Welcome To The Show: A Conversation With Filmmaker Dorie Barton

R. Anthony Harris | March 3, 2022

Topics: Acting for the camera, dorie barton, filmmaker, girl flu, james river, richmond, richmond film, Richmond International Film Festival, RVA, RVA filmmakers, VCU arts, video, virginia film, welcome to the show

Independent filmmaker Dorie Barton has only been in Richmond for a couple of years, but she’s definitely made an impact. Her latest movie, Welcome To The Show, is the first she’s made since arriving in RVA. It features a group of college kids stuck in an immersive game with shifting rules while lost in and around the city.

Dorie already had a pretty significant career in Hollywood before she moved to Richmond in order to teach in VCU’s theatre program. She not only acted in everything from classic soap opera One Life To Live to indie movies like Bobcat Goldthwait’s underrated transgressive film, God Bless America, but also found time to write and direct a feature film called Girl Flu. But when she got to Richmond and started making her new movie, she quickly fell in love with all the city has to offer.

Welcome to Richmond, Dorie Barton! Welcome to your show.

Dorie Barton: I am a multi-disciplinary artist. First I was an actor, and I worked on stage since I was quite little. I studied at CalArts to be an actor, and then I spent 25 years in the film and television industry in Los Angeles, as an actor on stage, film, television, and voiceover.

And then I’ve dabbled in a lot of other things in the industry — I’ve been a script consultant for 15 years, I worked in development for a while, then I became a screenwriter and then, finally, a filmmaker. I’ve written and directed two feature films now.

R. Anthony Harris: What do you enjoy about acting specifically?

DB: That’s changed over the years, but I’m also teaching now and other things at VCU. And it’s really very sweet for me to encounter the young actors — reminds me of how I felt, with that really raw passion for the storytelling. So it’s very inspiring to be around the young people. I think that that is ultimately what most of us that do this like the best, because we get to tell stories in all kinds of forms.

But I also think that what I love about acting, and has really been true ever since I was little, is getting to become somebody else. [Laughs] Getting to become a different person, spend some time not being myself, and really feeling like I’ve lived a different life, or are part of a different life. I think it’s fun. Actually, I didn’t know that I would feel this way, but becoming a filmmaker, I realized [that] by being a writer and director, you kind of get to be everybody. You get to have that experience of playing all the parts, as when you have a dream and everyone in the dream really is kind of some version of you. So even though as a filmmaker I’m not literally being the actor — in that situation, it still feels the same. So I get to feel like I’ve lived this whole other multilayered life.

RAH: That’s amazing. You have a couple of films, Girl Flu from a few years ago and your newest, Welcome To The Show, which you wrote, acted in, and directed. Is there a part of the process you enjoy more? Or is it like you had mentioned just before, being able to set up your own fantasy and work within that.

DB: I love all the different phases of it. And all the phases of making a film are really different. I do love prepping for it, and at that stage where it’s just pure imagination. I really like organizing and prepping and planning, preparing for the shoot. Doing all the shot lists. I actually enjoy scheduling as well, because it really helps me visualize how to create all the pieces of the film.

I recently picked up quilting again and it reminds me why I like both forms so much. Filmmaking is like quilting. You chop up fabric into all these little pieces, and you take all these little pieces and rearrange them in different patterns over and over, and you keep moving them around.

That feels so much like with filmmaking. You gather all of these assets, all these little pieces, all these little scenes and pieces of scenes, and then you you edit it. You edit your film by deciding where the pieces all go and then at some point, you just have to make a decision that it is done.

But yeah, I really like the prep. I think everyone likes production the most. The actual shooting is kind of the most universally loved, and of course, yes, I’m absolutely like “Any day on set is my favorite day.” [Laughs] But I also co-edited this film [Welcome To The Show], and I was deeply involved with the editing process of Girl Flu as well. And I love editing. I absolutely love that part of it. It’s really so much more isolated than being in production. I really love how painstaking and patient [it is], without making perfect the goal, because it’s art and there’s nothing that’s perfect in art! But yeah, really finding out what’s going to make make the story, down to the frame.

RAH: Where did the idea for Welcome To The Show come from?

DB: The first idea when it started cooking in my mind was literally the first day I was ever in Richmond. When I came here, it was in May, and it was absolutely beautiful here. Even though I had grown up in Northern Virginia, I had never been to Richmond before. I came here to find an apartment and I drove in past the Main Street Train Station and drove into Manchester — and I was like, oh my god! It’s beautiful! I must make a movie here. [Laughs]

And I was just so taken with the look and the feel of the city and how beautiful I think it is. All of its contradictions are really, really interesting to me, and really that day, ideas started cooking in my mind about — how can we get people out into this city? What kind of story would take people out into the city, into parts of it that they would never normally go? I’m not quite sure how this entered my brain, but the idea of doing a piece of immersive theater about exploring Richmond.

RAH: I saw the movie a few weeks ago and saw so much of Richmond in it. You actually answered my next question, which was: how important was the city to the film?

DB: I mean, you could make this film, or a film, in a lot of different cities. It’s sort of like a form for exploration. But there were definitely specific things about Richmond that I find especially inspiring.

One of them is part of the story: the challenge of having to cross the river. When you get up on a tall building, and you look down at the James River, this big, beautiful river is just tearing through the middle of town. There’s 25 ways to cross it, but in this film, because of the rules of the show, they can’t cross it over a place that either trains or cars can use, so they have to find, like, the hard way.

And Belle Isle is the answer, with the pedestrian bridges, and then the rocks. And so, in some ways it very much has to be Richmond. I think it’s a introduction to this beautiful place that I would like people to know about, and to see and to admire.

RAH: The film is mixed in with the city, and it just ends up ends up being such a big part of it.

What was it like working with, I would assume, first time actors? In your role as a teacher, you probably deal with young actors all the time, but trying to direct them in a film — was that an easy experience? Or did you find it really challenging?

DB: I mean, I wrote this script for them. Even though I wrote a script for a movie that I wanted to see, I wrote it for these specific actors. I knew going in that I wanted to write something that I felt like we could all really succeed at. We would have the highest chance of hitting a home run with. So I wrote the script to match the story and the city that we were shooting in. I think that they’re all kind of playing… not themselves, but sort of a version of themselves that are not quite as good as humans as they are in real life. They are much better humans in real life. [Laughs] But I wrote their parts to be what I thought they would be just amazing at playing. So I tried to give everybody the best chance of doing great work.

And then, because I was their teacher, when I met the main cast, I was just starting to teach them in an Acting For the Camera class. So from when I met them to when we went into production was like three months, but because I was in class with them twice a week, that time ended up… not intentionally, but it ended up being practice for how it was going to be on on a set. Where we had a lot of shorthand built in from class, and just knew how we worked.

I’m really grateful for rehearsals for the scenes that I knew would be the hardest on the day. We couldn’t afford to shoot anything too many times — you’ve got to keep moving. There were a lot of things that we actually got in a single take, because we had rehearsed so thoroughly.

RAH: I thought you got a couple of really good performances out of this group.

DB: Proud of them. They’re all wonderful in it and I feel like they all took a leap of faith to work together.

dorie barton by kimberly frost — *photo by Kimberly Frost*

RAH: After you spend so much time planning, writing, shooting and everything else — how does it feel when you get done with a feature film? You are like, “Okay, we’re finally done.” Is there a sort of separation anxiety? Or is it relief? [Laughs]

DB: Have you felt that way before? [Laughs]

RAH: Oh yeah! I’ve worked on projects where I was intensely involved for so long and then it’s finally done. And then there is this period of “What do I do now?”

DB: Well, because the film was immediately at the Richmond International Film Festival, and I love film festivals. It was fun to go to a film festival where the film was shot, and have it open the festival. It was really inspiring just to be around other filmmakers and see other people’s films. I would like to be more part of a community, and not just a maker.

[Laughs] Oh! Immediately after the film festival, I sat down and wrote a screenplay. I can’t have any downtime. Yeah, separation anxiety is a good way to word that.

But yeah as an artist, we’re always going to be doing gig work. Basically, it’s like: you’re in a play, the play ends. You read a script, that part is over. You shoot a film, that comes out, and it’s over. It’s always this cycle, and I’ll probably always cry when something is over. Like, I don’t want to ever get to a place where I’m not that sad about it ending.

RAH: Now that you are in Richmond, and having had your experience in Hollywood, what do you think the city needs in terms of production of films to support independent filmmaking here?

DB: I guess it’s a little hard, because of the timing, and the pandemic stopped so many things — so it’s not always easy to identify, like, who is Richmond-based. When you’re in Los Angeles, pretty much everyone around you is somehow, even tangentially, employed in the film, television, or theater industries, or the music industry. Pretty much everybody in Los Angeles is an artist of some kind, and it’s very easy to pick a conversation up with just about anybody. It’s very easy to, like, crew up in LA. If you have an idea for a weekend, you just get on the phone and, “Let’s find a crew!”

I have a team of people that I work with here that I absolutely love, and I’m super grateful for all the people that worked on Welcome To The Show with me. [They] are phenomenal. And of course, they’re the first people I’m going to call. But I’d like to get to a more expanded view of more people in production and producing. People making things happen.

I really need a community of artists to feel like I’m fully thriving because it is easy to get like trapped in your own echo chamber. I am still in community with my friends from Los Angeles, but it’s not the same.

And so yeah, I would like to see more filmmakers getting together, maybe in writers’ workshops. Like, I would totally do a writers’ workshop right now. Or just a way for us to support each other’s goals. I feel like it would look like a salon. A filmmakers’ salon, to get together and talk about what we’re working on. Or to watch a movie once a month and get together and discuss.

RAH: Last question: for this year, what are you working on, and what are you looking forward to? What are you working on now?

DB: I am working on developing my next film to write and direct. I’m also writing a film, just to write it. I have a really good feeling about 2022. There’s been a lot of ideas marinating during the past couple of years, and we’re moving into a time to take action. To take positive action and think about [how] a lot of us have changed to some extent, and learning things.

