December 8, 2023 • 35 mins
This week’s episode focuses on the incredible story of Kojo Mensah, a former professional basketball player who turned a personal tragedy into his inspiration to help revitalize an entire community.
Born in Ghana and raised in the United States, Kojo's promising basketball career was tragically cut short by gun violence at his college campus, an event that not only left him and his teammates physically wounded but also subjected them to baseless blame and stigma—an experience all too common in Black communities across the US. In spite of this trauma, Kojo channeled his experiences into a force for positive change, founding the Kosah Foundation to support his home community of Canarsie, Brooklyn. Through the Kosah Foundation, Kojo works to foster a love for basketball among the Canarsie youth and provide them with opportunities for growth and development. His work goes beyond sports; it's about nurturing a sense of belonging, purpose, and hope in a community often overlooked.
In this inspirational conversation, Kojo shares his insights on the importance of shifting out of limiting perspectives, the power of community healing, and the importance of acknowledging and supporting Black victims in the aftermath of violence.
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Episode Transcript
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Kojo Mensah (00:00):
When people haven't been through traumatic things, they see
life in a very creative way, right?
Opportunity.
They don't see where things canbe halted or things can change.
Like they don't see those realities.
You think it through in a muchdifferent way than the normal
person would that never beenthrough anything this traumatic.
When I used to come back from playing, Iwould see a lot of kids that I remember
(00:22):
wanted to play ball, but then becausethe park started getting run down, the
gangs were really coming into the park.
What can we do that can be impactfulright now, that could bring life back
into this area that kind of has givenus life and given a lot of people
who come through this area life.
Aswad Thomas (00:40):
Welcome to season two of the Crime Survivors Speak Podcast.
My name is Aswad Thomas.
I'm the National Director of CrimeSurvivors for Safety and Justice.
We are a national network of 185,000victims of crime across the country and
our membership is growing every day.
If you haven't already subscribed tostay up to date on the latest podcast
(01:03):
episodes, you can do that on YouTube,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and otherstreaming services by clicking the
link on your screen or going to thewebsite at www.cssj.org\podcast.
So today we'll be shining aspotlight on another trailblazer
in the survivor movement.
(01:24):
Kojo Mensah is a graduateof Duquesne University.
He's also a former professionalbasketball player and the founder of
the transformative Kosah Foundation,but also he come into the space
as a survivor of gun violence.
Kojo's advocacy has had a hugelypositive impact on the Canarsie
(01:45):
community in Brooklyn througha lot of targeted economic and
professional development initiatives.
Also from advocating for quality oflife improvements to shaping the youth
minds through mentorship and Kojo'sleadership really represents the essence
of positive community transformation.
And I know Kojo willhave a lot to discuss.
So Kojo, welcome to the CrimeSurvivors Speak podcast.
Kojo Mensah (02:08):
Oh, thank you for having me, Aswad, man.
I appreciate it.
Aswad Thomas (02:10):
Let's start with our basketball career.
For basketball, it's more thanjust a sport for so many of us.
It's a passion and alsoa form of expression.
So we'd love to hear how did yourconnection with basketball evolve from
your early days growing up in Ghana,where you were born, to your college
and professional journey on the courtin the United States and abroad.
Kojo Mensah (02:34):
You know, I was born in Ghana.
But I came really young.
Basketball was something that was veryfar fetched for us there, probably on
TV or you probably see someone runningaround with maybe one of the NBA guys
jersey on, especially for Africa.
It might've been like Olajuwon orManute Bol, something like that.
But when my parents brought me toAmerica, to an area called Canarsie,
(02:55):
Brooklyn, is where I realizedbasketball was just what everyone did
in the area and how people connected.
So basketball for me, growing upwas my way of like making friends.
It was never somethingI was like pursuing.
I remember there was this onesummer, there was a kid, I
remember his name man, Shahid.
He was just so good, likeall the guys would pick him.
(03:16):
And when he came into thepark, the park stopped.
They gave me such afascination for the game.
They were like, wow, he'sso good that he's able to
create this image for himself.
So that made me go to the park every day,mimic what he's doing, how he played.
So I took what I saw with himand practiced really hard.
Ended up playing with a team called St.
Vincent and they were like thisorganized CYO team where a lot of
(03:39):
kids knew about basketball and tookbasketball seriously and went to play.
So I begged my dad and said,Hey, I want to go over there.
I'm going to try.
But it was one of thoseteams you have to pay for.
So my dad was like, I'mnot paying for that.
So I was like, all right,let me at least go try out.
You never know what happens.
I went there, made the team.
I didn't really know if I was good ornot, but I was just there, running 100
(03:59):
miles an hour, trying to do what I canfrom what I learned in the park, and
for some reason I guess what I pickedup in the park translated well to that
game to where they looked at me andgo, hey, we would love for you to play.
So my first organized, like,basketball was with St.
Vincent Ferrer in Brooklyn.
Through that, I was able to learnthe basketball system, learn the
fundamentals of basketball the right way.
(04:20):
That again helped my social skills.
I started meeting a lot of people withinthe basketball circuit, which is like
the AAU circuit where you play a lotof summer basketball, the travel team.
So I ended up playing with RiversideChurch, Juice All Stars, another Brooklyn
team called FYA with Colton Screen.
This is where I was able to travelto different cities and parts of
(04:40):
New York to play against teamswithin these boroughs and cities.
I really got to seehow big basketball was.
And this is how my parents alsostarted realizing like, Oh,
this sport is more than just himgoing to the park and playing.
This is actuallysomething he could pursue.
So they started supporting meand allowing me to travel more
and be around those people more.
Because just coming from anAfrican background, they're just
(05:02):
like, Hey, you're either goingto be a doctor, engineer, lawyer.
That's it.
That's what they know.
They know, go to school,get your degree, go work.
But they actually saw what basketball wasdoing and shaping me as a person, and the
opportunities that were coming with it.
So it helped me get into Bishop LoughlinMemorial High School, which is a
prestigious high school in New York.
A lot of basketball players came outof there, from Reggie Jessie, to Brian
(05:24):
Brown, to Mark Jackson, to CurtisSumter, to guys that's in the NBA now,
from the Champagne Brothers, where,you know, Julian and Justin Champagne.
Keith Wright, that's at Cincinnatinow, that's also going into the NBA.
The school really had a lot of talent.
It was known for basketball.
I was able to go there, play reallywell there, got recruited out of there.
(05:45):
But I had to do prep school forone year, and then I transferred to
Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
That's an Atlantic 10 conference.
That's when the situation came intowhich has us in this conversation today.
Aswad Thomas (05:57):
Thank you for sharing that, man.
You come from a rich traditionof prominent college players
and also NBA players as well.
But something that you mentioned,I want to come back to utilizing
basketball to help with social skills.
And also were blessed to be able to playAAU, travel within the state where, you
(06:17):
know, traditionally, if it wasn't playingAAU, you probably wouldn't have been
able to do that, but also opportunitiesto travel across the country as well.
Can you talk a little bit about thatexperience of traveling and the impact
that had on your outlook on life,seeing so many different experiences
outside of your own community?
Kojo Mensah (06:35):
Outside of my, my parents bringing me here to see what the
difference were between Africa to America,especially New York City, and Brooklyn.
Traveling with the guys, I got to seedifferent lifestyles from the kids,
the way that their parents raised them.
You know, you get to be arounddifferent backgrounds, right?
So you, your social skillsreally change a lot.
(06:56):
Yeah, I come from this, but I have 11other teammates here who everyone else
comes from a different background, right?
So we have to figure out howdo we relate to each other?
How do we become a good teammate?
And then.
taking that and being able to goto different cities where we're
all competing for the same thingas a team when we traveled here.
But these things help youexpand your mind, right?
(07:17):
You started to learn things, startedto pick up things socially, talent
wise, how big the world really is.
Cause sometimes when you grow upin certain atmospheres, you just
believe like, that's just whatit is and that's all, you know,
cause in Africa, that's all I knew.
And then when I came to Brooklyn, that10 to 15 block radius to 20 block radius
is all I really knew until basketballtook me out of that and started
(07:40):
showing me things outside of that.
So it also made me come back home andtrain harder and train smarter and better.
I understand like me just going tothe park and think I'm the best guy
on my block doesn't mean anythingand going out into the world and
realizing they're doing the same thing.
They're the best player on theirblock, then becoming the best player
in their school, then trying tobe the best player in that state.
