6 minute read
Unlocking Life Through Rhythm
noticed him spending time with people who were going to college and doing positive things with their futures. Thomas took his first college tour with the Omega Lamplighters in 10th grade.
"He started asking more questions about leadership," Thomas said. "I think it was just us unlocking something that was already in him."
Thomas went to Florida A&M University, joined Omega Psi Phi and became SGA vice president, the second-highest position on campus.
Ladarius Clardy, a former Pine Forest High School star football player and 4.0 student, was one of the brightest Lamplighters, Freeman said.
has that step rhythm flow that's very consistent with what happens with stepping."
The GCODE showcase will feature partner organizations, which are other mentoring organizations and other step teams—local and national.
"We have a team from Atlanta, Dance 4 Your Life!, they're a very popular team," Freeman said. "They've been on television, they do dance tours and their founder is actually from Pensacola, so it's a great story for her to always come and participate in GCODE."
Bryan Freeman calls it a life hack.
The life hack he discovered, though, specifically works for the kindergarten-through-12thgrade boys he mentors as executive director of the Omega Lamplighters.
He stumbled onto how this "hack" unlocked important life principles while attending Florida A&M University as a first-generation college student.
"I realized that even (for) college students, the art of stepping dance is something that not only brings them together—it creates bonds—but preparing for it, executing it and then celebrating your success really does grow your self-efficacy," Freeman said. "It builds confidence. I used to really notice that the step teams, the Greek organizations, they were the most confident people on campus, and they were also the ones who participated in a step show."
Freeman applied this concept to the Omega Lamplighters, not only integrating step dancing into the programming for all boys but also launching a Pensacola Omega Lamplighters step team for the boys who wanted to perform.
This year will mark the Omega Lamplighters' seventh and final Gulf Coast Omega Step/Dance Extravaganza (GCODE) because seven marks the number of completion, he said.
"I have always believed in performing arts, and stepping is something that, especially our young brown and Black boys, tend to really gravitate toward, so it was really something I used as a tool to be able to build up confidence and some self-efficacy in our boys in the community," Freeman said.
Stepping In The Same Shoes
Freeman has always had a heart for helping boys.
He remembers what it was like to be in their shoes (stepping, too). He grew up in the Montclair neighborhood.
"My mom and my dad really tried to provide us with the resources to have a better life than what they had," Freeman said. "My mom would always tell me to go to school, go to college and to just try to, if I could, leave Pensacola better than how I found it."
And it's been his mission ever since.
He had mentors, too, he said—naming Norm Ross and David Williams, former principals of Pensacola High School. Freeman followed in Ross' footsteps, later joining his former fraternity at Florida A&M University, Omega Psi Phi.
"They really did for me what I now do for the Lamplighters," Freeman said. "They just pulled me out of where I was, as an underserved young boy in Pensacola, and told me about school, college, potentially a career in education."
Freeman graduated and became a teacher in Tallahassee, launching the Omega Lamplighters mentoring organization there in 2008. But after five years, he felt the pull to come home.
Freeman launched the Pensacola chapter in 2015 with 20 high school boys. Today they have 70; the youngest is 7, and the oldest is 18.
"We're one of the biggest mentoring groups of its kind in our community, and we're growing nationally," Freeman said. "We have close to 20 chapters, and we just recently started a chapter in Mobile. We are looking to start some chapters very close to the areas that surround Pensacola."
Omega Lamplighters instills principles of leadership, academics, maturity and perseverance through workshops, trips and other bonding activities, he said.
"Through just spending time together, we really aim to build our boys up," Freeman said. "Many of our boys are from underserved communities. We lean on mentors, coaches, teachers, community leaders, just to be able to pour back into some of our boys who may not always have the resources we provide."
Marcus Thomas is a perfect example of the organization's impact. He was a Booker T. Washington High School football player with little direction on where he wanted to go post-high school, Freeman said.
