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Episode 0008: Sole, Soul & Storytelling
37 Plays2 days ago
What do sneakers, literature, and legacy have in common?
In this episode of The GR8TNESS Router, Dr. Jemayne Lavar King shares how a lifelong love of sneakers and storytelling evolved into a groundbreaking academic lane, a thriving cultural brand, and a mission to redefine what’s worthy of study.
From chasing his dream pair of Ewings to teaching college courses on sneaker culture, Dr. King invites us into his world—a world where hip-hop, literature, and authenticity collide.
This episode is for the visionaries, the culture-builders, and the ones writing their own story—one step at a time.
Tune in now!
To learn more about Dr. King’s work at the intersection of culture, literature, and identity, explore his innovative coursework and scholarship through Virginia State University’s “Sneaker Stories” archive.
You can also connect with him directly on LinkedIn and experience the cultural depth of his brand by visiting solefoodbrand.com.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Greatness Router with Zena C
00:00:08
Speaker
This is the Greatness Router, where we connect purpose to process one conversation at a time.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back to another episode of The Greatness Router. i am your host, Zena C. And I have another another treat for you guys today.
Meet Dr. Jermaine LeVar King: The Sneaker King
00:00:38
Speaker
Today we have Dr. Jermaine LeVar King.
00:00:41
Speaker
This is the sneaker king, y'all. I am so excited to introduce you to a professor that I came across at Johnson C. Smith University, a businessman, a visionary,
00:00:54
Speaker
He is really a um ah beacon of knowledge going into into literature, into hip-hop culture, and is really a complete game changer. So I'm going to hop into his bio, and then I'm going to bring him to the stage.
00:01:09
Speaker
We have Dr. Jamar LeVar King. I'm sorry. I have destroyed his name. Dr. Jermaine LeVar King, a native of Franklin, Virginia, is a twerp. 2017 TEDx speaker finalist and a member of Sigma Tau Delta Delta Epsilon Iota and Iota and Delta Alpha Pi academic honor societies.
Pioneering Hip Hop Studies and Sneaker Culture Courses
00:01:32
Speaker
King is the creator of Virginia State University's hip hop studies, English minor and the world's first collegiate English courses dedicated to sneaker culture, literature, and identification within sneaker culture. Those titles of courses and books are Soul Food, S-O-L-E, Digestible Sneaker Culture, and The Souls of Black Folks. That's S-O-L-E-S. Y'all see what he did there.
00:02:00
Speaker
Sneaker culture literature. Dr. King holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a minor in news media from Elizabeth State University. Shout out to the Vikings. He has a Master's of Arts in English Literature from Virginia State University and a PhD in English Literary Criticism from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
00:02:19
Speaker
i am so excited to bring you to the stage, Dr. King. How are you doing today? i am well. i am well. And thank you for having me. I'm honored and blessed to be here. I am so grateful for you and i am excited to hear about your journey and audience. I hope that you're just as excited because I am pretty sure when you mix sneakers and hip hop and the power of words together, you are going to get one amazing pot of gumbo And I'm so excited to hear from ah from Dr. King today. So I like to start off with a icebreaker. This helps introduce the audience to you and and allows you to you know really break the ice and get into the nitty gritty of of your journey. So my question to you, you ready?
The Ewing Athletic Sneaker Journey
00:03:12
Speaker
um ready. All right. If you could wear one sneaker for the rest of your life, What's the pair and what does it say about you?
00:03:24
Speaker
So that pair would be the Ewing athletic 33 high. and It would be the PE colorway, which is pretty much a white base, orange and blue. ah What that sneaker says about, what does it say about me?
00:03:37
Speaker
Yes. Is that, um, so i fell in love with that shoe in 1989. Uh, that was reading sports. So it came home from school. went to school was reading sports illustrated This is a actually it was 1990, the April 1990 edition when the Knicks had just beat the Celtics. But what it says about me is that I chased that shoe from 1990. OK. Until then the company went out of business in 1996 and it was retro to revived around 2012. Wow. that shoe for me is if you were to think of Captain Ahab.
00:04:14
Speaker
Yeah. um That shoe is my Moby Dick, except that I'm still alive and I have it. and but that was i' been Every shoe I bought from 1990 until 2012, every shoe, out every sneaker i I bought between that time period was because I couldn't have a pair Ewings.
00:04:31
Speaker
Because there's a longer story ah about I was about to secure my pair and then the the store that had mine was robbed and then it went out of business. And then that shoe, that company went out of, the company was shut down in 96. But every shoe that I purchased from 1990 to 2012 was because I could not have a pair of Ewing. So that shoe says about me is like dedication and love.
00:04:57
Speaker
And I don't go around talking about loving material items. But it means a lot to me as far as what is done for me and my my career. Because that sneaker, all this stuff is because of that one particular pair shoes.
00:05:11
Speaker
I love it. It's definitely, it definitely looks, I've never had a pair of Ewings, but they definitely look super comfortable. Like super cushy, comfortable. Absolutely. That's what's up.
00:05:21
Speaker
Okay. Well, I knew it was going I knew you were going to know it like the back of your hand. um This is what I call a legacy question.
Conversation with Nat Turner: Leadership Under Oppression
00:05:29
Speaker
um If you could have a candid conversation, a candid, unfiltered conversation with ah any historical figure, who would it be and why?
00:05:39
Speaker
it would be with Nat Turner. And why? Because i would love to hear the level of thinking that he had back in 1821. I'm from Southampton County, Virginia, where the insurrection happened.
00:05:55
Speaker
oh but if everything you read, no matter where you read it, right, when you read of Nat Turner, it comes off as if he, like, almost like he was a superhero. He had some type of powers that others didn't have. or if there effect Yeah, and in the fact that he was so trustworthy um around his oppressors just lets you know that this...
00:06:24
Speaker
soul, this person would have been a leader in any period, in any, in any place he was playing, any time period he was placed, he would have been a leader. he He had people trusting him that oppressed him.
