Visiblemen

Kenji Jasper

New York, NY

Kenji Jasper has had an 18-year career in writing and journalism, which began when he published his first article as an intern for The Washington Informer newspaper at the age of 13. At 14, he became a contributor to Black Entertainment Television’s YSB Magazine, and later worked as a writer/instructor at The Institute for the Preservation and Study of African American Writing. He also served as an on-air personality for WTTG Fox 5′s Newsbag and later, as one of the founding cast members of Black Entertainment Television’s Teen Summit. By the time he graduated from Morehouse College in 1997, his journalism had appeared in VIBE, Essence, The Village Voice, Upscale, The Charlotte Observer, The San Diego Union Tribune, and The Atlanta Tribune.

Creative writing has always been Kenji’s true love. He penned his first novel, Dark, at the age of 21. It has since been released in the United Kingdom and translated into French. It was later optioned to be made into a film by State Street Pictures and Fox Searchlight Pictures.

His second novel, Dakota Grand, was published in September of 2002 and was met with praise from Publishers Weekly, VIBE, Essence, The Chicago Sun-Times, and Africana.com. His latest novel, Seeking Salamanca Mitchell, was published in July 2004.

Kenji has contributed articles and essays to National Public Radio, The Village Voice, VIBE, The Charlotte Observer, The Chicago Sun-Times and Essence among many other publications. His first work of nonfiction, The House on Childress Street, was published in January of 2006.    He is currently co-editing Beats, Rhymes and Life, a collection of critical writings on hip hop culture with writer/director Ytasha Womack to be released in May 2007.  Snow, the second installment in his Dark Trilogy, will hit shelves in February of 2007.  He is also the CEO and Editor of The Armory, a publishing partnership with Akashic Books.  The group’s first release, Got, by first-time author D, was published in February 2007.
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As to how black people have perceived my success, it’s been interesting. I wrote my first book [Dark] as an ode to D.C., an ode to the brothers on the corners who didn’t have a voice. When it came out, people at home opened their arms to me. They loved me to death. Everyone was so happy that I had created something that represented them. They were proud of me because they thought I was completely one of them, that I had written this thinly veiled autobiography about my own experience.

When I started writing about other things, when I started writing about being a writer in New York, about larger things, things that went outside of the hood, outside of what was in vogue and familiar through hip-hop, then I kind of got this “Well, you know…it’s good, but why don’t you go back and do the other thing? Why don’t you go back and be one of us again, because that’s the only way we’ll accept you?” Well, I can’t play the high school popularity game. Because when you do that, you always end up losing because high school ends.

I’ve never felt like being successful has compromised my blackness. When I was younger, I was into all kinds of stuff that dudes I was growing up around didn’t even have on their radar, but at the same time, I knew more about black history than any of them did. What I love more than anything else is eating crabs with my family on the Fourth of July, talkin’ shit in the barber shop, and shootin’ pool with my boys in my man’s basement talking about all the crazy shit we did back in the day.

My identity as an Africa-American is not defined by what I do. It’s not defined by what I wear. I’m a black man. I’m always a brotha, I’m always gonna be a brotha. If anyone thinks that I’m not because I use words that they may have to look up in the dictionary, then that’s on them.

Bernard Muir

Washington, DC

Bernard Muir is the Athletic Director at Georgetown University.

As Director of Athletics, Bernard oversees the operations of all Georgetown University intercollegiate and intramural athletic programs, which include more than 100 coaches and staff who support more than 700 student-athletes participating in 27 sports.
Prior to arriving at Georgetown, Bernard served as Deputy Director of Athletics for Administration and Facilities at the University of Notre Dame, where he oversaw campus athletics facilities, game management operations and club and intramural sports and recreation. He has served as primary administrator for a number of sports and as secondary administrator for football.

Bernard’s success in his two years at Georgetown has been recognized nationally, as well. In January 2007, he was named one of Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal’s “Top 40 Under 40”.

A 1990 graduate of Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in organizational behavior and management, the Gainesville, Florida native was a four-year letter winner and co-captain of the Bears’ basketball team.

Bernard is married and has two daughters –Libby and Millie.
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Growing up, my home life was built on my parents’ strong Jamaican roots. Education was stressed. My mother probably more so than my father, really hammered that home. There were really high expectations set from the start. My parents would lay out the things that were important, the things I should aspire to. Their message was dream big. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility for my future.

I remember when I was 7 my mom said to me, “It would be great if you could go to an Ivy League school.” I was thinking, why are we talking about this…I’m 7. But she was deliberately setting my sights as high as she could, and she wanted to do this early on. To her, my going to college wasn’t an ‘if’, it was just a question of where. And if I was going to college, in her mind, why shouldn’t I plan on going to the best. I was never given the opportunity to consider the alternative. She was basically saying, “This is what you’re going to do, period.”

I recently heard a university president give a speech in which he advised parents to talk to their kids at an early age about going to college. Looking back, my parents did this with me, and it made a big impression on me that I just internalized.

This conviction became really important, because along the way, I encountered white teachers who actually tried to discourage me from setting such high goals for college and beyond. Growing up in the south, the expectations for black boys weren’t very high. It was critical that I had already bought into my parents’ expectations, so I couldn’t be influenced by any voices that tried to bring me down.

I can’t talk about my parents’ guidance without mentioning this. When I was young, my family moved from New York to Gainesville, Florida. My mother’s friend moved with us, and bought a home right behind ours. She moved because my mom needed someone to watch me when she had to work. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but I know now how remarkable it was that someone would relocate because a friend needed help raising her son. She had as much to do with my success mindset as my parents. It wasn’t long before I started calling her Aunt Daisy.

Zachery Smith

Washington, DC

Zachery Smith is an Account Executive for 1st Principle Mortgage in Bethesda, Maryland. He is 1986 graduate of Mackin High School in Washington, D.C. Zachery went on to attend University of Maryland Eastern Shore, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration in 1993.

After college, Zachery was the Business Manager at Children’s Hospital Satellite Clinic in Anacostia from 1994-2001, where he had also served as Manager of Nursing Support and Revenue.

Upon leaving Children’s Hospital, Zachery served as Intensive Behavior Management Specialist and Senior Program Director for Jos-Arz Public Charter School and Residential Treatment Facility from 2001-2004. He has many years of experience working with children and adolescents in educational, recreational, and residential settings. His particular focus was on assessing, treating, and developing self-worth and self-esteem in young people. Zachery is also skilled in conflict resolution, crisis intervention, peer mediation, and managing disruptive behaviors.

Zachery has a 17 year-old daughter, Zacheria, who is a senior at St. John’s High School in Washington, D.C.
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My mother instilled in me the certainty that I was going to go to college and that I was going to be successful. I’ve got a brother and a sister, and she told us from the very beginning that she was going to sacrifice where we lived (Southeast DC) in order to put us in the best private schools that she could afford. My mother emphasized education and led by example. She worked her way through nursing school, starting as a nursing assistant, then becoming an LPN, and finally, an RN. She would work during the day, go to school at night.

My mom wasn’t at home all the time. She worked twelve-hour shifts, 3 days on and 3 days off. When she was with us we could feel her love through the attention she gave us. Before she went back to work, she would tell us “I got 3 days on coming up and I may pick up an extra shift. These are the things I need to be able to depend on you for, and I’m not gonna be here to monitor you. I gotta trust you. I gotta trust that you aren’t gonna allow your friends to come into our home and disrupt what we’re building here. I gotta trust that you’re gonna come home and do your homework, and do the chores. I gotta trust you.” You could tell how much she loved us because she would get tears in her eyes during every one of these conversations.