RAH: I love that, Dorie, and I also have a feel really good about this year.

DB: Even today, I feel that way.

RAH: That’s awesome. Thank you. I just really appreciate the time.

DB: Thank you so much. It has been so lovely to talk with you again. I really am quite serious, but I think it’s I feel like it’s going to take some like formalization of film people. A plan where people get together and provide support and encouragement and empowerment and feedback. I think that that would be great.

RAH: No, no, I completely agree. Well, that’s it. Thank you, Dorie.

DB: Thank you so much.

Find out more about Dorie Barton HERE
Follow her on Instagram HERE

Photos by Kimberly Frost

From The Church To Film Festivals, Storyteller Ron Dillard Jr Is A One Man Creative Army

R. Anthony Harris | March 2, 2022

Topics: A Player's Last Play, film, filmmaking, I Deserve Better, Kelli Lemon, richmond, ron dilliard, Ron Winston Entertainment, RVA, RVA film, rva filmmaker, Shirod Green, Unbrotherly Love, virginia film, When We Prey On Them

Ron Dillard Jr. does it all. He writes his own plays and screenplays. He has television shows in his head ready to go out into the world. A storyteller has to have stories to tell, and Ron is ready to tell his. Finding his way through the business of filmmaking and finding an audience hasn’t been easy, but to hear him tell it, this is all part of the plan.

Ron Dillard Jr: I am a writer, director, producer, actor, I was born in Petersburg, Virginia, moved to Richmond, Virginia in 2004. I have a background in theatre and started off doing church plays and in high school. When I went to college, I went into acting, producing and directing plays then starting Ron Winston Entertainment.

I knew there was a lot of theatre being done in Richmond. There were a lot of stories being told, but from the 1800s perspective. I had these ideas for stories about today, and how we treat each other. Stories that I really wanted to dive into and to give myself an opportunity to play characters that I don’t think other people would have cast me in.

So that’s how I got started to where we are now.

ron dilliard by kimberly frost — *photo by Kimberly Frost*

Richard Anthony Harris: And what was your first short film? Or play?

RDJ: The first play that I did with my company was in 2008. It was called I Deserve Better and it was about domestic violence. This isn’t a new topic, but I don’t want to do a production unless I can bring something different to it.

In I Deserve Better, we saw the abused [person’s] perspective as to why she stays, and the abuser as to why he does it. Not so much to give him a pass — there’s no excuse for it — but to understand why someone does something can give you a key to hopefully help them. In this story, we see the father aspect, because 70% of men who abuse women have seen [abuse] in their childhood. He saw it growing up.

In this production, the father is now reformed and trying to discipline his son. His son is like, “How dare you? You taught me to be how I am right now.” So that was an interesting dynamic that we showcased to some really good results.

RAH: How difficult is it taking a play and making it into a film?

RDJ: I have yet to take one of my plays and make it into a film, but what I wanted to do with that play is turn it into a mini-series. I want to basically do it where we tell three generations of stories within two episodes, so it’s not difficult when you have a perspective of it.

When you start thinking about exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it, the outline is the writer’s best friend. To be able to sit down, think about what you want to do, and most importantly, why do you want to do it? And then, how can you do it to do it in an effective way to tell a story?

RAH: When you started to get into film, did you have a lot of support? What was the process of “I’m gonna start doing some films”? How difficult was that to do in Richmond?

RDJ: For me, I have a great, great crew that has been working with me since I was doing my theatre productions. It really wasn’t until I met a young man named Shirod Green and partnered with him. I needed someone to be the director of photography, to deal with the lighting and the shots, someone to edit the films, since that is something that I don’t specialize in.

I found out about Shirod through Kelli Lemon. She did a post about The Art Of Noise and she tagged Shirod Green. I checked out his Instagram, I looked up his website, and I reached out to see if he’d meet with me. Fortunately, he took a meeting with me, and I told him about these short films that I want to do. I told him the plan of how I wanted to have them premiered — I want to take them into film festivals — and where I wanted to go. After that meeting, we kept in contact, and he ultimately said he would come on and work on it.

Once I had that in place, I had the confidence that we can go and do these now four films. I felt like we could be very successful with them.

RAH: What is the biggest obstacle to getting your films out in a town like Richmond, and finding an audience?

RDJ: When I did my second, A Player’s Last Play, I did these three commercials to promote them. The three commercials were everything that happened before the play, and I put them on television.

I remember a woman gave me feedback, since she saw the commercials. She loved the commercials but didn’t know anyone in the play, so she didn’t come. Having a name attached to the project is something I understood as an issue. That is the biggest detractor in the Richmond market.

RAH: Well, it seems to me like you’re getting them out there. I want to say congratulations on having three of your films showing in film festivals all over the world.

RDJ: Thank you, yes. We’re very, very fortunate to have all three films in the same film festivals multiple times. We have been fortunate to win now over 30 awards. We have won awards domestically and internationally. These films have been screened in Europe and places like India, Brazil. All over the United States. We’ve been really, really fortunate with the reception of these films.

RAH: I am really curious, what is it like talking to organizers of a film festival in Turkey? In places that don’t speak English, do you feel your ideas come across?

RDJ: You know, it’s interesting that after we got into our first 15 or so festivals, we started to have other film festivals from like India, from Turkey, from Hong Kong, from Japan, who were actually asking us to enter into their festivals, which was so overwhelming.

And the way that we’ve been able to communicate even in different languages has been astonishing, because some of the film festivals that we have won, they are in another language. The good thing is that we have films that really communicate very well, when you’re watching it — whether you can follow it in English, or if you have to have a translator.

RAH: That’s amazing, Ron, I think, you know, just following your story, it is amazing that you are all over the world. Does it ever pop in your mind, as a as a Black filmmaker, that maybe you’re opening doors for other Black filmmakers in this local market?

RDJ: I’ve never thought about it like that as a Black man, from a Black perspective only, because I look at Steven Spielberg, David Fincher, I look at directors who are very good at what they do.

My favorite director is Ridley Scott, and I never looked at him saying, “Hey, he’s a proficient Englishman!” I’m looking at him as a director who has taught me a lot, and if I see his films, I’m going to get a great story. I know that he’s a master of the craft, and that’s what I look to do.

I’m a director. First, I’m a good storyteller. And that’s how I want my brand to be known, when Ronald Dillard, Jr. does a film or tells a story, it’s going to be good. It’s gonna be something interesting. That’s what I work towards, to ensure that’s what people expect from me.

RAH: You are a storyteller.

RDJ: Absolutely. When you think about When We Prey On Them, it deals with one of the worst issues dealing with a lot of Black men, being slayed by police officers. That’s something very, very specific in the film that I couldn’t turn away from anymore. I had to find a way to do it. And we were able to get it done. Again, it’s all about the story. It is wrong to be taking lives when you don’t have to, or just taking life so irresponsibly.

So that’s the overall point for that film, is hoping that it brings humanity back to people when they’re thinking about life. At least, that’s what I hope it does.

RAH: What themes do you come back to in your films and what are you trying to figure out?

RDJ: I see a common theme in all of my films. A lot of times people who are pushed around or ignored, or a lot of times may take the high road, they have their say. [I hope] for my audience to really think about how they’re treating their fellow man. And I’m hoping that in my plays, or my films, to stop for a moment, hopefully generate some conversation and say, “Hey, am I like this? Do I portray this?” A lot of times, unless it hits them personally, most people don’t care. But to be able to sit back and let this fictional character give us an opportunity to think about ourselves and what we could do better, how we can be better — what is better than that?

RAH: As an independent filmmaker in Richmond, do you feel like you you get enough support here? Are there enough crew, actors, and professionals to help you?

RDJ: There was a time where I didn’t feel like that there was a lot of support but now, I look at it as that is my fault. The way I approach it now is that, number one, I have to get out to meet people. I have to get out here and make sure I’m meeting people, being active, and knowing who’s available.

RAH: My last question for you is, in regards to your career, what are you excited about this year?

RDJ: This year I have three television shows that I have created, and I’m starting to have meetings to pitch. I’m looking to transition into television show-running.

You can tell amazing stories over several seasons, and that’s really appealing to me. One of the reasons I made those films was to be able to tell different stories, and if you are going to go into television, you’re going to have to be able to have those chops.

It was a chance to do some great films and to hopefully draw conversation, but then to show my talent to tell more than one story — be more than a one-trick pony. Meaning you can put stories together time and time again, because that’s one of the elements you’re gonna need to go into doing television.

RAH: You have another movie coming up?

RDJ: We just finished a film called Unbrotherly Love, scored out of Ireland. So we review that and hopefully start putting that into some film festivals. And that is going to be another film we’re looking to get out into distribution, along with It’s The Color In Your Eyes, A Monster, and When We Prey On Them.

RAH: Ron, that’s amazing. I just want to say thank you for taking the time to speak to me today.

RDJ: Thank you so much for asking.

Follow Ron Dillard Jr on Instagram HERE

photos by Kimberly Frost

The Future Is Now with Filmmaker Tyler Scheerschmidt

R. Anthony Harris | March 1, 2022

Topics: Dillon Douglasson, dorie barton, Hourglass sessions, Joey Wharton, Jonathan Facka, Matthew Sease, music, Out Of Sight Creative LLC, richmond film, richmond music, RVA, RVA film, rva music, Shy Lennox, The Biscuit Factory, the metaverse, Tyler Scheerschmidt, welcome to the show

What are you doing with your life? Everyone wants you to have a vision for the future: the motivational guru will tell you about it, for a fee. The barfly has an idea for you. Your buddy is always ready to tell you what’s about to happen. Then one day, you have a conversation and realize you have bumped into the future. It brings you a kernel of an idea that makes sense. This is how the internet happened, not to mention air fryers and airplanes. You pause. “What was that you said? Could you tell me more? Can we connect on Instagram?”

