Abdi Mohammed Mohamoud: Father, Basketball Coach, Mentor, Activist & Community Leader 2

Trevaun Douglas:”Trey LaSole”

Trey. I had that name ever since I was born.

I’ve been living here in the same house in Lawrence Heights since I was born, December 25^th 1997.

Yes

Well there’s my Mom and I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters. I live with my Mom and 2 sisters Shayna and Tejha. My 2 brothers are Brian and Quincy but I don’t live with them.

It’s kind of crazy sometimes fighting for the bathroom sometimes (laughs)

We used to play a game called Manhunt. How it worked was let’s say there were 8 of us, there would be 4 cops and 4 robbers and the robbers would try to hide. And if they found you, you would have to join them. My friends and us- we all used to play together but now it’s sad because they are all working. We used to play freely, but now after dark, you don’t know who’s here from another community. I went to community BBQs too. I felt it was like bringing the community together. But sometimes people didn’t want to stay, they just wanted to get the food and leave. I like that we have a lot of arts here, like the Limitless Heights mural and the painting at the Community Centre. We’re getting more artistic here.

I went to Flemington Public School here from Kindergarten to Grade 5. Miss Chuda-sama was my Grade 5 teacher. She used to always squeeze my cheeks cause they were fat and she would always say “My little Christmas baby” cause she knew I was born on Christmas day.

We used to play tag and soccer. We used to have intramural teams for basketball too. They used to pretend it was like the NBA so the teachers put us in NBA teams like the Raptors, Cleveland Cavaliers. I remember just playing with all my friends, we were just versing each other and I was on the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was nice because we were all brought into the same room and we played together.

I don’t have a favourite team right now. I could say Golden State Warriors but I don’t want to be a band Waggoner cause they just won the NBA Championship.

I got a basketball net on my birthday, I think I was around 10. My mother got it for me. But since I got a new one, I gave it to one of my friends that lives in my court. Cause he always wanted one.

How did you like school?

I did pretty good. I was on the Honour Roll when I was at Flemington, in like Grade 2 or 3. One of my best friends was Emmanuel, he moved to Brampton as soon as we graduated from Grade 5.

I used to write poetry too.

My brother Brian is a rapper. Some days I would walk with him and he’ll just want me to rap. I probably started rapping when I was in Grade 8 or 9. Well I started rapping earlier in Grade 5 but it was garbage.

In Grade 5 when we had our graduation, my friends Emmanuel and Oshaine and me, we performed. We performed a rap at the assembly. We all wrote our own verses. When I look back it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It was about Pokemon, Spiderman, rock and roll, hip hop, that kind of stuff. Now when I look back I think “What did I write”? (laughs)

So you’ve been writing poetry for a few years. What inspired you to start writing?

I would say my brother Brian influenced me. What made me want to write poetry is when I saw a lot of people from my community dying, and things that were falling apart in the community, it motivated me to write about things.

Yea, it was good ‘cause that’s when I met my good friends Jerome and Jamal Lee. Jamal right now is writing a lot of poetry, he’ll write like lots and lots of poetry. My friend Jerome he moved to Ajax, I used to hang out with him every day. Jamal was more of a poetry guy, and a break dancer.

When I was in Grade 6, that’s when I had my first job. It was helping a teacher paint a mural in Art class and he gave us $20 at the end. It wasn’t a lot but it was better than nothing. The mural was about expressing the community. So it was like all kinds of diverse people like black people, white people, Muslims, and different religions. The part I did was like the Earth with hands all around it. The mural is at 10 Old Meadow Lane now.

I gave the $20 to my mother for Mother’s Day. She was really happy.

After Grade 7 I started gardening with Domenic. It was me and my friend Jawontay. We gardened at Neptune. We were helping that place look beautiful. And then after that we got paid by PACT, at the end of the summer they gave us a cheque for $250. I saved it.

How was your graduation from Lawrence Heights Middle School?

It was really good. We went to the Holiday Inn near Yorkdale for our graduation after party. That was pretty much the last time I saw some of my good friends cause a lot of them moved away. Everyone went to different schools after that. I went to Vaughan Road Academy until Grade 11, then I transferred to John Polyani.

From Grade 9 to Grade 10, those were my best years there. That’s when I met my good friends like Rhys, Pius, other friends. I like the school for the activities but academic wise it wasn’t that great. Sometimes the teacher got the metre stick and hit the kids. They would never do anything about it. I didn’t really like it there. It was better at John Polyani. I felt that it was better and closer to my house. I didn’t have to deal with rush hour going to school.

In school we had co-op. Mine was at Unison at this program called Pedal Pushers. People brought their broken bikes and we would repair them. They took us on trips sometimes and taught us how to fix bikes. We went on Sherbourne one time, an event was happening. I didn’t have a good experience there. I was pumping the tires with air and I didn’t realize it had a small hole in it and it exploded right near my ear. And it started ringing and ringing and I thought I was going to be deaf. We fixed people’s bikes and we saw their face and they would be smiling and it felt good to help people out.

