Legacy Of James Woods

BY ANTHONY CHILES

Brian puts his hand on the sun bleached wood gate that leads to the front yard of his childhood home. He looks at the house and realizes it was ten years to the day that he left for Chicago and he hadn’t been back since. On the day of his departure, Brian’s father, James, told him to not wreck the car. That was it. No mention of being proud of him for successfully graduating from college. No acknowledgment of him leaving to start a life of his own. No I love you. Just a demand to not wreck the car. And on that day, Brian resolved to not look back. He held onto that resolve for years despite his mother’s desperate attempts through phone calls and texts and emails to connect him with his father. A month ago, his resolve wavered. His fiancée informed him that she was pregnant and Brian considered reaching out to his dad. He wanted to know what to expect as a father. He wanted to know if his dad was ever proud of him. He wanted to ask his father why he never heard him say the words, ‘I love you’. That was until his mom called a week ago, and his opportunity for reconciliation evaporated.

A cold breeze brings Brian back to the present and he releases his grip on the gate. The emotional drain of the service and burial left him empty and the thought of talking to anyone else felt overwhelming. He decides he’ll check in on his mom tomorrow. As he walks away, he notices the handprint he left on the sidewalk as a child. He remembers at the time being scared that it would get stuck and laughs at his younger self. He thinks of his first child on the way and looks forward to doing something similar together.

“Brian!,” his mom calls for him from the porch as he stares at the ground, “what in the world are you doing out here? Come say hi to everyone.” here? Come say hi to everyone.”

She makes her way to him, sees his She makes her way to him, sees his vexed expression, and wraps him in vexed expression, and wraps him in her arms. The two embrace as the her arms. The two embrace as the brisk autumn air flows over them. She brisk autumn air flows over them. She shivers. shivers.

“Get back inside mom. I’ll come by and “Get back inside mom. I’ll come by and see you tomorrow. I’m going to be see you tomorrow. I’m going to be here a few days to help you get things here a few days to help you get things in order, so you’ll have plenty of time in order, so you’ll have plenty of time to see me.” to see me.” “What about the rest of your family? “What about the rest of your family? You haven’t talked to them in years. You haven’t talked to them in years. Your cousin, Butter, was just asking Your cousin, Butter, was just asking about you.” about you.”

“Jimmy is here? I didn’t see him at the “Jimmy is here? I didn’t see him at the funeral.” funeral.”

“You know that boy just came to get “You know that boy just came to get something to eat. Talkin’ about he something to eat. Talkin’ about he don’t do funerals, but he wanted to don’t do funerals, but he wanted to see everyone.” see everyone.”

Brian shakes his head and grins, “he Brian shakes his head and grins, “he hasn’t changed one bit.” hasn’t changed one bit.”

“Not an ounce. But he’s family and he “Not an ounce. But he’s family and he wants to see you. You don’t have to wants to see you. You don’t have to stay long, just say hey.” stay long, just say hey.”

Brian nods and walks his mom back Brian nods and walks his mom back to the house with his arm wrapped to the house with his arm wrapped around her shoulder to keep her warm. around her shoulder to keep her warm.

The door opens and Brian hears the The door opens and Brian hears the chatter from all directions and feels chatter from all directions and feels the weight of a dozen eyes on him. His the weight of a dozen eyes on him. His mom squeezes his hand, kisses him on mom squeezes his hand, kisses him on the cheek, and leaves him at the doorthe cheek, and leaves him at the doorway. He squirms at the idea of a crowd way. He squirms at the idea of a crowd of people sharing their condolences. of people sharing their condolences.

“What up cousin?!” “What up cousin?!”

Brian turns to see his cousin approachBrian turns to see his cousin approaching with a full plate in his left hand and ing with a full plate in his left hand and a chicken wing in his right. Jimmy bites a chicken wing in his right. Jimmy bites the wing as he approaches. A whiff of the wing as he approaches. A whiff of collard greens hits Brian’s nose and he collard greens hits Brian’s nose and he remembers he hadn’t eaten all day. remembers he hadn’t eaten all day.

“What’s going on Jimmy? It’s good to “What’s going on Jimmy? It’s good to see you. You’re looking healthy,” says see you. You’re looking healthy,” says Brian. Brian.

“You mean fat,” says Jimmy while “You mean fat,” says Jimmy while chewing on the wing, “Paula keeps chewing on the wing, “Paula keeps telling me I need to start working telling me I need to start working out, but she’s trying to get her bakery out, but she’s trying to get her bakery business going so it’s always cakes and business going so it’s always cakes and pies in the house and who else is going pies in the house and who else is going to be her taste tester. I’m sacrificing to be her taste tester. I’m sacrificing my figure for her.” my figure for her.” “Let me guess, she made that plate “Let me guess, she made that plate for you too.” for you too.”

“Naw, she had to work and couldn’t “Naw, she had to work and couldn’t make it, but I couldn’t turn down Almake it, but I couldn’t turn down Alice’s catering. Come on in this kitchen ice’s catering. Come on in this kitchen and get you some before I eat it all. and get you some before I eat it all. You need to get some meat on your You need to get some meat on your bones. You still runnin’?” bones. You still runnin’?”

Jimmy and Brian chat as they walk to Jimmy and Brian chat as they walk to the kitchen. Brian grabs a plate, and the kitchen. Brian grabs a plate, and makes his way to the warming trays makes his way to the warming trays aligned on the counter. He fixes aligned on the counter. He fixes his plate and instinctively grabs his plate and instinctively grabs a hexagon shaped drinking glass a hexagon shaped drinking glass from the same cabinet it has been from the same cabinet it has been in since his childhood. He looks in since his childhood. He looks around the kitchen and realizes around the kitchen and realizes not much has changed. As his eyes not much has changed. As his eyes scan the rest of the house, he sees scan the rest of the house, he sees an unexpected yet familiar face in the an unexpected yet familiar face in the living room. Brian puts his plate in the living room. Brian puts his plate in the refrigerator and walks over to the refrigerator and walks over to the thin black man in a tailored black thin black man in a tailored black suit with a perfectly trimmed suit with a perfectly trimmed salt and pepper fade and salt and pepper fade and beard. beard.

“Mr. Macky?” “Mr. Macky?”

“Brian,” the two hug, “Brian,” the two hug, “It’s so good to see you. “It’s so good to see you. I saw you at the service, I saw you at the service, but couldn’t get to you but couldn’t get to you before you left. I was before you left. I was hoping I would see you hoping I would see you here.” here.”

“Mr. Macky what are “Mr. Macky what are you doing here?” you doing here?”

“I appreciate the “I appreciate the respect, but I prefer respect, but I prefer Daren. Besides, I’m Daren. Besides, I’m not your boss anynot your boss anymore. So, James more. So, James never told you?” never told you?” asks Daren. asks Daren.

Brian looks at Brian looks at him bewilhim bewildered. Daren dered. Daren continues continues with the with the story. story.

“Your father “Your father and I met and I met shortly after shortly after you were born you were born when he had his when he had his shoe station in the shoe station in the barbershop off Lincoln. barbershop off Lincoln. I was in the shop one I was in the shop one day talking about this day talking about this promotion I just got at promotion I just got at work and how I was about work and how I was about

to get a new car, and a bunch of other crap. Your dad said you need to take that money and invest in yourself. That cut me deep. I went home that That cut me deep. I went home that night, wrote down a few ideas I had, and one of them was the idea for my company.”

“I’m sorry. My dad inspired you to “I’m sorry. My dad inspired you to create one of the largest IT companies create one of the largest IT companies in the country,” says Brian. in the country,” says Brian.

“Yeah, which is why when you left col“Yeah, which is why when you left college and moved to Chicago, he called lege and moved to Chicago, he called me and asked that I consider you for a me and asked that I consider you for a position and I didn’t hesitate to position and I didn’t hesitate to give it to you. Your dad was give it to you. Your dad was a good man and I owe him a good man and I owe him tremendously.” tremendously.”

Brian hears his mom Brian hears his mom call him from the call him from the living room, living room,

“Brian, come say hi “Brian, come say hi to your aunt May.” to your aunt May.”

Brian looks over at Brian looks over at his mom and aunt his mom and aunt standing side by standing side by side, then looks side, then looks back toward back toward Daren. Daren.

“Go on,” Daren “Go on,” Daren says, placing his says, placing his hand on Brian’s hand on Brian’s shoulder, “I’ll shoulder, “I’ll say goodbye say goodbye before I go.” before I go.”

Brain walks Brain walks onto the onto the creaky Livcreaky Living Room ing Room floor to floor to his aunt. his aunt.

“The old“The older you get, er you get, the more the more you look you look like like my my brother,” says May as she rubs brother,” says May as she rubs Brian’s face. Tears flow from her eyes Brian’s face. Tears flow from her eyes while he embraces his aunt. Half a while he embraces his aunt. Half a minute later, she releases her nephew, minute later, she releases her nephew, kisses him on the cheek, and walks kisses him on the cheek, and walks away. Brian looks around for Daren, away. Brian looks around for Daren, but doesn’t see him. He turns to his but doesn’t see him. He turns to his mom as she adjusts the pillows on the mom as she adjusts the pillows on the couch. couch.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell me dad “Mom, why didn’t you tell me dad knew Darren?” knew Darren?”

“Who?” “Who?”

“Darren Macky, he is the CEO of the “Darren Macky, he is the CEO of the first company I went to work for when first company I went to work for when I moved to Chicago.” I moved to Chicago.”

“Your dad met a lot of people. I “Your dad met a lot of people. I couldn’t keep track. To be honest, half couldn’t keep track. To be honest, half of the faces I saw today I didn’t recogof the faces I saw today I didn’t recognize, but your dad must have touched nize, but your dad must have touched them in some way which is a blessing.” them in some way which is a blessing.”

“Dad told him to hire me. That was my “Dad told him to hire me. That was my first job out of college and dad never first job out of college and dad never even mentioned it. I didn’t even have a even mentioned it. I didn’t even have a chance to thank him.” Brian holds back chance to thank him.” Brian holds back tears by biting his lower lip. tears by biting his lower lip.

“Your father didn’t always know what “Your father didn’t always know what to say,” his mom explains, “but he to say,” his mom explains, “but he loved you in his own way.” loved you in his own way.”

Daren walks into the living room, Daren walks into the living room, “Brian, it was so good seeing you. I “Brian, it was so good seeing you. I wish it would have been under better wish it would have been under better circumstances.” circumstances.”

“Thank you for coming,” says Brian. “Thank you for coming,” says Brian.

“Before I go, I want to finish telling “Before I go, I want to finish telling you about what your father did for you about what your father did for me. Not only did he tell me to invest in me. Not only did he tell me to invest in myself, he also invested in my compamyself, he also invested in my company. He gave me five hundred dollars so ny. He gave me five hundred dollars so that I could cover my fees to register that I could cover my fees to register with the state and some other upfront with the state and some other upfront costs.” costs.”

Brian’s mom blurted out, “he gave you Brian’s mom blurted out, “he gave you five hundred dollars, he didn’t tell me five hundred dollars, he didn’t tell me that,” she shakes her head, “that’s my that,” she shakes her head, “that’s my husband.” husband.”

“He didn’t just give me the money “He didn’t just give me the money Mrs. Woods, it was an investment. In Mrs. Woods, it was an investment. In exchange for the five hundred dollars exchange for the five hundred dollars he received a one percent stake in my he received a one percent stake in my company.” company.”

“Wait,” Brian interrupted, “you’re “Wait,” Brian interrupted, “you’re saying that right now, she has a one saying that right now, she has a one percent stake in Macky Incorporated?” percent stake in Macky Incorporated?”

“If he didn’t sell his shares, then yes,” “If he didn’t sell his shares, then yes,” Daren looks at his watch, “I wish I Daren looks at his watch, “I wish I could talk more, but I have to run. could talk more, but I have to run. Here’s my card. If I can help in any way, Here’s my card. If I can help in any way,

Daren hugs Brian and his mom and walks out the door.

