Urban Knights Chess Club holds its first Winter Tournament
Fletcher Graggs Jr. is the Vice President of The Urban Knights Chess Club of Little Rock, Arkansas. Started just a little over seven years ago Graggs says he created the club with an interest to provide a place for people in the urban cities to play chess. “This year we are trying something new to give our chess members an opportunity to play in more rated tournaments.” Said Graggs. On Saturday Jan 19th Graggs, and Tournament Director, Larry Weston held the club’s first annual in house chess tournament of 2019, The Annual Winter Tournament. Graggs said the most difficult part is getting help running the tournaments. 16 year-old Gabe Bissland. said he has been playing Chess for eight years and loves the game. “The Urban Knights Chess Club really gave life to my chess game and it’s help me improve a lot.” He adds having the tournaments is a great opportunity for youths like him to expand and improve their chess game. Brennan Brewer is the Captain of the Bryant High School Chess Club and Leader for the City of Bryant Chess Club. Brennan says although he has been playing Chess for all of his life, he has only been playing competitively for one year. “It’s the greatest game that has ever been invented.” Said Brewer. “It’s a game you can study for ever and ever and never be fulfilled.” Brennan added it is a game for every one of all ages. He adds the skills he learn from Chess, he will benefit him throughout his life. “It’s a very wonderful and educating game.” He said. Brennan credits Chess for helping him develop his social skills. “I go to these Chess Tournaments and I meet people and it gets me into more of a community and you feel like you’re part of a brotherhood,” said Brewer. Charles McCollum Jr. said he loves the game and has been playing over 10 years, but has only recently gotten serious about it. “It’s a learning experience for me, playing with a clock. I don’t play by clock,” said McCollum. “Writing my moves down is all new to me.” He added. McCollum contended that he would be more educated and prepared for the next tournament. “I’ll be on top of all my game.” He said. Bissland and Brewer tied first place. The tournament was held at Andy’s Restaurant, 9801 W Markham St. Little Rock, Arkansas, where the club meets every Saturday at 2P.M. Tony Davis is the club’s president. For more information visit the following Facebook pages: Urban Knights Chess Club, The Arkansas Chess Association or uschess.org.
Standing at six feet four inches tall and weighing two hundred eighty four pounds Lenner “Peanut Butter” Patrick Rogers seems harmless as he tells the story of his journey back to His faith,from Peanut Butter to now A R Muse a vocal voice for mental health. Inspired by his younger sister,writing became the inspiration for his journey of expressing his emotions ,releasing pain and recovering mental health. ‘A R Muse’ as he calls himself now, gives a lot of credit to Chicago Writer, Adrienne Bruce, who just happen to pick up his notebook one day and read something he wrote. “Who wrote this?” Asked Bruce. And Muse replied, “I did”. Bruce proceeded to ask him, if he ever thought about using his gift of writing but Muse only saw it as a means to vent out the past pain he was feeling in the inside. Through Bruce, Muse began creating Spoken Words and Poetry. Bruce introduced him to a Chicago based writing group called P.O.P writers where he collaborated on and help publish His first published book called “Dramatized”. Muse said what inspired him to do Hip Hop Music and speak was simply the past pain in His life. According to Muse, there came a point and time in his life where there was no place to run to and no place to hide. Moreover, there was not one soul he could run to. Mentally A.R was dealing with trust issues, resentment and family issues “I was in a dark place,” said Muse. But, Muse admits, “You have to believe in you. You have to learn to Trust God through all. No one has ever taught you how to love you, or be the best you.” Said Muse. Muse said it was the “God Man” inside of him that was encouraging him. “He was just basically telling me, its time for me to love me,” Muse credits his originality and the originality of others like him, for being the catylst that will break the cycle of the stereotypical black man. Muse says it will take trend setters with visions that will make the difference in this ever evolving world. “Having a vision and purpose also inspired me” As Muse shares his story, he admits that he comes from a line of mental health issues from his father to the grandfathers before him. “It was a generational thing,” explains Muse. Having this generational flaw against him has caused a lot of family strife and division.Now Muse says he admits he was traumatized because of this. He says resembling his father so much has also caused him much hurt between him and his family..”They don’t see the man in me they only see the man that my daddy was,” Said Muse. Muse said the transformation experience has made him stronger and more curious about the history of the mind and mental health . He says He is on a path to being a positive and spiritual role model for his generation and those who come after. Love your enemy and never meet a stranger with hate , only love “When I see someone that’s really chasing their dream , I try to lift them up because there’s not really many people trying to do that. And I don’t know where the life coach came from, it just came out of nowhere but, I know once I started getting into all this, these