(08:00):
Right now, leave being thebest player in the state.
Now, you're trying to be one ofthe top players in the country.
Then you're trying to be thetop players in the world.
It changes you and realize how narrowthat gap of making it to certain levels
become by based on what you're able to do.
Aswad Thomas (08:13):
You're giving me flashbacks, right?
Those tournaments, youknow, we all in the van.
Yeah.
Going to another state.
We got to grab this pizza at the hotel.
Yeah.
We at the hotel, having fun, playinggames, running down the hallway, right?
Just some of the innocenceand just love for basketball.
Just exposed to so many different things.
I tell people all the time,basketball just, it's more than
(08:34):
a sport as you just laid out.
You and I, we share experience of beingcollege athletes, traveling the country,
meeting so many people from across thecountry, also being educated as well,
but you and I also share that difficultexperience of having our basketball
(08:54):
careers impacted by gun violence.
Now, can you tell us a little bitabout your experience of surviving
gun violence at your school?
Kojo Mensah (09:04):
It feels good to be able to talk about it.
Before it used to be somethingreally difficult to talk about it.
So I'm actually like happy I'vegotten to that place and I can
actually speak about it so clearly.
We was at Duquesne.
This is my year.
I transferred also transferred in witha guy named Shawn James Who was the
nation's leading shop blocker kindof beat out Shaq and all those guys.
Aaron Jackson played overseas overthere in Spain, Israel and then end up
(09:26):
getting picked up by Houston Rockets.
Olajuwon's nephew was on the team.
So which was a full circle for meright growing up I'm seeing kids in
Olajuwon jerseys then my teammateis his nephew, which was nuts.
So, that year we're likepreparing for like our preseason
tournaments and things like that.
But our coach, Ron Everhart, wasreally big on us supporting other
(09:47):
activities, other programs, andother initiatives with the school.
So one of the initiatives that was reallybig that they kept reaching out to us to
come support was the Black Student Union.
And they were doing an event.
Bring all of the athletes, thecreatives, the different people in
certain fields of math, science, andthey had an event, basically a party.
Myself and Shawn livevery close to each other.
(10:09):
We were taking our time to get there.
We ended up leaving thehouse, let's say 7:15.
Walk over to where the party isat, the rest of the team is there.
Party's cool.
Not a problem.
Fast forward, everyone's mingling.
Now the party ends.
So, as the party's ending, there'sone exit, so it's taking everyone
a little while to get out.
So my teammates beat meout, I chilled behind.
(10:29):
I was very laid back, so I wasn'tlike in a rush to do anything.
I'm still a college kid, you know, I'mtrying to see how my night can end.
One of the last ones to kind ofleave as far as my teammates.
I'm like on the phone and myteammates like, let's say a full
basketball court away from me.
So I can't necessarilyhear what they're saying.
So then I see a little bit of pushing ashoving and so I speed up to try to catch
(10:50):
them cause they were a distance away.
But as I even tried toattempt to catch up.
Shots are going off right away.
So my natural instinctis to go for safety.
I didn't really decide which buildingI'm just running towards the closest one,
which might've been like 20 feet away.
As I'm like reaching for the door to pullthe handle, that's when the first bullet
(11:12):
hits my forearm, so it drops my forearm.
That's when I realized,oh wow, I just got shot.
So then as I then take my rightarm to pull the door, that's when
the second one hits my shoulder.
Luckily, like I opened thedoor enough to be able to get
inside and like just roll in.
Which as like on college campuses,you know, there's that first door,
but then you need the key to get pastthe second door, so I'm in between
(11:34):
the first door where it opens and thesecond door where you need the key at.
So I'm in like that hallway area.
So there's enough room for me to likeslide behind, like one of the walls there.
So I'm not really seen,but I'm like laying there.
So as I'm laying there, theshots are still going off.
I'm seeing shots in the glass.
I'm hearing screaming andstuff outside and it's going
off for about like 15 seconds.
Like it felt like an hour to meas I'm sitting there and I'm like
(11:57):
holding my arm, a student coming updown the hall out of the elevator
sees me go, Hey man, are you okay?
I'm hearing all this ruckus outside.
He sees me and goes,Wait, man, are you shot?
But not realizing it, I literally raninto the medical student's building.
So he's there sitting there rippingmy shirt, wrapping my arm up,
holding me, and standing there.
I'm sitting there, weak asthe blood is coming out.
(12:17):
I'm telling him I want to lay down.
He's says I can't, I'm like,Can I get something to drink?
He's explaining to me whyI'm feeling what I'm feeling.
So just such a blessing that I endedup in the medical building with someone
that's literally practicing to becomea doctor is literally sitting there
helping me through this whole process.
He never left me the whole time.
Literally wants to help, stay with me,talking to me, keeping me up, waiting
(12:39):
for the ambulance to come, came in theambulance with me, so I do remember him.
As I'm coming out, there was a femalethat was in such shock as I'm coming
to the ambulance that she was justsitting there, just crying and in tears.
Not until about two years ago on Facebook,I don't know how we found each other, but
she wrote me, said, Hey, are you Kojo?
(13:00):
And I'm like, Yeah, how you doing?
She said, You may not rememberme, but I was the female that
I was crying and distraught.
And that day was so terrifying tome that I ended up having to transfer
the school and I went to some realpsychiatric problems that I had
to go to full therapy and couldn'tgo to school for about four years.
So she's telling me this and I'mjust like, so apologetic, not like
(13:20):
I wanted this to happen, nor didI was the one doing it, but how it
affected other people like that.
It affected her livelihood,affected her going outside.
She left the school, likeshe was just traumatized.
So that night, Shawn got shot in his foot.
Olajuwon's nephew gotshot behind his head.
Ended up surviving,but never was the same.
Aaron ended up getting pickedup by the Rockets, got shot
(13:42):
in his hand, but went through.
So he was okay within a few weeks.
The last one was named StuardBaldonado, was such a great, like,
power forward for an All American.
He got shot in his leg, but it traveledup through his stomach and it came out.
He had to have such this intensesurgery, um, because of just the
way it traveled and cut through him.
And then, yeah, I didn't find outeveryone that got hit until I got in the
(14:05):
hospital about two, three days later.
And they started telling me thesethings because, again, they thought that
these people were coming back for us.
They were just high intensesecurity measures while we were
in the hospital for a couple days.
And then they started relaxing when theyrealized this was not like necessarily
targeted, but just an unlucky thingto happen because an argument happened
between a teammate of mine and anotherguy was brought on campus by a girl that
(14:29):
went to the school, but she might'vebeen dating him, but not anymore.
And I guess she was talking to one of myteammates and he might've been flirtatious
and that kind of what sparked it.
So that's what I was told.
Aswad Thomas (14:42):
You always look for the blessings in these
type of experiences, right?
With all the commotion going on andyou're shot twice and you're hearing
more gunshots and you're just tryingto flee to safety and you run into
the medical student building where youmet a medical student who was there
(15:05):
providing you that care immediately.
And also like being able to havesomeone to walk you through the process.
Of what you were experiencing in thatmoment, physically and psychologically.
Like those are life savingmeasures that happened to you.
(15:25):
You got shot.
Your four teammates got shot.
Aaron Jackson, who's actuallyfrom my neighborhood.
Everybody was like, Aaron got shot?
He's at school.
Just like the impact of leavingthe inner city community surrounded
by violence and you go to schooland this happened to you all.
So you also talked about the impactof this shooting, the physical
(15:47):
impact, the psychological impacts,right, from y'all who were shot,
but there's also this young lady.
This had traumatized her for years,but also the impact on everybody
who was outside that day as well.
After that shooting, as you wererecovering, I'm curious to hear, was there
any support services to help with thephysical therapy that everyone needed,
(16:11):
but also the psychological support, thecounseling, the mental health support?
What was the support for youand others to recover from that?
Especially psychologically.
Kojo Mensah (16:21):
It's such a great question, man.
And I say this with all transparency,but I think this is when I really
realized what being black in America was.
Like I think this is when it kicked inbecause even though we were the victims,
there were stories and publications whereit made it seem like we deserved it.
(16:41):
And we brought that energy to the school.
They started like going to ourparents homes and finding out
anyone else who was close to us.
They started digging into our backgroundsto find out who we are and like, is
this the type of life we have already?
And they tried to spin this narrativeon us about that, black and coming
(17:01):
from aggressive and violent areasthat this is just a norm that they
brought to a college campus that hasnever witnessed things like that.