Brian’s mom looks at her son who stares at the business card in his hand, “Baby, can you please explain what you two were just talking about.”

“Mom,” Brian places his hands gently on both her shoulders, “Where did dad keep his files?”

“In the office, your old room.”

Brian jogs toward the stairs and ascends them two at a time. He makes a left down the hall and opens the door to his old bedroom. The shock of what he sees stops him at the entry.

All of his medals he won in track hang on the wall to his left with framed newspaper clippings from various meets from high school and college between the medals.

On the other walls are pictures from prom, graduation, and photos of him and his fiancée. Brian walks into the room and takes in the memorabilia of him that his father collected. He turns to the wood desk underneath the window and grabs a framed photo of his dad holding him as a baby. On the corner of the photo, Proverbs 13:22 is handwritten in black ink. He looks up to see his mom standing in the doorway. Brian looks back at the photo of his dad holding him and points to the verse, “do you know this verse?”

She nods, “I do. It says that a good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.”

Brian nods then starts to look through his dad’s files. The desk drawers are meticulously organized with labeled manila folders. Brian finds the folder labeled investments. He places it on the desk. He pulls out the latest brokerage statement and carefully reviews the third page which lists his dad’s holdings.

In the middle of the page, a single line item shows one hundred sixty seven thousand shares of Macky Incorporated. He yanks his phone out of his pocket and looks up the value of the Macky Incorporated stock. He drops the phone onto the desk.

His mom shakes him, “how much is it?”

“Just over eight million dollars.”

She steps away from Brian and places both her hands over her mouth. He looks down at the statement, “Why was he still shining shoes? Why didn’t you guys move?”

“I don’t know. He would ask me all the

time if I wanted to move somewhere else,” his mom utters with a shaky voice, “and I would tell him I loved it here. And he’d leave it at that. I would ask him all the time when he was going to retire and he’d always say never because he was doing what he loved. But Jesus, if I had known we had all this money...”

His mom takes a seat on the bed. Brian reaches over to rub her knee.

“I’ll call the broker on Monday and figure out what we can do next. In the meantime, think about what island you want to move to,” Brain says with a smile. He puts the documents back in the folder and opens the drawer. Towards the back of the drawer, he sees

a folder labeled, ‘To Brian’.

He picks up the folder and opens it. Inside are a series of unfinished, handwritten letters from his dad addressed to him. The collection was filled with half pages and quarter pages of notes. Brain picks up one and read it to himself.

Son, I want you to know that I appreciate you. I love you. I’m proud of you. I hope you’ll find a way to be a better father than me. A more caring father. A father in touch with his feelings. I pray you learn the lessons I never learnedBrain’s mom interrupts, “what’s that?”

Brain folds the paper and puts it in his pocket before turning to his mom, “it’s what I needed.”

So many successes have been recorded in the diary of Jamal Wilson, the brain behind the popular restaurant; The Hall on Franklin. He is a well-known developer with incredible inventions to his name. Being a father of two sons, he dedicated two years to spending time with them at the expense of losing precious ‘business’ time – what a fatherly figure! The mastermind behind the amazing development, being an approachable figure, has talked a lot about his journey in achieving his goal in the food industry as well as real estates. That is an expensive question! I was originally into real estate mortgages and title business, went through the 2008 recession all the way through 2011 to 2012. I ended up selling my company to a local credit union in 2013. I also spent two years with my two young boys and after a year and a half of doing that, I realized that I missed creating something and working with people and building towards something great. So I told all my family and friends that I sold my company for a certain amount of money and I do not care what the industry is, I just want to work with people I like and do something fun. My cousin actually initiated the idea of food hall after watching a food hall explosion on CBS News. I obviously had no experience in restaurants other than being a customer. As a result, I spent six months travelling all over the country visiting available food halls. What I realized was that the diversity of food was great but the service experience was terrible. That was when I thought that the best restaurant concept in the world would be one with diversity of food but at the same restaurant experience with full service. We are able to do it and it has been a great experience so far.