00:06:37
Speaker
So it would definitely be with Nat Turner. I love that. Yeah. I would just want to hear the level. Like I would like to sit under that tree to see what fruit fell, if that makes sense.
00:06:49
Speaker
I love it. Nat Turner I need y'all to y'all as in the listeners. I need y'all to go to Google or go to your your favorite search engine and just look him up because Nat Turner has come up at least twice, maybe even three times on this conversation, on on my on my podcast.
00:07:07
Speaker
um And I agree. that that' That's immaculate. So... This is not an icebreaker, and it's kind of leading us into the conversation at hand and into my questions on your
Falling in Love with Words and Literature
00:07:20
Speaker
greatness.
00:07:20
Speaker
When did you fall in love with books or words? Because you're you're such a wordsmith, and you're so intentional about your word choice. um when did When did that happen for you?
00:07:33
Speaker
ah can almost give you the exact... I can give you the the the year, and I can give you the month. Okay, Pharrell of words. Yeah.
00:07:42
Speaker
So January of 88, it was in fourth grade. As a kid, as a child, I read ah professional wrestling periodicals like my life depended on it.
00:07:54
Speaker
Wow. These periodicals were written on a level that was above where I was. oh But the word, like the way that the things were written, they're pretty much, the term kayfabe in wrestling means ah Like you you're not aware of the act.
00:08:11
Speaker
You're not aware that this is real. So it's written like a real story. Like this person doesn't like this person. It is written like it's for real. um Jim Cornette. Jim Cornette puts he is a surgeon of words. He he can.
00:08:26
Speaker
He was a manager, booker, person who books. He's done everything in wrestling. But my love of literature came from reading those peer articles that were above my grade level.
00:08:40
Speaker
okay Raised, of course, raised my grade level. And of course, I became an English major because of my love of literature, because of my love of writing, all the things that come with English.
00:08:53
Speaker
But January 88, actually the January 88 edition of Pro Wrestling Illustrated one of the cover stories is that the world WWE or WWF at that time, there were so many tag teams.
00:09:07
Speaker
The cover story was about Ted DiBiase because he had just gotten there and that they needed to create an intercontinental tag title. And that issue, I don't, I actually have a lot of old things.
00:09:20
Speaker
I need to go on and buy, read by like buy like a reprint or just go on eBay and buy the issue again. But yeah, January 88. um and i started I started reading wrestling magazines and or anything that dealt all books. You you go to the book fair.
00:09:35
Speaker
I'm going fair. I'm getting books about Dusty Rhodes and things of that nature. But around January 88, I'd say is when it we really started. 87, I was just getting magazines and reading about the okay rocket. But yeah, January 88 for sure.
00:09:49
Speaker
I love that you were able to find a topic that interested you and then you were then able to find materials.
00:10:00
Speaker
that um that supplemented that interest, that helped feed that interest. that that's That's big to me. um and And I don't think a lot of our young people get a chance to even explore what their true interests are. So that that's good...
00:10:14
Speaker
that's a good um perspective or or concept to even paint for for me as well as for the the audience. Because, you know, i have children. So I'm trying to figure out like, okay, so what exactly are you interested in? I probably just need to go look around the the periodical section at the library and see what catches their eye. that's a Thank you for for that little gem that you didn't know you gave me, but you gave me. And I hope y'all picked up on it too.
00:10:39
Speaker
So thank you for that. you're more than welcome. Always more than welcome.
The Unplanned Path to Teaching and Its Impact
00:10:42
Speaker
Um, let's talk about the purpose behind your work. Um, because you have a lot of interests, but they all are synergetic. Is that a word? Did I just make something up? Synergetic.
00:10:53
Speaker
Did I make that up? If you didn't, it makes the perfect sense. So, okay. So if you had to pinpoint the moment you knew what your calling was, what would it be?
00:11:06
Speaker
Man. Okay. If I had to pinpoint the moment i knew what my calling was, would, It would be, okay. So I think, this is what I think, not saying it is, but this is what I think.
00:11:16
Speaker
Okay, I'll take it. Okay, so my intention was to never teach or be involved in education. on And let me explain why, I'm going to tell you when the pinpoint happened.
00:11:29
Speaker
You're not alone on that. That was me too. Go for it. So ah most of my life, right? hu I saw teachers as being The same way someone would look at someone who's famous or like an influencer or just I looked at teachers as being superheroes. Right.
00:11:48
Speaker
Oh, wow. And like they were above reproach. I'm like, OK, these people. So I didn't see myself. and I'm not saying I had a low opinion of myself, but I didn't see myself as that.
00:11:59
Speaker
OK. So fast forward to. Let's see. June of. 20 2002 okay finish uh finish the masters i was working overbound at st paul's college and i had a i got a phone call right the last trip that last trip of the saint of overbound we took our students to new orleans okay this is back i don't remember you remember all tell the all tell phones i do okay my all tell was pretty much it could know it would only work in virginia
00:12:33
Speaker
okay The whole time I'm Louisiana, my phone is off. Okay. We pull up to St. Paul's College and I turn my phone on. I literally woke up as we're pulling into the university or pull to the college.
00:12:46
Speaker
I turn my phone on. Three seconds after I turn it on, it's blowing up. Okay. Oh, wow. I get a call from pretty much the CIAA office. AJ Morgan, who many people know, probably know from her her career and work in sports.
00:13:01
Speaker
She called me and like, hey, I have two sports information director positions that are open. Which one do you want? oh wow. Right?
00:13:13
Speaker
So I asked them, like, okay, what are the schools? And she said, Winston-Salem State University and St. Paul's College, right? okay At the time, I was talking, I had just started talking to a young lady who was a senior at Winston-Salem State. And I'm thinking like, oh, I want that one, right?
00:13:28
Speaker
Okay. well I was a finalist. I got down to the three. like So I put my, sent my, faxed my application in CV or resume at the time in.
00:13:39
Speaker
And I'm thinking like, at that point in life, I'd never not gotten a job I applied for. So um' um I'm like undefeated. I'm thinking like, yep, this was in the books. Okay, wrestling term. okay you Never lost. So we're moving into the summer.