Ideas matter. Apparently, “the metaverse” matters too.

Since March 2020, the Hourglass Sessions have showcased the Richmond music scene thru YouTube. Sometime last year, they started live streaming into the metaverse onto a virtual stage they created. Pretty interesting. I had to dig to find out more. Doing so led me to Hourglass co-founder Tyler Scheerschmidt. Here’s the conversation we had.

Tyler Scheerschmidt: I am a local filmmaker here in Richmond, Virginia, co-founder of Out Of Sight Creative LLC and Hourglass Sessions. And, I’ve been living in Richmond for, oh god, how many years has it been? I believe I’m coming up on six right now. I went to VCU, the arts program, the cinema program, and graduated in 2018. I’ve been working as a freelancer cinematographer and editor ever since.

R. Anthony Harris: When did you know you wanted to get into film and video work?

TS: I’ve got to shout out my dad for this one because he always had the camcorder out when I was growing up. One day back in sixth or seventh grade, my friends and I started messing around with an old camcorder. We just never stopped. It was just a fun thing. We’d get together every weekend. We would shoot these horribly embarrassing little movies. Looking back, that laid in my passion and my love for it. And my friends, they all went on to become actors. Some are living in New York, some living here in Richmond.

As I got older and realized this is something you can make your living with, I started doing it professionally. Filming weddings and local commercials for the coffee shops in town. From there, I went to technical school at Monroe Tech and did the TV program there for two years. [Then] I worked as an assistant editor for a place called The Biscuit Factory, which is a documentary-focused production house in Falls Church.

Since then, I’ve been doing my own thing and [enjoying] the freedom to choose what projects I want to work on. Music is my other passion, and I am a musician. The Hourglass Sessions are a really nice bridge of two passions. It’s a joy to be able to do that.

RAH: Where did the idea for Hourglass Sessions come from?

TS: Well, it came from a regular job. It was, he doesn’t live here anymore, Shy Lennox. Very, very talented guy. He just called me up one day, said, “Hey, I want to shoot a live video in my apartment.” I said “Sure.” It looked fun, let’s do it. After shooting, it dawned on me that I liked the way it was shot. From that one video, the framework was in place for a series that could be continued indefinitely. And I saw the value in that.

My roommate, Dillon Douglasson, saw the value in it too. He wanted to hop on doing the sound work for these. And from there we just decided to do as many as we could. Build them up. Make them as great as possible. And by coincidence, we started right when COVID hit.

We already had two sessions planned. They all got canceled because of the big COVID hit in March 2020. So we were like, “What do we do now? We can’t really do anything.” So instead of just sitting around, we filmed each other in our house. We had a big house. We’re all musicians. We could just continue to prototype this and keep ourselves sane. [Laughs]

So we made five different Hourglass Sessions of ourselves, with songs that we wrote, in different sections in our house. And it was really, really fun. It was good for us to test and get practicing. See how the Hourglass Sessions would function, and like, how they would work. And it was just a really nice creative outlet.

So when bands got more comfortable later in the year, they were seeing what we’re putting on YouTube and we’d reach out to them, or they’d reach out to us. Over time, we started building a catalog.

The video that really set things in motion for us was the Jonathan Facka session. We filmed his Hourglass Session, a live version of “The Tarmac,” at the Richmond Main Street Station. Joey Wharton was on that too. He did some behind the scenes filming or photography for that shoot, and we shot and finished it. From that we realized how big we can make them. We could theoretically take this anywhere. It was a cool moment. And I love that video. Jonathan and I are good friends from it. That’s another thing — these videos have allowed us to become friends and connected with the Richmond music scene. It’s such a great scene with very talented people and just an awesome music scene.

I feel lucky to be doing them here.

Tyler Scheerschmidt by Kimberly Frost — *photo by Kimberly Frost*

RAH: I love that you guys do these sessions and I love that you’re putting on live shows in the metaverse. Can you get into that? How did that happen? And how important do you see that being part of film and video going forward?

TS: I’m glad you brought that up. I think it’s crucial and I think it’s the future. I feel very fortunate to be where we are right now in life. We all know that metaverse is a very new word. It’s a buzzword. It is the new thing. But the future of the metaverse is incredible.

And how to how we got into it and I’d have to thank Matthew Sease. He joined the team in the summer of 2020. Dylan and I have been shooting sessions for awhile and he brought the idea to us to start live streaming bands. At the time, people were live streaming but there was a lack of quality and there was a huge demand for quality live streams because of COVID.

So he came to us with the idea and we were like, “Absolutely, let’s do it!” We did a few live streams and after we had done that, a friend of Matt introduced us to Web3 and the metaverse, and pretty much got us connected with the right people. And through that connection, we were able to start transmitting our streams into a metaverse called decentraland, which is one of the oldest metaverses that exists. One of the big boys, I guess you could say. And yeah, it’s it taken us all by surprise. “Oh, this is… this is really cool.” Like, why not? Let’s stream in the metaverse and see how it goes.

RAH: It kind of sounds like a joke, right?

TS: No, it didn’t sound like a joke. It’s kind of sounds like fun. At the time, it just seemed like a fun thing. Why not? As we did it more and more videos, it dawned on us that this was revolutionary.

And it really is our focus now, the metaverse, and thanks to our friends in decentraland we have our own venue. It’s a digitally constructed music hall called The Hourglass and it lives in the festival district of decentraland. People from all over the world show up during our live streams, not only to enjoy the music but to make new friends. Again, from around the world! You’d be surprised like by how many new people you meet, and how supportive they are of what you’re doing.

And there’s a gamification sense in our streams as well. The audience can participate and feel like they’re a part of the show. That’s been a really big thing. Regular live streaming can feel disconnected because you’re watching it, but not really there. The metaverse is a really great way to increase interaction and make it a bit more immersive.

I’ve lost count of how many streams we have done, but it is a lot, and it’s still very early. We are really excited to see how the next sessions go. How we can continue to bring value, build a community, and honestly provide the best quality live streams that are in decentraland right now.

The other thing is exposing the artists in Richmond to the metaverse. A vast majority of people are not aware of what the metaverse actually is. what Web3 is. It is a nice thing that we are actually able to educate artists and give them a launchpad into this world. Tell them that, hey, this is a career path. A viable, cutting edge, new career path in music industry giving them a new audience in the metaverse.

Like, that’s really cool. And every artist that we’ve had come in is blown away by it. That makes me really happy. I was afraid of what artists would think. This is a totally brand new thing. But everyone has been super-supportive and loving it. They want to learn more. It really piques their interest and they have a fun time on the show. And they’re like, “I gotta learn more about this. What is this world?” And that’s really rewarding for me.

RAH: That’s awesome, Tyler! Really interesting stuff. For people that don’t know, how would they watch an Hourglass Session that is in decentraland? Like, how do you get to be an avatar in there?

TS: We stream to YouTube and the metaverse at the same time. We do provide a link in our Youtube description for easy access. All you really have to do is go to decentraland’s website. To watch our show, you can go in as a guest and watch it or you can make an account and watch it. There are a lot of perks that come with making an account, and we recommend that people make an account.

RAH: You worked on a feature now showing on Amazon Prime. How did you get involved with Welcome To The Show?

TS: I guess I got lucky. I was living with friends who are in the theatre program at VCU, and one of their professors is Dorie Barton. And one day, I was coming home from work and Dorie was sitting in our living room and talking to the guys about this idea. It just kind of went from there. Dorie brought me on, and what an incredible relationship. Everybody on the crew became good friends. That’s how it happened.

RAH: I love that. I love that about Richmond. [Laughs]

TS: Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean. [Laughs]

RAH: I watched Welcome To The Show a few weeks ago. It was fun. Great job.

TS: Thank you, man. Appreciate it.

RAH: What goals do you have for this upcoming year?

TS: Oh, man. It is very Hourglass focused. Honestly, I would say that the main goal right now is making Hourglass a brand and as a company and whatnot. If I had to sum it up, it’s working on a multi-metaverse project — and it’s a very exciting prospect that we are diving headfirst into. Building our community up. Making it bigger, better. Making the best live music entertainment that you can find in the metaverse.

RAH: That’s interesting. You are bridging the real world and bringing entertainment into virtual world — becoming a virtual world production company. Very cool.

TS: We are working on making advances in virtual production, testing, and the technologies that actually come with shooting filming music videos, and finding ways to bridge them into the virtual world. We’re working on that, and we’re really excited.

RAH: Well, I love it Tyler, and we will leave it at that. No need for your secrets to be out in the world! [Laughs] You are providing quality videos for local musicians to use AND taking that onto this new frontier. I really appreciate all that.

TS: I am glad you see the value in that. That excites me the most. Sharing it with the community here in Richmond and keeping everyone up to date. Hey, this is what’s going on! You should know about it. You should be a part of it. It’s really cool. Hop in. Get into the metaverse!

RAH: Honestly in a decade, it might look like Ready Player One. I’m not joking! [Laughs]

TS: I know I am talking about a lot, but it’s so early. We really feel like we’re shaping it ourselves right now. It can be whatever we want to be. We are early to the game and can create the rules and how the game is played. And it is just experiment to have fun and just see what’s possible. I mean, you can do whatever you want. It’s crazy.

RAH: That’s great Tyler. [Pause] And on that note, that’s it for me. You have a great rest of the day. Appreciate you.

TS: Thank you. See you soon Tony!

See more of Hourglass Session on YouTube HERE
Follow Tyler and his team on Instagram HERE

Photos by Kimberly Frost

Innocence and A Punjabi Experience: A Conversation With Baldeep Pooni

R. Anthony Harris | November 15, 2021

Topics: Baldeep Pooni, COVID-19, I Never Went To School, Indian, innocence, meditation, poetry, protests, punjab, punjabi, richmond film, richmond writers, RVA, RVA film, RVA Writers, yoga

There is a quiet confidence you can feel in people with conviction. Baldeep Pooni has conviction wrapped in a sense of deep consideration. What is happening right now? How is his presence affecting those around him? He speaks with purpose and explains himself carefully. I have met a lot of people in the city but how many people have I met who do that? Not many.

