Kudos to the 'Hood, Snoop Dogg and the Homies

Crenshaw High School

Los Angeles, California

What a great story to share with you! Especially due to the bond created by my personal history with the school and the community that surrounds it. I taught at Crenshaw High School for many years in the '90s. And years earlier, I grew up and went to school in the Crenshaw/Baldwin Hills/Leimert Park community. So it's with great legitimacy that I can call the area "my 'hood".

That accolade of "'hood", was made popular by film director John Singleton, also a product of this community. He blew the power of the lives of folks coming out of this neighborhood wide open, when he projected it worldwide on the big screen, in his 1991 film 'Boyz 'n the Hood'. And it's significance was cemented when it was nominated for both Best Director and Original Screenplay during the 1991 Academy Awards, making Singleton the youngest person ever nominated for Best Director and the first African–American to be nominated for the award.

Boyz 'n the Hood poster

I spent many years teaching in long-term assignments, and as a day-to-day substitute at Crenshaw High School. It became a home base of sorts for me, as I lived very near and was constantly requested to teach for the various special programs that were offered at the campus.

The school was also well known for it's Horticulture/Garden Program that morphed into a well run business that raised college funds for those students that were involved. You may have even tasted some of their products, as from selling produce that they grew at Farmer's Markets, the students expanded their business by creating and marketed delicious salad dressing under the name, "Food From the Hood". This salad dressing was sold in the major super markets.

As a mentor for the program, I was present when Prince Charles of England visited the campus. Charles has always been ecologically conscious, and owns bio-dynamic farms in the U.K. Because of the Food From the Hood Garden Program organic gardening methods, he wanted to visit inner-city Crenshaw High, and it was the only school that he visited while in Los Angeles.

I was invited to mentor in that program out of the relationships I'd made with faculty members. The school had teachers that possessed a wealth of talents, experience and abilities, outside the realms of their 7:30 - 3:30 profession.

I served on the faculty for a few years. I taught in the Newcomer Center, which were the classes dedicated to new students of high school age that were attending school for the first time in the United States. At this time, the majority of these pupils were from Mexico and Latin America.

I also taught in the Teacher Training Program, where students that early on in their academic career expressed an interest in becoming future teachers were centralized in a program that was academically organized to support them in that pursuit.

Then there were semesters spent teaching the Advanced Placement classes, and the classes in their Gifted Program. Crenshaw also had the distinction of being a school with a high proportion of students functioning above average grade level skills. It was actually one of the best schools for African-American and Latino kids in the inner city. At the time that I was there, the principals, counselors, faculty and staff were all outstanding and doing their utmost to make sure their students would be able to compete successfully after high school.

Crenshaw's sports programs always brought the school recognition, but as I recall it was more so for basketball. Both the boys and girls from Crenshaw were excellent athletes and league winners. It's great to hear that that tradition is being stablized in football by the private support of Snoop Dogg and his Football League which focuses on inner-city youth.

Snoop with his Youth League teams

If you have skills to donate to the League, or Crenshaw High School, don't hesitate to make 2010 the year that you share some of your talents and love in their direction. Here's the link to their website.http://www.snoopyfl.net/

If you think about it, Snoop is just 'doing what comes natural'.....letting his love for two of his passions flow ~ coaching and supporting kids, in playing football ~ both of which he loves dearly. (Note his quote in the older article that follows.)

As I think about re-read the article, this program is really an example of excellence in action. I mean it just really works for everyone. Allowing kids to play, and bond and be guided by their fathers and in the process of learning discipline and good sportsman is really wonderful. The fact that Snoop and those who created the League were smart enough, to make their own rules is a big step in seizing the autonomy that we as people have a right to. And consequently their rules are based in the reality of the moment --- of the true circumstances of people living in the communities which the League targets for participation.

I love to learn that things like this are happening and love even more seeing it succeed and spread.

What a pleasure to witness conscious evolution...right before our very eyes.

loveu~

Kentke

Calif. School Team's Success Linked to Snoop Dogg

By CHRISTINA HOAG,

Associated Press Writer

Fri Dec 18, 7:14 am ET

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009. Crenshaw High School football quarterback, Marquis Thompson practices at the Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. He, and six others on the team, went through rapper Snoop Dogg's Snoop Youth Football League. Snoop started a kiddie football league five years ago in South Los Angeles, now the league has turned beleaguered Crenshaw High School's Cougars into contenders for the state bowl championship and Snoop players are getting attention from major college recruiters.