attributes inside me was going to start to activate”. He admits this is all a result of the change that has come over his life. “I’m not being lead by myself anymore so I see different.” I am trusting God Jesus Christ now. Muse is originally from the historical town of Elaine, Arkansas, where one of worst known race riots in history took place. Population 636. His graduation class was a total 23 graduates. He grew up in a household with 5 different other families. He could see the ground through the baseboards of floors as he lay on his mattress trying to get a peaceful sleep. Muse contends although, “it was crazy growing up”, he always kept hope alive. ” I always had a dreamers mind”, said Muse. “God blessed me with athletic abilities. And not only that, he gave me the mindset to compete, the mindset to work harder than most.” although he didn’t have much, he still worked harder. “While everybody else was doing their thing around the neighborhood He was running around the projects getting better, getting in shape.” In 2004 He graduated from Elaine high school the most athletic of his class. He attended Arkansas State on a partial football scholarship but later got kicked out. It was a rough road to travel, as he juggled college and his personal life. Yet, he continued to “dream with his eyes wide open”. Muse relocated with two other young men to Birmingham, Alabama where he played semi pro football for Patti Labell’s Birmingham Wildfire football team. Semi pro gave A.R a second chance to play football in college at Lambuth University a methodist private school in Jackson Tn. Muse went , He didn’t have no financial help with his education , so as a result he slept in the lounge of the student center His first semester at Lambuth because he did not want anyone to know his circumstances “I didn’t want to go back home. I wanted to play football. And I wanted to take care of my family.” Muse said, “ He didn’t have true father guidance , he thought the only way he could make it was to either play professional football or basketball. People at Lambuth were good to him during those trying times that first semester. “People would put money in my shoes for food while I slept.” Muse said he hid his circumstances from His coaches and when they found out they were blown away by his tenacity. “I showed up for every practice on time. I was at Study Hall, made all the meetings, they couldn’t tell I was sleeping in the lounge.” Muse ended up receiving a full scholarship for his education Along with dorm, and meal plan. Muse said he became active in various school organizations to include being a Cheer Leader. In 2011 Muse met Bill Cosby while attending a school support comedy show to keep Lambuth university open and it was Mr Cosby, who instilled inspiring words in him that he will carry with him for the rest if his life. “Mr. Cosby told Him that no matter what people may say, keep doing the good work you are doing, because someone is always watching you.” Unfortunately Lambuth closed And after a series of event. He end up enrolling in to Middle Tennessee State University. MTSU was short lived cause of mishandle paperwork , couldn’t afford to pay for education any longer . Muse left Murfreesboro,Tennessee he moved to Memphis, where he met Sherwyn Thomas, a coach and a “street preacher”, with a rundown van. “ with only Faith and their determination, he and the reverend started the very first online College of Faith Bible School with an athletic program in the city of Memphis where they helped at risk young adult ages range 17-23 who wanted to go to college but didn’t have the resources to do so. This also allowed the opportunity for Muse to go back to school and play Basketball under the direction of Coach Thomas. He enjoyed playing college basketball and against well known players sons and other family members like, Jerry Stackhouse’s son, and Latrell Sprewell’s nephew. However, Muse said it was not always easy. With all the negative things said about how much the school would not succeed , really bother him but because of that first online bible school, there are now more than 30 colleges around the country like it. Some days were tougher than others but at the end of the day it was all worth it. “We slept in our office. We slept in the van. We didn’t get paid. But the thing is, I wasn’t doing it to get paid I was doing it to make a difference.” Said Muse.Unfortunately his kindness led him to another misfortune when he came home from football practice one day to find that the people he had opened his door to, a total of 11, had stolen all except the door from him. This left only 16 youths in the College of Faith football program. When Muse left Memphis he relocated back to Middle Tennessee, Muse had no other choice but to moved back to Nashville. In Nashville Muse began working in security where he earned his name ARK. “Every job I’ve had from being a janitor to a educator from a kid, all the way to now, has coached me and made me who AR Muse is now”. Muse is now a father of four Girls and he vows to continue to make a difference. He loves Hip Hop music and it will remain the catalyst that jump started his confidence and belief and understanding about mental health.He plans to enrolled back in school and is now producing his own motivational speaking videos to help inspire others because Muse says it is important for him to continue to be a role model for his generation’s mental health and the generation that follow after. Muse post many of his videos to his Instagram page @armuse and Facebook: YouTube:
