violence.

We can talk about baby mama, baby daddy, we can talk about all that drama and chaos and everything.

But at the end of the day, it's the root, you know what I'm saying?

The root identity.

I had to find that out myself.

I found that out, uh, like a couple months ago.

You know what I'm saying?

Even even, you know, my Christian walk me as a disciple.

You know what I'm saying?

I did, I was doing and doing and doing and doing and found my identity and the stuff that I was doing.

That's why I ended up falling and failing.

I almost lost my family.

But it wasn't until I realized I'm a son.

Now I walk different.

You can't tell me nothing.

I stand up crazy.

You see how flock act?

Because the understanding of a son, you know your your father's a king.

You move different.

You know what I'm saying?

You.

You can't even let nobody say nothing to you.

Crazy.

And if they do, it's going to roll off, roll off my shoulder.

>> Man.

The first time I met you, you came to our neighborhood.

It had to have been like at least 100 people there.

And I just seen you talking to everybody.

I asked, I'm asking everybody like, who is this guy?

Yeah, I'm asking him, like, that's d-will man.

He he do the ministry.

He the neighborhood.

I'm like, I'm just watching.

I'm observing him.

I'm like, okay, this is fire.

I was feeling it.

And big ups to you, man.

That's right.

>> And my thing is like, I just want to show love to everybody, you know what I'm saying?

And if we can just if I could be the role model of what love looked like in the hood, then I'm gonna go and do it.

I'll talk to somebody I don't even know.

And the crazy thing is, like, my wife, like, oh, you're such a social butterfly.

I, I hate people.

I don't like people at all.

I don't say I hate, I don't hate people.

I do not like people.

I don't like talking to new people.

Right.

But it's something that I have to force myself to do because I don't know what this interaction might do.

You know what I'm saying?

Especially because I know that I'm seeing and I'm looked at or I'm people put me on a pedestal and all that.

Let me come down.

You know what I mean?

And let me meet you where you at and just have a conversation.

Even I remember starting hood prayer.

People thought I was just going to go out there and just start grabbing people and praying for them.

Nah.

Remember, Jeremy, I'm just, I you walk past me.

Yo, God bless you.

People don't even hear that.

People don't hear yo, God loves you.

Keep it moving, bro.

Like this ain't even.

I ain't about to do no nah.

At the end.

We can pray if you want to, but I'm out here for an hour just creating a relationship with you.

Just loving on you because you may not have been felt.

No love all week.

>> And that's what hood the hood is definitely about.

Relationships, man.

You see guys, you gotta think, man, these schools are all full.

I went to school at Shalom.

I did not.

One of my friends from Fight Village went there.

Not one.

So I have relationships with people from Dewey.

I have relationships with people from Conche.

I got relationship people from Frost.

I got relationships with people from Chile.

So it's like, it's all building.

I haven't you gotta think, I got four kids, I got a family.

I haven't seen these people in years.

So to get out there and see a childhood friend from sixth and seventh grade, you went to every day.

School is 180 days.

I'm with these people for a whole a long time.

So it's like to see these people again is amazing.

>> I just want to add real quick to what D-wil was speaking to.

Everything we talk about is our mental, our well-being, right?

I'm the mentor of God.

I work in mental health.

And so with us finding ourselves and really identifying who we are, we get to.

We get to really identify what we chosen for.

Yeah.

You know, and again, that's kind of where I'm at kind of with D-wil, you know, I understand my mission.

So even though I don't even like being around people, you know, I'm still talking to people for no reason because it's a part of that mission.

So that's what we're trying to do, just help each other collectively.

And also individuals find ourselves, find ourselves within community, find ourselves as individuals.

And from there, that's where the growth starts.

>> Yeah, yeah.

Do you feel obligated, um, any of you to be that change because of the pedestal that you're on or because of your platform?

Do you feel obligated?

And if.

>> I don't feel obligated for the pedestal, I feel obligated because of the sacrifice.

You feel me when I, when I, because if I, I don't, I could get emotional.

I just.

>> Did.

I felt a chill through my body when she said, do you feel obligated, man?

Because it's I, I don't know, I don't want to cut you off.

Well, it's like I am a people person, so I'm outgoing.

I'm, I want to talk to you.

I want to know who you are.

I want to meet you.

So it's like, if I can talk to this man, like he said, a simple God bless you.

Have a good day.

You don't know the simplest thing can change a person.

Whole day, hundred percent whole day.

And I felt like my whole life, I I was one of those people that people could come talk to.

So my cousin tells me all the time, this is this is you.

This is perfect for you.

And I just embraced it.

And I just run with it.

And I tried to meet as many people.

Like, I don't know everybody from hood to hood, but I remember their faces, you know, I know what team they played for for sure.

But I'm trying to introduce myself to people.

I let them know you can call me Snoop or Jamie.

It don't matter to me, but I'm just trying to let y'all know.

Like at the end of the day, this is about relationships and building up for our city and our generations after us.

Norman said it.

We skipped a whole generation of this stuff.

When the last time the city was 5 or 6 years.

