- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been provided by PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

RWJBarnabas Health.

The North Ward Center.

And by TD Charitable Foundation.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com, keeping communities informed and connected.

And by ROI-NJ, informing and connecting businesses in New Jersey.

- This is One-On-One.

- I'm an equal American just like you are.

- The way we change presidents in this country is by voting.

- I'’m hopeful that this is the beginning to accountability.

- Life without dance is boring.

- I don't care how good you are or how good you think you are, there is always something to learn.

- I did do the finale, and guess where my trailer was?

A block away from my apartment, it couldn'’t have been better!

- People call me 'cause they feel nobody's paying attention.

-_ It'’s not all about memorizing and getting information, it'’s what you do with that information.

- (slowly) Start talking right now.

- That's a good question, high five.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to a very special edition of "One-on-One," except there are three of us: Steve Adubato, my colleague Mary Gamba, and also Georgette Timoney, the executive producer of "One on One," on every single night, you can find us.

Georgette, set this up, and what the heck does it have to do with Mary, myself, and our Stand and Deliver program that you're about to see some terrific young leaders in the program presenting about things that are really important?

Go ahead, Georgette, set it up.

- This is Night of Eloquence.

It is the 22nd year.

It's a celebration of the students that participate in Stand and Deliver, and they give outstanding performances.

They speak from their heart.

They talk about ways to be the change, and we're so excited about this opportunity to bring it to the audience.

- Absolutely, and Stand and Deliver is a program Mary and I have been running.

Mary, actually, runs the program with Toni Richardson, our project director, teaching leadership and communication skills to inner city youth.

Mary, how moving was that night?

And you're gonna see young leaders.

Mary calls them performers.

Presenters, performers, they are young leaders.

What was it like for you that night, Mary?

- Every year, I am overwhelmed and amazed.

Every year, we ask them to come prepared to present a change project, a change initiative, something that they see from their perspective of what needs to be changed in the community, in the world, and this year was no exception.

What you're about to see is just a tremendous amount of young men, young women from in and around the Newark, New Jersey area, and just sharing their ideas for change, and there's a lot of adult leaders that can learn from what these young adults are about to share.

- And Georgette, let me ask you this: you've been in the arts, you and your husband, Bill, for many, many years.

You are part of the arts, the performing arts.

I know we don't call this the performing arts, but "One-on-One" is different from "State of Affairs" and our other series, "Think Tank."

How is this about the arts for you?

- Oh, it's all about celebrating the creative process, and with this particular show, if we're highlighting Night of Eloquence, many of these students wrote their own compositions, and the emotional energy that they bring to that, and the commitment that they have to that.

It's just extraordinary.

So it is, it is part of the arts.

It's part of the humanities.

It reflects our culture, and what better way to do that than to listen to these young people?

- Well said.

Georgette Timoney, the executive producer of "One-on-One."

Mary Gamba, who's actually led Stand and Deliver and this Night of Eloquence from these young leaders.

You'll hear them, their voices, their change that they propose in the world, and their voices need to be heard.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you, Georgette.

This is the Night of Eloquence.

Good evening, everyone.

- Good evening!

- We are in beautiful Belleville, New Jersey, which is close enough to my hometown, the hometown of many here at Brick City.

Let's hear it for Newark, New Jersey.

(audience cheering and applauding) Just the fact that we're here, just the fact that we're here, the fact that we are together celebrating, recognizing, honoring young men and women.

We started out with 50 or 60 22 years ago.

Three, four, 500 now, young men and women, disproportionately from the city of Newark, largely Black and Brown, all leaders, all terrific, all to be honored and recognized.

None of these young men and women get the attention they deserve.

Too many people don't expect a whole lot from them, but those folks are wrong because they don't know you.

They don't know the spirit, the energy, the enthusiasm, the passion that you have, but it's gonna be shown on this stage tonight.

So when I started this program with a great team: Mary Gamba, Toni Richardson.

By the way, put your hands together for the great Stand and Deliver team.

(audience applauding) It takes a great team to work with, coach, teach, give feedback to, encourage, support the young men and women in this program.

Some of the folks who'll be presenting tonight told me backstage they were a little nervous.

Kim, can you imagine that?

