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Blockopoly game brings Worcester streets to life

Liz Fay

Special to Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

In 2009, Brian Njuguna opened the doors to his empty Worcester apartment after spending a year in Africa with his mother, owning nothing but a bed, a sofa and a Monopoly board.

“I was a huge fan of the game,” says Njuguna, who said it inspired his interest in real estate. He had, prior to relocating to Kenya, been invested in four three-deckers in Worcester.

His life had already been a whirlwind at that point, from moving to the United States at the age of 10, to owning a store in the Greendale Mall while he was still a student at Burncoat High School, to dabbling in the music industry, his life had already been a wild ride, and indeed, for a moment, he thought he had done all he could from Worcester, and it was time to move on.

“I felt like I had done everything,” he said. “Mom gave me ideas to go back to Africa and see what we could do. Mom never wanted to retire in America. She wanted to go back to Africa, so that was what I was working toward.”

That didn’t work out, and he returned to America while his mother remained home. He was broke, and his credit was ruined, but then the Monopoly game inspired him again:

“I was not relating to the board,” he said and he realized he wanted to “build my own type of board game, one that could fit our community.”

The result was “Blockopoly,” a hip-hop alternative to Monopoly for players 18 and older, or as Njuguna calls it, “streets in a box” — inspired by his own real-life experiences. The game would become a reality in 2016, even as his life and fortunes continued to change.

WORCESTER - Custom board game maker Brian Ngaguna with his Blockopoly game. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

A Mind for Business

Njuguna developed a keen eye for entrepreneurship and marketing in his youth, and by the age of 17, he opened his first business, Ballaz, a retail clothing store located inside the former Greendale Mall. The store actually evolved from his interest in music, when he and fellow Burncoat graduate David Saint Fleur would travel to New York to meet with record labels. “That’s where I got the idea to start bringing stuff up,” says Njuguna. The result was his opening Ballaz, which started with nothing and was driven largely by Njuguna’s ambition, charisma and willpower. He closed his first year of business profiting $80,000, he said, only to end up selling his store soon after, using the profit as a seed money to start his next career.

“I bought my first real estate,” he says, “I think it was 19. I bought my mom her first house.”

He had also kept a foot in the music world, utilizing his industry connections to quickly become a top-selling promoter, working with multiple renowned hip-hop acts ranging from Dipset, Trey Songz and Jim Jones at venues such as Worcester’s DCU Center and Palladium .

It was around the time of the Songz concert at The Hanover Theatre when he learned that his girlfriend was pregnant.

Custom board game maker Brian Njuguna with his Blockopoly

game. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Blockopoly

Continued from Page 4

“I took off my promoter’s hat, and prepared to be a father,” he said, adding that it focused his desire to finish creating the game.

“It took me from the element of playing around with life,” says Njuguna. “It changed my outlook on how I was supposed to move on in life. For me, being in business and seeing her take over in the future, that’s how she began to shape me. I wanted to leave something I could leave behind that she could talk over.”

Indeed, her initials, “NBN” can be found in a street sign on the Blockopoly logo, and hidden in other locations throughout the game.

But just a few years after his daughter was born, Njuguna faced another challenge. In 2014, he would be arrested and charged in connection with a shooting in Worcester.

“It completely threw me off,” he says. “I have a daughter, I’m trying to launch a game, I just got arrested and I’m feeling like I’m about to lose everything. For about a year, I couldn’t see what I was trying to do.”

Arrested Development

Njuguna first served four years of house arrest, before taking a plea deal for three to five years. Ironically, the time under house arrest pushed him harder to develop Blockopoly, much as the COVID-19 lockdown pushed many people to develop career skills and hobbies. Njuguna didn’t want to let his time go to waste.

The game was released in 2016, and while he was still under house arrest, he managed to sell more than 400 copies, aided by a social media push from local hip-hop icon Joyner Lucas, whom Njuguna had known, “since he was in the studio, recording his first mix tape.” In addition to Lucas, the board found its way into the hands of celebrity hip-hop artists such as Dame Dash, Mario and 50 Cent.

According to the game’s instruction manual, the objective of Blockopoly is to become the largest “hustler” in the game by selling “weight” and maintaining “blocks” and “trap houses.” But according to Njuguna, the true objective of Blockopoloy is to serve as both an educational and entertaining hip-hop art piece. When looking at the board and instructions pamphlet, players will find subliminal messages such as “Block the Violence” inside of stop signs, encouraging players to choose a different path, leaving Blockopoly enthusiasts with the freedom to choose their own journey.

Still, despite his burgeoning success, Njuguna knew he had to resolve his legal situation before being able to choose his own journey. In 2018, he took the plea deal, spending three years in prison. Still, while in no way understating the severity of his circumstances, Njuguna managed to find a silver lining in his situation.