There were publications that weretrying to dig into us and find out
where we're from and our backgrounds.
I remember them going to my parentshouse where I seen my cousins
and my little brother on TV, andthey're talking about who we are.
(17:22):
And so publications thatkind of stood by us.
It was like, these are collegekids with futures, with bright
futures that could've ended.
So why are you trying to nowdestroy their characters?
So they were on both sides of that.
But the city of Pittsburgh itself wasnot a very welcoming city after that.
Where we went, you felt the eyes, youfelt people keeping their distance
(17:43):
from us because it's a small city.
So when that happened, that'sliterally the biggest news for months.
So as soon as that broke out andcame out, our faces were everywhere.
If we tried to go to the mall, ofcourse we were still in like crutches.
You know, bandages.
You would see people literally crossover to the other side of the mall, walk
into a store, wait for us to walk by.
(18:04):
So we felt it.
It was very difficult for us to find alawyer too that would want to back us up.
And that was also a difficult thingbecause again, it's more of a Commonwealth
area supporting us against that city,that school, was really difficult
for most people to try to take on.
We found one, but notmuch really came from it.
(18:24):
Outside of, like, our medical billspaid for, it comes some of the, like,
school bills we may have had when itcomes to, like, lunch and food stuff.
But other than that, man, itwas a really difficult trial.
It was really difficultfor that kind of support.
So a lot of people, of course, wanted tojust go home for a while and come back.
To be around that kind of likelove and support, but in Pittsburgh
(18:45):
itself it wasn't that way, no.
Aswad Thomas (18:47):
That's, it's hard to hear for several reasons.
One is the lack of support for you all.
And also the students who were atthat party hosted by the Black Student
Union, primarily all African Americanstudents who were either impacted
(19:08):
directly by being victims and alsotraumatized from witnessing that incident.
So not a lot of support for you all.
And then you all as teenagers and youngadults went to school for a purpose to get
your education, also to play basketball.
Now this incident happening, like youare being blamed for this incident and
just the narrative in the media thatdidn't see you all as victims, often
(19:33):
seeing you all as suspects that you allcontributed to your own victimization.
Just being in that community.
That was your community.
Kojo Mensah (19:42):
One thing I really noticed that I didn't realize how
many people this has happened to.
Yeah, I've seen it on TV.
We've heard about it, but it was somany people that it's happened to.
And then it's so many peoplethat I can say, man, I just
didn't have no one to talk to.
Right.
I didn't have anywhere to go.
When I came home, I was morechampioned for going through it than
(20:02):
it is feeling like a victim again.
And I definitely went through thatright where I remember coming home.
And the first thing people were tellingme is that I should start rapping.
I'm like, what do you mean?
I'll just start rapping.
They looked at it like, oh, it'sjust this 50 Cent kind of thing.
I'm like, no, like, as black men,it's like, we're not seen or looked at
as like, we can possibly be victims.
(20:22):
Everything is wrong.
Nah, you're tough.
It's cool.
Like they say in that movie,You didn't die, right?
You'll be all right.
There's no like sympathy for it.
There's no like, man, thatshould not be happening to you.
I'm human just like everyone else.
It's kind of like, this is yourbadge of honor now, so you didn't
respect the fact that I'm trying togo, that I'm going to school, that
I'm actually playing ball, I got ascholarship, that thing wasn't respected.
(20:45):
Me and being shot was respectableto you, the way it messes with you
psychologically to see now when peopleget into these things and the amount
of glorification that comes with itmakes them feel actually like superior.
So I get it.
The outlook of, Oh, what happenedto me wasn't actually that bad.
This might've, should've happened.
This helped me.
No, you are a victim.
(21:07):
You went through this.
That's why now, as all of these thingsthat's been happening, more of these
rallies about what black people, black mengo through, like, yeah, we are victims.
We use these things because we werelike, there's no other outlets to
allow us to sit there, go throughit, speak on it, grow from it, where
we just have to use it as crimesurvivors to just continue to go on.
(21:28):
There's no real sympathy around.
There's no one to stop in for us togo, hey, man, sorry that happened to you.
Outside of them, Man, damn,oh, you survived that, man?
Now you a real warrior.
That's all.
So I get why.
A lot of the kids and the people arethe way they are and why they respond
the way they respond to these things.
Aswad Thomas (21:45):
Like, these type of conversations are important,
like, I remember when I gotshot, I got shot in 2009.
I had just signed with an agent.
I was about to leave to go to Europe tostart my professional basketball career,
but I was shot three weeks before I wassupposed to leave to go over to Europe.
I got shot twice in my back.
Bullets were an inch away frommy spinal cord, two collapsed
(22:06):
lungs, suffered internal bleeding.
I was in really bad shape.
My doctor said it's amiracle that I survived.
And I remember likebeing discharged, right?
I remember my doctor and my nurses.
I remember them telling me and mymom about the physical challenges.
That I would have after beingdischarged from the hospital.
(22:27):
My recovery was in Hartford,Connecticut on my mother's one bedroom
apartment on this old hard couchthat she would never get rid of.
So I'm recovering from these twogunshot wounds on this hard couch.
And my doctors, they told me aboutthe physical challenges, which I was
focusing on, but nobody ever told meabout the psychological effects of that
(22:52):
shooting suffering from the flashbacks.
I think I still have an issue withsleeping today, the nightmares that
the PTSD, the anxiety, the stress, theparanoia, the depression that I was going
through, nobody prepared me for that partof being a victim of gun violence, and I
think a lot of people, especially youngpeople, don't hear the true stories of
(23:15):
what happened when you are a victim ofgun violence, like the pain that you go
through physically from those bullets,some of the worst pain that you could ever
imagine, but then also the psychologicaleffects of dealing with that and surviving
that and often still have to live inthese communities that we live in where
there continues to be high rates of crimeand violence, but little to no support.
(23:38):
That shooting changed my life.
And it really started to get intomore community, more advocacy work.
And you've made that remarkable transition
from professional sports, beingan educated black man to now
founding your own nonprofit as well.
Can you share what inspired you to startthe Kosah Foundation, especially focusing
(23:59):
on the Canarsie community in Brooklyn?
Kojo Mensah (24:02):
When you were released from the hospital, right
back into that community, right?
I think one thing that a lot of peopledon't realize, once you're going
through something like that, you losethe opportunity to be delusional.
And what I mean by delusional is,when people haven't been through
traumatic things, they see lifein a very creative way, right?
Opportunity.
They don't see where things canbe halted or things can change.
(24:26):
They don't see those realities.
So now when you go through it,your mind thinks very different.
Where to go,
how to do things because yourealize how real these things are
and how quickly things can happen.
So you don't get to have that levelof enjoyment like everyone else does.
Your mindset of, okay, if I'm going tothis place, I'm going to that place.
If I'm talking to this person,associating this person, you think it
(24:47):
through in a much different way thanthe normal person would that never
been through anything this traumatic.
When I used to come back fromplaying, I would see a lot of kids
that I remember wanted to play ball.
What can we do that can be impactfulright now that could bring life back into
this area that kind of given us life andgiven a lot of people who come through
this area of life so I wanted to createa foundation because there's many things
(25:09):
I wanted to do under the foundation.
But I know that there needed to besomething that we had to do that
people would trust and believethat we're about what we're saying.
The driving force behindit would be basketball.
It would be where they can come out.
They can showcase talent.
We can have coaches come out, showcasetalent, but within it, we want to have
(25:30):
vendors showcasing their businesses,organizations showcasing their businesses.
Talent, whether it's music ordancers or dance groups, come
out and showcase their talent.
Politicians come out and talk aboutthe things that they want to do and
show how much this community meansto them and why we need to support
them and they need to support us.
Show the police force in the area whythat when actually engage us in things
(25:51):
we enjoy, you'll see the outcome of it.
So that was really the driving forcebehind it to put that day together
because every other area had a day.
Coney Island had a day.
These are parts of Brooklyn whereConey Island, Bedford Stuyvesant,
Crown Heights, Brownsville.
They had days where they celebratedtheir areas and the communities.
And with that, the city and the governmentwill pull more into these communities
(26:13):
of helping build it up, helping bringthe YMCAs and the youth clubs and
the educational programs in therebecause they've seen that people care
and they've seen what came out of it.
So that's one of the main reasonswhy we wanted to do Canarsie Day.
And the very first one, I was nervous.
