At a time when DEI applications constructed to advertise inclusivity have skilled government-issued shutdowns, it makes the Honoring Black Excellence marketing campaign by adidas really feel all of the extra essential. With The Three Stripes in a monetary state of affairs that doesn’t require federal funding for a program like HBE, the sportswear stalwart is just committing to a $20 million promise made again in 2020 in assist of Black communities. 5 years later, we will attest to the truth that adidas is unquestionably placing cash to mouth. Many mouths, the truth is.
On Tuesday (June 24), we braved the Atlanta warmth for a particular one-night-only occasion referred to as the HBE Capstone Expertise, curated in collaboration with Paper Monday inventive married duo Rog & Bee Walker. This 12 months’s honorees embody Sekou Thornell of Kitboys Membership, Jaycina Almond who we bear in mind from The Tender Basis and the soulfully Southern belles of Gee’s Bend Quilters.
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Using a theme of “Pathways & Pipelines,” Rog & Bee helped create an environment that visually mirrored the concept of Black creativity as a bridge to historical past and past. Whether or not it’s the bridges of data fashioned by quilt-making being handed down technology after technology, single moms having bridges of entry for assist in any approach wanted or just bridges of communication that develop when a friendship turns to household on the Kitboys-led soccer subject, every honoree is creating each pathways and pipelines for fulfillment in our neighborhood.
Talking with Sekou, he informed us, “I had a novel expertise the place I received to play at an all-Black youth membership in Stone Mountain, so from there you type of kind your relationship with lots of people that preserve over a very long time. I fell in love with it, my mother and father stored [soccer] with me and quite a lot of alternatives I received in life got here out of the sport.” He went on so as to add of the town’s ever-thriving cultural variety, “You’d assume for a Southern metropolis that [Atlanta] wouldn’t be so progressive in a sport like soccer — most individuals assume it’s soccer or baseball dominant. There’s at all times been that love for the sport in these pockets of tradition [throughout ATL], and since the town is formed the best way it’s we discovered it straightforward getting individuals into the fold of it. I dedicate all of it to this metropolis and having the precise substances to essentially have a platform like [Kitboys Club] develop.”
All through the night time, he made certain to at all times really feel accessible to the various highschool youngsters within the constructing who got particular entry to the personal occasion as a solution to get impressed.
“You’d assume for a Southern metropolis that [Atlanta] wouldn’t be so progressive in a sport like soccer — most individuals assume it’s soccer or baseball dominant. There’s at all times been that love for the sport in these pockets of tradition [throughout ATL], and since the town is formed the best way it’s we discovered it straightforward getting individuals into the fold of it. I dedicate all of it to this metropolis and having the precise substances to essentially have a platform like [Kitboys Club] develop.”
— Sekou Thornell, Kitboys Membership
Related sentiments had been shared as we spoke with the women of Gee’s Bend Quilters. Sitting collectively and representing all ages and shades of Black magnificence, it was understood from bounce that we had been within the presence of a bonded sisterhood. “I encourage [my granddaughter] by telling her easy methods to sew and stuff, simply completely different quilts and stuff, so she will educate her youngsters when she have youngsters and it retains going,” mentioned Sharon Williams, who enthusiastically went on to explain their ever-growing legacy by busting out into tune with the tune “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now” by McFadden & Whitehead. Listening to from a youthful voice on the workforce, twenty-something sew professional Francesca Charley informed us, “All the pieces I discovered from quilting got here from my grandma, great-aunt and my mom. It’s due to their phrases of encouragement that I’m the place I’m at the moment. There have been so many occasions the place I wished to surrender or I believed what I used to be doing wasn’t adequate, or I merely may by no means make what they make, however to be right here now with adidas is rather a lot to consider.”
Her mother, Claudia Pettway Charley, adopted swimsuit with lovely perception by including, “Honoring Black Excellence is to honor your personal legacy. Your honoring others who current excellence, but it surely actually doesn’t matter what the class or subject is. It may simply be that you just dwell your life every day in your personal excellence, particularly if you happen to’re Black. It’s a privilege simply to be right here being honored by an organization comparable to adidas. Even being acknowledged by Rog & Bee, who take your tales and switch them into films proper in entrance of your face, is all of the definition of excellence and honor. Doing it in ways in which solely Black individuals can feels thrilling to me.”
“Honoring Black Excellence is to honor your personal legacy. Your honoring others who current excellence, but it surely actually doesn’t matter what the class or subject is. It may simply be that you just dwell your life every day in your personal excellence, particularly if you happen to’re Black. It’s a privilege simply to be right here being honored by an organization comparable to adidas. Even being acknowledged by Rog & Bee, who take your tales and switch them into films proper in entrance of your face, is all of the definition of excellence and honor. Doing it in ways in which solely Black individuals can feels thrilling to me.”
— Claudia Pettway Charley, Gee’s Bend Quilters
Good southern eats, drinks aplenty for these sufficiently old to indulge responsibly, a dwell jazz efficiency that match the temper of the social gathering completely and studio-style portrait periods being snapped by Rog & Bee themselves all got here collectively to cap off an evening we gained’t quickly neglect. Relating to honoring our heritage and actually every little thing that make it so lovely to be Black, we give props to The Three Stripes for pulling off an evening value coming outdoors on throughout one of the humid days in Hotlanta!
Have a look beneath at a full photograph recap of the adidas 2025 Honoring Black Excellence “HBE Capstone Expertise” in ATL:
