WATCH: Adisa Banjoko Speak on the Power of Time

Watch the new YouTube channel by Adisa Banjoko on how ensuring you get time to workout helps your in your creative pursuits and business . Be sure to subscribe to see more in the series.

WATCH: New video by Adisa Banjoko on the Power of Your Ideas

Watch the new video channel by Adisa Banjoko and learn his unique perspective on ideas. Be sure to subscribe to see more in the series.

Watch Video: How Your Enemies Improve You by HHCF Founder Adisa Banjoko

Watch the new video channel by Adisa Banjoko and learn how your enemies improve you. Don't forget to subscribe to the channel. Be sure to subscribe to see more in the series.

Against All Odds: Education, Race and Chess

RZA playing International Master the late EmoryTate, Jr. Photo: Eric Arnold

Against All Odds: Education, Race, and Chess 
by Adisa Banjoko and Arash Daneshzadeh | 

Teaching students, “The World Is Yours”

A few years ago, I was asked to speak at a high school for Black History Month in San Francisco, CA. Their original speaker had bailed on them, at the last minute. Rather than open my talk with a lamentation of US slavery, I focused on Dogon discoveries in Astronomy, and Moorish science contributions that served as the foundation of the European Renaissance. After citing the role of the African Islamic influence of Europe's’ rise out of the Dark Ages, I asked the students how many enjoyed what they heard.  Almost all the hands went up. I said, now ask yourselves this question: How is that you have been in school for at least 9 years and this is the first time you are hearing it? It is against all political, social, and economic odds that Black children are expected to excel.

As we approach Black History Month in 2016, I’m already torn between my genuine love in celebrating Black achievement, and the sad circus many schools turn the opportunity into. American schools have a long way to go in sharing the more dynamic aspects of African contributions to global civilization. For me, I tend to do my best teaching on a chessboard. It is almost impossible to talk about chess in America and not have race come up. I’m doubtful that this happens in China, for example. As Founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) and an educator for more than a decade now (mostly in inner cities) I’ve watched kids argue about who gets to be white, who gets to be black and why. African American kids, often as young as 9 years old, out of what appears to be a loyalty to their team (race) often chose to be Black irrespective of the known reality-- that it is harder to play as black in chess. It takes time to learn how to be black and expect to win.

In the medieval times, apparently white did not always start first. Historically speaking. The first chess books were written by Muslims. As Moorish sovereignty in Europe grew, Christians and Jews began to play and write about the game. One of the European authors said white went first (without explanation of why) and the idea seems to have stuck. The high polarization of racial issues in America seems to inherently make our kids consider that black starts from a place of weakness. This is not the game itself that does this. It is their experience as African American children, not chess players, that puts this feeling upon them.

It is what they observe in their lives, in the news, and in their history classes. It is the greatness of Black history that is deliberately left out- that ends up making them feel this way.  I can’t prove it, but I believe that this inherent feeling that Black is at a disadvantage in chess is connected to racial disadvantages in life.

Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing touched on this topic of race and chess in her groundbreaking 1989 book, The Isis Papers. “White always makes the opening (aggressive) move in chess” she writes, “The black king and queen must move in tactical and strategic harmony with one another if they are to counter the white assaut successfully and defend their side of the chessboard effectively.”

The HHCF has always worked to use chess as a tool for racial and cultural transcendence.

Nevertheless, even some of the best things about chess seem to slip through our hands. On October 17, 2015, one of the greatest minds, a Black man, in modern chess passed away. His name was Emory Tate and he died doing what he loved best, playing chess in the San Francisco Bay Area. Black American mainstream press didn’t report it. Nevermind that as an International Master he battered Grandmasters with seamless regularity. Despite the fact that  the brilliance he displayed in countless games gave a slight sketch of the elite expressions of his cognitive function- his passing was ignored by Black media outlets. I personally watched Tate beat RZA of Wu-Tang Clan in 2009 in San Francisco at John O’Connell High School. Emory Tate and RZA spoke together to kids at length about the intellectual and moral benefits of chess for them. Emory Tate’s name struck fear in the hearts of his opponents around the world. Unfortunately, Emory Tate died in a time where what qualifies as modern Black “news” is often relegated to mostly Worldstar fight clips and Love and Hip Hop style gossip. These “news” outlets have largely erased genuine young adoration for Black intellectual and entrepreneurial achievement beyond the arena of entertainment. 