We literally had 1500 people outside therejust ready to play, ready to be involved.
(26:33):
We went out there, thecourts were cracked.
We went to Home Depot, we were fillingup the cracks ourselves, plastering
the floors, cutting out the grassthat was growing through the court.
Like, we went out thereand repainted the lines.
So when they actually seen that wedid this and how it came about, like
the people in the area was like,man, we need this all the time.
We need more of this.
Aswad Thomas (26:52):
That's incredible.
It's like, how do you giveback to your community?
A lot of people talk about it, but youput that into action of seeing a need
for your community and being able to makeit happen without a lot of resources.
Cutting the grass, right?
Doing all the painting,plastering the floors.
(27:12):
Those are the type of things that reallyhelp build communities, but also being
able to provide opportunity for 1500people to just come together to have
fun, to be in community, but also to makesure that we're providing activities like
basketball for the youth to get involved,to keep folks out of trouble as well.
So Canarsie Day is an official dayrecognized by Mayor Eric Adams.
(27:37):
Huge congratulations toyou and your team as well.
Can you walk us through thesignificance of Canarsie Day and
what it means for your community.
Would love to hear any successesthat you've heard from this year's
event and impact that it's had?
Kojo Mensah (27:53):
Canarsie Day means a lot.
We're doing it from the heart.
We know that let's give them somethingto do, but I forgot the other part
of what Canarsie Day would do, whichmeans give opportunity for them to be
seen, for it to springboard them intoother phases of their life, so these
kids are coming and playing the game.
Junior high school, boys highschool, women's high school and
(28:14):
pro, and then men's high school pro.
Not only are the coaches comingthere and finding athletes, but it's
giving them confidence back again togo out there and do things, right?
So we have kids that playedin Canarsie Day, man.
One of the kids right now is inthe NBA playing with a Charlotte
Hornets named Nick Richards.
That was his very first time of himplaying basketball with a referee.
(28:34):
We put him out there.
He was about six foot seven,tall guy, athletic from Jamaica.
This is his first timeplaying with organized people.
And I was like, man,just put him out there.
Raw talent, running down, blockingshots, catching and dunking, but
just didn't know the fundamentals.
We thought he would be great.
Ended up being seen bythis high school called St.
Patrick's.
(28:54):
They picked him up, brought himto New Jersey, polished him.
Then he ended up from St.
Patrick's, going toUniversity of Kentucky.
Mind you, we're talking about a kidthree years ago that never really played.
Right?
So now that you end up on the Universityof Kentucky, which is probably top five
prestigious basketball schools ever.
The second year is entering theNBA draft that now got picked
(29:17):
up by the Charlotte Hornets.
That is literally, now he's still there.
Full deal.
I think he just signed a new dealfor another four years, but you're
talking about a timid kid fromJamaica that never really played and
Canarsie Day helped him get seen.
Another other kid was Rawle Alkins, veryshy kid, very low voice, came in and was
playing, talented, you seen him, you knewhow to play, but it's just no one saw him.
(29:42):
Luckily one of the coaches there wasvery cool with one of the guys at,
uh, Christ the King High School, thengoing to University of Arizona and
got picked up by the Chicago Bulls.
So now we have two guys who literallyplayed, seen, went to big schools.
NBA.
And then now we have otherguys who came and played.
One went to West Virginia,playing overseas now, another
(30:03):
went to Syracuse, still there.
Another one is at Cincinnati,still there playing.
When the other kids got scholarshipsto be able to go and do other
things in their life, right?
Everyone is not going to make the NBAoverseas, but it gave them an opportunity.
So that's what Canarsie Day meant a lot.
So that's why I had tobring it back this year.
Brought it back this year.
I know it'd be a battle the sameway it was before because being
(30:25):
that we had to stop during COVID.
This year, the impact was there again,where the kids were like, wait, it's back.
They're coming out wearing the olduniforms, the old t shirts saying
that, Hey, remember me there this year.
These kids held theseyear end forms from 2015.
They played, and then now we'rehelping some of these kids go
to different high schools now.
One of my boys, his son,Dior, neighborhood guy, He's
(30:48):
about 6'4 playing great.
And when I'm looking at him play outthere, I'm like, Man, what school you at?
He tells me the school he's at, butI'm like, Nah, we gotta change that.
I end up calling my high school andgoing, Hey, you gotta look at this kid.
And they end up looking at him, he'sgonna end up going in next year.
He just had to take some tests to qualifyand all that, but that's the opportunity
that we're doing and we're super proudof that and we want to keep it going.
(31:11):
We're keeping it going.
As you know, also, ittakes a lot of resources.
It takes a lot of manpower.
So that's the stage that we're at now.
We're working hard to get resources thatcan maintain us for the next couple of
years and then re-up again and have thesesuccess stories and have them come back.
We're reaching out to them for them toalso be a part of us keeping this going.
So yeah, Canarsie Day means a lot.
Aswad Thomas (31:31):
Man, that's powerful, man.
It's not just a day.
Canarsie is more than a day, butalso just think about the impact
it's having on the next generation.
Being able to see folksfrom the neighborhood.
People who they seen on thatcourt are now on the TV.
People on that court are in collegehaving careers outside of sports.
That's like the generational impactthat you are having in community.
(31:55):
So thank you for seeing that void and theneed to ensure that your community has
something like the Canarsie Day, but alsonow that you have your own nonprofit,
which will allow you opportunities todo more and greater things as well.
Coaching has been agreat conversation, man.
Before you leave, we'd love tohear people who watch the podcast.
(32:17):
They watch it from all across the country.
Sometimes when I'm traveling in theairport, someone recognized me through
my work was like, Hey, I just, I listenedto the latest episode of the podcast,
it was so amazing.
For other athletes or even justindividuals out there who face or
are facing life altering challenges.
What advice would you givethem based on your journey of
(32:39):
transformation and community impact?
Kojo Mensah (32:42):
What I would tell anyone, especially athletes that's
going through these types oftraumatic incidents, Faith, man.
For me, there were dark times, man.
Like, honestly, my faith in Godreally became really powerful
during those times, man.
I believed in Him before, but that'swhen it really kicked in for whatever
religion you're in, man, you need thatfaith and you need that circle and that
(33:04):
family that you can always lean on.
You don't need a hundred people.
Sometimes it may be one personor, you know, a couple of people
that you can turn to and lean tothat understands your journey.
But I always tell people, man, youneed that faith and that foundation.
Sometimes you, you don't know where you'regoing to be pulling that strength from,
but you can always pull it from there.
So I always tell people to havethat faith and that foundation,
man, it'll take you places youwouldn't even realize you can go.
Aswad Thomas (33:27):
Most definitely having that faith, that determination, and
also life is about peaks and valleys.
One thing that my college coachused to tell me when we used
to be running sprints, right?
He used to be like, you're neveras tired as you think you are.
We used to be looking like,man, you ain't out here the one
running these sprints, right?
But the more he said that, Ikeep that in the back of my mind.
(33:48):
No matter what you're goingthrough, you're never as tired
as you think you are, right?
And just being able to keep going becausethere is light down the road as well.
Kojo, it's been awesome, man,having this conversation.
I know we could talk for
Kojo Mensah (34:00):
hours.
Oh man, I'm here with it, man.
You know that.
Aswad Thomas (34:03):
I know there's a lot of people who are interested in you, your
foundation, and also Canarsie Day.
How can people learn more or how canthey support the Kosah Foundation?
You got any social media channels or yourwebsite that you want to let the listeners
know about how to get in contact with you?
Kojo Mensah (34:18):
Oh, a hundred percent, man.
From volunteers to people thatwant to help us financially,
help us get to the next level.
For our Instagram, it's Kosah Foundation,@kosah.foundation on Instagram.
For our website, it isKosahFoundation.org.
There's no dot, so it'sKosahFoundation.org.
Everything is on the websiteand on our Instagram page.
(34:40):
Man, please feel free to reach outand I would love to hear from people
that are want to be a part of whatwe're doing and how we can help out.
Because one of our modos that wehave, and it's on the page and it's
on every shirt and everything thatwe do, is With Unity, We Matter.
And that's something thatwe're gonna continue to push.
Aswad Thomas (34:55):
Awesome.
So reach out y'all.
With unity, we matter.
Kojo.
Thanks so much, man, forbeing on today's podcast.
You do have a partner and supporterwith Crime Survivors for Safety and
Justice, and thank you to everyonefor listening to today's episode.
