Why did I come back home?
For the last four years my family vacationed in Charleston during the summer for a week and my wife presented the idea of moving back a few years ago. When she brought the idea to me I can honestly say that I was not completely sold on it, mainly because of the amount of work I would have to do to get Charleston moving in the direction I would need.
Sadly, Charleston has created some amazing talent over the centuries who never come back home to help move our culture forward. True support is a verb. After building so many movements and brands within Atlanta I knew what would be needed for me to successfully navigate this move.
Two years ago I began to really look at Charleston and focused on what I could bring to the table. I knew my vision could help to spark the needed changes within Charleston.
It is much easier to complain about what is wrong with Charleston and do nothing to change our city in a positive direction. To power the needed changes requires a completely different level of everything. Resources, relationships, timing, patience, strategies and consistency are a few of the ingredients I would need.
During the summer of 2021 my wife came down with her parents to start scouting for our temporary landing space which ended up being in downtown Charleston. This would place us in a central point and then we would look for land to build our home from there.
In September of 2021 we sold our home in Atlanta and moved to Charleston in October of 2021. A leap of faith was an understatement. I began preparing my team in Atlanta in 2020, and now we were about to put the plays in motion.
I wasn’t really nervous, after all this is my home turf. I was born in Charleston and raised in North Charleston, on Ashley Phosphate Road.
As we began to look at properties to serve as our starting point for the 1st of the 4 galleries we will have in Charleston, I kept hearing the same thing from a number of locals. Family. Friends. Random folks from the peanut gallery. They all gave me a million reasons why I should start in Charleston and not in North Charleston.
Crime. Drugs. Violence. A lack of culture. A lack of understanding. A lack of support. You name it and they named it. One reason after another for why I should not come back to the community that raised me. My daddy, Jessie Brown is buried on Ashley Phosphate Road within Sunset Memorial Gardens. The Northwood Bulldogs was my football club, I proudly wore my jersey to school on Fridays. As a young boy my mom would drop me off at the skating rink which was to the left of where our gallery is and to the movie theaters which was to the right of where my gallery is.
My family still lives in this community, why would I not give those who poured into me an opportunity to experience the man that I became?
To make a positive shift in our community it will take a collective effort by those with like minds and diverse skills. You can’t drill holes in one side of the ship and expect for the entire ship to stay afloat. That is not how holes and water work together.
We have to work together.
It seems like every other day I am reading stories about the gun violence, a lack of morale and lost lives within North Charleston. There is a desperation within the eyes of so many within our community. Empty political talk is not what is needed right now. We need creativity, vision, skills, a transparent usage of resources and fresh leadership to get us unstuck.
Taking a new approach is needed, to keep repeating these same steps and expecting a new destination is pure and concentrated madness. We have to reimagine all aspects of North Charleston. No stone should go unturned and thinking in nonlinear ways to produce new results will help to build a stronger foundation.
MY BRANDS
OKEEBA JUBALO FINE ART GALLERY
NORTH CHARLESTON, SC
THE SOUTH'S PREMIER
AFRICAN-AMERICAN
FINE ART GALLERY
Art Consultations
Corporate Developments
Residential Projects
The Park Circle Branding Agency
A Premier Branding Agency located in North Charleston, SC & Atlanta, GA.
PCBA is a full service creative agency that specializes in taking raw ideas and turning them into masterful marketing and sales vehicles. Based in Atlanta, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, our company is outfitted with a wonderful and multidisciplinary team of creative thinkers that are
focused on completely satisfying our clients with our world-class services listed below.
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Content/Copywriting
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Email Marketing
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Graphic Design
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Event Production
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Paid Ads
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SEO
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Social Media Management
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Text Marketing
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Web Design
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& Much more!
Community leader, artist, activist, gallerist and CEO, Okeeba Jubalo, is a visionary pioneer for the advancement of African American art and business. Jubalo has over 25 years of experience in the Arts industry within a wide range of disciplines. He has helped to push the culture forward and create opportunities for others through his marketing and branding agency, NobleSol Art Groupand his publications Young Black Entrepreneur Magazine & The Charleston Compass Quarterly Magazine. His agency’s clients list has included The Morehouse College National Alumni Association, The Los Angeles Sparks to the National Black Arts along with many others.
He has mastered a number of executive leadership roles. From being a performance artist, music label executive, producer to Fine Art exhibition curator to Fine Artist, there is no limit to his passion and precision.
This latest Arts initiative was fueled by his desire to showcase artists within and outside of Charleston by placing them on the world’s stage. The level of talent within our community is truly amazing and deserves to be showcased to a much broader audience. These exhibits and showcases will serve as a spring board to nationally launch our artists who will surely become household names.
ABOUT US
Too often college students pursue their majors and not their passions. Entrepreneurship is at the core of our program and when students are taught how to identify their true passions they will be taught how to monetize their passions. We encourage students to excel in their majors, while holding them accountable for their actions and lack of actions.
Not everyone who joins the Wolfpack is kept active for the sake of taking up a seat. When students do not make their WolfPack deadlines they are warned once and excused from the program after the second missed assignment.
Our goal is to provide a real world working experience for our students. No employer or client will keep them on their payroll for missing assignments, the sooner our students learn the better. This is not daycare and we do not treat it as such.
HOW DO YOU JOIN?
Joining our pack is much easier than keeping up with our pack. A number of students join because it sounds good and they are excited about being a part of something new on campus. Then they realize the lazy habits developed with their professors will not work here.
Members of the Wolfpack make it happen and are not allowed to make excuses. One warning is issued for missing assignments, after that you will be excused from our pack. Our pack is only as fast as the slowest wolf and only as strong as the weakest wolf. We do not expect perfection, but we do expect an honest and consistent effort to operate within our pack. No exceptions. Our next opening for new members will be during the Fall of 2022.
THE RELATIONSHIP REALISTS.
Childhood friends since the 6th grade, now Zachary Davis and Okeeba Jubalo's 'grown man' approach to humorously speaking the truth as husbands and fathers is a breath of fresh air. The authors of underground classics, Roses & Brass Knuckles: A Man's Pocket Guide To Winning The Dating & Marriage Game & Can't No Do Worry
In this land of Peter Pans and TinkerBells the general public is too concerned with hearing the 'right' thing and not the honest thing. Healthy relationships and marriages require honesty and transparency.
Tune in weekly as these two discuss topics for growth & grown folks.