He has written a book titled innocence with his convictions, considerations and thoughts put down in prose that speaks like an older wise man trapped inside a young man’s body. Also, he recently released a short film exploring his grandfather’s life as a Punjabi farmer titled i never went to school. If you get a chance to explore either or both, you get a sense of what it is like to grow up in Chesterfield/Richmond born to immigrant parents — given a chance to create these works at all.

Deep was nice enough to come by the studio and here is our conversation.

baldeep pooni article — *by Kimberly Frost*

Baldeep Pooni: My name is Deep and I just published my first book, innocence. It’s a collection of short stories and narratives on the concept of ‘innocence’. The last few years, my work has been centered on spreading yoga and mindfulness and meditation. And so this book is an introspection into a different part of myself, a creative part of myself, and the concept of innocence is something that I expand upon and reinterpret as a subjective and objective experience.

R. Anthony Harris: What brought you to the idea to create this book?

BP: Really, I had no intention of creating something for a purpose, it wasn’t an idea to create a book. In April 2020, when I had this time and space during the holy month of Ramadan, which I decided to fast that month, in that time and space I had a lot of different emotions that came to me because it was also a period of rest. As I was resting, all of these emotions needed to be expressed and needed to be understood. And so I just started writing, in a very cathartic way, on paper, which also became some drawings as well — which you will see in the book innocence.

And with my meditation practice and with some of the vows that I’ve made in the past, when I create or express I normally would just destroy it, because it’s a transient experience — but I decided to share with a few people and they gave me some feedback, to share it with the world. After some reflection, I realized that was something that I also wanted to do. The idea of creating this book was more so a collection of what I had already expressed for myself, and then sharing it with people. Of course, that is a different process, and a bit more logical, but the inherent idea and the experience of it was more from the emotional spiritual experience that I had during those 30-plus days.

RAH: Being someone that is connected to your own spirituality, and I would assume balance in your life, how did the period of COVID affect you? Was that a sign of imbalance in the world?

BP: What is very important to me in life is accepting and understanding death as a concept and as a practice. When I began to notice that COVID was becoming a reality, which was early February, when I was noticing reports and everything from China, I could tell there was a change coming.

Also, as someone who has studied history as a profession and as a fascination, I knew what sort of pattern we were about to go into. COVID is a pandemic that is still going on — massive widespread death, hysteria — and typically, that leaves a lot of people in a state of imbalance, where people are pondering perhaps the deeper meanings of life.

For me, I didn’t really need an external stimulus. This was something that was internally a battle that would go on top of years of depression, and that depression, not in the western lens, but in a different perspective on depression, of just seeing reality in a ‘slower state’ and having the ability to speed up how I process time and the way I spent my time.

It was interesting because I had actually voiced something out to myself around December 2019. I was going to have a month of silence, which was supposed to be in June of 2020, but what I got from the natural world was the whole time period to do exactly that, be silent.

Honestly, it was very fascinating, because I was able to see the vibe that I would have for myself internally be kind of projected onto the world. And so, you know, one way or another it was actually like seeing an image or a visual that was painted inside for so long, be shown outside to people. And it led to a lot of different things. It sparked this collective experience of suffering, and the polarities of the experiences of suffering, but it also led to this heightened awareness of self that led to all these collective protest movements like the passing of George Floyd, and the protests in India for farmers rights, which is still been going on.

I really don’t think that would have been possible if it wasn’t for… in one way or another, if you see it as meditative or not, it’s essential to be able to sit with an experience. And I feel like that’s exactly what COVID [brought], through either losing somebody or just noticing all the restrictions and changes that we as humans have to go through. So for me, it was kind of an introspection that somehow was external.

RAH: I ask that question because for you to put out not only a book that is meditative, but a film about your grandfather this year — it seems like those seeds were planted last year, a time when everyone had to reflect on their own life and their own mortality. A lot of people made life-changing decisions last year, when they realized that whatever they were doing in their lives had maybe not as much purpose, or as much care, as they would like. I connected the two, the pandemic and your projects, in my mind.

Where did the want to do a film about your grandfather come from?

BP: I will say in terms of creating, I’m just kind of more with the spontaneity, and there are some things that are like foresight. Emotionally I feel something, and I want to create it. So for me, I really go off of emotional intuition. And if I feel like something is necessary or worth doing, then I start taking the time to explore what that feeling elicits in me.

The movie that I recently produced with two local film directors from Richmond, Virginia, is titled i never went to school. And honestly, if I were to sit here and describe a logical process of how it went, it wouldn’t be accurate, nor would it give justice to the aspect of how it happened. In the creation process, I had this idea initially to have a space where I would have my grandfather share something about his life, and perhaps I would be in some of the mix of that. It was just an idea. The reason for that idea was because I’m not someone that wants to take possession of “innocence” as a concept, nor as the book itself.

It’s been experienced and created through me, but as a concept “innocence” is a subjective and objective experience of one’s essence, and so what better way to witness that and explore that than to have someone explore their “innocence” in real time. My grandfather, who doesn’t speak English, has never done anything creative before. But in the aspect of his work he’s creative, he is a farmer. The creativity that is inherent in farming is that you take a seed and somehow miraculously, this seed, which you can relate to an idea, becomes something else, which literally becomes sustenance which you eat.

My book, innocence was so influenced by my grandmother’s passing, which happened over 17 to 18 years ago. For me, because I connect with death so heavily, I know my grandfather only has a certain number of years left. And because he only has a certain number of years left, I knew that I wanted to celebrate my grandfather’s life and who he is as a person, right now, before he passed. And so it was beautiful to witness how that turned out to actually become a short film, because it is inspired, in some ways, by the book, but it’s its own inherent creation. And I think that’s the beautiful part of this; how quickly and how organically the whole process came together.

RAH: And did your grandfather watch the movie? What was that experience like for you?

BP: (laughs) It was pretty surreal. So I premiered at the Byrd Theatre. So there was there was a lot of processing in terms of how to set that up, and what that process would look like. It was really fun, it was very engaging and to have a space that is set up exclusively for this purpose. And then for the entire community of people that decided to come out, as well as a heavy Punjabi community.

(Pause) For someone to be from the Punjabi community and watch a film essentially entirely in Punjabi, for that experience, to be something that they were able to experience directly through a person that they knew, in some aspects, was very interesting. And it was beautiful for me, because I was able to watch everyone really be ‘mindfucked’ a little bit about what the whole thing was about, but at the same time, really being open to the idea of something that was familiar as well.

RAH: We had we had discussed this before and for people reading this, what is the distinction between Punjabi and Indian? To make a blanket statement to someone that is of a certain ethnicity, it is offensive in ways and/or is it an opportunity to educate?

BP: I always welcome moments of ignorance as not something that is inherently negative, but as an opportunity to grow and understand each other because that’s how knowledge is spread, right? It’s opportunity for conversation and dialogue.

So, when somebody refers to something as “Indian” or “India,” you’re talking about a nationalistic concept that became a country in 1947. That’s what “India” or “Indian” typically designates now. “India” for the word itself, as well as the concept itself, is very much influenced by British occupation. The people that took control of India were mostly British-educated, and most of them were Hindu in terms of their religion and spirituality and perspectives.

Now, “Punjab” (pause) “Pun” means “five” and “jab” means “river.” So Punjab is a region that is located in the northern part of the subcontinent. In order to make India — and also make Pakistan, because those two countries were made at the same time, because of British occupation — half of Punjab was divided up. So the lower portion went to India, and then the upper portion went to Pakistan. Essentially, East Punjab is in India and West Punjab is in Pakistan.

Now bringing the conversation back around to the Punjab that I’m referring to, there’s a heavy population there that refers to themselves as Sikh. Sikh is a specific religion, spirituality, and set of experiences that are different than the majority, the majority is 90% Hindu.

And so the laws, for example in the US, if you’re Indigenous, or if you’re African American, this country has been more designed for Caucasian white Americans. In the same ways in India, there is systemic oppression on many levels that are from that Hindu domination. The state of Punjab is mostly farmers, so it is the land that is heavily based on farming. And there’s now development of other cities in Punjab, but natively speaking, it is just a land of farmers.

The experience of Punjabi people in India itself, as well as the experience of Punjabi people in general, even getting the opportunity to come to the US, is very different than other Indians — [those] that will claim themselves as Indians. Now, there has been systemic genocides committed by the Indian government from the 1980s onward, and some would say even earlier than that, on the Punjabi people. But because of the ties between India and the US, they did not recognize it as a genocide, even though people were forced to flee as refugees, just not designated as refugees. They found creative ways to get here and create themselves, which for me, as a first generation American, is very important, because my father struggled to get to this country. I’m not really going to get into depth about that, because I do have something in the future that I’m going to create surrounding that. But you know, connecting this with my book, as well as with the movie, i never went to school. It’s essentially connected to that experience.

I grew up in the south side of Richmond. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. We grew up where we grew up, and that was kind of the vibe and experience. When I would go to school — and I went to schools that were a little bit more integrated with the deeper aspects of the suburbs, borderline in Chesterfield County — I would encounter Indians that had completely different experiences than I did. And they weren’t Punjabi. They were from different parts of India that typically have some sort of commerce or something that they developed in India, and they just simply carried it over or they were very educated. I’m the first person to ever go to school in my family ever, yet alone to produce a book.

I don’t find it offensive if somebody calls me “Indian” if they don’t know it, but I definitely find it offensive if somebody, for example, an Indian, wants to refer to me as “Indian.” It’s not something that I don’t allow myself to be referred to, but I am open to somebody calling me “Indian” and then expanding upon what that means, and reinterpreting the word as well. But I think it’s important to have that clarification, because I remember when you had said it — it wasn’t something that you said intentionally, it just triggered something inside of me, which was, “No, I’m a type of Indian that you haven’t seen before.”

