It looks a little something like this:

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I chose the above quote by Lupe Fiasco because it really resonates my experience in America as a whole so far.  I’m really fortunate with this whole Year Abroad experience because I’m able to really see American life and culture not only first hand through living here in Philadelphia and travelling to neighbour states but most importantly through the learning aspect.

What I’m learning and being introduced to here is influencing my thought process in so many ways, it really is mind-blowing and I’m having to alter my perceptions and pre-dispositions in order to allow these new ideas in and let them grow alongside my own thoughts. The beauty of the African American studies here at Temple is that it encompasses so many topics and angles in order to teach you about African American people and the black lived experience here in America.

There are classes that focus specifically on the African American and African in areas of Psychology, Philosophy, Literature, Music, Dance, Gender, Photography – you name it and I guarantee there is a subject through which you can explore the African American experience. People may criticise and say that’s way too much and why does it need such focus but in order to dissect a culture, you need all those angles.

I’ve just started my second and final semester at Temple and I know already that more than anything I’m going to miss the education aspect when I go back home.

Although I’ve just come off an extremely long, tiring and strenuous term and although it looks as if the upcoming one will be the same – this is the aspect I am truly going to miss the most. In my experience there is something quite unique about the way and the standard of teaching is conducted here. My opinions about this come heavily from being so involved and so in awe of the AAS department here as they have embraced me so heart-fully and in the case of some exceptional Professors taken the time to teach me outside in the classroom and educate me on Philadelphia life.

As well as that I do believe that the American way of things in education leads and is more susceptible to student contact and interaction and open-ness. I’m not saying come here and learn in America and you can suddenly feel liberated in education and have a great rapoor with your educators, that’s not it all. It’s just the American way of things that I have experienced at Temple is built more around student interaction and involvement. I think this is the first time I haven’t felt like I have a price tag over my head and that I am truly getting value for money – if I was paying these ridiculously priced fees. Here at Temple my breadth of knowledge has increased and I’m able to create and write things that I never could before.

I’ve made a documentary on and could possibly be writing my dissertation on the effects of sneaker culture – I mean come on! My ability to do both of these has come from being at Temple.

It may sound as if I’m totally bashing the British way of things but that is not my intention as certain parts of the American system are not all rosy and great. I’m purely commenting on the social,personal and intellectual level of teaching here because that’s what I crave for and what I have had to really hold onto as being the saving grace for this American college madness.

Lupe says, “Don’t come back until you learn some” and sometimes I feel like lying and saying I haven’t learnt a damn thing, in order to stay here longer. But I know there is a great benefit of being here for my third year as I can go back and approach my last year with tenacity and encompass all these new ideas, thoughts and approaches to my discipline.

I want to be as energised back home as I am here!

Sitting in that class today and watching my work on screen there was a sense of pride and slight embarrasment, mainly because I hate the sound of my voice – suprising as that may seem! Yet, for the most part pride.

Before I started creating my documentary my main goal was to give this topic justice. To get across not just the passion I have for sneakers but the appreciation for the design, implementation and process of it also. While I realised I wasn’t doing something entirely new here, the whole process of interviewing, editing and communicates my ideas visually was new to me. And in some cases the subject matter was new to my audience of class mates.

This documentary gave me the opportunity to introduce, explain and critique sneaker culture and explain why people are associated with it. I had to play devils advocate as I made this.

In doing so I learnt some amazing stuff about the business of sneakers and mentality of brands but also peoples insights and personal opinions which are the real highlight to this documentary.

Yet, suprisingly I learnt about why I am associated to this culture. I think that was really defined while making this.

It is clearly evident that sneaker culture has changed.

I understand it’s transcendents, as this New York phenomenon is now appreciated all around the world yet in it’s transformation? Has the essence of the culture been lost in its growth ?

I remember the first ever blog post I done here called Old Love New Love and explained why I loved sneakers so much.

Upon reflection it should have been entitled New love and just that! I have only contemporarily become a member of this burgeoining culture but as everything there are people before you who enjoyed it but most of all enjoyed it in it’s purest form.

