When you want to start a billion dollar company that changes the way the world communicates, you bump heads with another like-minded genius, and set up shop in your garage. When you want to start a social movement that changes the way the world thinks, eats and values life, you bump heads with a couple of other like-minded students from St. Croix’s Central High. The three-of-you proceed to mix up a potent mission statement that’s one-part love, one-part common sense, and one-part community involvement. You call this heavenly brew Upperclass OG, and realize you are digging in on a grass roots effort that aims to change the way the world-at-large thinks about life.
Such is the lofty, but idealistically achievable aim of Carl-Michael James, Yirakmeal Henry, and Isobelle Yousef, the founders and principals of Upperclass OG, who recently opened their head-spinning photo, food and flora exhibition at Sonia Deane’s, cutting-edge, Cane Roots Art Gallery in Christiansted.
If you, as an art and people lover, want to catch a feeling of what a perfect world might look, feel, and taste like, even for a fleeting moment, then kick off your brown leather shoes, slip on your dream-like thinking cap and propel yourself off the ends of our “one-dimensional planet” that is desperately searching for a new life on a new world, and take a ride with this trio of sociological adventurers to a place only the hippies of the 60’s ever dreamed could come true.
First off, the photography at this exhibit is masterful. Stunning! It captures your imagination and seizes the best parts of your beating heart. They are all works of the collective. No individual artist’s signatures hidden in the foliage. Just one beautiful shot after another hanging off Cane Roots ultra white gallery walls. There is no way to singularly describe this eclectic collection, with photographs of a tantalizing woman listening to a conch shell in “Water Spirit” to wonderful scenes of nature at its simplest form, to an exotic woman peeking out from behind a tent in “Far Away.”
Each shot tangles you up in their world of simplicity, of wonder, of the beauty of life.
“The Upperclass Organic movement is rooted in freedom, unity, and well-being,” states the trio’s mission statement. “Our truest mission is to grow in peace and to facilitate the growth of others. We are well aware of the suffering that is too commonly associated with life, and we are dedicated to being a source of relief in this challenging world. UCOG aims to uplift the world emotionally, financially, socially, occupationally, spiritually, intellectually, environmentally, and physically, thus improving the quality of life for all. We believe that everyone deserves a peaceful and prosperous existence, and that anyone can attain such a life so long as they nurture their positive energy within by focusing on what truly matters.”
If that sounds too far-fetched, too over the top idealistic, stop and think about what they are saying. Think hard. Think deep. What does the world look like now? Given the same path we are traveling on, what will it look like twenty or forty years from now? Ergo, how do you make life better for one and all? This trio, Upperclass OG, is offering solutions. They are mapping out an intelligent game plan. But it takes a one-battle-at-a time conquest to get to their vision. Could their ideals sweep the world and become the laws of the land? As with all of the problems that beset today’s world-at-large: We Can Only Hope For The Best.
Culinary Note: As far as the food they cooked up themselves and served for free to the gallery patrons: Hands down the best pates on the island!
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