“America’s Received Expertise” winner and Stockton native Brandon Leake says younger folks being civically engaged is gorgeous in a mess of fashions.
“They do not have to attend till their 20s, till their 30, till their 40s and midway till they’re of age to be president or one thing like that,” Leake stated. He famous the early work of a younger Martin Luther King Jr. in the course of the civil rights period, spearheading a motion and main folks greater than twice his age.
That supreme is the premise for a brand new month-to-month net sequence that Leake is working on as a producing accomplice with the Workforce Concord Basis, a Boston-based nonprofit that “works to teach, encourage, and have interaction youth world wide within the battle in opposition to hate and violence.”
The six-part sequence — entitled “Hate: What are you going to do?” — will discover hate world wide and spotlight peaceable activism that promotes tolerance, fairness and inclusion via conversations, based on a information launch. The muse describes the challenge as youth-driven and says it is aimed toward center college, highschool and school college students.

Andy Hoglund, spokesman for the muse, says the greater than 100 reporters recruited from across the globe to take part within the challenge vary in age from 15 to 25 years outdated. The muse says the reporters had been recruited from greater than 30 international locations, together with 15 U.S. states, Afghanistan, Poland, China, Nigeria, Cuba and India, amongst others.
Leake stated Workforce Concord reached out him within the aftermath of “America’s Received Expertise,” the place the season 15 winner made history last month as not solely the the primary spoken phrase artist ever to win the present but in addition as the one one ever allowed to compete.
The messaging of Workforce Concord’s challenge, “which advocated for love, care and help on a world scale,” is what resonated with him, Leake stated, noting that a few of his work featured on “AGT” handled many societal points, equivalent to racial oppression.
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“It simply feels proper for me to return on and be a part of aboard for the sort of a factor with regard to being a co-producer of the present,” Leake stated.
The sequence’ first episode, which aired Tuesday, kicked off with an introduction by Leake and in addition featured a efficiency by him later within the episode.
“We listed below are elevating our voices to face up in opposition to all types of hate, however most significantly, to point out the world precisely what love can truly appear to be,” Leake stated. “As a result of collectively we’re way more highly effective than we ever are on our personal and sharing our tales is usually a method during which we are able to change the world.”
His position within the present is to assist with a few of the artistic content material, Leake says, together with doubtlessly having the ability to usher in new matters and thought processes relating to methods during which to deliver consciousness to the matters the present goes to be addressing.
Tuesday’s episode took a more in-depth take a look at hateful oppression and myriad methods to deal with it, together with the place these mindsets come from and the best way to actively change them, Leake stated. Future episodes will proceed to delve into different points surrounding hate world wide.
Workforce Concord says every 45-minute episode of the sequence will embody tales produced by the youth reporters and conversations with political, civic, enterprise and training leaders, together with Rep. Ayanna Pressley; Jonathan Greenblatt, nationwide director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League; and Emerson Faculty President Lee Pelton, who impressed the creation of the present along with his viral letter following George Floyd’s dying by the hands of Minneapolis police earlier this 12 months.
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Emerson Faculty serves as a challenge accomplice and adviser for the online sequence, serving to to recruit its scholar hosts, Hoglund stated. The college additionally developed a 10-course Digital Institute for Activism that can begin in January with an inaugural class of as much as 200 college students from world wide, “designed to offer younger folks with the background, data, and expertise wanted to lift consciousness, have interaction in troublesome conversations, and use their voices to peacefully advocate for racial and social justice.”
Episodes of “Hate: What are you going to do?” will be discovered at teamharmonyfoundation.com, which additionally gives extra details about the challenge and a schedule of future episodes.
Leake says he desires native youth in Stockton to not be afraid to dream or the exhausting work that goes into making these goals come true.
” ‘Trigger this concept was just a few younger particular person’s idea that then got here into fruition with the assistance of a multi-generational employees,” Leake stated. “Nothing is just too huge in the event you’re keen to have a hustle that is bigger than the dream.”
Contact reporter Cassie Dickman at (209) 546-8299 or cdickman@recordnet.com. Observe her on Twitter @byCassieDickman.