00:13:55
Speaker
ah Getting closer, deep into the summer. And I had to hear the thing back. I'm like, this is unusual. So I actually call Winston-Salem State. OK. I'm like, hey, this is, you know, Jermaine King. I'm checking on their status of application. And the person I can't remember the person was. is was like Yeah, you you you're in the top three.
00:14:12
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, so what what's so happens after that? And he's like, no, that's it. you're You're in the top three and you you're not number one. Oh, wow. So at that choice that point, I was like, okay, so I got two options. I can go home and live in my bedroom and work at Hibbett Sports, the job I've had in college, or I can accept this position that's been offered to me by Henrico County Public Schools, the T7th grade English.
00:14:33
Speaker
The contract was on the dresser in my bedroom, and that's where I thought it was to sit forever. And I went home that day and I sat there and thought like, okay, my, I haven't mentioned this earlier, but my goal was to work on and in a collegiate setting, right? That was my dream.
00:14:50
Speaker
And I thought like, okay, well, you can either go sell sneakers as a shoe salesman, like Al Bundy or,
00:14:59
Speaker
that's That's literally what it was. oh my miss you can also You can accept this position that they offered to you and figure it out. So I looked at the contract. How about the contract needed to be turned in the next day by three o'clock?
00:15:12
Speaker
Oh, wow Talk about expedited. Yeah. So talk about skin of your teeth, actually. Right. And I live like what, hour, maybe hour 20 from Richmond. I woke up the next morning, took a bath and drove it, signed it and signed it before I got in the car and drove it to Richmond and put it in.
00:15:31
Speaker
And I started my career at Fairfield Middle School in Henrico County, and Richmond, Virginia. So all that to say this, to answer your question, My first year, boy, caught hell in a handbasket. And let me explain why.
00:15:46
Speaker
I taught seventh grade. All of my students the year prior did not have an English teacher. They had a ah series of- Subs. Subs for the entire year. Their trust level was, they had none. Okay. They had no trust.
00:16:00
Speaker
So they came to my class. I'm already looking like I'm not an English, but excuse me, English teacher. um They're like, yeah, this dude will be out of here. Right. So I caught hell.
00:16:12
Speaker
That entire if I wasn't sort so tenacious, on I see a lot lot of people quit that year. Like they would like one in one month and done two months and done. Right. So I caught hell. But I was getting checked for the first time in my life. I'm like, there's not enough hell here to keep me from getting paid.
00:16:28
Speaker
OK. So here's the moment where I realize maybe there's a little bit more to this. I went to the next year expecting it to be as bad as the first. And it was the it was pretty much the equivalent of night and day. There were students looking for me.
00:16:45
Speaker
We were looking to be in my class where people asking to be in my class. When it came to class, they would sit there and just listen. And I'm like, wait a minute. Do y'all john do'all not know who was like this? isn't This doesn't make sense to me.
00:16:58
Speaker
I respect that though. Yeah. But what happened where was the sixth graders that i there were now seventh graders were looking at me the entire year from afar thinking like, man, I want to be in that class. want to be in his class.
00:17:12
Speaker
Right. he looks cool. He wears sneakers. Right, on Friday. That's what we were allowed. Jean Day was on Friday, and on Friday I had the whole school waiting for me to get to work to see what I was going to do. Not the Fit Check. The Fit Check back 2002? Before the Fit Check, that was a thing going on in Fairfield Middle. But that year was so smooth, I thought like, wait a minute.
00:17:34
Speaker
wow This isn't by chance. And mean I'm sorry for dragging it out. but i'm No, it's not. I'm appreciative. Yeah. That's when I thought like this, this isn't just a job um or something for me to do because i legitimately saw I was getting results that some of my colleagues, it's not a diss to anyone, but they were not getting.
00:17:53
Speaker
No, I get it. But you got remember, you know this as well from coming from you're coming from greatness. And I'm not saying I'm great, but I'm going say this.
00:18:03
Speaker
Those students seeing a black man yeah in that position, yeah doing it that way was something they they had not witnessed or hadn't been a part of in their their academic journeys up to that particular point. So, um yeah, the second year I realized like, okay,
00:18:20
Speaker
There might be a little something to this. Look, so um I don't think you've ever met my brother. um But my brother is a um is a middle school um ah social studies teacher.
00:18:34
Speaker
um And middle school is difficult. I remember his first years in in switching school systems, like switching states states, going from North Carolina to where he is now. And the friction that occurred within that very first year However, the polar opposite that occurred the following year, like they it's something about a black man in education that just changes the demeanor of the the environment overall.
00:19:06
Speaker
Um, and And I don't think that y'all receive your flowers the way you're supposed to receive your flowers. And I don't think that ah you receive your accolades and your your thanks, the gratitude that you deserve. Because you have to see it a lot of times to even believe it or to even know it's possible. And seeing a a a Black male teacher, you know, in general, seeing someone who looks like you being proper and being something completely different than what you see at home or what you see in your everyday routine is a beautiful thing. And I don't even think you realize you fully realize, the and you may, and i um I apologize if I am projecting, but you you have impacted generations just by being present in that space.
00:20:00
Speaker
and allowing the creator to work through you in that way. So I just want to give you some gratitude and and give you your flowers for that, because that's a big undertaking, especially the mad disrespect y'all received that very first year. Oh, goodness. Well, I'm humbled by your praise, and I'm i'm thankful for the opportunity and just um just thankful.
00:20:17
Speaker
But yeah, that first, let me just say this. This is an aside, but it fits in. That first year, that first year across the, we were a campus-style school. There was a colleague, like, ah you know, the outside, you walk from outside to fight there was a colleague by October, by October, she had used all of the, whatever days you have sick days, you got all the days, right? The days when you don't come to work.
00:20:44
Speaker
Yeah. By the beginning of October, she had used all the days allotted to her. And when she ran out of them, she pretty much resigned from her job. And I believe she was, well, I know she was married, but she pretty much, she just quit.