Our customers are prone to experiencing the best restaurant service they can ever wish for. When you walk in, you are greeted by a host. The host will explain a little bit of our concept, make you feel comfortable, and then escort you to your table. Once at the table, our servers will take your order from one comprehensive menu for all nine concepts. Then our food runner makes sure that your order is exactly what it needs to be and then brings it to your table. We also make our services diversified so it is not that you just eat one type of cuisine. You are able to experience other items from every restaurant so your entire table can be filled with restaurants from nine different concepts. You do not need to interrupt your experience to run up to a vendor and try to get one more item. You can also order a second or third of something that you like. It allows people to be able to spend more time enjoying each other’s company. I think it is a lazy way to serve your guests.

find the real estate first and we survey the area. We try to recognize the density. We try to recognize the taste of the community in the area. We then try to reach out to some local chefs because we always want to have local chefs representing their community, giving someone an opportunity like never before. We then say a third of our costs are local, a third of our concepts are of people that we've worked with in the past, chefs that have been great in one of our other locations and want to branch out further. And the final third is we are looking for new, fresh faces. One of the cool things that we are able to do is that we have a financing arm and we are able to finance an entire vendor into our hall for free. Basically, you can walk in with just your experience and your skill, not without having to have money in your pocket, because, a lot of chefs have worked somewhere for ten, fifteen years and they have not been able to put together the amount of money to open up a restaurant, which is typically at least anywhere between four hundred thousand to a million dollars and build up. So with us, we will finance your build out and your equipment. You can walk in and you can start making money from day one. About the financing, we do not put a noose around your neck. If it does not work out, you can leave. You do not have a big loan on your back. You can walk away scot free. One of my tenements is that I only want to work with people I like and people that want to work with me. If the experience does not work out, it does not make you a bad person. I also do not want to be detrimental to your future. I want you to have a free walk to be able to do whatever you want to do. We just want people that are interested in what we are doing and want to push our concept forward.

We have had a competition before which we put on social media and said that anyone that is looking for an opportunity can come to us. We had a huge response that we actually picked a winner. She is doing a Cuban cuisine concept in Atlanta. And, yes, we move forward and that is kind of evolved. I think it lends itself to be in a reality show, being able to give people these opportunities.

I guess why people do not talk about this industry is that you are like a chef that opens his first restaurant. He has probably had to leverage somewhere between 50 and 80 percent of his equity in order to open this restaurant. He opens this restaurant and is excited to have his name on a building and actually show people what he is able to create. And then at the end of the year, you realize that he is not making much money because all of the investors are taking the bulk of the money. So when you build something, like I have been fortunate to build a restaurant or even a business, you realize how important it is to retain your equity and the blood, sweat and tears it takes to be able to create something from scratch.

Turning an idea into a physical manifestation is probably one of the most difficult things in the world. So knowing that for me, I realize what the chefs are going through, what they just wanted to be able to create all their lives and they get this opportunity which really falls flat because even if it is successful, they are not what they really want to be. So my entire idea was how can we go out and give people that do not have an opportunity a great opportunity? For me, it is great to give people that do not have an opportunity a chance to come in because they have been working on concepts all their lives.

It is kind of like when you hear artists saying “I have been working on my first album my entire life”. Chefs are artists! They have been working on their concept their entire life. And for them to bring it to life is great for us.

If it does not work and they leave, we have plenty of chefs that want to come in and have that opportunity. So why strangle them with this huge loan? Let them go on. Let them move forward if it does not work. But if it does work, then they have the opportunity to grow with us. They have the opportunity to open up in future food halls and turn a concept that is may-

be netting two or three hundred thousand dollars a year. Then they have their own businesses, their own restaurants, and they have a million dollars in net profit as well as their companies. I believe there is nothing wrong with helping people and helping yourself in the same conversation. We are very committed to that idea.