"He just fell in love with the whole idea of Lamplighters—the brotherhood and the sense of connection, because he didn't have any brothers," Freeman said. "He was always that kid (who was) kind of reserved, shy, didn't really want to come out of his shell. We hear that a lot from parents that, 'Oh, we want to help our kids come out of their shell.'"
As Thomas became more involved, his friend circle changed, Freeman said. Freeman
"He joined our program his ninth-grade year, and he went on to Kennesaw State to play football, which was his lifelong dream," Freeman said. "Unfortunately, his life was taken from him two years ago because of gun violence … He loved this. He loved the program. He loved everything it stood for. And he really was one of our brightest stars."
He was one of the best steppers, too, Freeman said.
"It's funny, because when he first joined our organization, he said, 'Mr. Freeman, I don't think I could do that whole stepping thing. I'm a little too cool for that,'" Freeman said. "Boys, they're boys. He wasn't great at first, but the practice really impacted him and once he got his confidence about it, you could just see his light shine. There's videos of him on social media. Probably one of our biggest videos was where he did a step and the whole crowd just shouted. You would have thought that he was Michael Jackson that night."
'PRACTICE MAKES PERMANENT'
While stepping is part of the regularly programmed activity, you'd be surprised how many boys show up with no rhythm, Freeman said.
He was one of them.
"It's like anything else we do with exercise— practice makes permanent," Freeman said.
"But when I tell you, even the ones who have never stepped in their whole entire life, once they get the confidence of knowing what they're doing, and then they get up on that stage, even our littlest one, absolutely loves it," Freeman said. "You can see the confidence, even in a first grader who has just performed, who has just practiced something, just the smiles and the sense of accomplishment when they're done. If you've ever been to a show, you see it and it's just great to see."
Freeman believes the boys are drawn to stepping because of its African roots.
"Stepping is really engrained in the DNA of our Black and brown boys, especially those of African descent; it's the rhythm," Freeman said. "It also speaks to something they're very familiar with at church, the call and response clapping. If you've ever been to a Baptist church, they're calling, there's dancing, there's the clap, the step. It's something that's been connected to our culture. Even music, early music, jazz, hip-hop, all of it
Mobile Kappa League is a mentoring organization sponsored by the fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi.
"We've been connected with them since the first performance seven years ago," Freeman said. "They have a very similar audience in Mobile, and they're bringing in their Mobile crowd over to Pensacola. They have about 150 boys in their program."
GCODE is electric, Freeman said.
"We literally turn Pensacola High School into a concert theater," Freeman said. "We have the stage, the big screen, the lights. We really transform. It is a big production. So when you walk into GCODE, you're like, 'This is not the Pensacola High School gym.' We really try to bring that level of excellence to our community."
And it's truly for the whole family. They make sure of it, he said.
"I've seen grandparents, great-grandparents, be there with their kids and with their kids' kids, so it's really a show for all the generations," Freeman said. " We really try to make sure that we are intentional about making the show kidfriendly and family-friendly. We have a really good mix of performers."
While this year will mark the final GCODE, GCODE 7, it certainly won't be the end of stepping hard for the Omega Lamplighters.
"It has been a great show, so if you've never seen it, this is the year to come," Freeman said. "But after that, I really want to challenge my team to try to further our impact, to do something on a bigger platform, maybe even on a bigger stage. We've been able to grow and have a sell-out show each year—and this one, we expect the same." {in}
Gcode 7
WHAT: The Gulf Coast Omega Step/Dance Extravaganza (GCODE) is a showcase of contemporary dancing and stepping, blended with live music and visual artistry
WHEN: 6 p.m., Saturday, March 11
WHERE: Pensacola High School gymnasium, 500 W. Maxwell St.
COST: $30 (tickets are pre-sold only; no door tickets will be sold). To sponsor someone else's ticket, email pensacolalamplighters@gmail.com.
DETAILS: pensacolalamplighters.com