She kept using the word “trust”. Her emphasis on it made me discover my conscience. Before I made decisions, I could see her in my mind, her standards and expectations guiding me. But I was young, so I made mistakes. Sometimes I just wanted to be a part of the crew, so I would be on the corners, not hustling or anything, just hangin’ out. If my mother found out, she would simply say, “I thought you had my back the way I got yours. I see that you don’t.” Her disappointment was much worse than any whoopin’ she could’ve given me.

More than anything, I wanted to be successful so my mother could know that I respected her and everything she did for us. That’s what drove me.

Dr. Miles G. Harrison, Jr.

Baltimore, MD

Dr. Harrison is the Head of the Division of General Surgery at Maryland General Hospital in Baltimore. He received his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1975, graduating with honors while receiving the I.S. Ravdin Prize for highest aptitude in surgery.

Dr. Harrison attended Forest Park High School, where he was an honors student and an All-Maryland Scholastic Association performer in football and lacrosse. He went on to Morgan State University, where he received a B.S. in Biology as a Dean’s List and Honor Roll student all four years of college.

While at Morgan State, Dr. Harrison captained the first NCAA lacrosse team at a historically black college. He was inducted into the Morgan State Hall of Fame in 2002.

Dr. Harrison co-authored the book Ten Bears, which tells the story of the historic lacrosse team. He is currently working on his second book about the practice of medicine.

Dr. Harrison has enjoyed 31 years of marriage with his wife Wanda. They have two children, Kyle, a professional lacrosse player and former NCAA player of the year, and Kia, a mid-wife and mother of their only grandchild, Sage.
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My childhood was replete with as much love and reinforcement as you can imagine and, if it’s possible, probably an overdose of self-esteem building. I really thought I could fly. In my parents’ eyes, everything I did was wonderful. I am one of the most fortunate people in the world, and it started with my childhood. My role models lived in my house.

My dad was a biology and chemistry teacher. My mother was a registered nurse. My grandfather was a surgeon. I had all of these accomplished people around me. For me, thinking that I could be a professional was like walking down the street. Of course I could be a surgeon!

In those days, some people would look at me like I was crazy when I told them that I wanted to be an abdominal surgeon. I saw a lot of smirks on people’s faces. It’s been kind of funny to run into some of these folks over the years.

I never doubted my prospects for success. I almost feel a little ashamed of that. My family gave me the right stuff, so I didn’t have any reason to think I was going to fail. I’m very aware that I was incredibly advantaged to have had this confidence and conviction embedded in me throughout my childhood.

My dad was truly the salt of the earth. He was the voice of reason. He was educated, but he had a poor upbringing, and he always reminded us of that. Without making me feel sorry for him or his difficult childhood, he didn’t paint it as something we should run from.

My father constantly reminded me that, as a black man in America, it was going to be a difficult road for me. His message was that I was one untoward event away from being knocked off the privileged track I was on. He made me understand that, though I was fortunate because of the situation I was born into, I should never forget where he came from and that we have to go back and bring some other people with us.

Kevin Chapple

Washington, D.C.

Kevin Chapple was born in Baltimore, Maryland and raised in a single parent household. He attended Baltimore City public schools. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. After earning a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, he relocated to Washington, DC in 1990. Kevin worked as an Engineer until 1991, after which he enrolled at Howard University School of Law.

After graduating from law school in 1994, Kevin was employed at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) as a Patent Examiner. He remained at the USPTO until he was recruited by the Washington office of an international law firm. Practicing Intellectual Property law, he focused on Patent Prosecution and Patent Infringement litigation.

In 2003, Kevin started his own private law practice. Chapple Law Group primarily works on civil litigation and criminal defense cases. Kevin is a member in good standing of the Bars of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the State of Maryland, and the District of Columbia. He is also licensed to practice before the US Patent and Trademark Office, The US District Court for the District of Columbia, The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the US Supreme Court.