Today, most Americans think of chess as an upper echelon “White” game. In fact, the game only made it to America after the Moors (African Muslim scholars) conquered Spain from 700 AD until 1400 AD and brought their books and chessboards with them. After teaching the game of chess to the Christians and Jews, it spread across Europe. The English loved chess and when some rebelled and settled in America, so too did the game. Colonial Americans such as George Washington, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson became obsessed with the game.

Thomas Jefferson's Chess piece at World Chess Hall of Fame. Photo: Mike Relm

Theophilus Thompson of Frederick, Maryland is one of the first African American chess players known by name. Despite being raised in the violence of the Civil War era he authored a book of chess positions that were respected by all the players of his day. You can even see one of his brilliant games played in 1874 at The Chess Drum, the world’s best site for Black chess news around the globe. Even the most remedial chess player can see Thompson's style unleashed a horrific series of psychological landmines and traps, forcing his opponent to resign. Sadly, he was rumored to have died at the hands of the KKK who held big numbers in Frederick at the time. America has never been a safe place for intelligent Black men daring enough to display critical insight publicly. It is in the spirit of Thompson’s bravery that this piece is written.

One of the amazing things about chess is that it is a proven tool in raising scores in IQ testing and academic exams. Additionally, in 1979, Chinese University in Hong Kong shared a study by Dr. Yee Wang Fung. It reported that chess players showed a 15% improvement in math and science scores. Five years before that a study in Zaire by Dr. Albert Frank of 19 students aged 16-18 stated that chess players showed significant advancement in spatial, numerical and administrative-directional abilities. These improvements held true regardless of the skill level attained. Simply stated, your child doesn't need to be a Grandmaster in chess to benefit greatly from the impact it can have on your mind. In a country professing to be so STEM and STEAM obsessed the recalcitrance of the American school system in making chess a daily class (just like English or Math) borders criminality- not mere hypocrisy.

Democracy and illiteracy are not synonymous. To ensure that the future of our democracy is sustained and elevated, literacy has to be its indestructible root. If chess was good enough to enlighten George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Jay Z and Tupac it is good enough for the American student- irrespective of their grade level. 

Fear of a Black Planet

“If you want to understand any problem, focus on who profits from that problem, not who suffers from that problem.”--Dr. Amos Wilson 

There is a relationship between the literary stories that represent “triumph” and historical accounts of oppression. Who tells the story, how they tell it, what details are selectively removed, which others are emphasized or outright falsified, determines how one interprets history.  In the enduring words of Hip Hop artist, Inspectah Deck, “life as a shorty shouldn’t be so rough”. American schools have played a prominent role in manufacturing an image of Black youth as “other” than human—destitute, needy, unruly, savages. There’s something troublingly ironic about an education system that perpetuates the myth of a normative achievement gap, while minimizing the role that COINTELPRO had on normalizing Black pain. The criminality of Black youth in the United States education system is proportional to the perceived danger of Black resistance, self-definition, and independence. These three variables are forged in the mantle of critical storytelling.

In the wake of Black History month, we revisit a discussion as timeless as Dr. Amos Wilson’s hallowed words above. That this, power and privilege determine the relationship between teaching and learning. Who gets to tell the story is just as important as who plays the role of hero in an epic saga. Students internalize perceptions of their learning ability with their existential power. Storytelling, with the hopes of transmitting parables to youth, has been a common vehicle for teaching historical literacy since time immemorial. Historical literacy, of course, is paramount to unpacking the truth about where we come from. Particularly, in any society that blurs the atrocities of transatlantic slavery and the ongoing struggle for civil rights. You may recall a recent case in Texas, in which a textbook manufacturer referred to enslaved Africans as “workers”.

It is important to remind administrators, teachers, and students that teaching historical accounts and positional power in the classroom are not mutually exclusive, but symbiotically paired like the effect of location upon real estate prices. If you are teaching Black youth from a space of intersecting privilege (example: White, heterosexual, upper-middle class, male), it becomes important to center students in the texts so that your unearned privilege does not derail a potentially uplifting moment of historical literacy. Too often, individual icons such as Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks are superimposed onto Black students as passive and inanimate props for White integration stories.

But what about the communities that inspired King and Parks? Their political nuances, critical development, and vast ocean of community influences are filtered through a netting that removes all texture--replaced with carefully curated aesthetic. An aesthetic which appreciates Martin Luther King for his eloquent rhetoric, and Rosa Parks for her searing opposition to a bus driver—rather than the radical story of how the community mobilized, despite painful opposition from the United States government in the form of COINTELPRO, prior to the bus boycotts and union walkouts.  

