SOTRU and Ropeadope are teaming up to celebrate and support American communities – on your shirt.

Can a T-shirt be more than just a T-shirt? What if instead of just a  stylish illustration, it’s design symbolizes a place and the  stories, struggles and triumphs of the people that call that place  home? What if the shirt has a greater purpose than just being a  comfortable garment to wear?

State of the Re:Union (SOTRU) has teamed up with the purveyors of  cool at Ropeadope.com to aid community charities across the country.  Representing select cities from past SOTRU episodes, each of these  designs has been created by an artist local to that area, and  proceeds from each sale go directly to a specific charity in that  community. Featured cities include:

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Brooklyn, New York

These shirts were inspired by our Brooklyn episode, touting artwork from the local Brooklyn artist, Aerosyn-Lex, and the proceeds will benefit Urban Word NYC. These tees are the first of some quality choice threads that have the power to make friends and influence people, or at the very least inspire some interesting conversation.

Las Vegas, Nevada

For those of you out there who like to take a gamble on what they wear, then this tee is certainly worth your while. The SOTRU episode on Las Vegas, NV, exploring the unfamiliar and lackluster side of Sin City.  The local artist, Stephan Maman, created a SOTRU tee that will really get the dialogue going. The proceeds for these shirts will benefit the Shine a Light organization which provides living essentials (water, food, clothing, etc.) and services to those who live in the tunnels beneath Las Vegas.

Los Angeles, California

SOTRU’s Los Angeles episode spotlighting the city of the Angels in California, gave inspiration to the creator of these tees by L.A.’s  Jim Darling, with the proceeds helping the People Assisting the Homeless (PATH). This organization provides the tools that men and women need to help them become self-sufficient and successful at remaining off of the streets.

Austin, Texas

Another opportunity to add to your already profound wardrobe is the tee designed by local Austin, TX artist, Brandon Ortwein. This tee’s design represents some of the interesting characters that are discovered in SOTRU’s Austin episode These proceeds will directly benefit the Health Alliance for Austin Musicians (HAAM).

Will wearing one of these T-shirts help you change the world? No,  that’s still up to you. But it will showcase your brilliant taste in  public media, look good and benefit programs dedicated to making their communities a better place.

Click here to place your order today.

About Ropeadope
Ropeadope is a record label and coveted clothing brand that uses the tee shirt as a medium for knowledge and pride. Past collaborations with Blue Note Records, Okayplayer, The Love Movement and others have been well received amongst community tastemakers and fans. Ropeadope’s message has always been one of knowing your history and supporting community. Ropeadope is proud to bring their talents to this collaboration, supporting American communities.

Before He Caught His Plane to Russia

You are likely aware of John Forté if you, well, owned a radio in the 90s. From co-writing and producing a couple of tracks on The Fugees’ groundbreaking album The Score and being featured in Wyclef Jean’s album The Carnival to his own solo work on his album Poly Sci, the decade was about as good as you could get for a rising music industry star. You could say that his azimuth was shooting up.

The compelling story of the unexpected turn his odyssey took has been told in both our Brooklyn episode, Change Happens and the video podcast SOTRU produced about him. When Al last spoke to him for the Brooklyn show, he was at work on a new, acoustic based album, Water, Light, Sound. He is now on the “From Brooklyn to Russia with Love” tour, taking his music all over the former Soviet Union. The tour culminates in a big concert with several musicians on April 24^th.  We were able to catch up with him the day before he departed.

“In terms of Water, Light, Sound, I mean the album itself is recorded and it’s terrific, it’s mixed and all. I’m not too keen on a specific release strategy right now because I don’t think that I have to follow the old paradigm, not to say that I’m not going to put other music into the marketplace,” John said of the album. Since returning to recording music, John has had an aversion to major labels and enjoys the freedom of marketing his work the way he sees fit. “I’m in a great space right now as it relates to how I’m moving and what I’m doing. I don’t feel that it’s broken. I’m just going to keep going until the wheels fall off.”

John was recently presented with the opportunity to go to Russia “with what was supposed to be a sort-of pub crawl.” But the itinerary and magnitude has grown well past that. “We’re playing at the U.S. Ambassador’s house in front of 300 dignitaries and beacons of culture over there. Later that night, I think we’re in the Red Square doing something for the Sochi Olympics and then we’re doing Miss Russia. There is so much and the beauty of it is that it culminates in this huge concert on April the 24^th when we’re back in Moscow,” he told us.  All proceeds from he concert on the 24^th will benefit three charities: The Happy Hearts Fund, set up by a survivor of the 2004 Tsunami disaster; the Naked Hearts Fund, which builds and supports safe play areas in Russia; and Operation Smile, which provides surgeries for children with a cleft lip or other facial deformities.