“Being in jail, talking to some of those guys, and showing them the pictures of the game, really showed me the opportunity ahead of me,” he says.

Instead of giving up on his dream, he clung to it as a beacon of hope and change.

“When they were seeing my little project those guys made me come at that (the game) with an energy of understanding my position, which led me to pursue this very hard,” he says.

Brian Njuguna’s custom board game, Blockopoly. ALLAN JUNG/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Still in the Game

Now out on parole, Njuguna says he’s been transformed by the experience, and is buckling down to grow his game, and not losing sight of where it started, and what he saw missing in the Monopoly game that first inspired him.

“This is my environment,” he says in a 2019 video blog filmed inside the apartment where Blockopoly was born. “This is everything I learned in the streets, everything I learned in this building. I broke my first 100K in this building and put it all into an art form, I put it in a board game platform. This is not only real to me but I’m also trying to motivate the next generation, ya”ll ain’t gotta be stuck in the streets … do something different.”

That message is as real to him now as it was then.

“I knew I wanted out from the streets,” said Njuguna, in a phone conversation. “I always knew I was better than that journey and living in a streets mentality.”

Blockopoly Boards are available for pre-order at Blockopolygame.com. Follow Blockopoly on Instagram @Blockopoly.

Contemporar y artists explore identity in Worcester Art Museum’s ‘Us Them We’

Richard Duckett

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

The Worcester Art Museum’s latest exhibition, “Us Them We | Race Ethnicity Identity,” features 47 striking works by diverse contemporary artists.

The works are mostly from after 1995, and include photography, prints, painting and sculpture. The images are themselves diverse, from graphic text to hairbraiding, a gallows to a nude woman, and some of the issues being addressed are from immediate recent events while others take a longer look at history.

The exhibition is also described as an “in-depth look at how the artists have used formal artistic devices in their work to explore socio-political concepts” such as race, ethnicity and identity.

To that end, “Us Them We” is divided into sections, including Text, Juxtaposition, Pattern and Seriality.

The exhibition is co-curated by Nancy Kathryn Burns, Stoddard Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at WAM, and Toby Sisson, Associate Professor and Program Director of Studio Art at Clark University.

“Us Them We” opens Feb. 19 and runs through Juneteenth (June 19). “Not coincidentally,” Sisson said.

“It’s a really visually stunning show. These are really important works,” said Sisson.

Many are drawn from WAM’s own collection along with several significant loans. A number have been acquired for the museum by Burns, and some are on display for the first time.

“This is a smorgasbord, a feast, and we want invite people to the party,” Sisson said. “I would love audiences to see the diversity of the way artists address identity.”

Burns said that the curators want viewers to “Start with the work. We’re placing our emphasis on the art work.”

With that, she hopes the exhibition will also “generate a new conversation about how identity can be revealed through form itself. An artist’s decision to use certain visual motifs like repetition, movement, language and contrast can serve to emphasize larger concepts about race and ethnicity,” Burns said.

Burns and Sisson were being interviewed last week as the exhibition was painstakingly being installed across two galleries.

“I’m really hopeful people take the time to read some of the labels,” Burns said of the exhibition’s notes accompanying each of the artworks.

Addressing identity as a socio-political issue has been a central theme for artists since the 1970s.

In “Us Them We” there’s a great diversity in the artists, but they are often exploring similar approaches to art to convey identity and other ideas, Burns said.

The Text section includes Edgar Heap of Birds’ Fort Supply (2017), 24 red and white monotypes each with six lines of one word reading down with messages such as “Custer Re Supply To Kill Cheyenne.” It’s a loud and bold statement.

Karlos Cárcamo’s Untitled (2019), also in Text, is a study of a work of graffiti that has been removed by solvents. No graffiti remains. The statement is perhaps in the spaces.

Two screenprints by Dread Scott, #WhileBlack (2018) and #WhileWhite (2020) in the Text section use hashtags to call out the ongoing oppression of Black Americans.

Sharin Neshat’s “My Beloved” (1995), also in Text, is a portrait of herself clutching her son with a gun close-athand as she wears head covering that may for some look like it is decorated but in fact is an excerpt from a poem in Farsi.

Each work has its own narrative, Burns and Sisson said.

Edgar Heap of Birds is a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Nations, and the exhibition says he rectifies the history of Fort Supply — a United States Army post in what the government referred to as “Indian Territory” and is now part of the state of Oklahoma. The nearby Native American settlement on the Washita River was the target of a U.S. government winter campaign aimed at the genocide of indigenous tribes throughout the Southern Plains.

With Carcamo’s graffiti removed surface we might wonder about the identity of the artist.