When I was 14, I got a job with Toronto Community Housing as an animator. I think I was the youngest animator. I was really excited because at that time I was looking for a job. I was a bit nervous because I didn’t know what to expect. Everyone was skeptical because they kept saying the buildings would be broken down. I think they said it was supposed to start in 2010 but it’s taking so long. I learned a lot, like communication skills. I met a lot of people, cause I did outreach.

A memorable moment was when I was with Mariam and we emceed the community event at the Centre. They were introducing the developers.

Why was that memorable for you?

That was like my first time speaking in public like that. Me and Mariam were so nervous. We kept telling each other ‘the crowd can’t scare us and we’re gonna fight through this and we’re gonna come out victorious.” We were pushing each other like ‘we cannot let fear overcome us’. At the end of the day, everything went well. I saw Jacob. I think I did ok because everyone was laughing. I remember that Gene Jones, he made a joke and after that I said “wasn’t that funny?” a straight voice. When the crowd laughed, it gave me energy.

After a while I resigned because I was only making $9.60 per hour, student wage. And it doesn’t really help me support my family. I don’t really make financial contributions at home, I just like helping my Mom when I see her struggle sometimes with bills. I like helping her out.

Trevaun at Lawrence Heights Community Centre Photo: Taejon Cupid


You also worked at the Lawrence Heights Community Centre? What made you be interested in working there?

I wanted to gain experience working with youth. I think it would help me out, with my skills. My teacher Miss Mahar brought me to Lawrence Heights Community Centre. My supervisor at the Centre was Martha. First I helped out the seniors with the computer, because sometimes they didn’t know how to access certain sites. And sometimes I would help them prepare snacks for the kids. When I finished, I got hired for the summer camp. And I also worked at the after school program with kids.

Last summer I also got hired with Toronto Community Housing with the YouthWorx program.

Tell me about that job.

The whole program was taking youth who didn’t have a lot of job experience to help them learn skills and gain experience. I worked on a team of people from Lawrence Heights and we worked here in the community. We cleaned all the buildings here and on some Saturdays we went to some workshops downtown and we got training. My group got into some arguments, it was hot in the buildings. In my group there was Iqbal, Darnell, Cadijah, Sumaya, Fadumo- I can’t remember who else. It was good to work with them.

I don’t think I have a favourite. I like some songs that I can relate to. I like old hip hop. I’m not into the new music. Old hip hop, they didn’t talk too much about how much money, clothes, cars and girls the things new music talks about. The older hip hop, they talk about struggles, real life.

Not counting Grade 5, I’ve been performing for about 2 years now. I perform my own original material. I’m starting to gain experience with performing. Kaydeen and TCH gave me some opportunities to perform, and I could grow. I was scared of performing before but now since I’ve gained some experience it’s easier. I’m gaining confidence and I’m memorizing my lyrics. I like seeing the crowd when they are taking in my lyrics. Some people might not listen to me talk, but like, they will listen when I say it in music, I like that feeling.

I do hip hop performances. Sometimes I perform with Jamal, sometimes I perform alone.

What’s your stage name?

Trey LaSole, it’s like De La Sole, but it’s Trey.

Well, I performed at If I Ruled TO, and the Lawrence Heights Scholarship dinner last year and Regent Park too. If I Ruled TO was my first performance. Regent Park was last summer, it was a competition at Daniels Spectrum. It was me, Jamal and Elijah, we were RAP- Reality Art Production. We did a rap. I had to use my phone cause I couldn’t remember my lines. We came second in the competition.

We have so much talent here in Lawrence Heights. Like there’s a music studio at the Community Centre, its’ full of boxes and they’re not using it. There’s a lot of people who can rap and dance in Lawrence Heights and they could use the opportunities. There’s a lot of potential here. Youth here have been through a lot- their struggles. Some write and rap about it. They want their message to go to people through music. But they don’t have a place to do this.

I would say the most important thing is that you should know who your friends are. Because some of the people who say they’re your friends, they are probably not really your friends. You know sometimes people say I would break my back for my friends and people I love? But how many people will push you in your wheelchair after your broke your back for them.

I’m most proud that I work so hard. I just focus on trying to be productive, not just stay home every day, but trying to do something. I like helping people, more than myself. I just care for people a lot.

“ What my community means to me, I should rephrase it and say what does the community mean to we because we have grown cohesive in Unity, where in my community there are more opportunities even though there is revit doesn't make it a impunity, but a positive mind of what  is now beautifully, truthfully I want to see my community put to usefully not for stupidity, and foolishly but to have many Anniversaries like jubilee, I love my community, even though at times  we are given a surprize to survive from people not in our community but outside, we think of demise leaving us blind to fall for any traps and get blown up like land mines, sometimes it can be God giving us signs to redirect our lives back on the right path,    my community motto should be "react to impact" so we can attract and also help those who inside feel black, in fact what community means to me is coming together as family and to live on forever happily and to hold hands on the earth and float together like there is no gravity.”

“Trey LaSole, 2015”