And the other thing, India as a country, in many ways in terms of their culture, and Bollywood and other things in terms of art, they have appropriated Punjabi culture heavily. And they’ve always tried to portray Punjabi people as dumb and ignorant, even though they bite off of our culture — and some can say that’s adjacent in the US to Black Culture or Indigenous Culture to Latino Culture. That’s the backstory on it and as you can see, there’s so much layers and depth on is that you kind of have to compartmentalize all of that, when you feel triggered by that word.

RAH: I felt that was obviously very important to you, so I wanted to address that and allow you to expand on that conversation.

So as someone that’s on the outside looking in on the projects that you are taking on and the things that you’re contemplating, it feels like you are exploring your past, understanding how you feel in the present, and then having to all that done before being able to go forward. And so a good final question would be — where do you go from here? And what do you see in the near future and and down the line?

BP: Honestly, I don’t know. What I do know right now is that I’m going to be spending a lot of time just resting and recovering. Because that experience of innocence, and i never went to school came from like a deep state of rest.

I think more than ever, this is an important time to just chill, relax, enjoy the vibe of what I’ve been able to create. Just enjoying life for a little bit more and then spontaneously, whatever emotion or state nature that I’m in, that will kind of create itself. I don’t really have an idea of how I would want this to go, but I’m sure that one of the things that I’d like to do is throw up ideas into the air or emotions and then once I start feeling them out or processing them, then it’s very easy for me to bring it into manifestation. But if I am true, logical and grounded with what moves I am about to make next or things that I want to do, it’ll take away from this experience.

In other words, more invested in the journey and the experience rather than the tangible experience of what’s next.

RAH: Thank you so much for taking the time Deep.

BP: Thank you for the space and time to share this.

For more information, or to purchase innocence by Baldeep Pooni, please click HERE

Photos by Kimberly Frost

Why Vote No On RVA Casino? Here are a few local opinions.

RVA Staff | November 1, 2021

Topics: casino, casino rva, election day november 2020, one casino, richmond casino, richmond community, RVA, vote

While the citizens of Richmond have been inundated with deeply-funded promotional materials touting the overwhelming benefits of the One Casino project, the voices of local residents who devote their lives to bettering the community have been largely drowned out. These are some of those voices, from the real people who make this city what it is, and work to make it the best that it can be.

This article was paid for by Vote No on RVA Casino.
For more information go to nocasinorva.com

Allan-Charles Chipman
Faith leader, Organizer, Policy Analyst

“One of the things I love to say is that just because something is current, doesn’t mean that it’s new. And Richmond is a city that is very much still trapped in patterns. There are different patterns. There are patterns of freedom fighters. You have your Barbara Johns and your Brother Gabriels, and people who fought for freedom. But there’s still very much a pattern of exploitation. And when you think about Bryan Stevenson saying “Slavery didn’t end, it just evolved,” a lot of the areas of exploitation in Richmond simply have evolved. Dr. King talked about how many people associate prejudice with racism, but have trouble recognizing the economic exploitation of racism. And so when we think about the monuments that just came down, that slavery was very much about prejudice, but it was also very much about economic exploitation. And I don’t think it’s ironic that in the same year these are coming down, there’s a new monument to exploitation that’s being offered, which I believe the casino is, as I jokingly call One Casino, One Colony. Because it’s very much an extractive measure. It’s very much a predatory industry, from the mouths of the people who are at the top of it themselves. So I got into the fight against the casino because it was another one of the patterns reemerging and evolving and presenting itself as an opportunity. But when you look from urban renewal to all these other types of attacks on – really on Black freedom and Black progress – they always are couched in good language.”

“The city has always had revenue coming in, but the problem is, it hasn’t prioritized the Black side of town, and the 8^th and the 9^th districts […] Gambling and casinos, 40-50% of their revenue – and this is from the Institute on American Values who did quite an exhaustive report on it – 40-50% of their revenue comes from people who are addicted to gambling. It really is mostly funded by people who are addicts. The DSM recently listed gambling addiction, for the first time in its history, as substance abuse, even though it’s technically not a substance, because they found that neurologically […] the same type of dopamine that’s released and the same type of fiending that occurs in a cocaine addict also occurs in someone who is anticipating a monetary reward while they’re gambling. So it’s very dangerous, it’s very exploitative, and I’m glad that people are looking beyond the talking points to really examine what’s best for Richmond.”

“Historically, there has always been room at the table for Black people who are willing to exploit their own. What happens when you have Black Power that has forsaken the politics of liberation and is about the politics of exploitation? Is wealth extraction and rigged gaming a part of the Black tradition? Or is it a part of the colonial-settler tradition? When we’re talking about exploiting people and the tradition that’s there, that’s not part of our Black tradition. When we think about Maggie Walker, her motto was, “We will put our pennies together and turn our pennies into dollars.” Her strategy wasn’t “we’re going to take your pennies so we can have dollars.” That’s exploitation using Blackness as a way into exploiting communities. Simply saying that because there’s a Black person involved in it, you ought to support everything that happens – that’s not true. And I think that’s using the sacred tradition of Blackness in a way that is shameful in my opinion.”

Aurora Higgs
She/Hers They/Them
Black LGBT Community Advocate

“A lot of the reasons for my personal objections to the casino are not even categorically around casinos. But it has a lot to do with our history as a city, and how I know that if we bring in a casino that so overtly values profits over people, our city is not going to have the cultural infrastructure to ensure that people are remaining safe, and have wraparound services when this massive build displaces people in a portion of Richmond that is already forgotten about, and is sort of left and neglected. There are a lot of people who still live in this area that is thought to be mostly industrial. That’s where a lot of low-income folks are living. That’s where I was living – in that corridor. The thought of there being such a massive build there, the traffic that’s going to come in, the impact on housing prices that it’s going to have on people who own property in that community while also furthering the agenda of gentrification in the surrounding areas, that’s going to make it hard for people like me. I’m privileged. I would not say I’m low income. I’m middle class, but I still can’t afford to buy a house in Richmond on the income that I have. And to be quite honest, some of the properties that I could reasonably afford would be in that exact area of the casino.”

“The casino is a business, so I don’t put all of the obligations for understanding how it impacts the humans who live there [on them]. I put that obligation on our city council, on our mayor. And from what I’ve seen, the money that we would get from an endeavor like a casino would not be used to lift up the people who are at the bottom, it would just be used to create more economic advantage in our community. But economic advantage does not equal human advantage. It means more people who already have advantage getting even more advantaged, and people who have historically been disadvantaged experiencing a wider gap between them and those who are at the top.”

“What I need from my community are leaders and representatives who can balance the needs of the people in the community as well as the needs of boosting the economy. I don’t believe that we’re in a place that if we brought a casino in it would do more good than harm. Until I see a plan for a more holistic set of structures and systems and institutions that are meant to benefit people first and the economy second, I’m sticking with no.”

“Just because this casino is owned by Black business owners does not mean it’s for Black people. The argument that a Black owned casino will help Black people is an incomplete argument for me. I don’t understand what in there helps black people. I understand how it helps a handful of black people – those who own it. That is the most advantageous place to be in a casino, is if you’re going to be owning it. But who are going to be the folks who are losing their money, who are coming in and expressing addictive tendencies in a place that is ready to exploit those preexisting challenges with gambling? This is going to function as a place where the elderly and folks who already have issues with gambling are going to find a haven. And I think folks in those communities deserve a haven, but I think it should be one that’s not exploitative. And I think it should be one that sees the value in their contribution, and I don’t think that’s what a casino does. Once a casino gets built it has to continue to justify its expenses. It’s going to have to justify its footprint both on our environment and in our society. And that means it’s going to continually have to feed itself, and that’s a pretty big undertaking […] The majority of the revenue that this casino will need to justify its existence will be coming off of the backs of people who are already oppressed and already under-resourced relative to their oppression.”

“If it takes three hundred million dollars to keep this casino going, I would say that’s gotta come from somewhere. That is a lot of money. Where could that three hundred million reasonably go otherwise, is my question. I need for folks who are already experiencing hardship to be given a voice, not be taken advantage of. The famous saying in the casino world is “the house always wins.” And that also aligns with capitalism. They cannot function unless they are making more money than they’re spending. So it is by nature an entity that has to consume more than it gives back. Is that something I want in my community? No. I think that our community deserves more caring, careful, intentional and compassionate structures in it, so that one day if we do decide to have an entity that is one that makes money more than it gives money out, at least we know that we’re in a society that has those wraparound services to deter against victimizing people who are already victims. Right now we don’t live in that society. We don’t live in a fair society. And so we risk deepening the inequities that already exist. We live in the former Capitol of the Confederacy, and we just got one of the last popular Confederate statues taken down. Is this the legacy that we want to build in its place?”

Damon Harris
Real Estate Professional, Community Educator

“I’m Damon Harris. I am an original Virginian, born in and raised Petersburg. Grew up in New England, Rhode Island. I came back to Virginia 16 years ago just to come back home. Currently I own a real estate group where we focus on three things. I’m a former social worker, so all my work is socially related; somehow, some way, trying to service humans. So my real estate group is based off of humans, not property. So we focus on education, we focus on fighting inequality through ownership, responsible investing, as well as educating people on the history of Richmond real estate and Richmond housing. We’ve been doing this for about seven years. For some home buyers, our goal is to educate people on how to be responsible, and how to not gentrify a community, how not to displace people, and how to support legacy residents. So that’s how I find myself here, because one of the key things I believe is that people come first.”

“I don’t support [the casino] because of a myriad of reasons. I try to take a numbers approach to it because I am in real estate, so what I look at is the fact that there’s not enough housing for people. There’s not enough affordable housing for people. There’s not enough entry level housing for people. And ever since the casino got mentioned, speculators have been coming to the region, buying homes for AirBnB, buying homes that they assume is going to jump in value, and immediately – before even one quarter is put in a slot machine – you have people being displaced. So no matter what’s on the billboard, what’s really happening is people are going to have to go. And people can’t come back home, because they want another slot machine. And that’s my first reason.”