00:20:59
Speaker
So hold on. So I remember that day I was teaching and you could hear, if something was loud enough, the the across the way was close enough that you could hear it, right? Yes. I was in the middle of teaching and I heard an eruption of applause, right? I'm talking like eruption. We're talking like Apollo level of applause.
00:21:19
Speaker
Okay. I'm thinking like, what's going on over there? Oh, well, so after, ah get well um By the time I reached planning period, I was told by another colleague that at the beginning of her class, she announced that you know this would be her last day.
00:21:36
Speaker
oh Hold on. Those students stood up. Those sixth graders stood up and they all applauded. Now, this is what I didn't know. When they applauded, she burst into tears and walked off the job.
00:21:52
Speaker
At that moment, like she. like And so the administrator came, the sixth grade administrator went over and took over the class and ah so whatever they did to get through the day. But she had used all her days and walked off all that to say this.
00:22:06
Speaker
I saw many a soldier and I don't use that as a disrespect to people who've actually served, but many of a colleague. that were in the team picture on day or on.
00:22:18
Speaker
And it was like new teacher orientation. that They take their team picture. yeah There was a good chunk of people who were not there when it was time to clean up classrooms at the end of that first year. So that's not more for me. Education is not for the faint. It is not. It is not. Education is not for the faint, which takes me to ah another question.
00:22:39
Speaker
Let's talk about your pivot point. um And I actually think you're going to take us way back back into time because, and i don't mean that far back, but- What was, was there ever a time where you almost chose a different path? Because you said you you weren't planning on doing education. Yes, your goal was to be a collegiate professor, but was that always the goal? Because if you were into wrestling, I'm almost certain that wrestling was a goal at some point in time, but I could be
Wrestling and Literature: Storytelling Parallels
00:23:07
Speaker
wrong.
00:23:07
Speaker
Nope, never. is So wrestling, I've never had a desire to do anything professionally. It's just something I enjoy. Like again, the narrative what drew What drew me to wrestling was the actual to narratives. The narratives, I got to give you some classic bookers. And bookers are people who pretty much plan everything, right? Write the script or whatever, however you want to. Right.
00:23:29
Speaker
Gentlemen like Bill Watts, Dusty Rhodes. These you you may know people who are listening may know them from like as being wrestlers. But as far as think of them as being administrators.
00:23:39
Speaker
OK, you like the plot. Oh, my goodness. That was that literally was the only reason that want because it made it made more than a sense. And going to tell you this as well. The best bookers.
00:23:51
Speaker
the All the best storylines of wrestling come from reality. Right. For example, I started watching wrestling during the Cold War. where the propaganda that the United States of America spewed was that, you know, ah socialism, communism, all that stuff, all that stuff was bad. Russia is bad.
00:24:09
Speaker
So if the whole country is hating Russia, then we need to make some Russian wrestlers, right? I'm not going to drop name. I hate name dropping, but in Charlotte, I was having ah having this conversation with this of Fame NFL player, right? He came up to me one day at this boot camp i used to work out there, and he was like, hey, man, they tell me you know wrestling.
00:24:33
Speaker
no So I'm stretching. I'm like, yeah. So he goes on and he mentions Nikita Kolov, right, who lives, I believe Nikita Kolov lives in Charlotte. If not, he lives close. So he mentions off the top how much he loved Nikita Kolov as a kid, right?
00:24:48
Speaker
hu So I'm in the middle of stretching. i'm like, you know he's not rushing, right? He looked at me like- Why are you destroying people's dreams? Yeah, like, you just- I'm like, you know what, he's not right. As a matter of fact, none of them were, like, they were Like, it's that- But anyway, the point was, so they they um they took, okay, if America is- We had a Cold War, then the villains need to be Russians.
00:25:12
Speaker
And that was a trope- That was a trope that went on, goodness, like 20, 30 years in wrestling. Like, if you were a Russian wrestler, oh, you had a job. Like, if you had a character, if you could do that, you- You sign right here. So anyway, it was a a whole nother capitalism conversation, but I'm a digress.
00:25:27
Speaker
Oh, my goodness. yeah But yeah, it was the the narrative of that that um that that drew me in. This stuff was it wasn't even comical. At some point and stuff gets like the writing is horrible. But at that time.
00:25:38
Speaker
you really couldn't tell if this stuff was fake or not. Grown for- Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Cause I need to, you you say that it what the the plot is what guided you or what what sparked your interest.
00:25:52
Speaker
But then you turn around and got a um ah minor in news media. So it it's just, it's like, I see the dots and I want to connect them a certain way, but you're telling me they don't connect that way. So why news media?
00:26:06
Speaker
So, okay, when i were when i was in high school, I didn't necessarily want to major in English. One day at the restaurant where worked, the superintendent of schools came to the restaurant, right? And I was SGA president at my high school. This was my senior year.
00:26:23
Speaker
um You know, I played football. We were number one team in the state. But anyway, the point was, he knew me and I knew him and I walked up and introduced myself. And he's like, know you. And we were talking. He was like, so you're about to go to college. i'm like, yes.
00:26:35
Speaker
He was like, what are you majoring in? And I told him mass communications. This is what he said to me. Straight and even, he wasn't even nice about it. He said, why would you do that? ah And I'm thinking like, wait, what?
00:26:46
Speaker
So he's like, why don't you major in English? Because you'll be, essentially what he was saying was that you should major in English, which was my best class in in school, by the way. hu He said, you should major in English because you'll be opening yourself up to more opportunities and you can still do all the things you want to do at Mass Comm.
00:27:05
Speaker
I couldn't even argue with him. thought like, man, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I when I took I was um working in the capacity of a busboy that day. Right. OK. And when I walked back to the kitchen with some with like a pan of dishes, I'm like, yeah, I'm majoring English.
00:27:21
Speaker
It's not like it's not my easiest class. So I decided to major in English that way. Now, my goal, because I were bound, was to be employed in a collegiate setting. I didn't want to be a teacher because I didn't see myself as being though that great. Right. Or because that's all my teachers at that point in my career, in my life.
