A young man in Oakland has captured the wisdom of his elders on a blog and in a book
"OG Told Me"
By Robin Abcarian
I am not sure how I first learned about Pendarvis Harshaw, but I was taken by the idea that this young man from Oakland had spent years asking older black men — many of them strangers he encountered as he biked — whether they had any wisdom to impart to kids like him.
Their answers, and photographs, appear on Harshaw’s blog, OG Told Me. “OG” is a term of respect that has transcended its literal meaning, “original gangster.” Nowadays, as one of Harshaw’s interview subjects points out, it really just means “old guard.”
Harshaw’s OGs are mostly regular guys. Some are athletes, street preachers or former Black Panthers. Others are educators, activists or drunks. Some give only a first name, others only a last. Some give pseudonyms.
Harshaw, a product of UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism by way of Howard University, chats them up about their lives, and his last question never varies: “Given your life experience, if you had a chance to talk to young people, what advice would you give them?”
http://www.latimes.com/local/abcarian/la-me-abcarian-og-harshaw-20170409-story.html
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