(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

LOS ANGELES – Football has long been the athletic stepchild at inner-city Crenshaw High School. Trophy cases are crammed with basketball awards. Gym walls are lined with hoops championship flags.

But the football team is undefeated this season and headed for the California state championship bowl game this weekend, and the coach attributes part of the success to an unlikely off-field source: rapper Snoop Dogg.

Nine of this year's Crenshaw High School Cougars went through the 5-year-old Snoop Youth Football League, representing the first crop of varsity players to cut their teeth in the program. The league has produced standouts at other schools, but none has more players or a better record than Crenshaw.

The league has made Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, a savior of sorts for football in an impoverished area of Los Angeles where gangs roam many of the streets.
"It is more of an advantage to have kids who played in the Snoop Dogg league," coach Robert Garrett said. "They also have the experience, the fundamentals and the attitude that guys who started from scratch don't have."

Broadus' reputation for raunchy lyrics and run-ins with the law brought some initial apprehension from the mostly single mothers who wanted to enroll their sons.

"It was kind of hard to separate Snoop Dogg the entertainer from Snoop Dogg the coach, the father," league Commissioner Haamid Wadood said.

But the league soon caught on, especially when fathers with criminal records learned they could coach, unlike most other youth sports. Broadus, himself a former gang member, has several convictions for drugs and weapons offenses, and if the league didn't allow ex-cons, there wouldn't be enough coaches.

"When you look at the demographics of the area, this is the reality of the situation," Wadood said. "We don't condone any of that, but we look at the nature of the offense, how recent it was."
Sex offenders and domestic violence convicts, for instance, are banned from the sidelines.

The coaching exception has also reconnected boys with their dads, or at least with positive male role models in neighborhoods where fathers are often behind bars or otherwise absent.

The dads, many of them members of the rival Bloods and Crips, must agree to leave their gang disputes away from the field.

"This is kind of like a peace treaty," Wadood said. "Everybody wants something better for their kids."

Broadus, 38, launched the league in 2005 with $1 million of his own money after noticing that much of urban Los Angeles had no football for boys ages 5 to 13. He's since invested about $300,000, Wadood said. The league now has 2,500 kids enrolled.

Broadus, who was promoting his new album "Malice in Wonderland" this week, would not comment.

The camaraderie that developed from playing together in the Snoop league has made the Crenshaw team a more cohesive, confident unit on and off the field. In a steamroller season, the Cougars have earned a 14-0 record, nabbing the Los Angeles city title.

"It's like a big family," said running back De'Anthony Thomas, a junior who sports a big gold and diamond cross pendant around his neck and who got his nickname "Black Mamba" in the Snoop league because of his speedy agility similar to the dangerous African snake.

Geno Hall

It also helps team members fend off peer pressure to join gangs.

"It keeps me out of trouble, from hanging in places I shouldn't be," said wide receiver Geno Hall, a senior with diamond stud earrings. "It's helped me to grow mentally."

While Broadus' larger-than-life figure was not the motivation for the kids to play football, his personal involvement boosts the self-esteem of boys who often receive little attention at home. The rapper attends games and allows his bodyguards to let players approach him freely.

Those intangibles, said coach Garrett, are invaluable for inner-city youth. The burly coach sees his job as much about taking a troubled team member home for food or clothing as it is about football. He lectures about keeping up grades and has imposed a rule requiring neckties, dress shirts and trousers on Fridays during season to get players out of the "hood culture."

In this photo taken on Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2009 Crenshaw High School football coach Robert Garrett poses after practice at the Crenshaw High School in Los Angeles. Coach Garrett attributes part of the team's success to an unlikely off-field force: gangsta rapper Snoop Dogg.(AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

The success of Crenshaw and the Snoop league is capturing widespread attention.

College recruiters have already approached players such as Thomas and Hall, and the league is fielding calls from cities such as Dallas and Pittsburgh that want to replicate the Snoop model.



In the short term, though, all eyes are on Saturday's championship game against Concord De La Salle, to be televised statewide from the 27,000-seat Home Depot Center in nearby Carson.
For Crenshaw, where almost 40 percent of students drop out and about 70 percent of students receive free or cheaper lunches, excitement is high.