While teachers often misappropriate Dr. Martin Luther King as an inter-racial sympathizer, the facts surrounding his death are often manufactured by an ideology, which seeks to destroy any implication that American imperialism was responsible for his demise and for the overall declaration of war upon the Black community. The irony behind this academic tampering: In 1999, the King family won a civil trial against the United States government for conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King. Why is this history lesson not as readily accessible to youth, particularly Black children, whose historical points of reference are still grounded in respectability and obedience?

Any remote association with Black resistance is engulfed, chewed up, and spit out as a breach of decorum and personal responsibility. Malcolm X, Assata Shakur, Tupac Shakur and even rap artist KRS-One are prime examples of luminaries whose images were quickly vanquished from critical teachings in school. In January 2015, the Huffington Post reported on a teacher who was publicly attacked in Tucson, Arizona for incorporating what was deemed as “inflammatory” and “threatening” lyrics by KRS-One into their curriculum for an African American history course. The teacher attempted to unpack generations of systemic oppression through “artistic response”. This example of historical cherry picking presents a sterilized image of classrooms as neutral factories of compliance. Any inquiry, particularly from students well versed in historical literacy or anti-racist artistic expression, poses a threat to the fabric of reproducing society in its current image. 

The truth is, our classrooms are political spaces where battles for representation (beyond the symbolic) are waged. Nonetheless, stories of organized Black revolutionaries are swept up like doll houses during a tornado, splintered, and dissipated like dust across a child’s consciousness. Education policy makers must examine whose power is squarely positioned at the center of our historical textbooks, and privileged as the aspirational goal for students. When discussing student learning, power reprises its role as inseparably married to the privileges wrought by being a teacher.

"No matter what the name, we're all the same pieces in one big chess game"--Public Enemy

The chessboard serves as a microcosm for community. It also represents the fallacy in quotidian education that your success is inspired bybecoming King. An allegory lauding the merits of social isolation is a direct contradiction from the revolutionary bedrock of liberatory education, which invokes the collective power of community pieces, against a common enemy. This self-aggrandizing portrait of success is buttressed by the capitalistic notion encouraging students to surmount their cultural literacies, because achievement cannot be shared among peers. In the interest of this article, literacies is defined as the historical definitions of self, rooted in understanding race, gender, class, and other normative identities as constructed within a cultural ecology of synchronized domination and oppression.

In this society, we are trained to believe that academic “success” can be only hoarded, as our education system intentionally triages for patent winners and losers. One consequence of this reductionist view of collective solidarity is the normalization of divestment. Divesting from community.  Sloughing entire layers of historical understanding is actually seen as a strategy towards success. We center Whiteness and settler capitalism by telling students that they were admitted into a college, “despite growing up in the ghetto”, which is pathologized as a proxy for Blackness.  Similarly, in chess, students are told to count the most valuable pieces in accordance with a rubric of settler colonialism; rendering pawns as merely disposable players who make the occasional cameo during protracted matches.  A Western framework that problematizes pawns, and makes Queens a transactional gambit to sustain the longevity of the King, barters with identity.

To perceive pieces as inextricably linked with achieving victory, one must frame chess pieces as more than individuals but an ecologically sustained community. When students, particularly children of color, in my classroom discuss chess, their initial impulse veers towards “becoming” King. As a result, they forsake the importance of other pieces, whose quantifiable values mirror the “desirability” as competing members of a chess community. This value system parallels a market-based society, whose racialized underpinnings, commodify Blackness as space to be charitably leveraged by or platform White sensibilities. In chess, White moves first and pawns are worth “less” points than Queens.

Conversely, students must forgo an appreciation of community in order to position themselves at the mantle of dominance. As well, domination is advertised as a political dividend that requires a divestment of cultural literacy, because our communities are problematized as anchors to our long-term prospects. And our success is propagandized as a marker of innate worth. In chess terms: If you became King, you achieved it despite the distractions and convoluted machinations of other (read: less important) pieces on your side of the board. This raises the question of education as a tool for inculcating societal value systems that may actively oppose indigenous and Black diasporic foundations.

