NFL Pro Bowl MVP Lorenzo Alexander Hosts Youth Football Camp

Published

7 years ago

July 6, 2017

Oakland Post

Pro Bowl MVP and Oakland native Lorenzo Alexander and his nonprofit, ACES Foundation, recently hosted its ninth annual Hold the Line Football Camp.

ACES, which stands for Accountability, Community, Education and Sport, s uses sports as hook to get the kids into the foundation. They then the importance of being accountable for themselves, their community and their education, explained by Akeem Brown, executive director of ACES.

“It starts with raising these young kids, and we’re trying to get them ready. If we can get them to care about their community, themselves, and to be accountable for themselves, we can transform our entire community,” said Brown.

Youth participate in drills at ACES annual Hold the Line Football Camp.

The camp, held at Castlemont High School in East Oakland this year, welcomed over 150 student athletes ages 5-14. Founded in 2008, the ACES Foundation partnered with the no weight limit youth football team, Bay Area Seminoles, backed by a number of prominent Black men from “The Town” including Marcus Peters, Marshawn Lynch, Josh Johnson, Trestin George, Lamont Robertson and even film maker Ryan Coogler.

The day’s program consisted of competitive drills with guidance from coaches, parents and other volunteers from all around the Bay Area.

One proud parent who travelled from Salinas to Oakland for the camp said, “It’s good to see my son, daughter and nephew all come together to do something positive.”

During a conversation with Johnny Alexander, Coach Lorenzo’s grandfather, the importance of youth sports was brought up. “Sports keeps kids out of the streets. For many athletes coaches act as father figures and teaches them how to work as a team to achieve something rather than stepping on one another to get on top,” he said.

Whenever the slightest bit of trash talking would occur, the coaches would make the young people drop and to 10 sometimes 20 pushups.

The camp closed with a speech by Coach Lorenzo, answering questions from the kids and gave gifts to the best performances on the field as well as to the kids who brought their transcript with them.

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Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

Published

21 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Oakland Post

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Minister King X, Civil Rights Group Sue California Prisons Over Right to Protest

Oakland – Minister King X, a prison ‘artivist,’ and a civil rights group will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. on Sept. 27 at the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) headquarters at 1515 S St. in Sacramento, CA. Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.

Published

4 days ago

October 29, 2024

Oakland Post

Minister King X

Special to The Post

Sept. 20, 2024, Minister King, a community organizer with California Prison Focus, and the group All of Us Or None (AOUON) filed a lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and top state government officials.

The lawsuit challenges Minister King’s unlawful arrest on Aug. 9, 2021, during “Black August,” for allegedly violating Penal Code section 4571, which criminalizes people with felony convictions standing near prison facilities.

Minister King was arrested and imprisoned by plainclothes CDCR officers after a July 2021 protest calling for the release of political prisoner Ruchell “Cinque” Magee.

The charges were dropped without a hearing, but Minister King and AOUON allege in their complaint that the arrest was retaliation for his activism and a violation of his First Amendment rights.

According to Medium, Minister King X Pyeface of Kage Universal is a rapper, producer, and ‘artivist’ from Oakland who spent six years in federal prison and 18 years in California State Prison, where he was the youngest new African organizer during the 2011 to 2013 California Prisoners Hunger Strike.

CDCR’s report for Minister King’s arrest describes King, and many other activists, public figures, and organizations, as “Black Identity Extremists” and “Black Supremacist Extremists.”

These racist terms were used to label organizations such as Black Lives Matter as terrorist organizations and their use was abandoned by the FBI in 2019.

The lawsuit seeks to prevent CDCR from using Penal Code 4571 to target formerly incarcerated individuals for exercising their rights.

The press conference on Friday will discuss the constitutional issues associated with PC 4571, which prohibits an individual who has previously been convicted of a felony and incarcerated in a California state prison from being present on the grounds of carceral facilities or anywhere adjacent to those grounds without the consent of the warden or sheriff.

Additionally, 4571 prohibits these individuals from being anywhere other individuals in state custody may be, and anywhere adjacent to those in custody individuals without consent.

King and AOUON have alleged in their complaint that the statute violates the First Amendment rights of formerly incarcerated individuals and is overly broad and vague.

“In the depths of Pelican Bay State Prison, and other correctional facilities across the United States, a forgotten population of elderly incarcerated individuals awaits redemption. They are not the ‘worst of the worst,’ violent predators or Black Identity Extremists,” says Minister King X. “Rather, they are a unique class of individuals who possess the wisdom, experience, and desire to promote peace and reconciliation. I am advocating for and on behalf of these elders and the rights of all other prisoners.”

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Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay: Blanche Richardson

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson came to the Sydney Goldstein Theatre on Sept. 10 to participate in an event hosted by City Arts and Lectures and Marcus Books to celebrate the publication of her memoir, Lovely One.

Published

4 days ago

October 29, 2024

Oakland Post