Today we’d like to introduce you to Maurus Y. Alexander-DeJournett.
Hi Maurus, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Maurus; I was born on a Thursday, and my work is being a social entrepreneur.
As a child, one of my earliest memories was watching the Spike Lee-directed film,“ Malcolm X”, starring Denzel Washington. That film introduced me to the subjects of race, poverty, religion, justice, and self-identity. What intrigued me most, even as a youth, was the measures one would endure to stay committed to a cause.
Along with what the film represents, it’s a classic film all around, but it’s still only a film. In real life, my father was the everyday change agent that influenced me; he and my mother were examples of being the change they believed in. My parents were always directly, or indirectly, involved in our community.
Our home was the meeting space for monthly neighborhood meetings, where the objective was to improve bonds between neighbors in order to improve our neighborhood. My father owned his own appraisal business, and my mother was fully employed (and retired) with Sony Music Distribution, in Carrollton, Georgia. Being a part of the change one believes in was a way of life, in our family.
Whether it was my father running for tax commissioner of the County, being the president of the local NAACP chapter, or my mother volunteering her time to our home church (Mt. Zion Baptist Church); being active with community members and being an example, was the theme of my upbringing.
To excel in education was standard in our household; the idea of attending and graduating from an HBCU was a focal point in the home. My father earned his Master’s in Agriculture from Alabama A&M University and met my mother on that same campus. Prior to me graduating high school, my sister attended Alabama State University, and my brother was an alum of Savannah State University; a degree was promoted as standard.
Being attracted to the city of Atlanta, and having the opportunity, my decision was to attend the Atlanta University Center (the AUC). My alma mater is Clark Atlanta University, where my degree is a Bachelor of Arts, with a discipline in Philosophy. While at Clark Atlanta, the Vanguard Leadership Group recruited me to become a member, based on my influence on campus.
As a student, I and my colleagues created an on-campus charter that consisted of students with a common interest to improve the community, through the arts. We each invested in a recording studio, which we used as an educational hub for our peer student body to learn the aspects of music production. After graduation, we established an additional recording studio that would serve the same purpose, only expanded into the City of Atlanta.
We ran the studio for a year before relocations amongst the co-owners dissolved the business; with myself relocating to Florida. In South Florida (Hollywood, Florida), there was an opportunity to own and operate a moving & transportation company; also while there, my time was spent as a volunteer for the organization Mentoring Tomorrow’s Leaders (MTL) at South Broward High School.
MTL is a peer-to-peer mentoring and student leadership program that serves youth who are at risk of not graduating and/or remaining in school. The program aims to decrease dropout rates, particularly among minority males, to ensure successful school graduation. My effort and involvement with the organization led to me being awarded the Best Volunteer award by the founders of the program.
The experience of working within the school and the students inspired me to officially pursue a career in education. In 2015, with the idea of being closer to my home state of Georgia while staying in Florida, the move was made to relocate to the City of Jacksonville. With the new pursuit of officially pursuing a career in education, Jacksonville University was the institution of choice to obtain my Teacher’s Certification.
While taking courses, to familiarize me with the students of Duval County, being a substitute teacher also improved my view of the issues within education. The experience of substituting on every grade level was utilized to observe a common denominator in determining key barriers students have with learning; literacy being primary.
Observing the lack of literacy with the students gave me more inspiration and direction to where my strengths could be of service within the City of Jacksonville. With the understanding that literacy is the foundation of education, my mission became to employ the experience of volunteering, the arts & philosophy to improve literacy amongst our students in North Florida.
My company, Central-Eastern, is a social business; that has a mission to improve literacy amongst underserved communities in North Florida. A social business is a business created and designed to address a social problem. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), a sector of the U.S. Department of Education, 84 percent of our minority students lack proficiency in mathematics and 85 percent of our minority students lack proficiency in reading skills.
