Allan Appel Photo
‘Twan Madden & Omar Ryan
It was 21 to 18 with only four minutes remaining. Antwan Madden’s Hill North team got ready for a jump ball and a final run to catch and beat Hill South. Cherick Johnson, the six-foot-six center also known as Stixx, wasn’t about to let that happen. It was no ordinary basketball game.
The tip off was being handled by the ref Omar Ryan of Frontline Souljaz, an emerging economic self-help and fraternal organization that aims to harness the competitive and entrepreneurial spirit of young black men.
So a lot more was at stake than the score as the opening game of the Hoopin’ Not Shootin’ basketball league’s second season got underway on blustery Saturday morning at West River Memorial Park.
“Most of these kids I know from the neighborhood,” said Peters, whose day job is as one of the city’s street outreach workers
When he’s not all arms and legs blocking Madden’s inside drives, Stixx wants to work in the culinary arts, through a program at Gateway Community College. But his grades were not up to speed, so Blest Peters, one of the founders of Frontline Souljaz, has found him a tutor.
Peters said that Stixx came to him after the shooting death of a friend on Ella Grasso Boulevard last summer.
What can be done to stop the violence? That question quickly became: What could Peters and other older men do to help nurture the dreams of young men like Stixx so opportunities open before them instead of violence dogging them?
The result was regular family-like meetings at Peters’ house every week. Those in turn grew into a kind of floating fraternity, which in turn led to the Frontline Souljaz business idea for Peters, and (left to right in photo) Kevin Ewing, Omar Ryan, and Kevin Edwards. (At right is spoken word poet Ken Brown, a prospective member. Not pictured is Frontline member Jewu Rchardson.)
Where does the b‑ball come in?
“That’s part of staying in touch and establishing relationships,” said Peters, who cheered on both Antwan Madden and Stixx with a bullhorn and a rap.
Ewing cited a Kauffman Foundation study to the effect that there is no group more entrepreneurial than young black men 18 to 34.
“In the hood you got to have a hustle. We want to legitimate the hustle. Better our community by bettering ourselves,” said Ewing, a former St. Louis cop, a graduate of Yale’s Divinity School, and community organizer.
Frontline Souljaz has five members now, with the prospect of more young men like Stixx joining, nurtured by the older men.
Blest Peters with Stixx and Jason Parker
The group’s plans include opening a restaurant, which Peters (pictured on right) said is going to be called Haven.
They’re just incorporating their group, with the pro bono help of lawyers from downtown New Haven law firm Wiggin and Dana.
It’s part fraternity, part summer basketball league modeled after the Rucker Park basketball tournament in New York City, and part self-help business incubator.
Peters said the first business Frontline will be launching is producing a line of fashions, to be called CT Swag, to be sold online, in stores, and also in the streets.
The idea ultimately is to reduce the violence in neighborhoods like West River.
Peters Saturday wore a Connecticut Against Gun Violence Button that read, “Where did they get the gun?”
All of the members of Frontline Souljaz wear the button, he said.
Ewing recalled that one potentially violent face-off between two neighborhood groups was defused because two people, one on each side of the confrontation, had played together in last year’s tournament.
“When the tournament ended in September [last year], the violence picked up,” Ewing said, suggesting a causal connection.
“By building with these men we find out where some of their passions lie,” said Peters.
And then build on that to foster them and to start businesses.
Peters took another break from talking to a reporter as the game tightened up to call out: “I’m looking for a dunk out of you, Twan.”
Peters said Antwan Madden is already a model for younger kids like 12-year-olds Peppy Hill (at right in photo) and Teddy Deboise (pictured with Stixx). Madden has volunteered nearly 300 hours for Yale driving people to appointments. The result: He was finally offered a job at Yale where he’s been gainfully employed for a year.
In turn, Frontline Souljaz has recently gotten Madden, who would like to play or be associated with basketball in a European league, together with professionals from the WNBA.
“We’re supporting that dream of his,” said Peters.
In turn Madden sees himself already as a mentor to the younger kids.
“If I see someone I know who used to live on the street and now gets a job in the post office, that’s positive,” Ewing said.
Ewing has begun formal programs doing just that at Lincoln Bassett and Roberto Clemente schools.
“We can take Kevin Edwards to Clemente and he says to the kids, ‘I’m 46 years old and I’m still trying to get out of wrong choices I made.’ It’s a little closer to them,” he said.
Saturday afternoon Frontline Souljaz was also just older guys having a nice time with younger guys and grilling burgers and hot dogs between drives, dunks, and blocks and talking about dreams.
In the final minutes of the opening season’s game Hill North’s Madden made several spectacular drives down the lane, converting two. In the end it wasn’t quite enough. With Stixx’s height, Hill North prevailed, with a final score 33 to 30.
“It was close,” said Peters.
The league has seven teams. The Saturday games go every other week through September at West River Memorial Park.