“My second reason is that because I’m from New England, we have different casinos up there. And they all came there with the same pitch: community, small business, community, small business. They just use that. They learned that word, community. And what happened was small businesses were pushed out, because the casino had everything that the smaller businesses in the community were once offering. I also found that the prices of rent went up, but no income went up. And the prices of rent went up not because there was a need, but because they thought that they could leverage the casino to have the people that worked there move there. And so I never saw anything in my own community that I left that benefited from a casino. So when One Casino started to come around, those buzzwords were back. And I felt like they began to leverage those buzzwords by leveraging other community members to get people to believe it, instead of understanding the true impact of what a casino means.”

“It’s not a Black casino. It has Black faces that promote and pump the casino. It’s an entity. It’s not a Black casino. It’s not a white casino. It’s a casino. It’s made for people to stop off the highway and gamble and keep going. It’s made for people to hope that they can pay some bills by hittin’ large on the slot machine, and be broke. It’s not a Black casino, it’s not a white casino. They have black faces on the front of the casino, but it’s an entity that’s owned by way more than Black people. They have Black heads of the corporation, but it’s not owned by Black people.”

“The outside money that I believe the casino would bring in is not directed to servicing the community, it will be directed to servicing shareholders, and the community would get a drop in the bucket to appease the community voices. I don’t agree with the fact that they’re leveraging Black faces to get Black votes.”

Jon Baliles
Former Richmond First District Representative

“Hi, I’m Jon Baliles and I’ll be voting no on the casino referendum on the back of the ballot on November second. I have been opposed to all four gambling proposals in this city, and I agree with Senator Kaine’s opposition, that there are better ways to enhance economic development in Richmond, especially south of the river. There are big promises that project the gambling revenues will be a big win for the city, but when casinos win, the people lose. In this referendum, I’ll be voting for the people, and no on the casino.”

Kwame Binta
Financial Educator, Community Organizer, Founder of Universal Negro Improvement Association Division 456

“We don’t need a casino in Richmond, Virginia. That’s just going to create more problems in the community. People are going to have this false hope that they’re going to hit this, and all their problems would be solved. What we really need here in this area, and really everywhere, is a real true financial education. Let me ask you something, if you lost 98% of your power, where would you be at? You’d probably be on life support or dead. And our US dollar has lost 98% of its buying power since it was created. So this thing called inflation has been robbing us since 1913. The dollar continues to get weaker, that’s why today people gotta work two jobs just to make ends meet. And then we have workers who are working who live in homeless shelters because they’re just not paying us. Wall Street investors are making record profits while the masses of people are suffering. We have people living right here in Richmond, Virginia under bridges, in parks, in cars, because they can’t even afford a place to live. A casino is not going to solve all the problems that we have.”

“As I see it, in the beginning there will probably be some excitement and stuff like that, and people will come there. But in the long run, it’s not going to sustain. I believe it’s going to create more crime and more poverty for most people, because the addiction of gambling is something that a lot of people might not have dealt with, but you put a casino here and I’m pretty sure that gambling addiction is going to rise in this area. I don’t see the casino, in anything I saw, they’re going to have some kind of support system for people who become addicted to gambling.”

“The people don’t have three-hundred million dollars, really. I don’t see how they’re going to extract three-hundred million out of people’s pockets who don’t even have the money, really, to invest in a project like that. And if they are, that money should be going elsewhere. We need better schools, we need better equipment inside our schools, we need to think about the environment that we live in and try to realize that we’re destroying our planet and focus on things that’s going to sustain this environment and life itself. We could use that money for a whole lot of other things other than building a casino.”

“Most people who hit the lottery, three to five years later they’re broke. Because they have no financial literacy. We need to educate the people on how to get free from this current system, this monetary system of debt and wage slavery. People are gambling because they’re looking for other ways to make money, because whatever they’re doing is not making it happen. There are so many people that’s going to be evicted from their homes because of this Covid 19, and a casino is not the answer.”

“I remember when they started the Virginia Lottery and they said all this money was going to go into the schools of Virginia. I don’t see it. We still got schools that’s run down and old and dilapidated. They gonna make promises like they always do. But do they keep those promises? Rarely do they ever do that.”

Mike Kemetic
President of New Air Richmond, Community Organizer, Music Advocate and DJ

“At its core I would definitely say that a casino, in just its general nature, is a predatory format, in my opinion. The typical statement is that the house always wins. That’s something that’s been known for a very, very long time. So when you look at that as something that you’re going to bring into a community, you have to really think about what the real objective is for the people that are pushing it, and what they’re really trying to do around the community. So looking at it from that base level, I kind of have a problem with there being a casino. As far as being here in the City of Richmond, I think there are a variety of different things. First of all, one thing I don’t think people think about is that there are already three casinos that are confirmed to be built in the state of Virginia. There are going to be two in the 757, and one in Danville. Why are we building a fourth one right in the same corridor like that? That doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s being called a destination point, but when you’ve got DC that’s already very well established with their casino, you’ve got two in the 757, and one in Danville, where are these people going to come from that supposedly want to come to Richmond?”

“On another level, I don’t know that the numbers are going to add up in the way that they’re being presented. Again, I look at the fact that there are three other casinos being built in the state of Virginia and they’re all kind of bouncing off the same numbers. And that’s why they’re in such a rush to get all of them built at the same time, because once one or two of them go up and the numbers start coming in, they’re going to realize that they aren’t the numbers they’ve been projecting. Because every casino is using the same numbers. Where are all these people going to come from?”

“Probably the third thing I would say would just be on a community benefit level in general. It’s just not a very positive way to build your financial future. If you have a variety of industries that are thriving, maybe sometimes you can do that. But it seems like Richmond always wants to take some big shiny thing and make it the silver bullet that’s going to solve the things for the community, without taking the time to build from the ground up with the community the things that need to be done that are really going to be sustained and have a lasting impact. So without those things being into the mix, there’s no way that I can really support it. A lot of people talk about the fact of it being a Black owned casino, but I don’t think a lot of people really know the intricate workings of how that is, and how this is really just a part of the same network that owns Colonial Downs and Rosie’s. So there is a big promotional push, as anybody with a mailbox in the city of Richmond has probably seen, because they realize it’s so important to be hammering away and hammering away at people with the numbers […] Because once you dig below that, you start to really realize what’s really going on, and most people wouldn’t support that.”

“They’re billing it as a destination casino, when really it’s going to be a local casino that a lot of local people in close proximity to that, mainly being Hillside Court and residents in that part of town, are really going to lose out on it. It’s already very clear that the majority of people that play the lottery are really the people who least should be playing the lottery in a lot of different ways. But it’s a desperation, you know, there are a lot of desperate people here in the city of Richmond, there are a lot of desperate people around the country, and casinos prey on that.”

“Even down to the fact that you can have casino machines that are programmed to whatever the casino decides they want them to give the return at. So if the casino decides, the popular term is “do you want to fleece the sheep, or do you want to slaughter it?” Do you want to keep getting people, giving them enough feedback to keep them coming back, or do you want to just have waves of people coming in that you basically just take everything that they have and then they go home broke. And so that’s part of the question that you ask based on the model that you want for your casino, and that you project for your casino. So with this it’s going to be a slow fleecing, because you want the same people in the community coming back and back and back.”

“I don’t necessarily see it as any type of beneficial or positive impact specifically for Black people in the city of Richmond. I think it’ll be a much clearer deficit to the people that are in close proximity. Which are overwhelmingly poor, and mostly poor Black people. There are a lot of poor white residents out there also. A casino by definition and by its structure is a predatory model. So regardless of what the return is, there are going to be people who lose a tremendous amount on that, and there’s no reason that you have to base your city’s economy on that. It doesn’t make any sense to make that trade off with part of your population.”

Chelsea Higgs-Wise
She/Her/Hers
Community Organizer, Co-Host of Race Capitol, Lead Cannabis Reform Organizer

“What brings me here today is I’m a longtime Richmond resident who understands that building this casino is not going to secure the future for my Black siblings, for the Black community, or even the needs of the daughter that I’m raising.”

“The core of my opposition is that casinos don’t help communities. The only way to win in a casino is to own one, and we know the basis of a casino is not going to be regenerative for our folks, which are being evicted, that are being gentrified out of good food source areas, that don’t have good, quality schools, that don’t have transportation. And so my core reason for resisting this casino is that this is going to further the detriment of the Richmond Black community.”

“I’ve witnessed Richmond under Black leadership for years, and unfortunately, many of the leaders that are proposing this casino have proposed the gentrified ordinances, have proposed the eviction ordinances, and so Black leadership in Richmond does not mean Black liberation. And it hasn’t for years, unfortunately. So a Black-owned casino, for me, does not equal Black futures, it equals wealth at the very top for a very few that have proximity to whiteness, and that are going to use the same tools of white supremacy and whiteness to extract from us.”

“Richmond’s legacy of proposing the main attraction is something that we have to recognize as a whole community, and resist continually. They already promised to bring this casino proposal back if they lose. And so it does not matter what main attraction they are coming up with this time, we have to understand that all of these proposals mean the same thing; that the top will get rich. And maybe this time it includes a couple Black faces. But we’ve always seen that – in American history, in Virginia’s history, and in Richmond’s history. There have always been Black faces at the top as they plan out the development for our death, and for our genocide, honestly.”

“Richmond is no longer a Black chocolate city. Our majority is being pushed out, or unhoused, or hungry, and a casino is only going to put us back in our place on the plantation to serve in hospitality, to serve the top, to be surveillanced in a new police precinct. How, after 2020, are we building a new police precinct? A hundred acres. Even the way they describe it in acreage makes me think of a plantation.”

