Athens community member and Chess and Community Executive Director Lemuel LaRoche or Life the Griot, stands over a chessboard in the Chess and Community meeting in Multipurpose Room A at the Athens-Clarke County Library on March 21. Life started playing chess as a child with the elders in his neighborhood where they taught him critical skills that he now transfers to the youth in the Athens area. “Chess was that tool that I was able to articulate (communication and strategy skills) and allow (youth) to see you have a bigger world that’s around you. This is you on a chess board, you’re a pawn, you’re a pawn in the world. Look at other pieces and how you’re being used for this, and how you’re being played for this,” Life said. “So (Chess and Community) was a way of really giving that worldview through chess. And that’s why we use chess as a healing modality or as the pathway forward.” Photo by Aza Khan
Athens resident Lemuel LaRoche or Life the Griot takes on many roles in the community in order to have a positive impact on the community members and make the world better for everyone around him.
Athens community member Lemuel LaRoche, better known as Life the Griot, plays many roles throughout the community as a social worker, University of Georgia social work teacher, worker with the Center for Social Justice at UGA, Chess and Community Executive Director and a poet.
Life was born in Brooklyn, New York and lived there until he moved to Atlanta in the late 90s and Macon in 1995. Moving from a big northern city to smaller southern cities, Life was able to expand his worldview to incorporate the different dynamics the cities held and explore new areas of himself.
“(I) grew up seeing the people of New York so (a) big world, big ideas, a lot of races, concepts, diversity, all of that is there. (Going from big cities to Macon), it was just a different world, a world that I had to adjust to,” Life said. “This is where I found a lot of pieces of myself. Sometimes you get lost in a big city. In a small town, you’re able to understand the dynamics of how the world looks and how the world works.”
After moving from Macon to Athens in 1999 to attend UGA, Life discovered his passion for social work and getting to interact with different people in the Athens community.
“Coming into social work was like, ‘Okay, this is my language.’ Now I get to work with people and I get to see reflections of myself,” Life said. “I get to really see an issue and do what I can to address the issue, and learn about all these different models and different things of the world.”
Life has had a passion for poetry throughout his life, inspiring him to change his name to Life the Griot shortly after he moved to Athens.
“(The name) Life the Griot was (because of) the poetry, like I’m a poet. That’s my love. When (I was) doing poetry people always say ‘Man, you have a way of making us see life’ and that’s where the word ‘Life’ came from,” Life said. “(Later) someone was like, ‘Man, you a Griot’. A Griot is a West African terminology but it’s a storyteller or historian, somebody that goes from village to village and speak of the times and speak of ways of how to improve situations. That’s how Life the Griot came about.”
Life focuses on spoken word poems, which allow him to emphasize and add power to his words. Life uses his poetry as an outlet for his emotions, especially connecting to issues in his community.
“For me, the message is always about ‘How do we make the world better than we have?’ Sometimes in doing that, we got to paint the picture of how the world looks because it looks different for so many different people,” Life said. “I speak to my audience, with the message of ‘We got to make this world better than we inherited.’”
Life doesn’t just connect to his community poetically, but through the chessboard. In 2006, he founded the organization Chess and Community, and in 2012 it became a nonprofit organization that gives students the tools to improve their own lives and the community around them.
“If we can dedicate one hour a month to something that can address some of the needs that we see then we get a little closer (to making the world better),” Life said. “That’s what really birthed Chess and Community. One hour a month (with) kids from the juvenile system, we eat pizzas and play chess. One hour doing book club, one hour doing this, take them to the mountain and before you know it, we start doing all this work and we (were) just like let’s put it together.”
The idea for Chess and Community sparked from Life’s memories of playing chess with the elders in his neighborhood, where he was taught how to create a plan for the world from the skills he learned in chess.
“(Chess) is a game of strategy, it’s a game of thinking, it’s a game of play. It’s a game of, ‘I got to learn how to respond rather than react. I can’t just go with the first move that comes to my mind, I have to think through it,’” Life said. “If we can take this game and apply those same principles to a lot of the kids that I would get in the juvenile system, then we can start seeing some changes, and we did start seeing some changes.”
According to Life, the purpose of Chess and Community isn’t just to play chess but to give children the opportunities to understand how social systems work and what makes them work.
“(With Chess and Community), I can really develop the kids, the way we see is needed. At the same time, (I) tried to expose them to a lot of things that they just wasn’t aware of, and not just kids, families,” Life said. “How do we try to show and link the opportunities that are available in this community, upward mobility, allowing kids and families to see it and allow people that are in positions to manage some of those systems to see where they don’t connect?”
Athens community member and Chess and Community Executive Director Lemuel LaRoche or Life the Griot, helps a student at a Chess and Community meeting in Multipurpose Room A at the Athens-Clarke County Library on March 21. Throughout her eight years in the program, Chess and Community former student and current mentor Hayyah DeLane has experienced the successful impacts of Life’s leadership. “Life is a great leader because he is innovative and really loves what he does,” DeLane said. “You can always have someone in a leadership role, but not everyone posses the love and determination that comes with being a leader. Everything he does is with intent and he is always thinking of ways to expand resources and opportunities for his students.” Photo by Aza Khan
Chess and Community Family Connection Coordinator and parent of a Chess and Community student Yolanda Parker has been involved in Chess and Community since 2016. Throughout her time with the organization, Parker has experienced the impact Life can have on students and what he adds to the program.
“I think (Life) adds authenticity and the vision for the youth to actually be involved with the decision making. For instance, if in a year’s span we take surveys of what the youth like and don’t like, then we can take that survey and apply it to the program,” Parker said. “I haven’t heard of too many organizations that will include the vision of their actual participants or the youth. So if we can create this program where it’s an atmosphere where they’re both learning and having fun, then why not do that?”
Chess and Community former student and current mentor Hayyah DeLane has enjoyed working with Life through the program and the opportunities he provides for each student.
“Working with Life is always a blessed experience because he is constantly pushing you to be the best version of yourself. He will always find a way to put your name in rooms where you didn’t even initially think you belonged,” DeLane said. “Life always sees the potential that each of his students carry. He makes sure that we become aware of that as well so we too can dominate the world with our talents, leadership, and determination.”
“Working with Life is always a blessed experience because he is constantly pushing you to be the best version of yourself. He will always find a way to put your name in rooms where you didn’t even initially think you belonged.”
— Hayyah DeLane,
Chess and Community mentor
To encourage the spread of Chess and Community in Athens and the neighboring cities, Chess and Community hosts an annual conference. The theme of this year’s conference was the power of family and it was a chance for people to see the different programs Chess and Community offers.
“Now Chess and Community. We’re in Macon, Georgia. We’re in metro Atlanta. We’re in Washington, DC, we’re in Ethiopia. And it all started from Athens and it’s blossoming outwards, because people are seeing the concept,” Life said. “And now, this year is our 10th year anniversary as a nonprofit, and we have a conference. So we don’t have no money, but we find ways to make the world better by making those students we encounter better.”
In the future, Life hopes that Chess and Community and the social work he does in the Athens community will continue to impact others to make a difference in the world.
“My goal in the coming years is to make it to (Chess and Community’s) 20 (year anniversary) and continue to develop this community, continue to make an impact. (I want to)come up with another book (and) I can finally release my poetry album,” Life said. “(Also) simple goals just to be healthy, take care of myself, meditate, make sure that I’m in this place where I can grow. So that way, I don’t burn out because I try not to burn out so that (everyone else) can continue to flourish.”
