Jerry’s Impact & Inspiration
Jerry Gant’s Impact on The Coffee Cave.
Running a business for me meant a combination of things: managing profit margins, expenses, quality control and cultivating a customer base to name a few.
So it’s 2009 and there I was, executing my business model at the Coffee Cave, 45 Halsey St. Our relationship with the arts community was phenomenal.
Most of our food sales took place during community events- and the reviews of the space and menu were overwhelmingly 5 star!
I knew our strong community involvement was good for business, but beyond the financials, Jerry let me know the importance of The Coffee Cave for the community.
After a memorial service at The Coffee Cave that he mc’d, He stressed to me how important my success was for this community. To paraphrase he said “who else out here is allowing free space usage” for the memorial service of a dearly departed member of “our” community.
He noticed something I didn’t. I was in churn mode, focused on scheduling and promoting to get the bills paid. The way I saw it, even allowing for free space use had potential financial benefits as it was a chance to market the space. But beyond the business plan, Jerry prophesied of the higher purpose of what this establishment meant to the community.
I was humbled and realized that Jerry had insight and a message that was from a higher place. So from that point on, all of my bookings had to fit a certain standard that I held myself accountable to according to a higher purpose.
How Jerry Gant inspired BlkBoxNwk @ the Gant-Gilbert Arts Hub.
As an artist, Jerry was his authentic self. Every new day was a new canvass. How he lived his day was a new work.
He was the ultimate multi-disciplinary freestyler…delivering targeted messages through seemingly random artistic expression. He blessed us with his provocative delivery and bluntness. He used his art as his safe space to turn off all filters. It was a place from where he could speak freely without offense taken by who the message was directed towards.
His message is as relevant to our community’s physical and mental health as the gospel is to our spiritual.
His evolved purpose as an artist allowed for spiritual symbiosis between his essence and his use of art to maximize his impact in the community.
Constantly in grind mode, he documented his endeavors through photo, video, etc. as his archived resume that will last as long as there are search engines and storage in the cloud.
He didn’t spend needless time analyzing, diagnosing and seeking perfection. He had become so confident in his purpose that perfection came in translating verbatim what came from his imperfect human soul.
Imperfections were the soul of his art that authenticated his work even more definitively than a fingerprint could.
30 second stencil was a trademark…stealthily in and out on the dilapidated facades of properties of Miles Berger, Art Stern, Hanini, Beit, land hoarders and absentee slumlords and even a tree in Washington Park.
The tree in Washington Park with a stencil of a black man’s face focused in the direction of a now removed statue of Christopher Columbus, representing the conquerors of native ancestral lands on both sides of the Atlantic.
The man’s face on the tree represents scrutiny of the conquering oppressor, that has recently led to his removal. The man on the tree might represent Jerry being commissioned by a higher power to leave an encrypted message that our work lives on beyond our physical presence. A voice for the past and present and visionary of the future!
Our goal at BlkBoxNwk at the Gant-Gilbert Arts Collective is to detoxify our community through the arts.
We aim to provide a platform for the divinely inspired whose work will allow us to share in a vision that agitates us to evolve as opposed to uninspired works that lulls us to complacency.
If your artful purpose is authentic and in alignment with what you just read, then Hit us up on our website’s contact page.
www BlkBoxNwk com
We will soon be installing weekly 1 - 2 person exhibits with artist interviews and discussions hosted by Gary Campbell #TARTW and curated by one of our discipline specific curators including Luisa Pinzon, Jojo Abenaavi, Ngu Asongwed, Kween Moore, Marcy DePina, Dana Holland Josh Milan and Veronica Manning.
We will cover a vast array of disciplines including performance, digital, visual, audio, dance, podcast and more.
Whether or not you are sure this open call fits your calling, We will support you as a community until your output transcends your talent.
#loveART