I figured I’d take a small break from all the madness in the media regarding politics and shine the spotlight on pure talent. Check out my dear friend, Face, Mailon Rivera, doing something he’s particularly gifted at—character interpretation. Here he is at a wonderful event I attended last year at USC called Race, Rap, & Redemption. His piece is called “1 out of 4 / 3 out of 4“, a play on the oft-repeated statistic that one out of four black men is making something positive out of his life and the other three out of four are in jail or doing dirt of some kind. Mailon plays the role of both types of men, each making a case for why he is relevant and/or necessary. It’s pretty powerful. Enjoy!!!
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The Lo Zone 
>That was incredible. I can easily see it as a one man show.
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>You brought the sexy one back! I could just stare at him all day long. That would be enough for me.
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>That was deep.
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>That brother's got talent. He was believable in both personalities.
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>I saw this guy in a movie on BET one night called Skin Deep. I think that was th name. He was having an affair with that black chick with the locks from Mad TV and it backfired on him. It was good.
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>LO,DC,MY BOO, IS TIME FOR ALL OF US GET ON A PROMOTE TEAM
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>Great performance! Made me think of the other day when Jack Jacqua (co-founder of Omega Boys Club)was speaking to the Board, and said he would blow a gasket if one more adult said "what's wrong with these kids nowadays" when the real problem is with the adults! When you have 40% or less of Black males graduating high school, it means 6 out of 10 are not employable. So what are they supposed to do except get in line with the rest of the "day laborers" down at Home Depot and hope somebody comes by in a pickup truck and says "get in." I'm working with a 22yo kid in Oakland right now who dropped out in the 10th grade. He is 22 now. All he has done for the last 6 years is sit around his mom's home (she has a good job with East Bay M.U.D.), try being a DJ, work on cars, sell weed, or whatever. He is a smart kid who has managed to steer clear of serious trouble. But what prospect does he have? He lives about 10 blocks from the Edward Shands Adult School at 55th and International Blvd. We went down there and got him signed up for GED classes. I paid the $120 for the Assessment Test and he did really well. He is going 5 days a week for 2 hours a day. Now that he is older, he has seen how it makes no sense to let a decision he made at 16 determine the course of the rest of his life. Like we say at Omega, "What works works, what don't don't; makes no sense to keep doin what don't work!" I'm hopeful he will stick with it and get his GED and that he will want to go on to take courses at Laney College. The statistics are real, bleak, and daunting. The question is, what are we doing as adults to help these young people remain Alive and Free?
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>Lo, what have I told you about putting this man on my computer screen all willy-nilly. My heart can't take it…Its great tho!!
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