Today we’d like to introduce you to Antong Lucky.
Hi Antong, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My name is Antong Bruse Wane Lucky; I was born in East Dallas. Frazier Court Housing Projects. My mother, Inez Lucky, was a working mother who believed that honest living considered honest work. She instilled in me all the principles of doing the right thing and having a consistent work ethic. My mom working those long hours to make sure we had a decent place to stay, clothes on our back, and food on the table. My father was sentenced to 50 years in prison when I was 9 months old. I had good stepfathers who stepped in in the absence of my father, but my grandparents were my primary caretakers. They were the ones who reinforced everything my mother instilled in me. They were my cheerleaders who cheered me on when I made good grades. I love that, and it made up for what I missing, not having my father present and my mother working long hours. I excelled in school, becoming a straight-A student and even a Talented & Gifted Student. But no amount of praise was strong enough to counter the strong idea of survival of the neighborhood. My neighborhood was tough, and the name of the game was survival. Gangs, drugs, and violence were all around us. Eventually, I succumbed to that idea that I had to be what the neighborhood said I had to be. I amputated my personality! That choice alone lead my to make some decisions that took my life in a total different direction that I had earlier planned. College, a career, and a family became far out my reach. That decision led me to a courtroom standing in front of a judge. I was sentenced to 7 years in prison. It was in prison that I made the choice to change my life. It was there I met a mentor that I allowed to mentor me. My mentor Willie Ray Fleming challenged me in many ways to better myself. I accepted the challenge and began to read and study everything I could get my hands on. I learned to challenge my own cognitive distortions from childhood and my neighborhood, distortions that I had internalized. It was a painful process because I had to unlearn what I spent 19 years learning. I had to learn to be vulnerable. But it was in that vulnerability I found strength. I found strength to face very own self and challenge me to be accountable. I denounced the gang and those old habits and ideas that prevented upward mobility. I lost friends who were unwilling to accept my new outlook. I began teaching other men how to become accountable and challenge their same limiting beliefs. Soon I became a well-sought-out individual helping those break from their past. I brought rival gangs together denouncing their affiliations. Soon I was released and met another great mentor, Bishop Omar Jahwar. Bishop Omar Jahwar and I co-labored for 21 years building inside of communities and schools changing the trajectory of young people from communities like the one I was raised in. Our mission was to change the cultural ideas that depletes the genius of young people who were like me. Urban violence became an enemy to our mission, and we fought to rid communities of it. Bishop Omar and I have received many awards and accolades over the years, but our most important success was all the lives we changed for the better. Sadly, Bishop Omar transitioned from complications of Covid in March 2021. Today, I am the President of Urban Specialists with a new focus to identify and grow local change makers inside communities to support their work to continue providing spaces for our youth and communities to be beacons of hope for its inhabitants, the people. We seek to be the conveners of coalitions that focuses on true collaboration to remove barriers to upward mobility for those in communities. Please visit our website and social pages www.urbanspecialists.org Urban Specialists FB/IG
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?
There will always be struggles and challenges on the road to success. The key is to internalize them as a part of the process to getting wherever it is you are trying to go. Most people want understand what God put in you to do. And that’s okay. Most will attempt to sidetrack you because of their lack of understanding. Keep going. I was told often that because of my past, I would not be successful. I was told I didn’t have anything to contribute. Those responses made me go harder.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am an author. My new book is, A Redemptive Path Forward, and it highlights the process and journey of my life work. I give the blueprint by way of my journey of how anyone can go from a certain place in life to the next. It’s about Redemption and Transformation. I specialize in helping young men and men reach their full potential. I introduce this new concept of Redemptive Activism and training. A form of activism that seeks to find sustainable solutions and move us forward from this spirit of polarization, hatred, and divisiveness. It’s by far one of the best trainings with information that can change how you engage.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success is definitely not defined by how much money I have or the things I can accumulate but rather by the number of people that can say because I met Antong “Bruse Wane” Lucky and or took his training Redemptive Activism my life is better or they way I view is better, now that is success for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/AntongSpeaks
- Instagram: AntongSpeaks
- Facebook: Bruse Wane
- Twitter: AntongSpeaks
- Youtube: Antong Speaks
Image Credits
Slyvia Himes
Rahim Handy