00:27:38
Speaker
Out of all the teachers I had, i had one that was bad and everybody else was pretty much Justice League. Okay. So I'm looking at these people like, man, these people are, this is about as close to God you can get. um And I mean that with my whole my whole heart.
00:27:51
Speaker
So anyway, see, I knew I wanted to work in a collegiate setting because I went down because I, you know, it was pretty much like being poured into every day. And I'm like, this is a setting I want to be in. I didn't, I just knew I was, my goal was so basic. I was like, okay, figure out how to get a job working at a college.
00:28:07
Speaker
ah right But it wasn't that it wasn't necessarily being faculty. I didn't see myself. I didn't see that in any of that particular. OK, I love it. I love that. i love how you allow, you have allowed your environments and stimuli to to tap you on your shoulder, but not be the the defining decision maker, if that makes sense. That's big aha moment to me.
00:28:36
Speaker
that's a big that's a big aha moment to me um that you as a person have decided like, yeah, I hear you, but you know, I still have my own concepts and my own ideas of what I would like to do. i love, I love that for your your storyline.
00:28:56
Speaker
I love that for your timeline because that, I don't think a lot of us recognize that you always have choices. um And you should you should take those choices into consideration. But that just because somebody says you should do something doesn't mean that that's the defining answer. You need to make it your own. I love that. Right.
00:29:15
Speaker
And I have to mention this as well. I mentioned that I was the SGA president when I was in high school. The sole the sole reason that was on my goal list was because i saw that all the SGA presidents went to college.
00:29:30
Speaker
I'm like, okay. It was almost like thinking like, okay, do what you know works. And I'm like, okay, by the time when I become a senior, I'm going to be actually president. I won that thing by a landslide. But the point was- I mean, you're cool.
00:29:41
Speaker
Well, listen, I wouldn't say that by myself, but it feels good to hear that. But listen, those individuals, every person who had that position was what was a black person. Like all of them were black. Let me just say that. My four years of hospital, they were all black.
00:29:57
Speaker
Okay. um They weren't they were they were movers and shakers. They were literally they were the type of people that if they walked around somebody who was doing something wrong, the person would straighten up immediately because they walked in.
00:30:08
Speaker
wow And I wanted to be that so damn bad. So, um yeah, I thought like it would increase my opportunities to go to college, even though i was ah when I was on the right path. I thought like if I do what they're doing, it'll get me to where they went, if that makes sense.
00:30:23
Speaker
I respect that. Yeah, real basic. But, yeah, I wanted to I saw what they were doing. I'm like, OK, you need to do that so you can get where they're going. okay I like it. Why? Why sneakers?
00:30:37
Speaker
Sneakers is pretty much. So here's the thing about sneakers. Sneakers has always been a part of who I am. Always been an interest. Here's the thing about it, though. So people use the term now like sneakerhead or like like blah, blah, blah, sneakers and this and that.
Cultural Significance of Sneaker Culture Literature
00:30:53
Speaker
Before it was a culture, it was it was a I don't want to use the term secret society, but this is the easy way of and explaining the same way now. And I've explained this in the in the class of souls of black folk.
00:31:06
Speaker
It's cool. It's pop culture. ne Sneakers are pop culture. You got university presidents wearing sneakers. You got like vice president, the the the former vice president in the United States wearing sneakers. Right. It's become a thing.
00:31:18
Speaker
It's essentially the pet rock, right? But the pet rock has become that. You know, there's in ah there's authentic subscription and there's inauthentic subscription. But there's a thing where if you know, you know, I could look at a person and not ah not ever have a word with them and tell if they are authentic, authentic subscriber. Just there are certain things that i want to get that deep into it. But the same way if there was someone from your hometown and you were in Italy and you saw that person, you saw a person in Italy and you looked at them like, wait a minute.
00:31:53
Speaker
like something that person, wait a minute, the vibes I'm getting, ah my Spidey sense is going nuts, right? Like that's the easiest way for me to explain it. but So sneakers have always been a part of my life, a part of who I, part of my identity, not necessarily in flexing or spending a bunch of money, but before there was sneaker culture literature, there was sneaker culture literature within authentic subscription subscription and subscribers.
00:32:17
Speaker
so It just so happened that where I was with that, and don't mind saying this, where I was with that, It just happened to happen everywhere else. And I use this analogy. When I was a child, our house had pecans, right?
00:32:31
Speaker
Pecans. Where I'm from, we don't say pecans. that you Pecan trees out in the yard to the point where there were so many of them that I couldn't walk. I can't walk barefoot out outside. i have nothing to do.
00:32:42
Speaker
But you would step like it would be like stepping on shrapnel or something because there were so many and I'm looking at these. Yeah. Everywhere. It's like, that's the stuff that's on the ground that we step on when we go outside.
00:32:54
Speaker
That's how I look at them, right? It was not until years later when I walked into like a grocery store and I saw that people were paying exuberant prices the stuff we used to step on, right?
00:33:07
Speaker
Stuff that was common to me. This is common to us, but to to our to my family. I'm like, this is this is the same thing with sneaker culture, right? Now that sneaker's a pop culture, There are people who are feigning subscription.
00:33:21
Speaker
There are people who figured out, oh, I can make money off this in many different ways, of whether it be reselling or writing something that's inauthentic or you just people are interested in sneakers. That line from Players Club, which to me is literary theory, what will y'all pay for?
00:33:35
Speaker
That's what sneakers, said that what sneaker culture air quotes has become. But here's the thing. All the things that people want to know and be a part of or create are things that I had that I stepped on when I was a child. like this is oh I lived like this stuff that I'm writing about like or the stuff you all are writing about, I'm fact checking that didn't happen that way or this was like, because it was what I was interested in before it was a a thing yeah before it was a thing or scholarly topic so god moves um absolutely yeah so while you're talking i try i promise you i'm i'm trying to i'm trying to stay focused because while you're talking i'm going back to the fact that you studied the cadences of writing behind the plots of wrestling like that that that interest you that sparked you like oh oh, there's a whole narrative behind this.