“It scares me because it resembles too much of Richmond’s history that shows we have always been owned and operated by people outside of Richmond, while the Richmond working class, labor class, poor class, is here making the profit for others. And now that’s what we’re going to rebuild in this shiny casino with a hundred acres. Who in the world to they expect to maintain that land? And so the areas that we see people being pushed in and lived in are the new slave quarters. This is not for Richmond’s future, and we have to resist this casino.”

“I think it’s important that we start listening to folks that have read the fine print as well, and we open up space to hear folks that believe in this. I’ve asked them what they want; do you want better schools? Well this casino project only says that it may give money to schools. There are no promises to schools. In the fine print there are promises to the police. And so I think it’s important that we start asking; what do you want from Richmond? Do you want better housing? That allocation – that money for Southside – is not actually promised. All of the money is going to go to Richmond City, all nine districts. And if we look at the history, allocation of that money when it’s not in the fine print of exactly what district, what neighborhood, we see the money never trickles down to us. And so we ask ourselves, how do we get better schools, how do we get more housing, how do we get opportunities to bring in income so that we can survive? Well that starts from our own neighborhoods and not the Main Attraction. That’s always been the Richmond Hail Mary. Well look how it’s getting us. Look where it’s trying to take us. We are neglecting our arts community, we are neglecting our creators. We could be a city that attracts through our main events. And there are main events. There are plural and there are many, and they deserve to be invested in, instead of just one shiny object that’s going to bring in outsiders and make us uniformed servers to people that don’t care about us, that don’t care about Richmond.

“You’re not going to see your local artist on the stage. You’re not going to see your local painter. You’re not going to hear their voices unless they are cherry picked out. And you can tell who they are right now, because they are dancing around for this casino. They just want their spot. And unfortunately, if we see any history, they’re going to get left out too. So what I would say to people that believe in this, lets turn that belief back onto Richmonders, and not just the top one percent of Richmond that might look like us. Let’s turn it back on ourselves, that we see every single day in our community. Let’s turn that belief on us.”

Viola Baskerville
Virginia Lawyer and Politician

“I am a Richmond native. I grew up in the east end of Richmond, in fact I grew up in the community called Woodville, and you could see Creighton Court out of my back door and Fairfield Court out of the front door. So very much in the segregated community of Richmond. I grew up and went to public schools here, and actually graduated from the college of William and Mary. I’ve been in local politics for quite some time. Elected to office, city council in 1994. And then the House of Delegates, and then served in the Kaine administration as Secretary of Administration. So I know Richmond very well. I know Virginia very well.”

“I think in 1994 neighborhood safety, neighborhood development, city core development, and of course crime, was a big issue in 1994. People were afraid to come out of their doors at night, and of course murders were on the rise. And I think now, some of the same issues – what is our city going to look like? What is sustainable development? Who are we, as a city? How can we leverage our best history, how can we leverage what’s best in us? And most of the successful things that I think we’ve seen in Richmond have been organic. When we look at changes in zoning for downtown businesses and for people to live downtown, when we look at leveraging our art community, when we look at leveraging some of the physical spaces that we have, those have made the space and the City of Richmond successful.”

“I don’t think [the casino] is sustainable long term. I think casinos have mixed results. I’m concerned about the environment around casinos. I’m concerned about the story that’s out there, that no city resources will be engaged. Anytime anything is constructed you have city resources. You have infrastructure, sidewalks, you have the police that are going to be coming in for public safety. You’re going to have public resources go to this project. And the main thing that really concerns me, is that it’s not organic. It’s not from Richmond. It’s not created by Richmonders. It’s as if something foreign has been imposed upon the citizens of the City of Richmond.”

“Who is the casino depending upon to make the money, to put money into their coffers? Are they depending on the wealthy gamblers? Does Richmond have those high-ranking gamblers that are going to be putting all that money into the casino? Or is it going to be feeding off the individuals that are on fixed income, limited income, who are thinking that that fifty dollar bet is going to turn into a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand? What about the people that have serious gambling problems? What about the people who are just not able to sustain income coming out of their pocket all the time?”

“We know the history of casinos. They’re a mixed bag. They don’t necessarily produce the promised income, resources, commitment to the city. They don’t necessarily produce the economic growth that people expect them to. So regardless of who owns it, who runs it, a casino may not be in the best interest of the locality.”

Parker Agelasto
Former City Council Member of the 5^th District

“I’m a resident of the city of Richmond. I’ve been here since 2005. Since that time I’ve served seven years on the Richmond City Council, and I’ve raised a family, and continue to raise my two kids in the city of Richmond. I’m married. And I would simply say that I’m here to support what is best for Richmond looking at the long view, not just the short term, and understanding what is impacting us today, but what will solve our future needs, and putting into place the structure governmentally but also socially that we need to advance everybody.”

“So Rosie’s for me, was a really difficult vote on the Richmond City Council. It was the opening of a door into a realm that the city hadn’t seen. It was no longer really off-track betting that the city used to have when Colonial Downs operated. It was now what was being billed as historic horse racing betting, but it was being done with slot machines, basically. It was a little bit of skill, but most of it was going to be luck, and you don’t have to have any skill to just go in there and throw your money in. When it was being presented there was promises of a lot of tax revenue. A real big number. And for a city that had a lot of needs – and still has a lot of needs – it’s very tempting to be lured by the big incentive of taxes that the council could then spend at a future date. For me, and looking it, just like I would look at any other project that came before the city council, my big question was, at what expense?”

“There’s opportunity cost, obviously. But for me, looking at the money coming in from a gambling operation, a betting operation, I was looking at it from what would happen to those addicts, what would happen to those who found themselves spending their paycheck, and their last option would be the social security, the social safety net that we offer. Going to the Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, where we’ve increased that budget tremendously for addiction, whether that’s for substance abuse, or whether it is for gambling, it’s still an addiction. And so for me, I was very concerned about what the cost would be for the taxpayer at the end, on the back of essentially a single business.”

“At the end of the day, they offered more incentives, and more incentives, to get approval. And I think that is where one would have to be worried about what are the enticements. What is being offered to lure a vote, to lure the will or the commitment of the people for something that is ultimately going to benefit a private business? Because at the end, it’s not going to benefit the community when we have more people who are in a worst case scenario.”

“I would ask the question, too, of who do they anticipate to be in this casino? We’ve got what, five casinos proposed throughout Virginia? Rosie’s has now got five or six different locations in Virginia. You can go to Colonial Downs, to a Rosie’s in New Kent County. And in fact, New Kent County gets a percentage of revenue from everybody, at all Rosie’s across Virginia. So it certainly benefitted them. But really it is this smaller radius to get people here. People can go to West Virginia. People can go to Maryland. They can go to National Harbor. There are options all over the place. If Norfolk approves theirs, if Danville, if Martinsville, some of these other locations approve theirs, do we need it in Richmond? Is that the future of Richmond? Do we want to become a city known for anchoring with a casino?”

“I have never compared a Ten Best list with a casino city. I would think you would go to Las Vegas if you wanted to go to a casino. I don’t know what other cities look at having a casino as putting them on the Best list. Richmond is on the Best list because we’ve got fantastic talent, we’ve got creativity, we have an innovation and a soul that is authentic, that is being driven by the youth of this city, that is always the future if you really look at what is going to make a city on a Best list. It’s looking at the long run. Why do people want to live in Richmond? The river. Access to the outdoors. Jobs. Quality housing. Are they doing that because there’s a proposed casino? We’ve seen, and we’ve seen it often, that the types of jobs that would be offered by a casino are not close to the types of jobs that Richmond is seeking to attract. We seek jobs that are higher than average paying, that are going to commit to offering benefits, that are professional, but also accessible. And I don’t see a casino as necessarily creating those opportunities.”

“I think it’s fantastic that we have a business that is being led by African Americans who are driving forward business initiatives in Black communities to try to improve the lives of the community. I would support that hands-down in any other case. I don’t see that being the case here. I would like to ask, where do the majority of the ownership interests lay? Where is the real equity of the casino going to lay? If it is truly to support the Black community of Richmond, should it not be there to build wealth? Wealth is not built by gambling. You gotta be lucky. You build wealth by being a working and endeavoring person, to then have an asset, and that asset then has value in the perception of others who think I wish I had that. That asset is something that I will now go buy or invest in, because what that person has built has value to it. How do we build more wealth? And I don’t see it, if there’s no ownership stake in this, in the actual community.”

“The truth of the matter is that Richmond has a problem. It has a problem of not being able to focus on the true issues that Richmonders are concerned about. It is a focus issue where, here’s the next bright shiny object, here’s the next bright shiny object, and we will spend two years of our lives addressing the next bright shiny object, and we forsake every other thing that Richmonders actually care about. The problem is, somebody says, Hey! Look at me! I want this! Now, is that going to solve all the problems that Richmonders have? No. But it’s going to make that person a lot of money. People will say Gosh, what a great offer that you’re bringing to Richmond. We will consider it because the dollar amounts are so big and enticing that it’s hard to say no to. Until you start peeling the layers of the onion back.”

“That is what the council and what citizens need to do to understand, to become educated on the matters that are of importance to us, to the future of Richmond, and to be informed when we go to the ballot box. Because if you don’t know what you’re voting for, don’t go vote at all. In this case, with a casino, understand what it represents. Understand what it’s going to do for the Richmonders who desperately need the attention of their government. But if we are constantly dealing with baseball stadiums, or coliseum proposals, or casino proposals, and we can never get to the core of what we need to do, we’re just being distracted. And we are losing time. We are seeing generations of Richmonders get lost in that time, because we’ve gotten distracted. I’ve seen it first hand. I called into question a lot when I was on the Finance Committee, when I was on Richmond City Council. And I can guarantee any one of the colleagues that I served with would say Parker got into it more than any of us. He understood, and he asked the critical questions. Where are those critical questions today? Who is asking them? And if you do not feel like the questions have been answered, then the only thing you can do is vote no. It’s the only thing.”