Its purest form being a niche sub culture – the readings of Bobitto Garcia showed me this. Yet, contemporarily we claim it as our own because the technology is much more advanced and the rules of the game have changed. Today sneaker culture is defined by a Hypebeast mentality, people wear sneakers, trainers, kicks, with little or no understanding of the history of the culture.

I believe brands have changed the direction of sneaker culture, they became rich by marketing a culture that before relied on word of mouth and foot soldiers, they put it on tv, on billboards and turned the sneaker into a form of social normality, you needed to have it to be hip, cool and chic. Today the marketing and advertising strategies of leading brands have remained same and the faces associated with the product have changed. This is what has made sneaker culture new, these are the rules we adhere to, the ones created by the brands and not the people.

The basis of sneaker culture may remain the same – the passion, the love, the adoration for kicks yet the modes of operation have significantly changed.

What of the state of sneaker culture today? Since I’ve been in America I have only purchased 1 pair of kicks – fact.

A pair of Vans Authentics. Nothing is catching my eye at the moment, nothing is making me want to spend by money. The market is heavily saturated with product that favour style over substance.

This may sound like a defamation of sneaker culture but it really is just an eye opening to me of what I was buying into. I want to understand the business aspect of sneaker culture the most. The communication of ideas all spread from here.

So you say where is this “masterpiece”?

And I reply soon good people soon!

Dear All,

Thank you for taking your time out to read this and possibly help me with my request.

For the past two months I have been making a short documentary on sneaker culture for a class I’m taking out here. In my documentary I focus on three factors the culture, the business and the social aspects.

The Business: When did sneaker culture become something for profit? How significant is Michael Jordan in the changing of sneaker culture?

The Social Aspects: Why were kids being killed for their sneakers? What do sneakers symbolise in inner-city neighbourhoods?

What I’m asking of you guys is a picture of you with your favourite sneaker which will be used in the closing credits of my documentary.

This is an example of what it should look like.

Please e-mail all entries to lemara@lemelp.com.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! YOUR HELP IS GRATEFULLY APPRECIATED!

The first store I’m introducing you all to is UBIQ.

Situated in the heart of Phiadelphia on Walnut Street, they are the only store in Philadelphia to carry a Tier 0 account with Nike SB, Nike, Palladium Boots as well as stocking a range clothing and accessories from brands such as: The Hundreds, Stussy, 1o Deep and Original Fake.

What I really like about UBIQ is the decor, it’s not your usual sneaker store as its modern and sleek look  definitely gives it boutique status. The store has the look of a gallery and the sneakers are the masterpieces on the wall. The bright bulb lights on the ceiling highlight every stitch, colour and detail of the sneakers.

Walk into the back and you have the clothing and apparel section or the extended sale section on the day I went. Again the decor shines through with mahogany shelves that hang jumpers and jackets from The Hundreds, Original Fake, and Nike – my favourite being the Nike M-65 jacket, unfortunately not in the sale.

I mentioned that Ubiq to me was like a gallery and I was true in every sense as upstairs is where TKP Gallery currently resides. I came across the work at TKP Gallery before at an event called October Gallery, the artist in question was heavily influenced by hip-hop, graffiti and pop.

Enjoy!

Contrary to what some of my American friends think, we don’t actually celebrate turkey day in England. There are so many things we don’t have in England because they are distinctly American!

I’m telling you this a country and culture on it’s own, there is nothing like America – FACT!

Thanksgiving is about food and family and some more food. It was great to be with my family and be a part of a tradition but really it was great to have some chill time, to relax and to reflect.

I used this thanksgiving time to put things in perspective and do give thanks for me being here and having this opportunity. Lately I’ve been feeling very distant from home and everything in it and that’s understandable but in all those thoughts distract me from the great experience of being here.

Sometimes we move at a million miles an minute and we don’t step away and just reflect.

You see things are getting intense at Temple the amount of WORK to do and the little amount of time to do it in is so far from a joke. So coming to New York was that chance for me to get away from all of that and I made sure I appreciated it to the max.

It’s funny how I’m writing this and watching Alica Keys and Jay-Z perform Empire State of Mind. That song will forever be the anthem of New York City and quite rightly so. I here that song in Philly which is funny to me seeing as the Yankees beat the Phillies in the World Series but I played it on my Ipod going through the city and I heard it on the radio while I was there.

The whole song is incredible yet while I was standing in Times Square the lines in the chorus were all I could think of,

” These streets will make you feel brand new, big lights will inspire you ”

So let’s here it for New York where I had the greatest Thanksgiving with my family and time with my friends.

Watching the American college system through English eyes is amazing as I pick out all the weird and wonderful things about it. And while I can only talk about my time here at Temple so far, I’m sure other people on their year abroad now would agree with me.

The other day I asked my professor to explain why the kids here are they way they are. Why they seem really relaxed in class, why they turn up to class with full blown meals of Chinese, Mexican or slices of Pizza, walk in and out of class when they feel like it and turn up and hour late to an hour and twenty minute class. It’s been baffling me for some time and I actually took a bit of offence to the fact that they could have this blatant casual attitude to learning and lack of respect for the classroom.  I never understood why until my teacher said, “the American school system is a factory, you clock in – get your work done and clock out”.

From my time here I’ve seen some who here have no desire to extend what they learn inside the classroom – outside. When I asked one student why they do all the above she said “I have to take this class in order to graduate” – not for pure passion or wanting to learn but if this box is not ticked they can’t move on.

You see there is a policy here at Temple that says in order to graduate you MUST take a race class and it just so happens that all the disregard I see in these students is in every single African American studies class I take.

I have a mixed personal opinion on this and it stems from what I said before how SOME students have this relaxed attitude in class and a lack of desire to learn about all things African American.

Firstly, the understanding of the concept of race, is crucial in understanding a lot of things. How can a sociological construct create the biggest racial dichotomy? It partly serves as an answer for racism but by tracing everything back to that “unthinking decision” to enslave Africans eons ago you get today the argument that although not living in a system of racialized chattel slavery, the mechanisms that keep them oppressed are still in existence today.

It’s also crucial in  our understanding of America: it’s society, it’s culture and it’s history. When we look at America today, I personally hold it above other nations as being the leading country in the world – although my opinion is changing on that when I hear the furore over universalhealth care however, songs proclaim that here is a place where dreams are made of and there is nothing you can’t do but in actuality that is so far from the truth. Although that song highlights a particularly state it is built on words to describe a nation.This supposed great nation was built on a lie, on notions of liberty and freedom that were only extended to one type of people. Not every man was created equal in America and it is through The Declaration of Independence that is on view a couple of subway stops away from me and The Constitution that slavery and racism were sanctioned de jure and continue de facto today.

It really is thrilling stuff  (as you can see I went in a little deep there) but it’s thrilling to ME! And while I’m not saying that you have to be an African American Studies major to understand and want to learn all these things, from my experience at Temple you have a bit more passion about it which SHOWS and your pursue it out of the classroom as well as in!

I’m just saying. People sit in my classes who are Communications or Business majors and make really random statements that I believe not only come from a position of ignorance but mostly innocence of not knowing truly knowing what they are being taught. You also get students who vehemently oppose what they are being taught as I have witnessed in a rather heated Dimensions of Racism class I am taking here. They get angry and hurt by what the teacher is saying but if they took it outside the classroom, learnt not to take what the professor says as the only authority on this matter and learn outside the classroom – I’m not saying they would know more but maybe have a better critique and understanding of where he is getting his knowledge from.

A guy walked out of class two weeks ago after a disagreement with a professor only to return on the day we had a mid-term. He couldn’t give a damn about the class and was more focused on fulfilling his requirement.

I have a professor who believes that until America discusses the issue of race then the nation simply can’t move on and while many would see my African American studies classes as rooms for discussion, you don’t solve the above problem by imposing these theories on people. There’s one thing in learning and being told to learn.