00:34:31
Speaker
And then when you got into into sneakers, when you started getting into more so the read of sneakers, what sneakers say about you, how you wear them, how you how you style them, how you protect them, how you start looking at that and comparing it to the the person or the actor that has them on, you know that then starts building a tier of semiotics for you.
00:34:54
Speaker
You know, so it's just interesting to see how you then take all of that knowledge and then reprogram it, re reformat it and put it into books, into conversations and into courses. Like you have created a whole ecosystem around the study or the the art of sneakers or the art of of sneakers existence. And that is so dope on so many levels.
00:35:20
Speaker
Like like that was purposeful. Oh, yeah, for sure. that and And the thing is, therere there are connections.
00:35:30
Speaker
So, OK, I explain it this way, right? The same way you have a course based on New England Romanticism, or maybe postmodern Southern literature course. These are pretty much there's literature written about this way of life or this area in that specific place and time.
00:35:49
Speaker
OK. Sneaker culture literature is no different. OK. Let me take it a step further. Unfortunately for her for her life while she was here in this realm, you know Zora Neale Hurston created some of the the illest things I've ever... And I mean ill meaning good, okay? Let me explain that.
00:36:06
Speaker
Some of the illest things I've ever read in my life. And I'm a Southern... Before all the sneaker culture, pop culture, hip-hop culture and stuff, yeah it was Southern lit for me. And it's still a specialty area, it's just that more people are interested in this new stuff than that.
00:36:19
Speaker
So Zora Neale Hurston, as you know, died... in destitute poverty. She died in poverty, right? Was pretty much black people didn't like her writing. You're making those look bad.
00:36:30
Speaker
It wasn't until years and years and years after her death when people were like, oh, she got, this is hot. Like, this is a heat rock. Like, this is, this is good, right? But here's the thing. Yeah. Like, this is, yo, she got classics. But here's the point.
00:36:44
Speaker
Sneaker culture literature is no different than Southern literature or New England Romanticism or when Melville wrote Moby Dick and then spawned, you know, nautical like nautical type writing or literature.
00:36:59
Speaker
Like this is Southern... I mean, so sneaker culture literature is that. It is every... When we think of anthropology or we just think of literature that comes out of a specific time, even with hip-hop, right?
00:37:10
Speaker
There's a connection between... southern literature and hip-hop southern hip-hop but there's also a connection between southern literature and stinker culture literature because again if it starts to make money it goes from lowercase little listen hear me out on this if it starts to make money it will go from lowercase l literature to capital l literature okay and And back to that line from Players Club, which again, for me, in literary theory, what will y'all pay for?
00:37:41
Speaker
If enough people pay for it, then it becomes important enough to be studied. a So yeah, follow the money. be The money will always lead you to things getting... I'm not mad at that.
00:37:53
Speaker
Yeah, looked at in a different light. I'm not mad at that. follow Follow the coins. Okay, I respect it. All right, so...
Engaging Students Effectively: Meeting Them Where They Are
00:38:02
Speaker
Let's hop into, I mean, as a teacher, let's hop into some lessons that you have or a lesson, ah main lesson you have for others. What is one mindset shift or practice that has just helped you succeed, has kept you on the on the go and has kept you going? And as as faculty or even as an administrator, and I've had students tell me this enough times where I've taken it to be locked.
00:38:31
Speaker
ah is that when I'm cooking, meaning when i'm you know when i'm when I'm teaching or in a classroom, I've had enough students say, you don't talk to us, like you're not condescending when you talk to us.
00:38:44
Speaker
a And that's something I've taken from not only in the classroom, just period. Not saying that be in a position to talk down to someone, that's not what I mean. But i get yeah the only difference between me and somebody who's sitting in the class that I instruct is that, you know,
00:39:02
Speaker
I'm older because I said exactly. It is a there's a room 106 in Johnson Hall. The last class I had when I was in grad school at Virginia State. Is the first class I walked into when he hired me as a faculty administrator.
00:39:17
Speaker
Wow. And so it was pretty much like, OK, okay I left that room as a student and I walked back in as an administrator slash faculty. Right. Wow. And I'm like, wow. Of course, the room looks the same.
00:39:29
Speaker
The chairs are the same style chairs. They're just newer. Yeah. Because they're not the same ones from like 2002. But the perspective change. Yeah. But the whole point is this. The only difference between me and somebody I teach or or individuals I've taught is that I'm just a little bit, and I'm still young enough to be able to say just a little bit, but eventually it's going to get a little longer.
00:39:48
Speaker
um I'm a little further, a little bit up the street as far as time than they are, right? To the point where I can still make those connections. um But that's it. So I treat people the information as if i were teaching it to me when i was that age if that makes sense i respect that yeah i respect that um as a as a calm person when uh when we were doing you know when you went back in the day when you would send in your your applications for college you would put a a personal statement with it and i would do a nelson mandela quote at the top of mine um for for my hbcus i did a nelson mandela quote for my pwis i did a batman quote
00:40:27
Speaker
I didn't get into any of the PWIs, but for my HBCUs, it was a Nelson Mandela quote, and it went to the effect of speak to a man in ah in in his language, and it goes to his heart.
00:40:39
Speaker
right So I respect and I can appreciate you meeting people where they are. That's ah that's a big gem. Talking to people where they stand with the compassion of where you have been without...
00:40:55
Speaker
necessarily, you know, putting them in your shoes. You just you're just standing there with them. That's what's up. That's a true educator. And I can appreciate you for that. thank you Hold on. Did you say you use a Batman quote for your PWI? I sure did.
00:41:07
Speaker
okay what was the Batman quote? The Batman quote was, it is not what I do that defines me. It is. Wait, it is not who I am that defines me. It's what I do. Batman Returns.
00:41:17
Speaker
I think that that's what it was. I'm almost certain that's what it was. So that would fly that would that would that would fly right now, right? It would. I guess I was just before my time. Yeah, you would. That would definitely, I'm surprised.
00:41:30
Speaker
So hold on on, and I know this but I have to, you can't just leave on the table and spit me So why did you use that quote for the PWIs and specifically, i get why you would use the Mandela quote, but that sounds extra deliberate.
00:41:45
Speaker
Why did you use that? Well, I was going to study communication. let me be Let me be very clear. When I was going to college, I knew that I was going into comm. I thought I was going to go into history.
00:41:56
Speaker
And I had a friend's mom tell me that I didn't need to be a professor and I needed do something that went into money. So I turned around and went into comm, which should depending on how you flex it, it can or it cannot bring you bring you coin But i deliberately chose to do the PWIs with the Batman because I felt as though it resonated a little bit more.
00:42:18
Speaker
Whereas if I went with Nelson Mandela, it's kind of like Malcolm X wasn't cool until recently. Right. You know, and I felt that Nelson Mandela would have that same type of of energy back in the early two thousand okay Okay. Makes sense. um at least that that was my that was my take on it at the at the time. So what I ended up doing was in one of my original emails, I ended up putting the Batman Returns as my signature in my emails, which worked just as well when I was working in corporate because people were like, oh my gosh, you know something. Yeah, i i I know a little bit. i You know, I'm not just...
00:43:00
Speaker
you know i'm I'm well versed. I'm cultured ah across the board. That's amazing, man. Again, being deliberate and knowing your audience, right? like legitimate mean I tell students all the time when it comes to research, like, okay, you got to remember who your audience is first. yeah And i'm I'm primarily your audience.
00:43:19
Speaker
Right. right yeah write for write for speak to who you need to hear. And I don't think we do that. i think we speak at people instead of speaking to them, um which is why there's so much dishevelment and disorder right now, because we are speaking at people instead of speaking to them on their level and from the from the angles to which they can actually process information. Agreed.
00:43:48
Speaker
You know, let's. um let talk about how your thinking has evolved because you've been, you've, you've lived several lifetimes in this lifetime.
A Holistic View of Interconnected Roles
00:44:02
Speaker
I'm blessed. I'm blessed to be here. And say, seriously, for sure For sure. How would you say that your thinking has evolved over, over time? How is it? Well, you're a reader.
00:44:14
Speaker
So there's that. So my thinking, one way that my thinking has evolved To use the analogy, I'm looking at the entire field.
00:44:26
Speaker
So even in working in higher education, and even in business, right? There's so many like it's it's crazy because that's um I probably spend not more time, but I spend a course of my, my time. a lot of my time goes into, to soul food and, uh, product design and marketing, all that stuff, all the stuff that comes with manufacturing, but here's the point. dope. His merch is super dope y'all. Like super amazing. Make sure y'all check it out.
00:44:53
Speaker
Go ahead. I'm sorry. No, I'm honored by that. But seeing is bigger than they're like, they're more moving pieces. in a the same in a university, right?
00:45:05
Speaker
So knowing or having knowledge of it's not just OK, it's not enough for me to know how to do my job at a high level. I need to know why some may or may not be doing theirs at a high level.
00:45:21
Speaker
And what happens, you know, what happens either way and all the other jobs that I'll never do. I need to have as much information or knowledge about that as possible because they all relate. It's like an ecosystem.
00:45:32
Speaker
ah Well, the easiest way to answer that question is. I think a lot about things that don't have a lot to do with me directly, but ultimately could. Right.
00:45:43
Speaker
Yeah. We're looking at a lake or but looking at an ocean. Most people would be like, the ocean is enough. But what about the other bodies of water that feed into that?
00:45:56
Speaker
Right. You can learn a lot from that ocean by the other bodies water. So yeah, just seeing the whole field of the big picture and thinking about how things that normally wouldn't affect could or would or should.
00:46:09
Speaker
I like that. That's monumental. that That's an epiphany. I hope that y'all that resonates with y'all, recognizing that It's not just about you.
00:46:21
Speaker
And the effect can be a lot more impactful if you think about the entire picture opposed to just what is affecting and effecting you as a person. i like that. that That speaks volumes about your character um because a lot of people don't do that and we should.
00:46:43
Speaker
That's what's up. What's next for you? What do you have going on? What's popping? you I know you brought up soul food. How can we support you? What do you have? What do you have on the the docket coming up this
Success of the Soul Food Brand and Business Expansion
00:46:54
Speaker
year? Okay. Well, soul food, of course, soulfoodbrand.com, jameelavarking.com, all of the licensed NCAA apparel and the branded, the ah brand issued apparel can be purchased there.
00:47:06
Speaker
they um So this year, recently announced licensing for Virginia Commonwealth University. Those satin jackets are doing well. This is the only product, let me just say this now because this will probably change once people realize that there's an opportunity.
00:47:23
Speaker
The Soul Food brand produces the only product on the market, the only Satin Bomber created for retail for Virginia Commonwealth. And because because of that, you know, those they are currently doing well.
00:47:36
Speaker
I mean, um I expect other people to say, oh, wait a minute, that's an opportunity. Let me go in and, you know, either get a license or just start you know replicating that particular product or trying to make their version of it. But new licenses will be announcing new licenses throughout the year.
00:47:51
Speaker
I'm excited about that. the The premium select line, the premium select line with Soul Food brand is pretty much, think of the quality on a level of Ralph Lauren and hate name dropping, but that's the, that was the intent that whenever you see premium select, okay the, the quality of that is, is inspired by Ralph Lauren, right? So the premium line is doing well right now.
00:48:14
Speaker
Expect more pieces from that and just more licenses. So, so food is moving. Um, right now it was only available. I had negotiations with, uh, companies that run bookstores.
00:48:26
Speaker
Okay. They were pretty much like, hey, we're ready to bring you on. And then another store that the South knows that pretty much announced, they had announced within the company that they were bringing me on before they even contacted me. Just shows you corporate, I know you know, but other than I know that. Donna.
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah. who this This particular corporate entity announced within their company that I was coming. they hadn't any had i hadn't talked to them ever Wow. So anyway, so so so.
00:48:54
Speaker
Yeah, man, I learned I got a quick education you with the University of Virginia State is doing a lot of positive things. The hip hop studies, English minors up now that I created working with the history department court and curriculum development.