>> Ago, never longer than that.

Way, way longer than.

>> I don't even remember.

>> Yeah.

>> The last thing.

>> Because.

>> I've been here.

>> Was about 20 years and I've never been to one.

Yeah.

>> Beecham died.

>> Like I don't I don't feel like I'm obligated to do the work, but I feel like I'm obligated to show up as my best self.

So what kind of Woody Wilson, like, I had to go through this whole soul searching because times I showed up, my heart always been colder, but I didn't show up in ways that I like based on what I went through, based on my trauma, based on me getting shot.

So for me, you know, that soul searching was the main thing.

So I could just be my best self.

And don't get me wrong, I still make mistakes.

I still find myself going to one and ten and I go home and like, , I gotta call that person and apologize.

So I'm obligated to show up as my best self and really doing and go that way.

I'm being pulled and stop trying to get away from it.

So that's what I'm obligated to do to be my best self in this space.

>> Yeah, I would say that I'm obligated to, to share my freedom.

You know what I'm saying?

Because if we could look, if we could all look at our past.

My past was filthy.

You know, me.

You know what I'm saying?

My.

You know, my filthy.

And to be where I'm at now, like I got a beautiful wife, three kids.

I take care of other people.

Kids like bills came to my house.

He was like, he said, what you living?

Witness protection.

And I come from the hood like I come from thirsty, bro.

Don't ain't ain't many of us made it.

Made it out of thirsty.

You know what I'm saying?

And it's like, yo, I'm blessed.

And I, I want people to experience that.

So I, that's the obligation that I feel, you know?

>> Yeah.

>> What about.

>> You and bills?

>> I feel obligated from the work that I put in.

So my crowd is very young.

So I have people my age too, but I have a crowd of like.

>> Younger.

>> Yeah, 15 under and then older.

>> People, >> Like in very older people.

So it's like when these kids write me on Instagram and things like that, I said, oh yeah, I gotta keep going.

I got, I gotta keep doing this because they really, they really like DMing me and say, yo, bills, I have a problem with this person.

We're about to get on your channel.

Yes, I'm getting about ten of those a day.

>> That's beautiful.

>> So yeah, so it's like I have to.

>> Yeah.

And that's and that speaks to you basically fostering the next generation.

Right.

And kind of eliminating this violence eventually, right?

Because as if the next generation is being exposed to what you're doing and not picking up a gun and saying, hey, let's just duke it out the old fashioned way.

>> But they don't.

My thing is, they don't fight with they don't even fight no more.

So even when people had guns back in the day, you probably had 1 or 2 people on the block with guns.

They're starting a whole new crew.

You got 30 people from this block.

They all got guns.

You.

If you was from this hood back in the day, you couldn't get this nice gun.

You got this nice gun over here on this block.

So they.

They don't even know how to fight.

Yeah.

So for the young people that do come fight, I congratulate them, I applaud them.

Yeah.

Because it's like they don't fight no more at all.

We grew up fighting and they didn't really lead to nothing until it really led to something.

But they skipping the fighting stage and going straight to shooting.

>> And I and I heard an elder say this as well.

We're in a time where we're really, really redefining the rules and what rules are right.

You see somebody like usually back in the day, you know, somebody smoking an elder come, they going to put it behind their back.

Yeah, that's not a thing now.

Right.

And it's not right or wrong, but we're in a time where we're redefining what are the rules for our community, what are the standards?

What are the values?

Right.

I think we're in a golden time.

Yeah.

>> Right.

So you're now the elders.

>> Yeah.

>> We're not the elders.

>> You're becoming the elders.

>> We the.

>> Us though.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm the elder.

I'm a.

>> 36 years.

>> Old.

>> You know.

Yeah, >> Yeah.

>> For sure.

>> No yo og though, because the elders really is something that you, you, you.

>> Earn.

>> You earn.

So shout out Miss Jackie Dozier.

She just got actually brought into eldership.

She worked at Commonground for me, but the will the OG he's still in the field.

You know the elders are more so the people that give us that wisdom to kind of carry.

>> The work.

They put the they take, you know, the cap.

>> Off, right?

Right.

>> So yeah.

So right now we are basically reclaiming what the hood is.

Yeah.

Right.

And what the, what the hood's mission is.

Right.

And we just trying to take away that stigma and knowing that we can police our own people.

And because of these initiatives like hood to hood and Guns down, Gloves Up and Church in the wild, hey, we can say that we are we are taking back.

We are taking accountability for what we produce in our community.

>> And the hood has hope.

>> Mhm.

>> The hood has opportunity.

The hood has obligation.

The hood has purpose.

The hood has peace.

The hood got us.

>> Mhm.

Well, thank you for tuning in to my hood talk.

Thank you guys for joining me.

>> Hello.

>> I appreciate.

>> You having Connections.

Keep doing what you're doing.

I'm looking I'm proud.

And, uh.

Yeah, I can't wait to reshape our community.

Thank you fellas.

>> Shout out.

>> Thank you for tuning in to WXXI Connections.

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