The restaurant industry is extremely hard – you cook, you manage labor, you control finances, and you work on very small margins. So seeing chefs that have been cooking for years does not necessarily mean that they have gained those other skills of managing labor and balance sheets. By working with us in the food hall, we take all of that off your plate. We manage labor, we have CPAs on staff, our technology and POS system is able to designate who gets what when it comes to the way the money is distributed. Not only will you be able to make money, but also to do what you love. What we want is for you to do what you do best, and that is, be an artist, be a chef and create something that people love.

To answer that question, I probably have to take it back to my parents. All my life, I have been willing to take risks. They have always pushed me forward. I didn't come from a rich family but my parents worked very hard. Being an only child, they were able to afford to put me to private school and those sacrifices gave me different opportunities. Also, I have always had this innate willingness to take risks, push things forward and try to do something which I would consider incredible or great. My children also motivate me. Yeah, I have always been a risk taker and I have never had fear in my life until I had kids. Kids are great motivators and I am fearful of being able to not only provide for them, but also being able to be there for them and give them everything that they need. That's my greatest responsibility in life – to be able to provide and give my kids more than what my parents gave me. They definitely push me because I want greatness for them and I want them to have every opportunity in front of them. Also, selfishly, I want to be a great dad and I want them to be able to look at me and say ‘dad accomplished certain things’. I do not necessarily want them to be in my business, but I want them to know that if things do not work out, this business is here to be a trampoline for them to jump back into whatever game or whatever life goal they have. It did not start with me. It started with my parents and hopefully, it will not end with me. It will move on to my children and their children. You could be talking about Carnegie Mellon, the Rockefellers and the JP Morgan’s but there is always that one person that was willing to risk it all to give their family that opportunity to create generational wealth. And if that is me, that would be great and I have no problem being that person that is willing to risk it.

Although we were not rich, my parents were able to send me to family in Jamaica every year by myself. We couldn't afford to go all as the family every time because obviously that would be three plane tickets. My parents also sent me to family in Holland when I was 9 years old for three months. My parents sent me to England when I was 11 for three months during the summer to stay with family because they wanted me to have those experiences that they did not have when they were kids. That way, I have always been kind of independent because of the colonel in the sea that my parents put in me. And I think that is very beneficial.

I know this only because I have been spending a lot of time during COVID-19; remodeling who we are as a business and now I know what I want. I want people to be able to say Jamal achieved greatness with kindness. I value kindness more than anything else in this world at this point of time in my life. I think I got that from my mom. When I was young, I was like, “Mom, why are you doing this for this person?” and she was like, “I'm not doing it for me, I'm doing it for you. You know, maybe this kindness that I do will fall back on you. It is never for me”. One of the four tenements in our business is BE KIND, LEAD KIND, SERVE KIND. If anyone is speaking about me, I hope that they would say “Jamal did it, worked hard at it, he went for it and was willing to sacrifice whatever but he did it with kindness in his heart and was kind to those around him”. If someone speaks of me in those terms, I am absolutely good with that.

WITH over 155 years of this anticipated commemoration in Brooklyn NY, our 12th Annual Juneteenth family fun day gathers 5,000+ attendees locally to the NYC community to enjoy a vibrant day of rich culture through music, dance, poetry, skits, history, vendors, and families. This year we have turned our one day event into a 3 day summit starting on June 18 and running through to June 20th, 2021. This year is shaping up to be like no other with a weekend Summit celebration that starts on Friday with professionals and residents talking about Health and Wellness; Saturday our hybrid virtual / In-person festival and ends highlighting aspiring youth entrepreneurs on Sunday at our Juneteenth Pomp.

WELL in light of celebrating us and how far we've come we want to return with our oh so fun, trivia night. Juneteenth a chance to shine a light on our dopeness, our badassness, and we want to do that with you. Join us for a night of fun, laughs, games and more. If you win, you just might get a prize! Forward this to a friend in need of a pick me up. Unplug for a little while. Restore your batteries. Let's celebrate how beautiful, talented, amazing, intellectual, we are together. Our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and ancestors are already smiling. Let's give them something else to be proud of. Bring a drank! Get cute boo if you need an excuse. And catch us on the inside.