00:49:11
Speaker
some exciting programs coming up within the Institute of Hip Hop Culture. so So professionally, things have going well. With the business, things going well. Personally, things going well. I just pray for continued health, wealth, and opportunities.
00:49:23
Speaker
I can dig it. Y'all make sure y'all y'all check out my my homie. um That's soulfood, S-O-L-E-F-O-O-D.com, right? Soulfoodbrand, B-R-A-N-D. Soulfoodbrand, I'm sorry. S-O-L-E-B, I cannot spell right now.
00:49:43
Speaker
I got it that time? Yes. I'm going have to clip that out for you. and So you can use it on your stuff. Send it to me and watch it. Send it to me and watch it with like 12 a.m., which I call the magic hour because I use like plan posts at 12 a.m.
00:49:59
Speaker
And hear your voice go over for product. Oh, my gosh. So thank you. Y'all, his eye on on detail, his angle is so amazing. Everything you've heard today has been folded into his soul food brand. Like it's retro.
00:50:17
Speaker
it is it's It's gritty. But at the same time, he's about to roll out this ah this this premium brand. But it's so, it's giving late 1980s to all nineteen late nineteen eighty s to ah early 2000s smash up. It's such a a an amazing vibe with his merchandise.
00:50:39
Speaker
And I think it will settle well. If you like hip hop, you like sneakers, and you like literature, smashed into to one entity that that is that would be Soul Food brand, I believe.
00:50:53
Speaker
I personally feel that way. couldn't have said that better myself. I think it's a beautiful brand. And I think you you're definitely sitting on some gold um there. My last question to you is what is something that people don't know about you? What is something public facing that people just don't know?
A Hidden Passion: Fragrances and Sneaker Knowledge
00:51:10
Speaker
okay I'm glad you asked that because, okay, all the things that we talked about today, huh they all come secondary to my love and passion for fragrances.
00:51:22
Speaker
um Really? Oh, my God. Listen, no people don't know that about me, but that's that's been an interest and a passion of mine for a long time. So the same way, let me explain it this way, right?
00:51:34
Speaker
So if I were somewhere just minding my business and someone ah engaged me, I only talk about sneakers when it seems like it's professional now, right? It's not something I talk about.
00:51:46
Speaker
um Like sneaker culture is not something because it's grown bigger than that, right? Right. So if someone were to engage me publicly and have a conversation, like just strike up a conversation about sneakers, I'm listening. Right.
00:51:58
Speaker
but I'm not doing a whole lot of talking, right? I'm just listening to what, to discover what the person has to say and, you know, thinking about how to reply to it. Because when you're that deep into knowledge, you can come, one could come off like in, what is it insecure, not insecure, like someone who's rude.
00:52:15
Speaker
Okay. um Okay. So like inauthentic. Yeah. Yeah. I can feel like pretty much like like that. Got you. One word to engage, people would engage me to in a fragrance conversation. Oh my gosh.
00:52:26
Speaker
Listen, they're going to have to like break away. Like, okay, man, let ah tap me on the corner. Like, nice meeting you. Like, right. But yeah, that that is a passion of mine to the people. The knowledge that I have of that probably trumps the knowledge I have for the things we've talked about today.
00:52:41
Speaker
That's amazing. You never know. Right. You never know if you don't ask. You never know. of you That's not something that not not a whole lot of people. As a matter of fact. Yeah. Besides my little brother.
00:52:53
Speaker
Um. I can't think of people who know that I know that know how how heavy in the game I am. because that might be and ah That might be a new angle for you. I'm here for it who knows? Who knows?
00:53:05
Speaker
I can totally see. I can totally see it. Look, we're we're all about greatness over here on the greatness router. So I'm all about a picking up new new angles to start traveling and new roads and new pathways. I'm all about forging something new. i All right, Dr. King. Let's let's let's find out.
00:53:23
Speaker
Yeah, green tomatoes. It's the red tomatoes that start to decompose. The green tomatoes are always growing and I see myself as a green tomato.
00:53:31
Speaker
OK. OK, Mr. Virginia. yeah OK, Mr. Virginia. OK, well, is there anything that I didn't ask that you wanted to put on the table?
00:53:42
Speaker
and I think you covered a lot of things. And again, I'm pleased as punch. you're doing, you always, listen, let me just say this real quick. You always, since I became knowledgeable of who you were as a person, um as a scholar, as a leader, all the, you wear a lot of hats, but do d and what what woman, what person doesn't, but what black woman doesn't. Let me just say this.
00:54:05
Speaker
To be a part of this today, I know that you know that I'm honored to be here, but I can't, I'm not eloquent enough to say it enough. that you just everything you touch turns into like platinum. What's what's more precious than platinum? Whatever it is, you whatever you touch turns into that.
00:54:20
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. OK, so honored to be here. I think you covered everything. And I look forward to not only the greatness router, but anything else and everything else that you touch. And just thank you.
00:54:32
Speaker
Thank you so much. I truly appreciate you. And it has been a a complete honor to share this space with you and to learn a thing or four um about you, as well as how we can move forward together, because I am excited about this. Some some of this information i I learned about today. So I am so grateful for you and listeners. I really hope that y'all took notes and you, you really heard,
00:54:58
Speaker
what was said and what wasn't said as in what was underlining what was said. um Because Dr. King really did drop a lot of gems regarding his journey and his pathways. And I'm truly grateful for your presence.
00:55:13
Speaker
And to our audience, I am grateful that y'all took the time to to hang with us and and stay with us and listen and learn. You know, your greatness is a is a gift and it's up to you to truly own it.
00:55:27
Speaker
I am truly grateful that you took the time to spend today with us. And this has been another episode of The Greatness Router. It's me, Zena C. And I hope you have a beautiful, beautiful day.
00:55:40
Speaker
Peace.
00:55:44
Speaker
And that's a wrap on this episode of The Greatness Router. If you found some value in today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, rate, and definitely share. It helps more people connect to the journey of greatness.
00:55:57
Speaker
Until next time, keep moving with purpose.