“The cool thing for me is that I get to collaborate with Russian artists. So I’m not going over there with any expectations beyond the fact that I’m going over there to meet people that make music. It’s a cultural exchange.” John said that he does feel like an ambassador of sorts, but more “To the little brown boys and girls from hoods like Brownsiville,” where he is from. He said, “It’s no mistake that we called this ‘From Brooklyn to Russia with Love.’ I come from an area where we weren’t always instructed to believe that what was happening in Russia was any of our business. We were very territorial in our upbringing and I think that could have stifled many of our paths. If we’re not taught that this world is ours, not just our immediate six-block radius, then there’s no real joy or purpose beyond what our immediate surroundings resemble.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, John is very much aware and even involved in the massive changes taking place in the city. “I think that nothing can be built without being destroyed and nothing can be destroyed without being rebuilt in some shape form or fashion. So it’s this sort of cycle of living the vicissitudes of living.” And while acknowledging the dramatic facelift the city has undergone, he pointed out that Brownsville and East New York have not.

“So there are still parts deep into Brooklyn that have not been affected by gentrification and people have not been displaced yet. But those areas are being affected with something else and that’s a matter of containment. When these hoods get so out of control to a point where it almost resembles lawlessness. Instead of combating that or dealing with that as an issue, it becomes an issue of containment.”

John spoke further about the issue in addressing a huge development project in the neighborhood that he is involved in, “The Barclays Center is the perfect example. My partner [Christophe Charlier] in this endeavor is also the Chairman of the Nets. He and I, we’ve discussed this. He won’t have a conversation about Brooklyn unless it’s about getting the people. Not the new folks that would come in with the building of the Barclays Center, but the people who are on the ground now, getting them really excited about and owning this new center.”

John has recently released the ‘From Brooklyn to Russia with Love (The Sampler)’ as well as The Bloomingdale’s Acoustics EP. On a track called “I’ll Give You Me” from the From Brooklyn Sampler there is a lyric that goes, “He went away, what he think he conscious now.” John said of the lyric that no one has approached him in that way but said, It’s human nature to be skeptical and I think it’s a valid criticism, one that I did not want to act as if did not exist. So I wanted to bring it to light. I knew there would be listeners out there who are saying, ‘Whatever, give us the old John that was talking about partying,’ but I’m not into that anymore.”

John has an active social media presence of which he says, “Our online realm represents our newest dimension of a reality. For so long we’ve limited ourselves to this sort-of 3D sphere recognition. Now we’ve got this 4th dimension by way of our online presences. A person can be as bold, as bright or as beautiful as they want to in this dimension.” You can follow him on his Facebook page and listen to new tracks on his SoundCloud page.

In closing, we posed the question of, “What’s the one thing you’re hoping to get out of the ‘From Brooklyn to Russia with Love’ tour?” He answered quickly and deliberately, “An education. I’m here to learn.” Now that’s something we can all learn from.

On our Facebook page, we recently asked you what your dream job as a child was, and what your dream job is now. That got me thinking.  As so many of us are dependent on wage labor, how can we begin to think about our “dream” jobs?  It’s almost as if we don’t have time to think about what we would really want to do.  Or maybe we know what we’d ideally do, but don’t realistically think we can actually make it happen.  But I think maybe we can actually do what we want to do.  In fact, we’ve reported stories from all over the country about people who are, yes, DOING WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. (more…)

Listen to the episode and check out our video documentary, podcasts, images and articles from Brooklyn!

So now that you’ve listened to our Brooklyn episode, Change Happens, we want to hear from you! Please tell us what you liked, what you didn’t like and everything in between. The SOTRU team appreciates and looks forward to your feedback! Simply leave a comment below in the “Leave a Reply” section and get the conversation started!

The foliage is in bloom and spirits are high because spring is here! And that means that State of the Re:Union is ready to release its first five episodes. Al and team visited some truly amazing cities and towns and captured compelling stories of these communities and their inspiring residents. (more…)

Graffiti and murals have become so integrated into the fabric of so many of our cities, that I often forget to stop to look at them.  In Brooklyn, as well as dozens of other places around the country, a specific type of mural exists among the cryptic tags, and colorful cartoon-esque characters.  Often comprised of a simple portrait, along with a name, birth and death year, and sometimes a message, memorial murals began to sprout up all over NYC in the 90s.  Today, it might be safe to say that there’s at least one memorial mural in every neighborhood in the city.

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