They're a little nervous, and I say that's good, Superintendent.

It's good to be nervous 'cause that means you care.

It's good to be uncomfortable because it means you gotta break through it.

I'm a student of leadership and communication, and my rule is you gotta get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Some of our great, generous sponsors and underwriters, we raised well over $40,000 in this ad journal, and that deserves a great round of applause 'cause that money's going to scholarships.

(audience applauding) That money is going to scholarships that support the young men and women in this program about to go off to higher education, about to go off to a new chapter in their lives, but some of our presenters are in the eighth grade, (attendee murmuring) ninth grade, 10th grade, (audience applauding) but I want you, everyone in the Stand and Deliver audience who's been so generous, so supportive, so giving, to put your hands together.

Give a warm Stand and Deliver welcome to the Stand and Deliver leaders of tomorrow.

(audience cheering and applauding) - If I had to describe myself in three words, they would be intelligent, funny, and beautiful.

(audience giggling) But if I were to ask society, their answer would be angry Black woman, but can you blame me?

How can I not be angry when people think it's okay to touch my hair and pet me like I'm an animal and then ask if it's real, as if it's any of their business?

They crave our Black features: the big lips, the curves, the baby hairs, but never on a melanated body.

Our bodies are being sexualized in rap music videos, and we're constantly being depicted as the angry Black woman in every Tyler Perry movie.

How can I not be angry when every time I reject a boy, they get angry and threaten to shoot me because an ugly girl like me has no right to say no to a man like him.

Black boys always say, (scoffs) "Hey, yo, I prefer a sexy Latina because them Black women are so ghetto."

(audience laughing) They always degrade Black women as if their own mothers and sisters aren't Black.

(chuckles) - [Attendee] Okay.

- How can I, how can I not be angry when my Black sisters are being murdered, and their killers walk away free while they become hashtags, soon to be forgotten?

My dark-skinned sisters are being discriminated against because society won't appreciate their melanin-rich skin.

Instead, they deepen their insecurities already created by the racial beauty standards.

How can I not be angry when society thinks they have the right to say I'm not Black enough, or I'm whitewashed, as if the way I speak and the way I act determines my Blackness, and every time we try to stand up for ourselves, we're labeled as aggressive and angry.

Yeah, I'm an angry Black woman, and I have every right to be, but that doesn't mean you get to stereotype me.

Yes, I'm angry, but I'm passionate, talented, and hard-working too, and it's about time you recognize me for that.

Thank you.

(audience cheering and applauding) Stand and Deliver is a chance for us students to finally speak our word because as kids, we're constantly looking down upon, even when we try to make a change in the world, and I believe Stand and Deliver gives us that chance to speak on the problems you want to help the world know about, and we also get to meet new people, and I really enjoy that, especially since I'm really not that social, so having this opportunity to meet new people who have the same ideas as me is really interesting, and I like it.

- Time.

They say time goes by fast when you're having fun, but what about those nights when you're sad, and all you can think about is your mistakes, your past, and them?

Those moments when time works against you, where that minute is a little longer, tic.

Where your mind travels deeper, tok.

When your tears have more depth and pain, tic.

Then in a split second, there's that silence where you don't dare to speak, where you look for a distraction, tic.

When you've cried your final tear, tok.

Moments like that just makes you wanna pool all of your painful past memories and experiences in a tiny little box and bury it, making it almost nonexistent for the time being.

Then thoughts like what if I did it differently, would it work out?

Would they still be here?

Would I be happier?

You start to imagine and make scenarios that goes on and on and on until you realize that it will never be that way.

(utensils clattering) But when time resumes, (footstep tapping) your memories are restored, the memories that make you smile and make you realize that you've loved, and you've lost, that you live and you learn, (utensil clattering) that that was a chapter in your life that made you appreciate people more, love (giggles) a little deeper, and get to know yourself more, and that one day, you won't feel pain about what happened, but you'll reflect and truly find peace and happiness.

Thank you.

(audience cheering and applauding) - Keliana is in the ninth grade.

- Okay.

(audience cheering and applauding) - The ninth grade!

(audience applauding) This isn't part of the program.

It drives Mary Gamba crazy when I do this.

(audience snickering) What does it feel like (fingers thudding) for you to be up here tonight?

Tell everybody.

- I felt excited and nervous at the same time because I'm like, "Wait, TikTok, you know, the dances, you know, whatever."

(Steve laughing) I wanted to foreshadow like, "Oh, TikTok, are you guys talking about the app or the time?"

And then I want you guys to imagine it's slowing down in those moments, where none of us wanna talk about, where none of us want, we all wanna hide what we after, like I said, brush it under the rug and pretend.

We do that, and I just wanted to show that emotions.

- You really in the ninth grade?

- Yeah.

- Put your hands together for- (audience applauding and cheering) Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- You feel good?

- Yeah.

- All right.

(Keliana laughing) Stand and Deliver makes me feel like I'm not alone in any and every way.

- This feeling becomes worse by day.

It's rotting my soul and brain.

Little by little, my mind becomes more empty.

The darkness that didn't bother me increases in my heart and spirit and is killing my days.

These thoughts eat my brain and turn it to hate and anger.

I beat myself up about it day by day.

The more days that pass by, the stronger the pain feels.

How did I become this monster?

I lay in my room alone, listening to the rumbling of my stomach, but I would never eat.

Hearing my phone ring every day, but not being able to pick up because the fact of getting up wasn't worth it.

The fact of knowing that I'm floating on a blue ball of gas in the middle of nowhere didn't give me a point to live.

When I wanted to get up and do anything to try and change my day, my body couldn't get up.

When I entered my classes, I couldn't learn anything.

All I say were the letters D and F, but I knew something was wrong because younger me wasn't like this.

They had the best grades in the class.

They always paid attention and had great spirit.

They were going places in life, but what happened to the person that was so ready to grow up, so ready to begin a life?

Maybe it was the fact that the perfect kid just wasn't feeling the determination that she had before.

She gave up so young, with a life ahead of her.

She disappeared.

- I wanna make sure everybody knows that what our Stand and Deliver performers, leaders, presenters were asked to do was to take the very profound quote, "Be the change," and propose some change, propose something that comes from their heart about something that needs to be changed in themselves, in our society, in the communities we live in, in the world where too many people are complaining about what isn't changed and what should be right, and why don't they do it?

Well, the Stand and Deliver leaders of tomorrow say, "I'm not waiting for them to do anything.

We are the ones to do it."

(audience cheering and applauding) - You got this.

- Thank you.

(audience applauding) Hello, class.

Let's begin.

(hands clapping) Don't conform!

I mean, (clears throat, sniffs) conform.

Question: who are you in that scenario, or was I not inclusive enough?

Let's try this again.

"Ew, why do you act like that?"

"Like what?"

"Like you're super-happy all the time, really bubbly, and you're weird."

"What's wrong with that?

What's wrong with me?"

"You know, people our age don't really act like that."

Were you the one with the unique personality or the one making them feel bad about it?

Conformity can be and be shown in different ways, such as body image.

The desire to fulfill such specific and unrealistic expectations.

Then, if you don't meet those expectations, you're doomed.

We have peer pressure.

Someone doing something that you don't wanna do, but then, you're pressured into it because if you don't do it, you're not cool.

Why does it bother you when someone doesn't like, agree, or eat something that you like?

But when it's them who doesn't like something, they wanna turn it around.

I want you all to think for a little.

Conformity isn't always bad, like wearing clothes.

I mean, we would all be walking around naked.

We shouldn't be ashamed of ourselves or anything.

I mean, Adam and Eve, they weren't.

Actually, let me not get distracted.

Conformity in itself isn't bad.

Conformity is bad when people are made to feel inferior because of what they like, say, and do.

Why does it bother you what music someone listens to, what stores they shop at, what color their hair is, or what size their clothes are?

Maybe it doesn't actually bother you, but you got trapped in a cycle.

You conformed, so now, you want others to do the same, but even if you did conform, you can always regain yourself.

If you see someone on the brink of something, encourage them.

Reassure them in their different ways and originality.

Honestly, just do whatever makes you happy.

People are gonna be made regardless of what you do.

You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't, so don't conform!

Class dismissed.

(audience cheering and applauding) My favorite part is, honestly, being myself in a different way.