Kenya Gibson Press Conference on Voting No to RVA Casino

Paul Goldman former Chair of Democratic Party of Virginia on Vote No RVA Casino!

Comments compiled by S. Preston Duncan
Photos by Joey Wharton

Tragedy Has Given King John Coleman A New Perspective

R. Anthony Harris | September 20, 2021

Topics: body builder, car crash, fitness, King John Coleman, RVA

A few years ago ‘King’ John Coleman was hit by a car — he was bedridden, his body broken, unable to work, and eventually homeless.

Unfortunately, car accidents are a repeating theme for John, a terrible family legacy. When he was 10 years old, his mother was coming home to pick him up when she was tragically killed in a car accident. That sent his life spiraling into dark spaces, and he found himself in “survival mode” on the streets of Tidewater Virginia, making decisions that would chase him forever.

Later, he was on his way to prison when his father was paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident. At 20 years old, he was at a crossroads.

Decades later, he would like to share his story. Thanks Kimberly Frost for putting John and I together for this interview.

*photo by Kimberly Frost @kimberlyfrost*

John Coleman: My name is John Coleman, I am a personal trainer, I call myself a certified body builder by life experiences. I own a business called Mind Elevation Training. I like to train and get people healthy.

R Anthony Harris: Why is it important to you that people stay healthy?

JC: People don’t understand, your health is everything. My mom passed from a car accident when I was 10. My dad was hit by a car and paralyzed from the neck down. I had a car hit me three years ago, in 2018. Health is everything; without your health, there is nothing else.

RAH: So you take care of your body because you understand how easily it can be taken away from you.

JC: Health is very important. Taking care of my dad, I had to be physically fit to lift him up all the time. So I had to be in shape for that, which kept me on a path for taking care of myself, keeping myself up and at the same time, in that state of mind that if you don’t have your health — and I’m the only child, so losing my parents, my mom first and then eventually my dad, I only have myself — and without my health I don’t have anything. Without that I don’t even have myself, so it kept me in a state of mind that I need to stay healthy, to do whatever I need to do for myself.

RAH: So your mom passed after a car crash when you were 10 years old…

JC: …on the way to pick me up… she was home from the Army.

RAH: When did your father get into an accident?

JC: When I was 20 years old and had got locked up for the first time, my father was in a car accident two weeks later, paralyzed from the neck down. I didn’t see him until three years later, when I came home.

RAH: What was what was going on in your life when you were 20?

JC: The streets. I raised myself without my mom. I made a lot of bad decisions.

RAH: You think that was a reaction to losing your mother?

JC: Oh yeah, no question. I had a “fuck the world” attitude after my mom passed, and took life upon myself but didn’t know what living was then. I looked at my mom’s death as the worst thing that could have ever happened to me. You could take it two ways and my mind took the position to just look at it this one way.

So, it led me down a bad path, a lot of wrong decisions.

RAH: And you were in Richmond at that time?

JC: Richmond, Amelia, Tidewater…

RAH: At 20 years old you were in the court system. Your father was in a car crash, which leaves him paralyzed, and then you don’t get to see him for three years.

JC: I did three years for malicious wounding and selling drugs. But I got to see pictures of him. During that process I had a daughter that was born in ’94. Her being born kind of opened my mind, opened me up to be conscious about some things. I have a son now, and my kids played a big role in my consciousness because I wanted to be a dad. So I started thinking like a dad and started looking at things different.

RAH: And that’s after you got out. You were the sole caretaker of your father?

JC: I had to take care of my father. He was proud of that. My daughter had some issues later with leukemia, when she was 12 years old. It kind of pulled her away from me, and I struggled with that. Some things you just can’t hold on to, so you just have to let it work itself out. To me that’s a life lesson, because if we worry about things we can’t control — what good is that? What sense is that? Just stay positive.

RAH: And was that your attitude when you got out? When you saw your dad you were still a kid.

JC: I came home at 24. My dad was one of them people that loved attention. Now I am having to wipe my dad’s nose. And when I came out, I was one of those people that didn’t want attention. I wanted not to be looked at. But I had been muscular since I was a kid, so people look, and now I had to blow my dad’s nose and feed him in public. I wasn’t comfortable with that, but I love my dad. I had to get used that attention.

Our life wasn’t perfect but I knew when I came home, I would do right by him. My dad couldn’t do anything for me physically, but mentally he helped me every way he could. It was hard coming out and trying to start over. When he passed in 2005, he was keeping me straight mentally.

RAH: And how old were you when he passed?

JC: I was 32.

RAH: What led to you being homeless? You had been taking care of your father. Your daughter had leukemia. You have a young son. After your father passed — did you fall back to your old ways? You were dealing with a lot around this time.

JC: I couldn’t keep the house that we had in Newport News. Keep in mind, I never had a job — I was hustling. I had my son every day, and his mom only had him on weekends. When I got the job with the cable company, everything they taught me, I used that to better my situation for me and my son.

This is incriminating, but it’s the facts of my life. They taught me how to hook that cable up, and I used to sell it to people on the side. In my mind, it was better than selling drugs. That’s been my thing, like, I’ve been in survival mode since I was 10 years old and when I say I was a “hustler” — it wasn’t all the flashy stuff. It was strictly to survive. That’s been my mind state since I was young. It’s not to flight, it’s to fight.

So I move back to Richmond in 2014 and my ex left me in that year. So I am back here starting over again. I could’ve stayed with my aunt, but me being a man, I wasn’t going to do that. But God put me in this situation. My ex told me my son is going to stay with me over the summer and so I got a job. My friend got me a job at Legend at $8 an hour, and I walked every day to work and I got that apartment.

I had that apartment with my son for 6 months, and then child support locked me up. I lost that apartment and my son had to go back to Virginia Beach.

When I came home, Legend Brewing Company had kept that job for me. I’m just trying to keep this mindset that when I get out, I just want to get back to work. I just want to get everything back I lost. I want to get my son back.

I’m homeless when I come out of jail — I call myself homeless cause I was living out of my car in my aunt’s driveway. That’s where I felt comfortable.

Seven months later a car hit me. I was working two jobs and waiting on an apartment, which was owned by a person I was working for. The car hit me the day after Mother’s Day, and when I came home from the hospital, they still blessed me with an apartment. And that was where I was until later this year when somebody else bought the apartment, and they kicked me out — which led me to be back homeless once again, but this time my situation is totally different from before.

Now I haven’t worked in three years, nobody wants to rent me anything because I haven’t worked and disability has turned me down three times. Whatever God wants I need to stay focused on — I opened up a YMCA program for the kids and put all my energy into it — no matter what my situation was, I stayed focused on my training business, I had to put my energy into something instead of wondering what was what.

*Moments after King John Coleman’s car accident*

RAH: So Let’s go back. You were living in your car when the accident happened?

JC: I was living in my car at this point. I was just out after 7 months. I was working, I had just got a car, and I am happy. I went to Tidewater to see my son and his mother for Mother’s Day, spent the weekend down there — was just happy because my life was picking up. At eight o’clock in the morning I had just talked to my friend to pick me up to go to the gym, that’s why I am standing outside, waiting on him.

I look back at that video, and there is video — I can’t figure out why I went to the back door of my car to crack the window. It shows I walked around to the back and cracked that door and then just shut it — as soon as I shut it that car hit me and knocked me 50 feet up the street.

I never felt anything. I don’t remember getting hit.

When I came to, I didn’t know what was going on. I touched my dreads but there were staples in my head. My daughter said she told me numerous times I was in an accident but I just couldn’t remember. It didn’t dawn on me until I looked in the mirror after they took me out of the ICU and went to the bathroom. I cried for 3 days. Both of my legs were broke in half. I got rods.

RAH: What happened to the person that hit you?

JC: They put him in a home. His brain was like Swiss cheese and he wasn’t supposed to be driving. They told me if I wanted anything that I would have to sue his 94-year-old mother. I just looked at myself and said there is no way I could do that. And God has truly blessed me, I had no internal injuries and I am truly blessed.

RAH: And is that the attitude change you mentioned before? That after the accident, it wasn’t “why me?”

JC: I have to put this out there, but a lot of people in my family wish I was dead, because I have no brothers and sisters. I’m the only child. So when the hospital told my family that they thought I was gonna be a vegetable, and my cousin showed me the text messages, they were hoping I would die.

But I had to learn how to take the good from the bad. That car accident changed me for the better, because the stuff I used to worry about I can sit back and everything is different. Energy is everything, so what energy you put out is what you get back. My whole attitude has changed.

“That doesn’t mean a person is around forever; people are there for a season but most are there for a reason.”

RAH: You had to learn how to walk again, how to how to look at yourself again, how to eat, and you were homeless until 6 months ago. Then you started your business? What has been this last change?

JC: God set me down and make me realize what my problem was — I was trying to get everybody to love me when I did not love myself.

There’s some people that say “I love myself,” but I am looking at some of their actions and I can ask them, how much do you really love yourself? Because I had to ask myself this shit. I was put in a situation where I couldn’t even wash my ass, and nobody wanted to come over to help me wash it — but God allowed me to push through. I managed to make it. God sat me down and enabled me to watch people and understand.

All I ever wanted was motherly love, because my mama left me early. That don’t mean a person is around forever; people are there for a season, but most are there for a reason. I learned a lot of lessons. I’m grateful for life.

RAH: What would you like to tell people dealing with personal tragedy?

JC: I had to go through all that to change my thought process, to change me. And nothing is wrong with change — some people think it’s the worst thing in the world, but you have to change you to change your thought process. Once you become conscious of certain things, you will start moving different. Learn to love yourself. Once you love yourself, who gives a fuck how you are perceived.

RAH: John, thank you.

JC: Thanks so much.

Check out King John Coleman’s business HERE.

All photos by Kimberly Frost; you can see her work HERE.