Taking a more critical lens, we must peel from the layers of historical rust that stifles a student’s social mobility. Miring students in the minutia of political and social competition, moves the illusion that they are individuals first, and communities are merely instruments for self-marketing. Black history is hijacked, reconstructed, and expelled as a finite canon of individual transcendence. Black excellence is merely a reflection of individuals who demonstrated personal “grit” or perseverance, despite overwhelming odds. As a result of the grit narrative, individual successes throughout Black history fails to consider the manner in which oppressive ideology overly determines policy that shapes community outcomes. 

Teaching Black history as more than a positivist and towering beacon of more-to-less stakeholders, flies in direct opposition to the perception that power and privilege are independent of one another in the classroom. “Ubuntu” is a Zulu word that means “I am because we are”, and captures a liberatory strand of teaching. This model posits that our position as individuals is gained by our appreciation of the stories and critical understandings of our ancestors. Without exercising liberating and critical literacies, students tacitly amputate a political connection to their cultures. A connection, that renders them as powerful partners within an intergenerational war for the redistribution of provisional wealth. In his groundbreaking work, Developmental Psychology of the Black Child, Dr. Amos Wilson distinguishes between schools that subsidize a highly educated servant (to Capitalism) and those that seek to promote Black mobilization. He writes that the Black child is taught to have a sense of dependency on her historical storytellers (i.e., schools) and thus, can only exercise enough power to perpetuate the desires of those who center an image of Black domination and youth control. 

A note about Pan-African teaching. Look at how many miles separate Greece and England. English universities have no problem teaching students that Plato and Socrates are their intellectual ancestors, yet Anglo-Saxons didn't directly descend from Greece. Thus, it shouldn't be absurd for Black children to learn about Pan-African philosophy, history, and contemporary intellectual inspiration. The Book of the Dead, Kingdoms of the Nile, Kush, Nubia, the Mandingo Empire, Senegambia, Duse Mohamed Ali, and Henry Sylvester Williams. I could go on, but the battle for Pan-African narratives, is to cobble a direct conduit to intellectual ancestry for Black youth.

In Whistling Vivaldi (2010), eminent social psychologist, Dr. Claude Steele explains that the threats to Black student identity are external albeit internalized. He adds, that if people on the street heard someone whistling classical musician, Vivaldi, that the violence prone, “unrefined” Black youth image would not reflexively come to mind. What’s more, even other Black youth are less inclined to assume a Black peer is the whistler. Our values and images of “high white society” will always emerge in the classroom.  Black children are 18 times more likely than White children to be incarcerated as adults and comprise 58% of all children sentenced to prison as adults in the United States (Poe-Yamagata & Jones, 2007). Black students are "personally responsible" for their actions at an age when white students still benefit from assumptions of their innocence. A school environment that conditions Black youth for perpetual "fight or flight" mode, cannot offer time for reflection.  As a result, we must not think of Vivaldi as the metric for what distinguishes an academically “successful” Black child from her peers. Instead, it is incumbent upon educators and radical scholars to wean from the phantom value systems that commercially, and socially, distinguish between Vivaldi and J. Cole. Until then, pawns will never live to be Queens.

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Adisa Banjoko is the Founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation (HHCF) and author of Bobby, Bruce & Bam: The Secrets of Hip-Hop Chess releasing Feb 2016 on Young Lions Press. Arash Daneshzadeh is an HHCF Chess Instructor and Doctoral Candidate at UC Davis. Learn more about HHCF.

WATCH: New Inspirational Video Series by HHCF Founder on Life Strategies

    Rapper Jasiri X, HHCF Educator Arash Daneshzadeh and Adisa Banjoko hanging out on the 64         squares. Chess set sponsored by www.thechesspiece.com 

2016 is starting strong for the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. Their Founder started a new video series produced by YouTube Remix King Mike Relm (known for his Star Wars, Iron Man and Avengers video remixes). Mike Relm and Adisa Banjoko have a series of short videos about life strategy and philosophy that will leave you inspired and informed. 

Video 1: How Your Enemies Improve You 

Video 2: Money

There are 11 more videos dropping between now and March. Please enjoy, subscribe to the channel and enjoy. 

HHCF Teams w/ Deus Fight Gi's for The Oakland (Silver and Black) Gi.....

HHCF Teamed up with philanthropic jiu-jitsu brand Deus Fight for a new line of gi's. The Oakland gi, is made in the warrior tradition of the Raiders as well as a reminder that Public Enemy's It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back had a Silver and Black side to the Album....Proceeds from the sales of the gi will benefit the HHCF Chess and Jiu-Jitsu Initiative. Get one today at www.deusfight.com  Special thanks to BJJ Legends Magazine for connecting our orgs for the greater good of our children. When we say our children, we mean all children. PEACE! 