I wanna be a future actress, so just having that ability to have better public speaking, to express myself better, loud and clear, with emotion, without emotion.

It just really helps me as a whole, and I really like it, something confidence helps with too, which is good in life in general, so I really appreciate that.

- This evening, we are honored, all of us, as adults, to be in the presence of so many talented young adults.

You know, we hear so many negatives about young people, but nah, no, these are the young people who are going the right places at the right times and doing the right things.

The Stand and Deliver program is in every Newark Board of Education high school, in every private school in Newark, in the Boys and Girls Clubs in Newark and Union County, and it is also in some of our charter schools, so we have over 25 sites.

We have about 35 staff people who are workshop leaders and site coordinators in all of those sites.

- Stand and Deliver has really made me boost my confidence.

I started Stand and Deliver as a sophomore, and you can imagine how a sophomore is.

I just came to this country like five years ago, and I didn't have any confidence.

I knew I wanted to pursue being an actress, but I didn't know where to start.

Stand and Deliver started me off, then I found out about speech and debate, but Stand and Deliver was my foundation ground to start my confidence, public speaking, learning how to speak to other people.

I was such a shy kid, but Stand and Deliver made me go out there.

My Black face fades, hiding inside the black smoke.

(coughs, sighs) I need to use it, damn it!

(sniffs) Tear gas.

I'm grown.

I'm fresh.

Their clouded assumption eyes me like a runaway, guilty as night, chasing morning.

I run this way.

The street lets me go.

I turn that way, and I'm inside the back of a police van again, depending on my attitude to make the difference.

I run down the signs, half expecting to find my name protesting in ink.

I touched a name, Freddie Gray.

I see the big cop's worn eyes.

Names stretch across the banner, but when the people walks away, the names fall from our lips.

Paparazzi flash, call it riot.

The ground, a body on the ground.

A white cop's image hovers over us.

Then, his blind gaze looked through mine.

He's raised his right arm, a gun in his hand, and a broken window, and the smoke, a drone tracking targets.

No, a crow grasping for air.

(utensil clattering) (audience cheering and applauding) - When I first joined Stand Deliver, I wanted to try something new, but over the past two years, I became more accustomed with it, and I like how it gives us an opportunity and a chance to share our voices and what we want to change in the world to a whole audience where they can know and understand, They say you're a hard-working scholar.

You wake up early and excited, with the biggest and brightest smile that you can fake.

You put effort into all your grades and time into all your assignments.

You study hard, stay quiet, listen carefully, and you get every single detail and question correct and perfect, but can I ask you something?

If you're a hard-working scholar, why are you getting nervous?

Could it be from the heavy burden underneath perfection or the short two days after you slave away to keep up your grades and make no mistake, or did you finally realize you don't know a single thing about the real world?

You're shaking.

You're a hard-working scholar, but don't forget that you're alone.

You're taught to cooperate, but who are you cooperating with when you realize no one is there?

You're a hard-working scholar, and yet you refuse to open your eyes to the real world.

It scares you.

They say, "Without an education, you're nothing," but you don't wanna be nothing.

They take your dreams, your aspirations.

Oh, it's like a bad test grade.

You're a hard-working scholar, but you're still a child expected to fail, expected to listen, expected to stay out of it.

Those expectations of greatness slowly blind you to the expectation of being treated like a human.

The injustice.

You'll give more than you can ever get.

Your system doesn't listen to your cries, your pleas, your pains, our burdens.

I am tired of waiting to be answered.

My arm is sore from every time you deem my question too unimportant to call on.

I am putting my hand down, and I am standing up.

We are hard-working scholars, tired of being ignored.

Our desire is to understand.

We'll burn brighter than any star you can imagine.

We are hard-working scholars, but that is not all.

We are more complex than any equation you could ever create.

We are hard-working scholars who are warriors fighting never-ending battle with our heads high and mind sharpened to any weapon you throw at us.

We are hard-working scholars.

- Yes.

- Go ahead.

- But we're still children, special, talented, and amazing.

Hard-working children.

Thank you.

(audience cheering and applauding) - [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

RWJBarnabas Health.

The North Ward Center.

And by TD Charitable Foundation.

Promotional support provided by NJ.Com, And by ROI-NJ.

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