In the next coming weeks I will choose my Spring classes and all the classes I chose will be because I want to, not because I have to.

Talking is good but to talk because your graduation is at stake? How much talking are you really going to do? Either a lot because you like to, or a little just to get passed. What was it someone told me in class “I’m just trying to get my 10% for class participation and get the hell on outta here!”

……

You don’t solve a nations problem by making a race class compulsory and if this is Temple’s solution to the problem it’s wrong. I deserve and the professors deserve more attention and respect for their class.

Your thoughts?

You can decide whether you like someone or something in an instant, so when I first arrived in Philadelphia and made my way to Temple I didn’t like the place at all!

Driving down Broad Street with through the “hood” was not what I expected, and as my very lost Haitian cab driver drove further away from 30th street station, the more real my surroundings got. Temple University was somehow in the middle of this, literally around the corner from the block. You see, in all the information I had read and been told about Temple, somehow they forgot to mention that this great university of academic excellence was located in North Philadelphia which as people are now very eager to remind me is the worst area for crime in the whole of the US. I was shocked to say the least and while most of you will think “well it’s no different to some universities in London”, the main reason for me going to UEA was to get away from the inner city life, from cars and casualties and because of the constant sound of sirens I felt as if I was back there.

First impression of Philadelphia so far, not so good.

My disappointment continued as when I opened the door to my room I was greeted by a rather grim looking space with a huge concrete block in the middle of it. The whole set up of my room was rather bizarre and in all honesty I think the architect was pretty high when he or she designed this place as they have not utilized the space at all. The rooms at The Edge are all mind bogglingly weird and very basic to say the least. Concrete blocks, mesh drapes, no cooking space and a lack of light…. I really questioned why I was here.

Before I came here I had an image in my mind of what Temple would be like yet what I was presented with was the total opposite of what I had hoped for. It goes without saying that you put high expectations on things in your life and when you imagine something to be a certain way – you train your mind to think of all the  great things and you don’t factor in the things that are out of your control – the things that are beyond positive thinking.

The true test is how you react when stuff doesn’t go according to plan, when you are presented with the opposite of what you had initially hoped for. Do you either give up there and then or turn the situation round in your favour?

In other words, don’t let your first impression be your last impression.

Tomorrow will mark my second week in Philadelphia and I am so far away from those thoughts of disappointment and regret.

I believe there is still some time to go until I feel fully grounded but I do know in order to make that transition from tourist to resident I need to familiarise myself with the city of Philadelphia.

Philly is an extremely historical city and in my first couple of days out here I got to see that. One of the main reasons for having my first impressions changed was having my elder sister with me and she led me into the city with the determination to break the bad impression we had of the place so far.

So here’s a quick tour guide of all things Philly so far.

First stop:  IHOP –  no American city is complete without one.

Heaven on a plate !

Second stop: Historical sights – understand where you are and what happened here.

African American Museum

Liberty Bell

Third stop: Cool spots, the whole of South Street will be snapped up in due time.

South Street

Fourth stop: Sneaker shopping, the aim is to look and not buy…

Jordania!

I’m here for nine more months and there are so many moments ahead of me and right I’m excited to embrace them all.

I have to remember that not everything will be perfect and I have to open my mind to change and maybe lower my personal bar of expectation a bit.

I have to open my mind to the possibilities of all things new.

First impressions aren’t everything!

The city of Philadelphia just gained a new resident – let’s do this!

First and foremost I have to apologise for my total lack of posts recently but hopefully this will explain why I have been extremely M.I.A.

From the moment I got back  from Paris way back in June, I have been on my feet – literally! As for the past eight weeks I have been working at size? in Covent Garden, that exact store where I had my Air Yeezy experience was where I would be working. Working at size? let alone working at all was amazing. It’s no secret that right now there are record levels of unemployment in the UK especially for students so I was extremely grateful to have a job.

