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.

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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.