And if you haven't become a memberof Crime Survivors for Safety
and Justice, you can do thaton our website at www.cssj.org.
(35:19):
Remember to tune in to thispodcast and other episodes.
You can do that on YouTube, ApplePodcasts, Spotify, and other
streaming platforms as well.
As you all heard today throughKojo, he's healing, but he's
also healing through action.
One thing that we say is, whensurvivors speak, change happens.
(35:40):
Kojo, you're making that change happen.
Thank you everyone forlistening to today's episode
and we'll talk to you soon.
When people haven't been through traumatic things, they see
life in a very creative way, right?
Opportunity.
They don't see where things canbe halted or things can change.
Like they don't see those realities.
You think it through in a muchdifferent way than the normal
person would that never beenthrough anything this traumatic.
When I used to come back from playing, Iwould see a lot of kids that I remember
(00:22):
wanted to play ball, but then becausethe park started getting run down, the
gangs were really coming into the park.
What can we do that can be impactfulright now, that could bring life back
into this area that kind of has givenus life and given a lot of people
who come through this area life.
Aswad Thomas (00:40):
Welcome to season two of the Crime Survivors Speak Podcast.
My name is Aswad Thomas.
I'm the National Director of CrimeSurvivors for Safety and Justice.
We are a national network of 185,000victims of crime across the country and
our membership is growing every day.
If you haven't already subscribed tostay up to date on the latest podcast
(01:03):
episodes, you can do that on YouTube,
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and otherstreaming services by clicking the
link on your screen or going to thewebsite at www.cssj.org\podcast.
So today we'll be shining aspotlight on another trailblazer
in the survivor movement.
(01:24):
Kojo Mensah is a graduateof Duquesne University.
He's also a former professionalbasketball player and the founder of
the transformative Kosah Foundation,but also he come into the space
as a survivor of gun violence.
Kojo's advocacy has had a hugelypositive impact on the Canarsie
(01:45):
community in Brooklyn througha lot of targeted economic and
professional development initiatives.
Also from advocating for quality oflife improvements to shaping the youth
minds through mentorship and Kojo'sleadership really represents the essence
of positive community transformation.
And I know Kojo willhave a lot to discuss.
So Kojo, welcome to the CrimeSurvivors Speak podcast.
Kojo Mensah (02:08):
Oh, thank you for having me, Aswad, man.
I appreciate it.
Aswad Thomas (02:10):
Let's start with our basketball career.
For basketball, it's more thanjust a sport for so many of us.
It's a passion and alsoa form of expression.
So we'd love to hear how did yourconnection with basketball evolve from
your early days growing up in Ghana,where you were born, to your college
and professional journey on the courtin the United States and abroad.
Kojo Mensah (02:34):
You know, I was born in Ghana.
But I came really young.
Basketball was something that was veryfar fetched for us there, probably on
TV or you probably see someone runningaround with maybe one of the NBA guys
jersey on, especially for Africa.
It might've been like Olajuwon orManute Bol, something like that.
But when my parents brought me toAmerica, to an area called Canarsie,
(02:55):
Brooklyn, is where I realizedbasketball was just what everyone did
in the area and how people connected.
So basketball for me, growing upwas my way of like making friends.
It was never somethingI was like pursuing.
I remember there was this onesummer, there was a kid, I
remember his name man, Shahid.
He was just so good, likeall the guys would pick him.
(03:16):
And when he came into thepark, the park stopped.
They gave me such afascination for the game.
They were like, wow, he'sso good that he's able to
create this image for himself.
So that made me go to the park every day,mimic what he's doing, how he played.
So I took what I saw with himand practiced really hard.
Ended up playing with a team called St.
Vincent and they were like thisorganized CYO team where a lot of
(03:39):
kids knew about basketball and tookbasketball seriously and went to play.
So I begged my dad and said,Hey, I want to go over there.
I'm going to try.
But it was one of thoseteams you have to pay for.
So my dad was like, I'mnot paying for that.
So I was like, all right,let me at least go try out.
You never know what happens.
I went there, made the team.
I didn't really know if I was good ornot, but I was just there, running 100
(03:59):
miles an hour, trying to do what I canfrom what I learned in the park, and
for some reason I guess what I pickedup in the park translated well to that
game to where they looked at me andgo, hey, we would love for you to play.
So my first organized, like,basketball was with St.
Vincent Ferrer in Brooklyn.
Through that, I was able to learnthe basketball system, learn the
fundamentals of basketball the right way.
(04:20):
That again helped my social skills.
I started meeting a lot of people withinthe basketball circuit, which is like
the AAU circuit where you play a lotof summer basketball, the travel team.
So I ended up playing with RiversideChurch, Juice All Stars, another Brooklyn
team called FYA with Colton Screen.
This is where I was able to travelto different cities and parts of
(04:40):
New York to play against teamswithin these boroughs and cities.
I really got to seehow big basketball was.
And this is how my parents alsostarted realizing like, Oh,
this sport is more than just himgoing to the park and playing.
This is actuallysomething he could pursue.
So they started supporting meand allowing me to travel more
and be around those people more.
Because just coming from anAfrican background, they're just
(05:02):
like, Hey, you're either goingto be a doctor, engineer, lawyer.
That's it.
That's what they know.
They know, go to school,get your degree, go work.
But they actually saw what basketball wasdoing and shaping me as a person, and the
opportunities that were coming with it.
So it helped me get into Bishop LoughlinMemorial High School, which is a
prestigious high school in New York.
A lot of basketball players came outof there, from Reggie Jessie, to Brian
(05:24):
Brown, to Mark Jackson, to CurtisSumter, to guys that's in the NBA now,
from the Champagne Brothers, where,you know, Julian and Justin Champagne.
Keith Wright, that's at Cincinnatinow, that's also going into the NBA.
The school really had a lot of talent.
It was known for basketball.
I was able to go there, play reallywell there, got recruited out of there.
(05:45):
But I had to do prep school forone year, and then I transferred to
Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.
That's an Atlantic 10 conference.
That's when the situation came intowhich has us in this conversation today.
Aswad Thomas (05:57):
Thank you for sharing that, man.
You come from a rich traditionof prominent college players
and also NBA players as well.
But something that you mentioned,I want to come back to utilizing
basketball to help with social skills.
And also were blessed to be able to playAAU, travel within the state where, you
(06:17):
know, traditionally, if it wasn't playingAAU, you probably wouldn't have been
able to do that, but also opportunitiesto travel across the country as well.
Can you talk a little bit about thatexperience of traveling and the impact
that had on your outlook on life,seeing so many different experiences
outside of your own community?
Kojo Mensah (06:35):
Outside of my, my parents bringing me here to see what the
difference were between Africa to America,especially New York City, and Brooklyn.
Traveling with the guys, I got to seedifferent lifestyles from the kids,
the way that their parents raised them.
You know, you get to be arounddifferent backgrounds, right?
So you, your social skillsreally change a lot.
(06:56):
Yeah, I come from this, but I have 11other teammates here who everyone else
comes from a different background, right?
So we have to figure out howdo we relate to each other?
How do we become a good teammate?
And then.
taking that and being able to goto different cities where we're
all competing for the same thingas a team when we traveled here.
But these things help youexpand your mind, right?
(07:17):
You started to learn things, startedto pick up things socially, talent
wise, how big the world really is.
Cause sometimes when you grow upin certain atmospheres, you just
believe like, that's just whatit is and that's all, you know,
cause in Africa, that's all I knew.
And then when I came to Brooklyn, that10 to 15 block radius to 20 block radius
is all I really knew until basketballtook me out of that and started
(07:40):
showing me things outside of that.
So it also made me come back home andtrain harder and train smarter and better.
I understand like me just going tothe park and think I'm the best guy
on my block doesn't mean anythingand going out into the world and
realizing they're doing the same thing.
They're the best player on theirblock, then becoming the best player
in their school, then trying tobe the best player in that state.
(08:00):
Right now, leave being thebest player in the state.
Now, you're trying to be one ofthe top players in the country.
Then you're trying to be thetop players in the world.
It changes you and realize how narrowthat gap of making it to certain levels
become by based on what you're able to do.
Aswad Thomas (08:13):
You're giving me flashbacks, right?
Those tournaments, youknow, we all in the van.
Yeah.
Going to another state.
We got to grab this pizza at the hotel.
Yeah.
We at the hotel, having fun, playinggames, running down the hallway, right?