But I stand by my opening quote that “all the glitter is not gold” because the novelty of working at size? started to wear off. Now I know you shouldn’t burn bridges but I feel with this post that I am not being ungrateful or throwing back in their face what was given to me. You really have to understand what I have been doing these past eight weeks.

Size? is situated in Neal Street Covent Garden which is a very fashion orientated part of London, with stores such as American Apparel, Carhatt, Offspring and Slam City near. I was at the centre of it all and was happy to be able to see different styles, kicks and cultures every day. But it was my position that at times brought me so much joy as well as boredom. The store itself is split into two parts. With the upstairs entrance acting as a show room and the downstairs being the actual store. I mention being bored because, after you re-lace the same shoe for the third time that week or even day, you’ve told the customer that there are more shoes downstairs and they can try some on and SIT DOWN, (a pleasure taken for granted I must say) what more is there to do? Except wait for a customer to come in that will not ignore you, not look through you as if your not there and is willing to talk to you. It was those moments that brought me the most joy from my time at size? and made working there worthwhile.

The BF made a point of saying how many customers come into the store and just want to be left alone to look at the trainers and do not care if you said hello or not. To a certain extent he was right, you could really tell that some customers didn’t care whether you said hi and sometimes that hurt. I have a “problem” in that I care too much for what other people think and a customer once said, “Why am I asking you anyway – you just sell the shoe” and I took that personally and from that point made the effort not be the Sales Assistant. I think people thought I was trying to give them the hard sell and entice them downstairs and make sure they left with a bag when in all honesty I was just looking for casual conversation to pass the time and see what was going on in the world outside my space – so I always said hi!

My philosophy is that you meet a different person everyday but it’s the connection that you make with them that determines whether you meet them again. And I really did make a connection with some customers who came back numerous times to see me, give me books, go to lunch with me and who really took the time to talk with me about anything and everything! We talked of politics, fashion, music, food, weather, hairstyles, our generation and more, it was always reassuring to hear that someone shared the same idea or opinion as you or learn a new view to a popular debating topic.

I must say some of the most passioned conversations I had was undoubtedly about kicks. With every person I spoke to we always came to the conclusion that sneaker culture is indescribable. You can’t pin down one word to define the culture and feeling. For longer than I should have I stood and spoke to customers about their own collections and experiences, what we had in store and whether they got the thumbs up or down and what releases where coming in the future but most of all what we enjoyed from the past. I think that it is important, to know where a shoe has come from and how it has transformed and been influenced by designers or elements from today. I asked Marcus Troy why he particularly liked the Air Jordan True Blue III’s and he replied for nostalgic reasons. The fact that a shoe could you take you back and evoke memories is amazing and that is very common of the main series of Jordan shoes as the designers pick and take certain elements from past shoes to create a new one or hybrid version of one as we can see with the Air Jordan 60+ which incorporates the Jordan I, II, V, and VII.

It’s no secret that I am trying to get into the footwear industry and working at size? presented me with a fantastic opportunity to meet people who were where I would like to be and had turned their passion into a career. I met representatives of great brands such as Fred Perry, Adidas, Pointer, Helly Hansen and Marks & Spencer. Meeting all those people was a chance for me to essentially shine and be my cover letter and CV right there and then and get across my passion, knowledge and ambitions.

Working at size? gave me the opportunity to really know what I want in life and point me in the right direction on how to obtain my goals. I now know I would like to work specifically with a brand where I can focus my energy into one thing.

Everyone needs to start somewhere and that’s what happened with size? this was the foot in the door that I was talking about in previous posts. I think it’s important to excel after this point, with any dream or aim you need to be thinking about what is next.

Everything is a progression.

Yes, it was boring and tedious at times but you have to start somewhere.

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

“THE MADBURY CLUB”

What happens when creative minds from the UK and US get together and create a new movement?

The Madbury Club maybe…..

People are asking me what this is about and in this case I have to plead the fifth. Hold on and just wait and see but I think this is the start of something BIG!

This one is out of my hands but definitely more coming soon.