Adisa Banjoko, journalist and founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, visited St. Louis recently to highlight the powerful fusion of chess, hip-hop and activism.
He convened experts including James Braxton Peterson, founder of Hip-Hop Scholars, LLC; and Asheru (born Gabriel Benn), a Peabody award-winning journalist and youth activist. Asheru is also a hip-hop artist who created The Boondocks theme song.
Banjoko led panel discussions for at-risk youth at Innovative Concept Academy, Confluence Academy and for detained youth at the Juvenile Detention Center.
Banjoko is a self-proclaimed nonviolent revolutionary. This ideology is at the core of his organization, based in the San Francisco area, which aims to curb youth violence by teaching youth the game of chess. He stated that St. Louis has a lot of violent crime; the city consistently ranks as one of the nation’s most dangerous cities.
“We’re not built to be violent like that,” he said. “We need to find very specific, deliberate ways that prevent this type of violence from being a part of our global culture.”
He said many of the children he mentors live in the streets and many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorders. Many have been shot and fear snitching, abiding by a street code of conduct where there is violent retaliation against those who inform the authorities on criminals.
“Chess teaches unity,” he said. “The pieces on the board all move differently, but it’s only by working together that they achieve their goal. That’s a huge theme that people need to get.”
Banjoko led a second speaking engagement at the St. Louis Public Library’s Schlafly Branch attended by local community leaders, like St. Louis Circuit Court Judge Jimmie Edwards.
The brainchild of Judge Edwards, Innovative Concept Academy was founded in 2009 for at-risk juveniles expelled from the city’s public schools or who were on parole. It is the only school in America overseen by a court system dedicated to the education and rehabilitation of delinquent teens.
Through a collaborative partnership with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, Innovative Concept Academy provides an in-school classroom that offers a chess-based curriculum designed to promote critical thinking. The club also sponsors an after-school program at the school that offers opportunities for the local community to learn chess along with the students.
The visit was sponsored and coordinated by the World Chess Hall of Fame, whose focus is “to show how the game of chess has an impact on society,” said Susan Barrett, executive director of the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Barrett said the schools Banjoko visited were chosen based upon longstanding relationships developed through the World Chess Hall of Fame’s Moves that Matter program.
Banjoko and the World Chess Hall of Fame also share an objective to increase the number of girls who play chess. Banjoko expressed to females at the juvenile detention center that the queen chess piece is the most powerful of all the pieces because she moves in a unique manner. He advised the girls to be conscious of how they move or don’t move, and learn how to master their own power.
“You have to be able to identify the people around you so that you don’t mistake a pawn for a king,” he said. “If you foolishly embrace a pawn thinking he’s a king, you’ve made a pretty fatal mistake.”