HHCF Year in Review, PLUS A New Book from Adisa, The Bishop

2015 was a great year for HHCF. We had a lot of ups and downs, and some rocky seas here and there. But in the end, we have grown in many ways. This year HHCF Chess and Life Strategies methodologies were taught to more than 1000 kids. 50% were Latino, 30% were African American, 10% Asian American and 10% Caucasian. We have some amazing raw data from surveys we gave out over the Summer that is still being input into the computer. We hope to share the results with you soon. The momentum is growing.

April of this year HHCF saw the closing of the record breaking Living Like Kings exhibit. I’m not sure, but I think Hip-Hop Chess Federation is one of the first (maybe the only) Hip-Hop non-profit or education organization to be honored at a Hall of Fame of any kind. Everybody in the organization loved St. Louis and our hearts are with the people always. It was great training their staff on how Hip-Hop and chess are connected. Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield really are a force of nature in the world of chess. Their vision, compassion and and follow through in chess is simply unmatched. Our work in that city has only begun.

Not long after that, HHCF got a new HQ. Three times bigger than our old facility it has the room to grow that we need. Our cheerleading team was set up to go immediately and train at the facility. Once the center was ready, pioneering Hip-Hop education thought leader Dr. Bettina Love, Arash Daneshzadeh and Itoco Garcia gave a magnificent panel. We have had many education talks since then (including an amazing Q&A with Ryron Gracie) and we plan many more in 2016. Visit our site for more.

We also had amazing summer camps in San Jose (thanks to the Safe Summer Initiative Grant) and in East Palo Alto (at Boys and Girls Club in the Peninsula). I was also able to share weekly motivational talks with about 200 kids every week  in EPA. I had a lot of fun and I learned so much about how to be a better teacher at BGCP. Super shout out to Jeff Feinman and /james Harris for helping us make it happen. I also wanna shout out some of our guest speakers like UFC fighter Eugene Jackson, pro hockey player Hans Benson and tech entrepreneur Pablo Fuentes for sharing their time with the kids.

HHCF Summer Program at Seven Trees Community Center in San Jose.

HHCF cheer and dance team went to Honolulu Hawaii and took third at the Aloha Championships. We had a lot of fun and we look forward to going back in March. Our team is currently fundraising to make the trip. This Christmas we wrapped gifts to help bring in some money to help us all get there. We have some cool new member to the team and we look forward to returning to Hawaii.

2015 was a big speaking year for me personally. I was invited to give keynotes at University Wisconsin Whitewater, Oberlin College , Rock The School Bells and U Conn Hip-Hop Conference. I really found my voice taking these trips. I also met amazing educators and students who were pushing the limits of how Hip-Hop can be used as a tool for teaching STEAM and STEM concepts.

In the Fall, we expanded our HHCF Chess and Life Strategies program as well as our film and cheer programs to Unity High School and Unity Jr. High in Oakland, Buby Bridges, John Haight and Maya Lin in Alameda, and Cherryland Elementary in Hayward. It has been such an amazing experience to share our methodologies with these kids.  In the beginning of 2016 our jiu-jitsu after school program begins at Unity High. Thanks to a donation from the amazing jiiu-jitsu philanthropic organization DeuS Fight, our kids have custom HHCF jiu-jitsu gi’s for training. We also open a new program at John O’Connell and a few others in SF. More on those soon.

HHCF Class at Unity High in Oakland

One of the biggest things that happened in 2015 is that RZA gave a donation to HHCF so we can train the juvenile hall staff in St. Louis. Several of their staff took the 5 week HHCF Level One Certification and are now using it with their teens. If you know a community based organizations and schools that you believe could benefit from HHCF’s methodology please have them email contact@hiphopchessfederation.org so they can sign up. Several new schools have already joined on. More on that soon.  

In the beginning of 2016 we will see new HHCF after school programs opening in Raleigh NC, St. Louis MO and we’re working on some schools in the LA Area. It is an exciting time.

RZA’s support of the organization was especially kind this year as he also shared some of the money he got from the sale of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan  album Once Upon A Time in Shaolin. That donation helped launch the HHCF Chess and Jiu-Jitsu Initiative. We will be scholarshipping 25 boys and girls in our 12 week program where they will learn in chess and jiu-jitsu classes back to back.