Just some of the innocenceand just love for basketball.
Just exposed to so many different things.
I tell people all the time,basketball just, it's more than
(08:34):
a sport as you just laid out.
You and I, we share experience of beingcollege athletes, traveling the country,
meeting so many people from across thecountry, also being educated as well,
but you and I also share that difficultexperience of having our basketball
(08:54):
careers impacted by gun violence.
Now, can you tell us a little bitabout your experience of surviving
gun violence at your school?
Kojo Mensah (09:04):
It feels good to be able to talk about it.
Before it used to be somethingreally difficult to talk about it.
So I'm actually like happy I'vegotten to that place and I can
actually speak about it so clearly.
We was at Duquesne.
This is my year.
I transferred also transferred in witha guy named Shawn James Who was the
nation's leading shop blocker kindof beat out Shaq and all those guys.
Aaron Jackson played overseas overthere in Spain, Israel and then end up
(09:26):
getting picked up by Houston Rockets.
Olajuwon's nephew was on the team.
So which was a full circle for meright growing up I'm seeing kids in
Olajuwon jerseys then my teammateis his nephew, which was nuts.
So, that year we're likepreparing for like our preseason
tournaments and things like that.
But our coach, Ron Everhart, wasreally big on us supporting other
(09:47):
activities, other programs, andother initiatives with the school.
So one of the initiatives that was reallybig that they kept reaching out to us to
come support was the Black Student Union.
And they were doing an event.
Bring all of the athletes, thecreatives, the different people in
certain fields of math, science, andthey had an event, basically a party.
Myself and Shawn livevery close to each other.
(10:09):
We were taking our time to get there.
We ended up leaving thehouse, let's say 7:15.
Walk over to where the party isat, the rest of the team is there.
Party's cool.
Not a problem.
Fast forward, everyone's mingling.
Now the party ends.
So, as the party's ending, there'sone exit, so it's taking everyone
a little while to get out.
So my teammates beat meout, I chilled behind.
(10:29):
I was very laid back, so I wasn'tlike in a rush to do anything.
I'm still a college kid, you know, I'mtrying to see how my night can end.
One of the last ones to kind ofleave as far as my teammates.
I'm like on the phone and myteammates like, let's say a full
basketball court away from me.
So I can't necessarilyhear what they're saying.
So then I see a little bit of pushing ashoving and so I speed up to try to catch
(10:50):
them cause they were a distance away.
But as I even tried toattempt to catch up.
Shots are going off right away.
So my natural instinctis to go for safety.
I didn't really decide which buildingI'm just running towards the closest one,
which might've been like 20 feet away.
As I'm like reaching for the door to pullthe handle, that's when the first bullet
(11:12):
hits my forearm, so it drops my forearm.
That's when I realized,oh wow, I just got shot.
So then as I then take my rightarm to pull the door, that's when
the second one hits my shoulder.
Luckily, like I opened thedoor enough to be able to get
inside and like just roll in.
Which as like on college campuses,you know, there's that first door,
but then you need the key to get pastthe second door, so I'm in between
(11:34):
the first door where it opens and thesecond door where you need the key at.
So I'm in like that hallway area.
So there's enough room for me to likeslide behind, like one of the walls there.
So I'm not really seen,but I'm like laying there.
So as I'm laying there, theshots are still going off.
I'm seeing shots in the glass.
I'm hearing screaming andstuff outside and it's going
off for about like 15 seconds.
Like it felt like an hour to meas I'm sitting there and I'm like
(11:57):
holding my arm, a student coming updown the hall out of the elevator
sees me go, Hey man, are you okay?
I'm hearing all this ruckus outside.
He sees me and goes,Wait, man, are you shot?
But not realizing it, I literally raninto the medical student's building.
So he's there sitting there rippingmy shirt, wrapping my arm up,
holding me, and standing there.
I'm sitting there, weak asthe blood is coming out.
(12:17):
I'm telling him I want to lay down.
He's says I can't, I'm like,Can I get something to drink?
He's explaining to me whyI'm feeling what I'm feeling.
So just such a blessing that I endedup in the medical building with someone
that's literally practicing to becomea doctor is literally sitting there
helping me through this whole process.
He never left me the whole time.
Literally wants to help, stay with me,talking to me, keeping me up, waiting
(12:39):
for the ambulance to come, came in theambulance with me, so I do remember him.
As I'm coming out, there was a femalethat was in such shock as I'm coming
to the ambulance that she was justsitting there, just crying and in tears.
Not until about two years ago on Facebook,I don't know how we found each other, but
she wrote me, said, Hey, are you Kojo?
(13:00):
And I'm like, Yeah, how you doing?
She said, You may not rememberme, but I was the female that
I was crying and distraught.
And that day was so terrifying tome that I ended up having to transfer
the school and I went to some realpsychiatric problems that I had
to go to full therapy and couldn'tgo to school for about four years.
So she's telling me this and I'mjust like, so apologetic, not like
(13:20):
I wanted this to happen, nor didI was the one doing it, but how it
affected other people like that.
It affected her livelihood,affected her going outside.
She left the school, likeshe was just traumatized.
So that night, Shawn got shot in his foot.
Olajuwon's nephew gotshot behind his head.
Ended up surviving,but never was the same.
Aaron ended up getting pickedup by the Rockets, got shot
(13:42):
in his hand, but went through.
So he was okay within a few weeks.
The last one was named StuardBaldonado, was such a great, like,
power forward for an All American.
He got shot in his leg, but it traveledup through his stomach and it came out.
He had to have such this intensesurgery, um, because of just the
way it traveled and cut through him.
And then, yeah, I didn't find outeveryone that got hit until I got in the
(14:05):
hospital about two, three days later.
And they started telling me thesethings because, again, they thought that
these people were coming back for us.
They were just high intensesecurity measures while we were
in the hospital for a couple days.
And then they started relaxing when theyrealized this was not like necessarily
targeted, but just an unlucky thingto happen because an argument happened
between a teammate of mine and anotherguy was brought on campus by a girl that
(14:29):
went to the school, but she might'vebeen dating him, but not anymore.
And I guess she was talking to one of myteammates and he might've been flirtatious
and that kind of what sparked it.
So that's what I was told.
Aswad Thomas (14:42):
You always look for the blessings in these
type of experiences, right?
With all the commotion going on andyou're shot twice and you're hearing
more gunshots and you're just tryingto flee to safety and you run into
the medical student building where youmet a medical student who was there
(15:05):
providing you that care immediately.
And also like being able to havesomeone to walk you through the process.
Of what you were experiencing in thatmoment, physically and psychologically.
Like those are life savingmeasures that happened to you.
(15:25):
You got shot.
Your four teammates got shot.
Aaron Jackson, who's actuallyfrom my neighborhood.
Everybody was like, Aaron got shot?
He's at school.
Just like the impact of leavingthe inner city community surrounded
by violence and you go to schooland this happened to you all.
So you also talked about the impactof this shooting, the physical
(15:47):
impact, the psychological impacts,right, from y'all who were shot,
but there's also this young lady.
This had traumatized her for years,but also the impact on everybody
who was outside that day as well.
After that shooting, as you wererecovering, I'm curious to hear, was there
any support services to help with thephysical therapy that everyone needed,
(16:11):
but also the psychological support, thecounseling, the mental health support?
What was the support for youand others to recover from that?
Especially psychologically.
Kojo Mensah (16:21):
It's such a great question, man.
And I say this with all transparency,but I think this is when I really
realized what being black in America was.
Like I think this is when it kicked inbecause even though we were the victims,
there were stories and publications whereit made it seem like we deserved it.
(16:41):
And we brought that energy to the school.
They started like going to ourparents homes and finding out
anyone else who was close to us.
They started digging into our backgroundsto find out who we are and like, is
this the type of life we have already?
And they tried to spin this narrativeon us about that, black and coming
(17:01):
from aggressive and violent areasthat this is just a norm that they
brought to a college campus that hasnever witnessed things like that.
There were publications that weretrying to dig into us and find out
where we're from and our backgrounds.
I remember them going to my parentshouse where I seen my cousins
and my little brother on TV, andthey're talking about who we are.
(17:22):
And so publications thatkind of stood by us.
It was like, these are collegekids with futures, with bright
futures that could've ended.
So why are you trying to nowdestroy their characters?
So they were on both sides of that.
But the city of Pittsburgh itself wasnot a very welcoming city after that.