Kevin is currently running for Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner for Ward 2 of the District of Columbia (Kevin would eventually win the election in November, 2006; 3 weeks after this interview took place). This is an unpaid and non-partisan position.

Kevin is 40 years old and is single. In June, 2006, he was featured in the Washington Post series, Being a Black Man.
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Without a doubt, my relationship with my father has been the most important relationship in my life.  I had a tough time growing up.  My parents got divorced and I took it harder than my brother and sister did.  This happened at the same time that I had switched to the neighborhood school and was having a hard time with the kids.  People didn’t like me and it caused me not to like myself.  Before switching schools, I was very outgoing and then I became introverted.  I would just stay quiet because I didn’t want anyone to notice me.

My father, unlike many of my friend’s fathers, was a very affectionate man.  He always told us how special we were to him, how much he loved us.  If I didn’t have that relationship, I don’t know where I would be.  He made me feel that I was special, that he believed in me, and that there was nothing wrong with me. Just the reassurance that I got from him would make me feel better; knowing that if something went wrong, I could go to my father and he would say “We can get past this, Kevin”.

My father was a much more affectionate and affirming person than my mother. My relationship with my father…if I didn’t have that, I don’t know how I would have turned out.

My father is my biggest role model. He’s one of the wisest men I know. When I think of role models, I think of people who have something that I want to achieve.  My father, by worldly standards, is nowhere near as “successful” as I am.  But he has a peace and confidence about him, he has optimism that never ceases, and he always has a plan. To this day, he’s still planning to be a millionaire. He’s still planning, he’s still optimistic, and he still believes in himself and his abilities.

Barry Booker

Nashville, TN

Barry Booker is the Vice President and Relationship Manager at Wells Fargo Bank. Prior to joining Wells Fargo, he spent six years with Bank of America. He gained broad middle market banking experience working as a Client Manager within specialty groups serving non-profit, healthcare, and automotive clients.

In addition to his duties at Wells Fargo Bank, Barry serves as a television commentator for Fox Sports Net, Jefferson-Pilot Sports, and radio broadcasts including 104.5 The Zone. He is very active in numerous community organizations including as a trustee for Battle Ground Academy. He is former board member for the United Way of Williamson County Tennessee, Y-CAP YMCA, The Metro Nashville Hospital Authority and as a trustee for Vanderbilt University.

A graduate of Vanderbilt University, Barry received numerous honors including most outstanding student-athlete and academic All-SEC. He still holds the SEC record for career three-point field goal percentage. Barry went on to obtain his MBA in finance from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management.

Barry is the youngest of the late Monroe and Mary Booker’s twelve children, all of whom are college graduates. A native of Franklin, Tennessee, Booker, his wife, Rena and their children, Clay and Bryan, reside in Nashville.
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I believe a role model is someone you can look to and pattern your life after. My role models were my father, first and foremost, and my three brothers. I grew up seeing and believing that men were family people who took care of their responsibilities, who got up and went to work every day, and who were involved in their community. Also, I looked to my sisters and my mother, as well. Basically, I had many role models within my large family.

It’s difficult to be a strong role model if you’re not very close to those looking to you for guidance. You need to be a part of their lives on a regular basis so that you can see each other deal with all that life brings. I don’t think it’s very effective or beneficial if there’s not a close relationship that acts as a foundation.

The most effective role models are parents and close friends, people with whom one can interact on a real day-to-day level. I’ve certainly been inspired and influenced by people who I’ve seen on TV or through the media, but I can’t say that these people have been role models for me. I have no relationship with them whatsoever, and I have no idea about how they live their lives, other than the little bit that I see from a great distance.

Role modeling requires closeness. Do I see myself as a role model for others? Yes, I do. I think of myself as a role model for those people that are close to me; my two sons, family members, people that I go to church with, people with whom I have relationships. And I do see the opportunity to influence and encourage people who I may never even meet, people who may see me from a distance and say “That guy is doing some good things. Maybe I can learn from him.”