Chess is jiu-jitsu for the mind. Jiu-Jitsu is chess for the body.

Another great thing that happened is that DJ Johnny Juice Rosado sent us a blazing track for the new HHCF Street Games Vol. 2: #TrapKing Mixtape. It is an amazing tribute to the philosophy of Bruce Lee. The full mixtape drops in Feb. You can hear a few more songs from the upcoming release at www.soundcloud.com/hiphopchess .

Finally, I’m happy to announce that my new book Bobby, Bruce & Bam: The Secrets of Hip-Hop Chess will drop in February 2016. Bobby, Bruce, & Bam: The Secrets of Hip-Hop Chess is a book on the how the work of Bobby Fischer, Bruce Lee, and Afrika Bambaataa in the early 1970s unintentionally overlapped. They echo today  into 2016 to redefine urban education, fitness, and nonviolence.  This fusion teaches young people and adults alike how to reframe their approach to both personal choices in life as well as business decisions. You will also get to hear stories of triumph and tragedy as Adisa works to spread his ideas to teens in San Francisco and St. Louis.

Bobby, Bruce, & Bam: The Secrets of Hip-Hop Chess contains a textbook which allows the reader to learn what I call “chess notations and life equations.” Are you tired of life kicking you in the sack and leaving you on the ground wondering how it happened? Would you like to learn how to take control of your life and create a better future for yourself? If you want a book that will authentically inform and inspire you, without the pseudo-cultish under vibes, this is the book for you.

The site for the book will launch soon. I can’t thank you enough for supporting HHCF is always in need of donations. Our program is growing and we need support more than ever to help us expand our program, facilitate our HHCF Level One Certification and grow our Chess and Jiu-Jitsu Initiative. Please donate today and help kids learn the power of Hip-Hop, chess and martial arts. https://www.crowdrise.com/hiphopchessfederation

Shout outs to Alan Gumby Marques, Paul Moran, Travis Newaza, Vince Bayaan, D’Juan Owens, Rakaa Iriscience, Brother Ali, DJ Kevvy Kev,Cilvaringz, T-KASH, Left from Frontline, Susan Barrett, Ralek and Ryron Gracie, Dr. Peter Goldman, Leonard and Veronica Jones, Denny Prokopos, Cornell Hip-Hop Archive,  Jamel Shabazz, Joe Conzo, Tools of War Hip-Hop Newsletter,  Gbenga Akinnagbe and Liberated People, Scotty and everybody at OTM, Wants Vs. Needs Clothing, RM Klothing, CTRL Industries, Sean McClure, Ed Solis, DJ Robflow, San Jose Zulu Nation and All Tribes Zulu Nation Chapters. There are so many more to thank, but know that I’m grateful and if you need me I’m there.

HHCF Teams with DJ Johnny Juice for Dragon Seeks Path Mix feat. Bruce Lee

 Amazing inspirational song by DJ Johnny Juice blending positive Bruce Lee quotes LISTEN HERE! The new mixtape HHCF Street Games Vol. 2: Trap King produced by DJ Rob Flow drops Feb 14th 2016.....This is only the beginning.

D'Juan Owens is the Perfect Storm:Chess Player, MMA Fighter and Bboy!

 Fresh off his high octane submission victory over Myron Baker in Odyssey Fights, we got an exclusive interview with D'Juan "Dirty South" Owens. In this interview we look deeper into the connections between chess, music and martial arts. He also has a serious background as a Bboy (thats Hip-Hop dancer for you squares). He blends the wisdom he gets from the rhythm of fighting, dancing and playing chess. It gives him and edge that makes him a cut above the others in MMA today. D'Juan Owens is truly the living embodiment of everything HHCF represents. 

HHCF: I know you're a serious chess player, and a real beast in MMA. Can you tell me about the places you see overlap between MMA and chess?

D'Juan Owens: There are MANY aspects that I believe overlap between chess and MMA! I believe that self-confidence, and belief in your skill may be the most crucial. Regardless of how bad your position is in a bout(or a game), the fight isn't over, until it's over. If you're still in the fight, you should be striving for a path to victory. 

HHCF: You are also a real Bboy. The old school Kung-Fu films inspired a lot of dance moves as well as the psychology of battle. Can you tell me for you personally as a dancer and fighter the areas of overlap that affect how you approach both paths?