Where we went, you felt the eyes, youfelt people keeping their distance
(17:43):
from us because it's a small city.
So when that happened, that'sliterally the biggest news for months.
So as soon as that broke out andcame out, our faces were everywhere.
If we tried to go to the mall, ofcourse we were still in like crutches.
You know, bandages.
You would see people literally crossover to the other side of the mall, walk
into a store, wait for us to walk by.
(18:04):
So we felt it.
It was very difficult for us to find alawyer too that would want to back us up.
And that was also a difficult thingbecause again, it's more of a Commonwealth
area supporting us against that city,that school, was really difficult
for most people to try to take on.
We found one, but notmuch really came from it.
(18:24):
Outside of, like, our medical billspaid for, it comes some of the, like,
school bills we may have had when itcomes to, like, lunch and food stuff.
But other than that, man, itwas a really difficult trial.
It was really difficultfor that kind of support.
So a lot of people, of course, wanted tojust go home for a while and come back.
To be around that kind of likelove and support, but in Pittsburgh
(18:45):
itself it wasn't that way, no.
Aswad Thomas (18:47):
That's, it's hard to hear for several reasons.
One is the lack of support for you all.
And also the students who were atthat party hosted by the Black Student
Union, primarily all African Americanstudents who were either impacted
(19:08):
directly by being victims and alsotraumatized from witnessing that incident.
So not a lot of support for you all.
And then you all as teenagers and youngadults went to school for a purpose to get
your education, also to play basketball.
Now this incident happening, like youare being blamed for this incident and
just the narrative in the media thatdidn't see you all as victims, often
(19:33):
seeing you all as suspects that you allcontributed to your own victimization.
Just being in that community.
That was your community.
Kojo Mensah (19:42):
One thing I really noticed that I didn't realize how
many people this has happened to.
Yeah, I've seen it on TV.
We've heard about it, but it was somany people that it's happened to.
And then it's so many peoplethat I can say, man, I just
didn't have no one to talk to.
Right.
I didn't have anywhere to go.
When I came home, I was morechampioned for going through it than
(20:02):
it is feeling like a victim again.
And I definitely went through thatright where I remember coming home.
And the first thing people were tellingme is that I should start rapping.
I'm like, what do you mean?
I'll just start rapping.
They looked at it like, oh, it'sjust this 50 Cent kind of thing.
I'm like, no, like, as black men,it's like, we're not seen or looked at
as like, we can possibly be victims.
(20:22):
Everything is wrong.
Nah, you're tough.
It's cool.
Like they say in that movie,You didn't die, right?
You'll be all right.
There's no like sympathy for it.
There's no like, man, thatshould not be happening to you.
I'm human just like everyone else.
It's kind of like, this is yourbadge of honor now, so you didn't
respect the fact that I'm trying togo, that I'm going to school, that
I'm actually playing ball, I got ascholarship, that thing wasn't respected.
(20:45):
Me and being shot was respectableto you, the way it messes with you
psychologically to see now when peopleget into these things and the amount
of glorification that comes with itmakes them feel actually like superior.
So I get it.
The outlook of, Oh, what happenedto me wasn't actually that bad.
This might've, should've happened.
This helped me.
No, you are a victim.
(21:07):
You went through this.
That's why now, as all of these thingsthat's been happening, more of these
rallies about what black people, black mengo through, like, yeah, we are victims.
We use these things because we werelike, there's no other outlets to
allow us to sit there, go throughit, speak on it, grow from it, where
we just have to use it as crimesurvivors to just continue to go on.
(21:28):
There's no real sympathy around.
There's no one to stop in for us togo, hey, man, sorry that happened to you.
Outside of them, Man, damn,oh, you survived that, man?
Now you a real warrior.
That's all.
So I get why.
A lot of the kids and the people arethe way they are and why they respond
the way they respond to these things.
Aswad Thomas (21:45):
Like, these type of conversations are important,
like, I remember when I gotshot, I got shot in 2009.
I had just signed with an agent.
I was about to leave to go to Europe tostart my professional basketball career,
but I was shot three weeks before I wassupposed to leave to go over to Europe.
I got shot twice in my back.
Bullets were an inch away frommy spinal cord, two collapsed
(22:06):
lungs, suffered internal bleeding.
I was in really bad shape.
My doctor said it's amiracle that I survived.
And I remember likebeing discharged, right?
I remember my doctor and my nurses.
I remember them telling me and mymom about the physical challenges.
That I would have after beingdischarged from the hospital.
(22:27):
My recovery was in Hartford,Connecticut on my mother's one bedroom
apartment on this old hard couchthat she would never get rid of.
So I'm recovering from these twogunshot wounds on this hard couch.
And my doctors, they told me aboutthe physical challenges, which I was
focusing on, but nobody ever told meabout the psychological effects of that
(22:52):
shooting suffering from the flashbacks.
I think I still have an issue withsleeping today, the nightmares that
the PTSD, the anxiety, the stress, theparanoia, the depression that I was going
through, nobody prepared me for that partof being a victim of gun violence, and I
think a lot of people, especially youngpeople, don't hear the true stories of
(23:15):
what happened when you are a victim ofgun violence, like the pain that you go
through physically from those bullets,some of the worst pain that you could ever
imagine, but then also the psychologicaleffects of dealing with that and surviving
that and often still have to live inthese communities that we live in where
there continues to be high rates of crimeand violence, but little to no support.
(23:38):
That shooting changed my life.
And it really started to get intomore community, more advocacy work.
And you've made that remarkable transition
from professional sports, beingan educated black man to now
founding your own nonprofit as well.
Can you share what inspired you to startthe Kosah Foundation, especially focusing
(23:59):
on the Canarsie community in Brooklyn?
Kojo Mensah (24:02):
When you were released from the hospital, right
back into that community, right?
I think one thing that a lot of peopledon't realize, once you're going
through something like that, you losethe opportunity to be delusional.
And what I mean by delusional is,when people haven't been through
traumatic things, they see lifein a very creative way, right?
Opportunity.
They don't see where things canbe halted or things can change.
(24:26):
They don't see those realities.
So now when you go through it,your mind thinks very different.
Where to go,
how to do things because yourealize how real these things are
and how quickly things can happen.
So you don't get to have that levelof enjoyment like everyone else does.
Your mindset of, okay, if I'm going tothis place, I'm going to that place.
If I'm talking to this person,associating this person, you think it
(24:47):
through in a much different way thanthe normal person would that never
been through anything this traumatic.
When I used to come back fromplaying, I would see a lot of kids
that I remember wanted to play ball.
What can we do that can be impactfulright now that could bring life back into
this area that kind of given us life andgiven a lot of people who come through
this area of life so I wanted to createa foundation because there's many things
(25:09):
I wanted to do under the foundation.
But I know that there needed to besomething that we had to do that
people would trust and believethat we're about what we're saying.
The driving force behindit would be basketball.
It would be where they can come out.
They can showcase talent.
We can have coaches come out, showcasetalent, but within it, we want to have
(25:30):
vendors showcasing their businesses,organizations showcasing their businesses.
Talent, whether it's music ordancers or dance groups, come
out and showcase their talent.
Politicians come out and talk aboutthe things that they want to do and
show how much this community meansto them and why we need to support
them and they need to support us.
Show the police force in the area whythat when actually engage us in things
(25:51):
we enjoy, you'll see the outcome of it.
So that was really the driving forcebehind it to put that day together
because every other area had a day.
Coney Island had a day.
These are parts of Brooklyn whereConey Island, Bedford Stuyvesant,
Crown Heights, Brownsville.
They had days where they celebratedtheir areas and the communities.
And with that, the city and the governmentwill pull more into these communities
(26:13):
of helping build it up, helping bringthe YMCAs and the youth clubs and
the educational programs in therebecause they've seen that people care
and they've seen what came out of it.
So that's one of the main reasonswhy we wanted to do Canarsie Day.
And the very first one, I was nervous.
We literally had 1500 people outside therejust ready to play, ready to be involved.
(26:33):
We went out there, thecourts were cracked.
We went to Home Depot, we were fillingup the cracks ourselves, plastering
the floors, cutting out the grassthat was growing through the court.
Like, we went out thereand repainted the lines.
So when they actually seen that wedid this and how it came about, like
the people in the area was like,man, we need this all the time.
We need more of this.
Aswad Thomas (26:52):
That's incredible.
It's like, how do you giveback to your community?
