Photo by Tom Jenz
Jacarrie Carr
Jacarrie Carr
On a recent Saturday afternoon, I met Jacarrie Carr at the COM-UNITY event in Atkinson Park in the inner city. Through his Jacarrie Kicks for Kids nonprofit, he was co-hosting the event with Farina Brooks of Dream Team United MKE. This event showcased what is wonderful about urban Black culture. The DJ’s music featured loud rap and R&B, and kids and adults were line dancing to the beat. The social fun included bounce houses, face painting, basketball, free barbecued food, horseback rides and free haircuts.
The atmosphere reminded me of a large family reunion, and I was welcomed through hugs from Police Captain Sheronda Grant, Black activist Vaun Mayes, and County Supervisor Sequanna Taylor.
Laughing was everywhere, the noise infectious. Carr was also everywhere, but I managed to get a small block of this time. He is 32, looks 22, and acts 42.
“Today, we are here spreading love,” he told me, “helping people in time of need, and giving back to our community. Residents, families, kids, dad and mom, grandma and great grandma. I’m the CEO of Jacarriee Kicks For Kids and also a member of the Dream Team headed by Miss Farina Brooks. The Dream Team does a lot of community pop-ups like this one, resource fairs for families, and also neighborhood food giveaways.”
We engaged in a short dialogue.
I assume you are a Milwaukee native. Where did you grow up, what was your family and neighborhood like?
I grew up on 36th and Center. My grandma lived on 24th and Keefe. I went to a Lutheran grade school and then to Milwaukee Lutheran High School. I got my bachelor’s and master’s Degrees at UW-Milwaukee—My bachelor’s in educational policy and community studies, and my master’s in cultural foundations, education and community leadership. I watched my college classmates get their degrees and leave the city. I decided to stay here and try to help fix the problems of the Black community. I’ve tried to take everything I’ve learned and pour it back into the inner city.
What did your dad and mom do to make their livings?
Both are now retired, but my mom was a daycare coach, and now she owns real estate and works with me at Kicks for Kids. My dad owns real estate, but now runs a landscape maintenance company that I set up for him.
The 36th and Center area is currently a troublesome neighborhood. What was it like when you were growing up?
In the ‘90s and early ‘2000s, it was tough. There was poverty, gang banging and violence. It was crazy, but I was able to find some beauty in the struggle. Despite growing up in that neighborhood, I decided I wanted to go to college. Most of the residents were getting food stamps and government assistance, and for me that wasn’t enough. I decided I would get my college degrees, come back and give the kids shoes and scholarships to help get them into college or trade school. In 2013, I created Jacarre’s Kicks for Kids. At the start of that school year, I gave hundreds of inner-city students a new pair of shoes. I believe every kid should have a fair chance at life. So far, we’ve been able to give away more than 5,500 pairs of shoes.
I’ve read that you work with those inner-city students from adolescence through school graduation. Not just shoes. but programs and services. First tutoring, then mentoring, and then after school and weekend enrichment programs, and also college scholarship opportunities.
That’s true, and we even put on an all-day summer program. We have volunteers, funders, and professional staff who work with us in our various programs.
How about you? So how are you able to earn your living?
I am employed by my own Kicks for Kids organization. I also work as the high school alumni director for the St. Marcus Lutheran School in the inner city. Although I’ve never gone to a Milwaukee public school, sometimes I work in the MPS schools. The kids I work with through Kicks for Kids are from Rufus King, Vincent, Bradley. and Custer. Those public high schools can be rough, but I try to show the students a better way.
What do you think should happen to make the Black community better and to restore harmony?
We have to keep coming together like you see here at this event in Atkinson Park.
Yeah, everybody here seems happy and connected, and of all ages. It’s beautiful.
I know. We have to stay together, bring out the resources, let people know it’s okay to just hang and not have any violence. Share and build. To stay among one another. There are too many of us tearing each other down. God got us here for a reason, to help each other and to give back.
How would characterize today’s Black high school kids?
A lot of our kids are lost. Social media babies. The biggest problem is many of them don’t have role models. The people they need to look up to are not there. I want them to understand I had once been one of those kids. If you get responsible adults around you, and you listen, you can make a better life for yourself. A lot of those kids don’t want to go to college. The skilled trades—carpenter, electrician, plumber, or culinary arts—are good alternatives, and those jobs pay well.
You also have association with the NBA basketball star Jordan Poole, who went to Rufus King High School.
Jordan Poole and I started the Jacarrie Kicks for Kids Academic All Stars. For the last four years, we’ve been doing community events, book clubs, basketball camps, lunches, and we give out scholarships. 15 kids have gotten $500 each pocket money for going to college, and others have gotten free dorm supplies and MacBooks. I played pickup basketball with Jordan when he was 12 and I was 20. He beat all of us older guys.
After our conversation, Jacarrie was welcomed everywhere, interacting with adults, children and activists.
Later on through the noise and fun, I spoke with Farina Brooks, who is 65 and a 2nd Stage lung cancer survivor. She is the founder of Dream Team United MKE. She works full time for Lakeside School Busses of Wisconsin and drives a school bus in the Milwaukee Public Schools district.
She said, “The Dream Team started in 2017 after 16-year-old Emani Robinson was shot and killed on 39th and Center Street. He was caught in the crossfire between two gang members. With my nephew, Vaun Mayes, the activist, and also Gabi Hart and Keyon Jackson-Malone, we started the Dream Team on 37th and Center near where Emani was killed. In order for us to fix the Black community, we all want the same thing, to work together for peace.”