DO: When it comes to dancing and fighting, I see both as an extension of our personality. The rawest form of expression. Obviously, the more skill you have, the more ways in which you can express yourself. When I'm dancing, I want to paint a picture. When I'm fighting, I want to display the beauty in martial arts. Of course, there's a danger-element in fighting though, and winning is priority. But the more efficient I am, the more likely I am to win; and there's beauty in efficient combat.

HHCF: What are your favorite martial arts movies?

DO: My favorite martial arts movie is definitely the Shaw brother's "Five Deadly Venoms"! "Shaolin vs Lama", and Berry Gordy's "The Last Dragon" are my joints too.

HHCF: You just came off an awesome victory in a Jiu-Jitsu super fight at the "TORO Cup". Tell me about that match and the plan you put in action to win?

DO: I competed against a really slick 10th Planet guy. He'd been tearing up the local tournament scene lately. I watched a few of his matches online, and I saw that he was VERY good from the lockdown position. He submitted a black belt who I knew was really good, so I knew it would be a tough match. I figured if I could stay away from his lockdown and whip up transitions, and steer the match toward more traditional positions, then I would have an advantage. I was in fight camp for an MMA fight so I knew I would have a cardio advantage. We battled for position for the majority of our match, but eventually I got the pass, and won by kimura from the reverse-triangle position.

HHCF: A few MMA fights back you lost a decision to to Luis Felix in CES. You seem to have bounced back from the loss with new fire, refined focus and ability winning your last two fights by submission. Cuban chess Grandmaster Jose Raul Capablanca said something to the effect that it's the losses that make you a champion. What changed in you after the Felix fight?

DO: After the post-fight gorging ran it's course, I changed a few things in my nutrition and training regimen. I started really focusing on improving my wrestling, and getting serious about my diet. Honestly, I went into that fight on a great winning streak and I was feeling myself a little too much. I wound up having basically a "fat-camp", instead of a training camp. I have the BEST support system so after about a month of moping around, I got back in the lab, and back on the grind, and we've had great results since.

HHCF:  Wait, before I forget, what are some of your favorite Bboy jams to dance to?

DO: When I was really about that bboy life, I used to LOVE "Funky Lover"  by eruption. I can't control myself when I hear it! I don't care if I'm in a three-piece suit, or a scuba diving suit. If that joint comes on, I'm definitely throwing down on the spot!

                                                           Rock out for a bit to Eruption

HHCF: I know you were in NY last year and played some street games out there. Because of your MMA you have been able to play street chess all over the world. Tell me some cool stories about playing chess while traveling. What has chess taught you about other people? What has chess taught you about yourself?

DO: I went to NY earlier this year to train at "KINGS Thai Boxing" with my muay thai coach Aaron. He knows about my passion for chess, so between training sessions one day, he took me to Central Park. We planned on getting our hustle on "White Man Can't Jump" style, except with chess [laughs] . Long story short, I played  3 people who had tables set up, and beat them all. The guy who actually made a decent wager with us, looked devastated after he lost. He was pretty good, I'm assuming around a 1800 level. He was an aggressive attacker; but reckless. He banked everything on that attack, and when it failed, his defenses were weak. Aaron and I looked at each other after the match, and I KNEW that we were thinking the same thing....I couldn't take this guy's money. This was his livelihood. Seriously, this is what he does. I told him to keep the money, and he gave me a half-hearted laugh and said "next time"... but I FELT his relief. On the way back to the gym, Aaron and I  joked about it, and wound up having one of the best conversations about life that I'd had all year.

HHCF: What are your plans going forward in 2016? Any last words?

DO: In 2016 I plan on going even harder on the MMA grind. There's not a doubt in my mind that we'll be in the UFC in 2016! In the meantime, I'll keep loving my family and friends, forging new business relationships, helping my community, being an asset to all of the organizations that we work with, and most importantly, continually striving to be the best human that I can be. 

HHCF: I want to give a PHAT shout-out to The "Hip-Hop Chess Federation" for putting in the REAL work for our youth. I'm honored, and proud to be a part of that work. GET FAMILIAR!!!

THIS JUST IN: D'Juan Owens will be coming to the HHCF HQ in the Bay Area in December 2015 to do both Bboy and MMA/Jiu-Jitsu seminars....We will also be hosting a panel about dance and martial arts with some of the top fighters and dancers in the Bay Area. More soon!!!!