A lot of people talk about it, but youput that into action of seeing a need
for your community and being able to makeit happen without a lot of resources.
Cutting the grass, right?
Doing all the painting,plastering the floors.
(27:12):
Those are the type of things that reallyhelp build communities, but also being
able to provide opportunity for 1500people to just come together to have
fun, to be in community, but also to makesure that we're providing activities like
basketball for the youth to get involved,to keep folks out of trouble as well.
So Canarsie Day is an official dayrecognized by Mayor Eric Adams.
(27:37):
Huge congratulations toyou and your team as well.
Can you walk us through thesignificance of Canarsie Day and
what it means for your community.
Would love to hear any successesthat you've heard from this year's
event and impact that it's had?
Kojo Mensah (27:53):
Canarsie Day means a lot.
We're doing it from the heart.
We know that let's give them somethingto do, but I forgot the other part
of what Canarsie Day would do, whichmeans give opportunity for them to be
seen, for it to springboard them intoother phases of their life, so these
kids are coming and playing the game.
Junior high school, boys highschool, women's high school and
(28:14):
pro, and then men's high school pro.
Not only are the coaches comingthere and finding athletes, but it's
giving them confidence back again togo out there and do things, right?
So we have kids that playedin Canarsie Day, man.
One of the kids right now is inthe NBA playing with a Charlotte
Hornets named Nick Richards.
That was his very first time of himplaying basketball with a referee.
(28:34):
We put him out there.
He was about six foot seven,tall guy, athletic from Jamaica.
This is his first timeplaying with organized people.
And I was like, man,just put him out there.
Raw talent, running down, blockingshots, catching and dunking, but
just didn't know the fundamentals.
We thought he would be great.
Ended up being seen bythis high school called St.
Patrick's.
(28:54):
They picked him up, brought himto New Jersey, polished him.
Then he ended up from St.
Patrick's, going toUniversity of Kentucky.
Mind you, we're talking about a kidthree years ago that never really played.
Right?
So now that you end up on the Universityof Kentucky, which is probably top five
prestigious basketball schools ever.
The second year is entering theNBA draft that now got picked
(29:17):
up by the Charlotte Hornets.
That is literally, now he's still there.
Full deal.
I think he just signed a new dealfor another four years, but you're
talking about a timid kid fromJamaica that never really played and
Canarsie Day helped him get seen.
Another other kid was Rawle Alkins, veryshy kid, very low voice, came in and was
playing, talented, you seen him, you knewhow to play, but it's just no one saw him.
(29:42):
Luckily one of the coaches there wasvery cool with one of the guys at,
uh, Christ the King High School, thengoing to University of Arizona and
got picked up by the Chicago Bulls.
So now we have two guys who literallyplayed, seen, went to big schools.
NBA.
And then now we have otherguys who came and played.
One went to West Virginia,playing overseas now, another
(30:03):
went to Syracuse, still there.
Another one is at Cincinnati,still there playing.
When the other kids got scholarshipsto be able to go and do other
things in their life, right?
Everyone is not going to make the NBAoverseas, but it gave them an opportunity.
So that's what Canarsie Day meant a lot.
So that's why I had tobring it back this year.
Brought it back this year.
I know it'd be a battle the sameway it was before because being
(30:25):
that we had to stop during COVID.
This year, the impact was there again,where the kids were like, wait, it's back.
They're coming out wearing the olduniforms, the old t shirts saying
that, Hey, remember me there this year.
These kids held theseyear end forms from 2015.
They played, and then now we'rehelping some of these kids go
to different high schools now.
One of my boys, his son,Dior, neighborhood guy, He's
(30:48):
about 6'4 playing great.
And when I'm looking at him play outthere, I'm like, Man, what school you at?
He tells me the school he's at, butI'm like, Nah, we gotta change that.
I end up calling my high school andgoing, Hey, you gotta look at this kid.
And they end up looking at him, he'sgonna end up going in next year.
He just had to take some tests to qualifyand all that, but that's the opportunity
that we're doing and we're super proudof that and we want to keep it going.
(31:11):
We're keeping it going.
As you know, also, ittakes a lot of resources.
It takes a lot of manpower.
So that's the stage that we're at now.
We're working hard to get resources thatcan maintain us for the next couple of
years and then re-up again and have thesesuccess stories and have them come back.
We're reaching out to them for them toalso be a part of us keeping this going.
So yeah, Canarsie Day means a lot.
Aswad Thomas (31:31):
Man, that's powerful, man.
It's not just a day.
Canarsie is more than a day, butalso just think about the impact
it's having on the next generation.
Being able to see folksfrom the neighborhood.
People who they seen on thatcourt are now on the TV.
People on that court are in collegehaving careers outside of sports.
That's like the generational impactthat you are having in community.
(31:55):
So thank you for seeing that void and theneed to ensure that your community has
something like the Canarsie Day, but alsonow that you have your own nonprofit,
which will allow you opportunities todo more and greater things as well.
Coaching has been agreat conversation, man.
Before you leave, we'd love tohear people who watch the podcast.
(32:17):
They watch it from all across the country.
Sometimes when I'm traveling in theairport, someone recognized me through
my work was like, Hey, I just, I listenedto the latest episode of the podcast,
it was so amazing.
For other athletes or even justindividuals out there who face or
are facing life altering challenges.
What advice would you givethem based on your journey of
(32:39):
transformation and community impact?
Kojo Mensah (32:42):
What I would tell anyone, especially athletes that's
going through these types oftraumatic incidents, Faith, man.
For me, there were dark times, man.
Like, honestly, my faith in Godreally became really powerful
during those times, man.
I believed in Him before, but that'swhen it really kicked in for whatever
religion you're in, man, you need thatfaith and you need that circle and that
(33:04):
family that you can always lean on.
You don't need a hundred people.
Sometimes it may be one personor, you know, a couple of people
that you can turn to and lean tothat understands your journey.
But I always tell people, man, youneed that faith and that foundation.
Sometimes you, you don't know where you'regoing to be pulling that strength from,
but you can always pull it from there.
So I always tell people to havethat faith and that foundation,
man, it'll take you places youwouldn't even realize you can go.
Aswad Thomas (33:27):
Most definitely having that faith, that determination, and
also life is about peaks and valleys.
One thing that my college coachused to tell me when we used
to be running sprints, right?
He used to be like, you're neveras tired as you think you are.
We used to be looking like,man, you ain't out here the one
running these sprints, right?
But the more he said that, Ikeep that in the back of my mind.
(33:48):
No matter what you're goingthrough, you're never as tired
as you think you are, right?
And just being able to keep going becausethere is light down the road as well.
Kojo, it's been awesome, man,having this conversation.
I know we could talk for
Kojo Mensah (34:00):
hours.
Oh man, I'm here with it, man.
You know that.
Aswad Thomas (34:03):
I know there's a lot of people who are interested in you, your
foundation, and also Canarsie Day.
How can people learn more or how canthey support the Kosah Foundation?
You got any social media channels or yourwebsite that you want to let the listeners
know about how to get in contact with you?
Kojo Mensah (34:18):
Oh, a hundred percent, man.
From volunteers to people thatwant to help us financially,
help us get to the next level.
For our Instagram, it's Kosah Foundation,@kosah.foundation on Instagram.
For our website, it isKosahFoundation.org.
There's no dot, so it'sKosahFoundation.org.
Everything is on the websiteand on our Instagram page.
(34:40):
Man, please feel free to reach outand I would love to hear from people
that are want to be a part of whatwe're doing and how we can help out.
Because one of our modos that wehave, and it's on the page and it's
on every shirt and everything thatwe do, is With Unity, We Matter.
And that's something thatwe're gonna continue to push.
Aswad Thomas (34:55):
Awesome.
So reach out y'all.
With unity, we matter.
Kojo.
Thanks so much, man, forbeing on today's podcast.
You do have a partner and supporterwith Crime Survivors for Safety and
Justice, and thank you to everyonefor listening to today's episode.
And if you haven't become a memberof Crime Survivors for Safety
and Justice, you can do thaton our website at www.cssj.org.
(35:19):
Remember to tune in to thispodcast and other episodes.
You can do that on YouTube, ApplePodcasts, Spotify, and other
streaming platforms as well.
As you all heard today throughKojo, he's healing, but he's
also healing through action.
One thing that we say is, whensurvivors speak, change happens.
(35:40):
Kojo, you're making that change happen.
Thank you everyone forlistening to today's episode
and we'll talk to you soon.
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