The despair some feel amid Denver’s , which over the past three months has been blamed for multiple shootings and homicides in neighborhoods like Five Points, Whittier, Park Hill and Montbello, is palpable.
“What if a bullet misses and hits someone’s home?” Park Hill resident Jennifer Chelwick recently told The Denver Post. “Or hits one of their pets? Or hits one of them?”
“There has been a bit of a trend lately with the younger kids being involved in the violent activity,” said Cmdr. Mark Fleecs, who oversees the Denver Police division that includes the gang bureau, .
Efforts to reduce — which include poverty, peer pressure and other factors — are complicated and ongoing. But JLove Calderón’s new documentary provides a case study in the transformative power of positive engagement.
(Provided by Ietef Vita)
Its main voice is , a.k.a. Denver rapper and Five Points native DJ Cavem Moetivation, who used to be a member of the Eastside Gangstas, 29th set. By his own admission, he was headed toward a dead-end life before he latched onto and become a vocal advocate for organic gardening.
Wait: organic gardening?
In his relentlessly and admirably self-promotional way, Vita describes himself as an educator, B-boy, organic gangster and gardener. The emcee has worked with some of the best in the field, from KRS-One and the Roots to members of Digable Planets, Dead Prez and Hieroglyphics, and has been recognized for his work in the pages of and . The father of two travels the country with this on “eco-hip-hop,” and runs a successful nonprofit summer camp for kids with his wife, .
But more than that, he espouses an earnest belief in the life-changing power of clean living, meditation and spiritualism.
“The film is all about the work we’re doing here in Denver,” Vita said over the phone today. “We just got TV distribution so it’s going to have a potential audience of five million people seeing this gang intervention we’re working on.”
For Vita, social justice and environmental responsibility are inextricable from healthy living and eating.
“People take for granted that in the black community there’s hypertension and diabetes and drug addiction,” he said. “My students go home and want to change the way they eat, but their parents can’t afford it or don’t understand why it’s important because of the culture they grew up in. Cocaine doesn’t grow in our community but kale does, and that’s what we really need to sell to each other.”
Vita has been making serious political headway with his cause. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock awarded him a proclamation naming June 14 as “Keep It Fresh Day,” named after one of Ietef’s educational and cultural programs. And on April 6, he’ll join an event that celebrates five years of Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” health initiative by performing his Culinary Concert program alongside chef Bobby Flay, “Sesame Street’s” Big Bird and The First Lady herself.
“She invited us to do a 20-minute set as part of their larger Easter Egg roll,” said Vita. “I’ve been doing this for 13 years now, running community events, educating students, and it’s great to see this happening.”
“From Gangs to Gardens,” which premiered at , will get a Denver debut at Ietef’s first Denver Hip-Hop Green Dinner at the Redline gallery on Friday, April 3 at 6 p.m. The free, all-ages event features a live, interactive installation by Thomas “Detour” Evans and Herman Futrell, food catered by Watercourse Foods, art by the “Going Green Living Bling” students, live performances by Asheru and DJ Cavem, a workshop demonstration, community panel and more.
Check out for full details or register on . Donations are encouraged.
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