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The next big thing is coming from the Bronx, again

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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 [?]
    with the Bronx Brasserie.
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    Oui, oui, cherie.
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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 ??
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    We shut it down on 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 a 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
    in 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 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 piqued 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 the 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 Petey had just
    finished training in Eataly,
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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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    ?? konbu.
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    We remix 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. ??
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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 bricks
    plant-based ??.
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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)
    (Applause)
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    We also practice du-ragdiplomacy.
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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,
    we often get mistaken
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    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 evolved 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 is good.
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    (Applause)
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    Thank you.
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    (Applause)
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    Yeah! Yeah!
Title:
The next big thing is coming from the Bronx, again
Speaker:
Jon Gray
Description:

more » « less
Video Language:
English
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDTalks
Duration:
09:48

English subtitles

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