Endz 2 Endz Issue 9 Special: Brixton Edition by Endz 2 Endz

BRIXTON ENTREPRENEUR EDITON EMPOWERING THE YOUTH

COMMUNITY

FITNESS

FREE ISSUE 09 SPECIAL MAY/JUN 2013

BlockWORKOUT workout FOUNDER BLOCK SHARES THE SECRET ON HOW HIS BUSINESS TRANSFORMED HIS LIFE!

ALSO PLUS BRIXTON SOUP KITCHEN FOUNDER GIVES US INSIGHT INTO WHY HE LOVES TO HELP THE LESS FORTUNATE

LAMBETH’S YOUNGEST EVER DEPUTY YOUTH MAYOR TALKS ABOUT WHY HE LOVES HIS COMMUNITY www.endz2endz.com

ENDZ 2 ENDZ TEAM

EDITOR’S LETTER

Editor in Chief Tyrone Smiley

Welcome to a special edition of Endz 2 Endz Magazine. This is our first ever printed magazine, produced by a group of young people from Brixton; who signed up to our first Cr8tive Project during the Easter holidays.

Assistant Editor Janeice Ladnar E2E Cr8tives Kaliegh Baranta-Avales Eden Bernard Heavenly Bernard Skye Bernard Asia Chrichlow Micaylah Grant-Bolt Jawahir Mohamud Jamaal Shuriye Chloe Stevens

In this special edition we feature entrepreneurs, presenters and community heroes who give an insight to their empowering life changes. We feature Solomon Smith, a youth worker supporter who is the founder of Brixton’s Soup Kitchen, who speaks on his inspiring work with the less unfortunate.

Photography Travis Hodges Rhea Christopher

From the blocks to working out, we talk to Block Workout founder, Terroll Lewis, on how he transformed his everyday workout into a business.

Mentors Dennis Gyamfi Polly Atkins Iwona Karczmarz

Its our first ever printed issue packed with local community heroes it is small but there is much more to come!

@Tyendz2endz

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CONTENTS FEATURES SOLOMON SMITH

TERROLL LEWIS

JEREMIAH EMMANUEL

MIA LABELLE

PHOTO-LAB

FEATURE- TERROLL LEWIS

4 FEATURE- JEREMIAH EMMANUEL

8 FEATURE- MIA LABELLE

6 FEATURE- SOLOMON SMITH

RASHID JeremiahKASIRYE Emmanuel

From an infant, Jeremiah Emmanuel has always been involved in community work. During his primary school years, he campaigned for a secondary school to be built in Brixton, South London and achieved the building of Evelyn Grace Academy. Now 13 years of age, Jeremiah is currently Lambeth’s youngest ever DepuTY Youth Mayor and is even more inspired to make changes in his local community. Interviewed by Micaylah Grant-Bolt, Heavenly Bernard, Chloe Stevens & Jawahir Mohamud

E2E: What can you do for us as Deputy Youth Mayor?

E2E: What made you want to become a Deputy Youth Mayor?

J: I can work with you and help achieve whatever you want to achieve. On a day to day basis, what I do with some young people is a mentoring project, so I help them achieve what they need to, I help them aim to get their aspirations their future and just make them better people.

J: I just really wanted to make a change in my local community. E2E: How many people do you represent? J: I represent every 11-19 year old who lives, works or study’s in Lambeth. That’s thousands of young people. 4

E2E: Are you going to give us funding?

after school and anytime I’m free on the weekend that’s when I get my mayoral work done.

J: First you have to sign up for the Youth Mayor fund, then a panel with me and some fellow young people will decided if your project is worthy to receive funding.

E2E: Do you get paid as Deputy Youth Mayor? J: Being a Youth Mayor is totally voluntary, but on a day to day basis I do so much other activities. I have my own film project in which I film different organisations and the work that they do and I charge them £10 an hour.

E2E: What have you done since you’ve became Deputy Youth Mayor? J: I’ve been working in the community and I’ve met up with some politicians and councillors. I’ve worked with a new organisation that the council has been forming called the ‘Young Lambeth Cooperative’, I’ve been nominated for a Spirit of London Award and I’m currently working on a big project that could involve 100,000 young people.

E2E: What do you do when you’re not being Deputy Youth Mayor? J: I have many hobbies, music production and composing music. Directing and producing films and acting. E2E: What advice would you want to give to those who want to become Deputy Youth Mayor?

E2E: Can you tell us more about this project or is it something that you have to keep quiet? J: It is called ‘Youth Empowerment’ and it’s going to be a project against youth violence, but I’m not allowed to talk more about it at this moment in time!

J: The advice I would give is first you’d have to focus on your education. Focusing is the key to achieving anything. You can keep up to date with Jeremiah’s youth empowering journey online: Twitter: @JeremiahEmmanu3 Instagram: @je1order

E2E: Do you work every day? J: I have school Monday to Friday so I can’t work during school, but 5

SOLOMON SMITH

Solomon Smith is a 27 year old youth support worker from Brixton. During his spare time he runs and funds a soup kitchen at Southwyck House on the Moorlands Estate. E2E’s Cr8tives went down to Southwyck House to find out about the soup kitchen and what’s in store for it. Interviewed by Micaylah Grant-Bolt, Eden Bernard, Heavenly Bernard, Chloe Stevens, Jawahir Mohamud

E2E: Why do you help the less fortunate?

E2E: Where are you located? S: At the Southwyck House Community Centre.

S: I help the less fortunate because it’s something that they need. There aren’t that much services like this, so I just thought it was something that was needed, and I decided to do it!

E2E: What exactly do you do? S: We provide food and support to the homeless and vulnerable people. 6

E2E: How much does it cost to run it on a weekly basis?

E2E: Do people come to you or do you go to them?

S: Well, I run this with a lady called Rose; so the costs are shared. We buy food on a weekly basis up to the amount of £300 - £350.

S: Me and Rose, once we finish here we do a lot of outreach. So we go to all the homeless hotspots and we tend to do that probably about two ‘o’ clock in the morning. That’s when they’re most out so that’s when we do the most outreach.

E2E: Where do you get the money from? S: It comes from mine and Rose’s own pocket.

E2E: Can anyone in the community get involved?

E2E: What kind of food do you give out?

S: Yeah, anyone in the community who wants to get involved can come round in their free time. Come down and help out so if anyone would like to help out you can get my contact details.

S: We are different from other soup kitchens. Where other soup kitchens just give bread and soup, Rose is a jerk specialist, so she decides to do jerk chicken, rice and peas. We give them a lot of “hard food” that will stay in their stomach for about 12 hours. Greggs also donates by giving us doughnuts and a hell of a lot of sandwiches!

We are working with Channel Four, they have watched the good work that we are doing and they are coming to help out and give the place a nice refurbishment, for a show called Something For Nothing.

E2E: For people who don’t know what “hard food” is, what is it?

You can email Solomon at solomonsmith2012@hotmail.co.uk for more information and keep up to date with his soup kitchen online: Twitter: @StreetPlatinum Facebook: Solomon Smith

S: Hard food is more like yam, potato, spinach, that’s proper hard food when it doesn’t just stay in your belly then comes out like chicken and chips!

MIA LABELLE

Mia Labelle is a 26 year old presenter from Brixton. She took time out of her busy schedule to talk to one of our Cr8tives about how she got into presenting, who she has interviewed and what she has been up to lately. Interviewed by Micaylah Grant-Bolt

down for an audition - that she invited me to, they liked me and I got a job! Then I just realised, that’s what I want to do, so I pursued it.

E2E: When did you start presenting and do you like presenting? M: About four years ago. Yes, I love presenting!

E2E: Are you glad that you pursued it?

E2E: What made you start presenting?

M: Yeah, I’ve met some amazing people! That’s how I met the guys from Endz2Endz.

M: I was on the tube one day and a lady asked me have I ever done presenting, I said no and I went

E2E: What have you done for Endz2Endz? M: I’ve done a few interviews. E2E: Have you interviewed any famous people? M: I have interviewed a few famous people. I have interviewed Labrinth, McFly, Wiz Khalifa and LMFAO - they were fun! Yeah I have interviewed quite a few people.

interview makes me feel special. It is a nice feeling.

E2E: What do you do when you’re not presenting?

E2E: Who do you present for other than Endz2Endz?

M: I go to Birkbeck University.

M: I present for a TV channel called Tiny Pop and different broadcasting companies.

E2E: What do you do at university? M: I study Media and Journalism.

E2E: What show are you presenting now?

E2E: What kinds of things do you learn on your course at University?

M: Basically it’s between the ads of Tiny Pops, so you’ll see me between programs.

M: In Media and Journalism, you learn how to write stories and interview people. So you try to get the best stories by asking the right questions; kind of like what you guys are doing now!

E2E: Do you intend to stay with Tiny Pop?

E2E: How does it feel being the one interviewed?

You can follow Mia on Twitter @MiaLabelle and catch her on Tiny Pop on; Sky 617, Virgin Media 737 or Freesat 605.

M: I have a three month contract so I have to see if they like me enough to keep me!

M: I always interview other people, so being on the other side of the 9

tERRoLL LEWIS

Terroll Lewis aka Boost, the founder of Block Workout, is a 23 year old ex-gang member from Brixton. After turning his life around five years ago, he now helps others train at an affordable price at a local park by using the environment. He also delivers workshops at primary and secondary schools. E2E’s Cr8tives got the chance to speak to him about his journey from the blocks to working out.