Percentages of that nature are what inspired the creation of my company’s ARTIST Initiative. ARTIST, which stands for “A Reading Team Is a Succeeding Team”, is a program designed to increase literacy by connecting reading with the arts, & philosophy. My commitment to the city has strengthened even more since becoming the founder of the first chapter of the National African American Gun Association, in the City of Jacksonville.
The mission of the National African American Gun Association is to establish a fellowship by educating and offering training that supports safe gun use for self-defense and sportsmanship; with a common belief that the expansion of responsible gun ownership decreases crime altogether. To establish a chapter within the City of Jacksonville, the goal is to decrease the gun-related crimes within the City, by actively influencing more responsible gun usage amongst our citizens.
An objective of mine, throughout my life, has been to be a person of service within my residing city. Jacksonville has been home for seven years, and there’s no other city in the country that fits me better. With the establishment of my social enterprise, and the founding of the non-profit chapter of the National African American Gun Association, my plan for this city is to improve the quality of living for the residents through organization & policy.
In addition to all mentioned, as a songwriter and artist, my music catalog documents my artistic expression. Recently, released my debut album, which features cover art designed by Jacksonville artist Maiya Elaine. The release is under my record label, Chiefland Records. With music, my aim is to provide a lesson, through my own life experience, & to speak to the People.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
My road was as smooth as the roads in downtown Atlanta, Georgia; which says a lot in itself. Bumpy roads are a part of every useful path. There were plenty of obstacles that all taught their own lessons. Thankful for each because the experience has molded my character into what it is today. When you have no money in your pockets, you get to see how much your worth actually is.
When your lights cut off, when you lose a car, when you lose family & friends, when you experience betrayals, it all starts to feel the same. Something that has always stuck with me, throughout my life, is something my teacher stated. In elementary, I was a gifted student in a program called Quest. The classroom and style of teaching were more open, and also more of a challenge.
Never got in trouble, outside of one time, and that’s because I called an assignment “hard”. Our teacher pulled me aside and told me, “We don’t say the word “hard” in this classroom, you say that it’s a “challenge”. So, since about five or six years old I haven’t called anything hard. With every struggle in my life, I’ve approached each as a challenge; that perspective has gotten me through a lot, and that’s been with me since a child.
With that said, recently, losing my father was/is hard. Feel like I’m just now collecting myself from 2020; sure we all understand struggle more after 2020.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Central Eastern is a social business that has a mission to improve literacy among under-served communities. My primary position in my company is that of the Chief Visionary Officer; with musical artists, my position is a music publishing specialist, which is someone who helps artists learn what it takes to collect all their royalties.
There are subsidiary companies that range from graphic design, fashion, health/wellness, music, media & entertainment. A percentage of revenue from each business is collected to be utilized for community improvements; which is what makes many businesses a social businesses.
Being a social business is what separates us from most companies; the more we can generate, the more we can do for our community; and it’s created to work as such. There are multiple brands under Central Eastern; an example of a few are San Juan City FM (radio podcast), Noir Aurum (luxury), and Black Liger (fitness/wellness).
As of now, it’s a tie between San Juan City FM and Chiefland Records. A childhood vision of mine was to own a record label and be an artist; it’s amazing that that vision is here.
What do you think about luck?
To me, luck is another word for God or Yah; the Highest. All luck.
Even the things we see as bad luck, at the moment, have a reason to have happened to us. Some of the greatest lessons are learned under the circumstances of “bad luck”. With that said, luck has played a major role in my life and business.
Everything is in the work you put into it, you have to prepare yourself to be able to take advantage of luck when it’s there. Luck isn’t luck on its own, you have to have the courage to take the opportunity that the luck may offer.
Pricing:
- Music Publishing Administration: $500
- Artist Advisory: $1,500
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: @maurusyaw
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maurusyaw
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaurusYaw
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCf3dBlC5hAzEL6AU4FP1Ujw
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/maurusyaw
Image Credits
Dr. Makaziwe (Maki) Mandela U.S. Representative and Al Lawson