Students have held fundraisers to buy tickets for families who cannot afford them and provide bus transportation to the game. News crews have trooped across campus to film the team, but players are working to stay focused.

"I just get down on the field and play football," Thomas said. "I'm blocking all that out."

###

Snoop Dogg Coaches Son's Football Team

9/15/2003 12:01 AM
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) —

To his fans, he's a pioneering rap artist, to authorities who have tangled with him, he's a felon. But to players and parents in the Orange County Junior All America Football League, he's just coach Dogg.

"Teaching kids is something fun," said Snoop Dogg, who watched Saturday night as his son's Rowland Heights Raiders defeated the Huntington Beach Dolphins 18-0.

"I give them a lot of strength and vision," added the rapper, who is a former football player and who attended a clinic to become certified as a coach.

"I am falling in love with these kids," he added.

Snoop, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, made a name for himself rapping about street violence, gangs, sex and marijuana, and in 1990 he was convicted of possessing cocaine for sale.

Earlier this year, someone shot at a convoy he was traveling in, and he arrived at Saturday's game surrounded by six bodyguards.

But parents and players alike said they were impressed with Snoop's dedication to his 8- to 10-year-old charges.

Dolphins team mom Jennifer Gutierrez won't let her son listen to Snoop's music, but is happy to see him at the games.

"I think it's great that he does this for his kid," she said.

Coach Dogg

Jan. 04, 2008

"There's no place like home. There's no place like home."

Close your eyes, and tap your heels three times, and think to yourself,

"There's no place like home".

I'm back from my week out of town, and my Life has been pretty busy since I returned. I barely had a chance to sleep in my own bed 4 nights, when I was again, thrown into new circumstances, in a different neighborhood. Taking the opportunity to give myself an indulgence I miss, I agreed to puppysit two very sweet dogs and an unusually affectionate cat for 5 days. The caretaking meant I had all the spacious amenities of living in a beautiful classic West Adams home.

The West Adams area of Los Angeles is home to one of the largest collections of historic homes west of the Mississippi River. The West Adams area was developed between 1880 and 1925, and contains many diverse architectural styles of the era. Architectural styles seen in West Adams include the Queen Anne, Shingle, Gothic Revival, Transitional Arts and Crafts, American Craftsman/Ultimate Bungalow, Craftsman Bungalow, Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, Mediterranean Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, Egyptian Revival, Beaux-Arts and Neoclassical styles. West Adams boasts the only Greene and Greene house in Los Angeles.

Its historic homes are frequently used as locations for movies and TV shows including CSI, The Shield, Monk, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind and Of Mice and Men. Driving down Arlington Blvd., I'd often see them filming my old HBO favorite Six Feet Under which was shot at the beautiful mansion one block north of Adams on the west side of the street.

The community's rich history illustrates the demographic changes of major U. S. cities, that is still going on today. Areas that started out as all white communities, later became the homes of prosperous African-Americans. Time, changes in industry and business, and the lack of economic and social planning eventuate these neighborhoods descent into disarray. Urban renewal and gentrification projects sweep thru, reintroducing the same properties as upscale enclaves where the wealthy or whoever can afford them, once again become the residents.

West Adams was developed to provide elegant homes to Los Angeles’ entrepreneurial elites. Oils barons, vintners, railroad magnates, and real estate developers hired top architects of their day to create mansions in a variety of styles. Its wealthy residents of the 1920s included lawyers, doctors, oil baron Edward L. Doheny, Port of Los Angeles developer Randolph Huntington Minor, and a host of other prominent Los Angeles citizens.

During the 1930s depression era West Adams hit hard times. Homeowners were forced to either sell their homes, or to rent out rooms to boarders. Another change for West Adams occurred in the early 1940s as successful African-American entertainers moved into West Adams Heights and dubbed it “Sugar Hill.” But Whites opposed the integration of West Adams.

The development of the West Side and Hollywood, beginning in the 1920s, siphoned away much of West Adams' upper-class white population. Upper-class blacks began to move in around this time, although the district was off-limits to all but the very wealthiest African-Americans.

Just a slight diversion, as art inside and out, beckons~

One symbol of the area's emergence as a center of black wealth at this time is the 1948 headquarters of Golden State Life Mutual Insurance, a late-period Art Deco structure that housed what is still the nation's largest black-owned insurer. Founded by William Nickerson, Jr., Norman Oliver Houston and George Allen Beavers, Jr. with it's impressive current building designed by the great architect Paul R. Williams, Golden State Mutual Life Insurance sits at the intersection of Adams Blvd. and Western Ave. I grew up with the grandchildren of all three founders of Golden State, as well as the grandchildren of Paul Williams, so it's a great pleasure to bring the genius and creativity of my community to your attention.

The building has also been the home of Golden State's major collection of African-American art.

This work of art, depicting women in Ghana was one of the pieces offered for auction in Oct. 2007, when Golden State sold a major portion of it's extensive collection of works created by some of America's most noted African-American artists.

These murals are part of those painted by Charles Alston, and Hale Woodruff and were not in the sale. They grace the walls of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company lobby. The first mural is titled "The Negro in California History: Exploration and Colonization." Biddy Mason is in it, along with James Beckworth.

The second mural is "The Negro in California History: Settlement and Development." More information and pictures are available at LAMurals.com.

Back to our stroll......

West Adams' transformation into an affluent black area was sped up by the Supreme Court's 1948 invalidation of segregationist covenants on property ownership. The area was a favorite among black celebrities in the 1940s and 1950s. Among the famous residents of West Adams Heights/Sugar Hill were actresses Louise Beavers, Hattie McDaniel (the first African-American to win a Oscar), Joe Louis, Little Richard, Ray Charles and Earl Grant (jazz organist).


Their efforts were rewarded in 1948 when the United States Supreme Court declared racial restrictions housing unconstitutional. Soon West Adams was the place for wealthy African-Americans who quickly became the dominant group. The first African-American to run for city council was Courtland G. Mitchell who lived in West Adams Heights/Sugar Hill at 2048 South Oxford Avenue.


Years laters the area was brought back into the limelight when Motown great Marvin Gaye bought a family home in the community. Fans loved to drive past and show their out of town guests where Marvin lived. It sadly was also the site of his death, when he was fatally shot in the home by his father on April 1, 1984, one day before his 45th birthday.


Unique Architecture, History, and Central Location Created Highly Valued Properties and Neighborhoods of Great Diversity


The late 1950s/early 1960s the Santa Monica Freeway cut through part of West Adams. The Freeway also divided West Adams Heights/ Sugar Hill. Some of the most significant homes were lost to the freeway project and the area began to decline through the 1970s.

But in the beginning of the 1980s, with a healthy economy and many African-Americans in well-paying professions, homeowners started investing in the old mansions, remodeling and restoring the historic homes. Other professionals were attracted to the architecture and lush old neighborhood and brought increased diversity. And today, as whites have begun to seek to move back into inner-city Los Angeles, communications experts, writers, academics, artists and Hollywood talent have discovered the convenience of West Adams - making it one of Los Angeles' most diverse communities.


Here are a few links for more information.


Be sure to check this first one, for 2 pages of photos of homes in the area to allow you a physical impression of the community.
http://www.westadamsheritage.org/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=176


This link provides biographical sketches of the people that have lived in West Adams
http://westadamsheritage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=9&Itemid=56


The West Adams Heights/Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association
http://www.westadamsheightssugarhill.com/index.html


This last link is the homepage of the WAHA- West Adams Heritage Association
http://westadamsheritage.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

These are some additional photos of the Orchard House Neighborhood which is further east on Adams Blvd. Captured here you'll see the architectural variety of that area, and the previously mentioned Doheny Mansion, of early oil baron Edward Doheny. http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~umin/09neighborhood.html

With the influx of new, younger, politically (as in civic government) astute homeowners, this association has a preservation focus that calls them to be environmental watchdogs for the area. As they pursue the aesthetic integrity and ecological protection of their neighborhood, everyone residing in the surrounding community is benefited by their knowledge, understanding and vigilance. They in turn are enjoying the caring and neighborly ambience African-American well tended neighborhoods are known for. The wisdom and experiences served up from the rich lives of West Adams' African-American older residents make potlucks , block parties and holiday gatherings great times for all.

Sounds like a good mix to me.......Many wonderful and necessary elements coming together......with lots of positive creative potential.

Happy Holidays to all~

Kentke