Interviewed by Chloe Stevens, Jawahir Mohamud, Heavenly Bernard & Jamaal Shuriye

E2E: How did you get into a gang?

E2E: How did you get out of the gang?

T: Well, I grew up in Myatts Field in an estate. I started off playing football and then I just got influenced by the wrong people. I never grew up with my dad around; so the older males I looked up to were the older boys in the area. What they were keeping up with wasn’t anything positive. It was all negative. It was “the life” they were living; they had girls, money, cars and I wanted that – I longed for that. I wanted to be like them.

T: I got out of the gang in 2008. I started to attend a church in my area called World of Grace Ministry. I took that step to get out; a lot of people around me were either dying or going to jail and I kept thinking it could be me next. It was either I pay now in discipline or pay later in regret and I didn’t want that because I know regret eats people up. So I took that step of joining that church and I’m here today! 10

E2E: What age group do you work with? T: I work with ages from 8 years old up to 38 years old. I also do workshops in schools. E2E: What schools do you work in? T: I work in a school in Peckham called Bredinghurst and a school in West Norwood called Park Campus at the moment. I’m looking to sign deals with a couple more schools. E2E: What made you come up with ‘Block Workout’?

E2E: Why did you choose Brockwell Park over other parks?

T: I started Block Workout in 2009. I never had money to go gym. Like I said I was on the streets. I had the money - I had everything, but when I left the streets and started going to church I never knew about working, I never knew about having a job. I knew about money under my pillow! So when the gyms were asking me to pay direct debit I didn’t know what they were talking about. I had to use my environment the parks the walls around my area, that’s how Block Workout started.

T: I started Block Workout at Myatts Field, the park was too small! I put a YouTube video and I got 4000 views in like a day and I thought ‘wow! People are actually interested in me doing pull ups and press ups!’. I did another video and a couple guys messaged me and said they want to come down and train with me. It started with four people, then six and as you can imagine the numbers started to increase, so the park I was training at was too small! We then went to Kennington Park and again the park got too small! Then I heard about parallel bars and pull up bars in Brockwell Park, we went up there and checked it out and it was brilliant. It was a good place to work out in; we’ve increased to 60 guys and about 40 ladies.

E2E: Do you enjoy block work out? T: I love it. A lot of people think it’s a job to me, but it’s not, it’s a passion. It’s a passion to see people’s life change physically and mentally. 11

TERROLL LEWIS

E2E: Would you consider making a DVD for people in other countries?

E2E: If you had the opportunity to go back into football would you?

T: Definitely, I’m working on that right now and I’m working on an app for iPhone and Android phones.

T: I would. I love playing football, I just hate watching it! E2E: What advice would you give to people in a gang at a young age?

E2E: How can people get involved with Block Workout? T: On Saturdays we have the ladies which is at 10:30, everyone’s free to come down and at 12 noon is when I train with the men. They can just turn up and pay a small donation of £1 to train so we can buy more equipment and step up the levels of Block Workout so we can make it more interesting and increase the levels. E2E: What was your favourite sport when you were younger? T: I used to be a footballer I used play for West Ham and a team called Stevenage Borough. I used to live out in the area and get paid for playing. I never got paid enough! My guys on the streets were driving cars and they was selling drugs and getting money I wanted, not knowing that if I had stayed on football I would’ve made more than them! I got sucked in, but now I’m out.

T: I’ve been there! Not only that I’ve worn that t-shirt, I’ve worn that balaclava, I’ve worn those gloves. You either die or go jail for life – there’s no happy ending to this “gangster” thing. There’s a way out, and if you want to take that way I say out get out now. Like I said, pay now in discipline or pay later in regret. Take the step now, save your life. Wait ‘til later it might be too late. You can follow Boost and his Block Workout journey online: Facebook: Block Workout Instagram: @TerrollOnline Website: www.blockworkout.com Twitter: @TerrollOnline or @BlockWorkOut

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! E C I V D A E GET FRE If you are a 16-24-year old social housing tenant living in Lambeth and want to make your money go further, the Lambeth FACE programme could be for you. Join Lambeth FACE today and make your cash count! For more information and to register visit www.metropolitan.org.uk/face

Join us on:

facebook/LambethFACE

E2E Cr8tive’s had a chance to learn some photography skills. Fast learners were spotted on the team, and they achieved some great pictures of the interviewees and members on their team.

PHOTO-LAB “Smile from above” Photogrpaher Jamaal Shuriye

“Handstand the blocks” Photographer Jawahir Mohamud

“Moment in time” Photographer Eden Bernard

“Brixton’s Soup Kitchen Founder” Photographer Heavenly Bernard

“Side pose”

“Human flag” Photographer Chloe Stevens

Micaylah Grant-Bolt

“A Subtle smile” Photographer Micaylah Grant-Bolt

“Aim high” Photographer Jamaal Shuriye

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