WEBVTT

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My name is Jon Gray.

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They call me "the Dishwasher."

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I cofounded Ghetto Gastro,

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a Bronx-based collective

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that works at the intersection
of food, design and art.

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We create experiences that challenge
people's perceptions of the Bronx,

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the place that I call home.

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It's a funny thing.

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I just touched down in Vancouver
from Paris a few days ago.

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We took over the Place Vendôme
with the Bronx Brasserie.

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Oui oui, chérie.

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(Laughter)

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It's wild, because in Paris,
they have this saying,

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"le Bronx,"

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which means something
is in disarray or a problem.

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That's the Place Vendôme.

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We shut it down one time.

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(Laughter)

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This lingo came into play
when the Bronx was burning,

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and movies like "The Warriors"
and "Fort Apache"

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still make an impression.

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Some may disagree,

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but I believe the Bronx
was designed to fail.

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The power broker was a joker.

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Robert Moses, instead of
parting the Red Sea,

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he parted the Bronx
with a six-lane highway

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and redlined my community.

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My great-grandparents
had a home on Featherbed Lane,

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and contrary to the name,

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they couldn't get a good night's rest

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due to the constant blasting
and drilling that was necessary

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to build the cross-Bronx expressway

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a block away.

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I consider these policy decisions

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design crimes.

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(Applause)

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Being the resilient people
that we are uptown,

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out of the systematic oppression

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hip-hop culture rose from the rubble
and the ashes like a phoenix.

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Hip-hop is now a trillion-dollar industry,

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but this economic activity
doesn't make it back to the Bronx

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or communities like it.

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Let's take it back to 1986.

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I was born in the heart
of the AIDS crisis,

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the crack epidemic

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and the War on Drugs.

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The only thing that trickled down
from Reaganomics was ghettonomics:

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pain, prison and poverty.

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I was raised by brilliant, beautiful
and accomplished black women.

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Even so, my pops wasn't in the picture,

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and I couldn't resist
the allure of the streets.

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Like Biggie said,

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you're either slinging crack rock
or you got a wicked jump shot.

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Don't get it twisted, my jumper was wet.

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(Laughter)

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My shit was wet.

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(Applause)

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But when I turned 15,
I started selling weed,

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I didn't finish high school,

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the New York Board of Education
banned me from all of those,

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but I did graduate
to selling cocaine when I turned 18.

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I did well.

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That was until I got jammed up,
caught a case, when I was 20.

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I was facing 10 years.

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I posted bail, signed up
at the Fashion Institute,

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I applied the skills
that I learned in the streets

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to start my own fashion brand.

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My lawyer peeked my ambition,

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so he suggested that the judge
grant me a suspended sentence.

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For once in my life,
a suspension was a good thing.

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(Laughter)

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Over the course of two years
and many court dates,

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my case got dismissed.

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Both of my brothers have done jail time,

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so escaping the clutches
of the prison industrial system

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didn't seem realistic to me.

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Right now, one of my brothers
is facing 20 years.

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My mother put in great effort
in taking me out to eat,

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making sure we visited museums

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and traveled abroad,

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basically exposing me
to as much culture as she could.

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I remembered how as a kid,

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I used to take over the dinner table
and order food for everybody.

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Breaking bread has always
allowed me to break the mold

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and connect with people.

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Me and my homie Les,

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we grew up on the same block in the Bronx,

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two street dudes.

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He happened to be a chef.

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We always discussed the possibility
of doing something in the food game

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for the benefit of our neighborhood.

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Les had just won the food show "Chopped."

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Our homie Malcolm was gearing up
to run a pastry kitchen at Noma,

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yeah, world's best Noma in Copenhagen,
you know the vibes.

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My man P had just
finished training in Eat-aly,

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Milano to be exact.

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We decided the world needed
some Bronx steasoning on it,

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so we mobbed up and formed Ghetto Gastro.

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(Applause)

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While I'm aware our name
makes a lot of people uncomfortable,

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for us "ghetto" means home.

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Similar to the way
someone in Mumbai or Nairobi

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might use the word "slum,"

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it's to locate our people

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and to indict the systems of neglect
that created these conditions.

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(Applause)

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So what is Ghetto Gastro?

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Ultimately, it's a movement
and a philosophy.

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We view the work we do as gastrodiplomacy,

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using food and finesse

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to open borders and connect culture.

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Last year in Tokyo,

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we did a Caribbean patty,

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we do jerk wagyu beef,

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shio kombu.

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We remixed the Bronx classic
with the Japanese elements.

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And for Kwanzaa,

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we had to pay homage to our Puerto Ricans,

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and we did a coconut charcoal
cognac coquito. Dímelo!

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(Laughter)

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This here is our Black Power waffle

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with some gold leaf syrup.

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Make sure you don't slip on the drip.

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(Laughter)

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Here we got the 36 Brix
plant-based velato.

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Strawberry fields, you know the deal.

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Compressed watermelon,

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basil seeds,

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a little bit of strawberries up there.

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Back to the Bronx Brasserie,

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you know we had to hit them in the head
with that caviar and cornbread.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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We also practice du-rag diplomacy.

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(Laughter)

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Because, we don't edit who we are
when we do our thing.

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Due to our appearance,

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we often get mistaken
for rappers or athletes.

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It happened here last year at TED.

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This dude ran down on me

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and asked me when I was going to perform.

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How about now?

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(Applause)

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So you see,

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we've been bringing the Bronx to the world

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but now we focus on bringing
the world to the Bronx.

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We just opened our spot,

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an idea kitchen

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where we make and design products,

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create content --

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(Music)

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and host community events.

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The intention is
to build financial capital

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and creative capital in our hood.

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We're also collaborating
with world-renowned chef

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Massimo Bottura

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on a refettorio in the Bronx.

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A refettorio is a design-focused
soup kitchen and community center.

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You see the vibes.

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(Applause)

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The recent outpouring of grief
about the murder

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of rapper and entrepreneur Nipsey Hussle

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is largely due to the fact that he decided
to stay and evolve in place,

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rather than leave his hood.

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After his death, some may see
this decision as foolish,

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but I'm making that same
decision every day:

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to live in the Bronx,

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to create in the Bronx,

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to invest in the Bronx.

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(Applause)

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At Ghetto Gastro, we don't run
from the word "ghetto,"

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and we don't run from the ghetto.

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Because at the end of the day,

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Ghetto Gastro is about showing you
what we already know:

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the hood

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is good.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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(Applause)