Dread Scott’s #WhileBlack has rows of lines with words such as “#Cashing-

Co-curators of “Us Them We”, Nancy Kathryn Burns, Stoddard Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings and Photographs at WAM, and Toby Sisson, Associate Professor and Program Director of Studio Art at Clark University. Worcester Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition, “Us Them We” was installed on Feb. 7. CHRISTINE PETERSON/TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

LaToya Ruby Frazier, “Momme,” 2008, Gelatin silver print. STEVE BRIGGS

Identity

Continued from Page 6

CheckWhileBlack” and “#StabucksWhileBlack” indicating things that for some reason appear to be meeting disapproval. In contrast (and in blue, red and white and not the previous black and white) #WhileWhite” has lines with words like “#HuntingABlackmanWhileWhite,” and “#GettingAJobYoureUnqualifiedForWhileWhite.”

The head covering in Sharin Neshat’s “My Beloved” has an excerpt from a poem written by Forough Farrokhzad (1934-67), an Iranian feminist, “I die in you but you are my life!”

Burns said that for those who cannot read Farsi, the calligraphic marks appear ornamental highlighting the fact that a viewer’s identity impacts their understanding of an artwork.

The reaction of viewers to the works is likely to vary quite dramatically.

Sisson and Burns taught a course together last year at Clark University titled Contemporary Directions while also developing the “Us Them We” exhibit.

The course centered on artists from historically underrepresented groups and the impact their work has had on the canon of American visual art and culture. Among the outcomes for the course, students were asked to select a contemporary artist to research and then to create their own artworks in response to that artist’s style or approach — but drawing on their own lives and experiences. Eleven students who participated in the course will have a selection of their works presented as a companion installation to “Us Them We.”

Sisson said what struck her the most about the course was how two students could “look at the same work and come up with very different responses. It was a really great experience for Nancy and myself.”

A work by Sisson will also be on display at WAM during the exhibition, although not formally as part of “Us Them We.”

In other exhibition sections such as Pattern, Nafis M. White’s Oculus (about 2017) draws on her heritage and patterned sculptures as a means to connect across difference. Evoking practices as disparate as Victorian hair weaving and African American hair braiding, the exhibition notes that Oculus honors women’s craftwork as well as cultural traditions that value ornate hairstyling as a mark of beauty and pride.

It’s an example of a work of beauty at the exhibition, Sisson said. “It’s not all tragedy.”

In the Juxtaposition section the images are again often bold in their impact on the viewer. Artist Kara Walker juxtaposes the colors black and white and also layers an archival image with a screen-printed silhouette in Scene of McPherson’s Death (2005). Walker places a silhouette on top of a lithograph from Harper’s Pictorial History of the Civil War (Annotated), originally published in 1866. Walker’s partially dismembered figure, whose lower leg is being carried by an even smaller figure in the lower left-hand corner, raises immediate questions for audiences about the human costs of the Civil War, the exhibition says. This contrasts with traditional North vs. South narratives that may address the end of slavery but overlook the war’s impact on formerly enslaved people.

Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons’ photo-based series Identity Could be a Tragedy (1995) in the Seriality section has self-portraits that show the artist’s progressive erasure until she has nearly disappeared, leaving a trace image of what was once a clear and distinct individual.

A number of these pieces could overlap in terms of the sections they’ve been placed in, Burns and Sisson acknowledged.

“They could have been in multi-sections of the show,” Burns said.

“Ultimately, it had to land somewhere,” said Sisson.

Sisson praised the Worcester Art Museum for recognizing the importance of these contemporary works both with its acquisitions and the staging of the exhi-

María Magdalena Campos-Pons, “When I am Not Here/ Estoy Allá, Identity Could Be a Tragedy,” 1995-1996. Composition of 6 Polaroid Polacolor Pro 20x24 in photographs. Framed: approx. 26x22in each (66x55.9 cm) WORCESTER ART MUSEUM

Nafis M. White (American, b. 1977), “Oculus (Brown, Blue, Blonde, Orange),” 2019, Hair, Embodied Knowledge, Ancestral Recall, Audacity of Survival, Bobby Pins, 27 x 24 x 8

inches. WORCESTER ART MUSEUM

Grant helps Worcester’s E for All expand entrepreneurship program

Veer Mudambi

Worcester Magazine USA TODAY NETWORK

Oftentimes, when you look at the “Our Story” section on a company website, it will start with something along the lines of “it all began with an idea,” or a “spark” or something equally intangible. While ideas and sparks are certainly necessary, what it doesn’t mention is the required funding, business training and consumer research needed to get any venture off the ground.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly 20% of small businesses fail within their first year. If every aspiring entrepreneur with a great idea succeeded in realizing their vision, this statistic would be very different. More often than not, even with the best resources, the odds are stacked against you. Now, include factors such as lack of education, being a non-English speaker and a global pandemic with its attendant supply chain issues and economic fallout. Clearly, it takes more than an idea to overcome these hurdles.

Worcester resident Pooja Vishal started out with mixing spice blends for the local farmer’s market, where a co-vender told her to apply to E for All. The “E” stands for “Entrepreneurship” and true to its name, the organization aims to allow anyone acting on a new business venture to have an even playing field.

The organization uses a network of seasoned professionals to pool knowledge and expertise to help entrepreneurs by providing business classes and mentorship. After pitching their ideas, participants are placed in a one-year accelerator program, the first three months of which is intensive business 101, often taught by professors from local colleges, followed by the implementation and evaluation phase. This consists of regular meetings with assigned mentors to work with the participants to refine and focus their ideas.

“It’s like ‘Shark Tank’ without the teeth,” said Miguelina Peralta, referring to the popular reality show. Peralta is executive director of E for All Greater Worcester. Last month, the organization received a $50,000 grant from the Health Foundation for Central Massachusetts. The grant is to specifically increase program offerings in the Worcester area, including launching a mirror program specifically for the city’s Spanish-speaking community, called E para Todos. “We want to reach those who may not be fluent in English but still have the skills and ideas,” said Peralta.

“[The grant] is an amazing opportunity,” said Peralta, who hopes to double the program and efforts for later in the year. So far there have been two completed programs, with the first beginning just before the pandemic.

“The pandemic posed a big challenge,” she said. “We pivoted by moving programs to a complete online platform.” That required a major technology investment. Now the eight participants in the winter 2022 program can attend classes and meet with mentors via Zoom as well as in person. With the grant money, Peralta says, they will hopefully have room for a cohort of up to 15 at a time. They are taking new applications for the summer 2022 program.

For Vishal, the organization helped the most with understanding what her customers were looking for and finding that niche to fill. “My biggest challenge was trying to narrow down my customer segment,” she said, and how to market her product. Her team of mentors encouraged her to utilize surveys to understand customers’ “needs, wants and problem areas.”

“Customers were just so intimidated with spices,” Vishal explained, “didn’t know how much, what spices and when to use them.” Which led to her product of Indian meal kits — pre-measured spices and ingredients complete with instructions — “no brainer cooking.” Through the meal kits, she was able to get a place in Worcester Public Market,

Success in other areas like Lawrence has E for All Worcester confident about EparaTodos in Worcester. E FOR ALL

Grant

Continued from Page 8

opening Namaste Woo. In fact the meal kits have received such a positive response that Vishal is working to expand to more stores.

She is currently in talks with Whole Foods.

The program is just as fulfilling for the participating mentors as it is for the budding entrepreneurs. “My favorite part is getting an opportunity to engage with the enthusiasm and excitement that an entrepreneur brings to the challenges that they’re taking on,” said Finn Arnold, who joined a little over a year ago and is currently mentoring his third cohort.

Each entrepreneur has a team of three mentors, industry experts drawn from the community network and can even include graduated cohorts. Arnold brings 35 years of experience in the consumer electronic industry and has worked as part of multiple start-ups.

“The biggest thing that other mentors and I help with is bringing focus and critical thinking to an entrepreneur who is trying to narrow down market segments,” he said, “and think carefully about the areas the business is headed into.”

This was precisely what someone like Vishal needed to take the business to the next level.

“I don’t think I would have ever thought the way I’m thinking now without E for All,” said Vishal. “They really helped me think the right way and put me on the right path.”

And Peralta confirmed that graduated entrepreneurs, whose initial ideas have formed the basis of a solid business, are the best “example of the impact we are able to make — they are the best voices.”

E for All Lowell, Mass., Winter 2020 Cohort. E FOR ALL LOWELL

Identity

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bition itself.

“This exhibition challenges all of us to examine carefully how we think about identity and the assumptions that we make about where we belong,” said Matthias Waschek, the museum’s Jean and Myles McDonough Director, in an announcement about the exhibition. “An especially compelling component here is the literal diversity of artistic approaches, from figurative works to abstraction, and with objects that sometimes convey meaning through written language and other times solely through the power of imagery.”

Concerning whether the works may, for all their striking natures, be dauntingly abstract for some visitors at first, Burns said, “I’m hoping that they feel they have access to abstraction.”

Sisson said, “We’re hoping people feel welcomed to think.”

Sisson said that with students, “I tell them to think of contemporary artwork as an experience. What am I experiencing? What am I feeling? That’s a way to enter contemporary work as an experience.”

“Us Them We” will likely offer lots of experiences and thoughts.

As part of its monthly Master Series Third Thursday program, at 6 p.m. March 17 WAM will present a talk on selected works in the exhibition, by Kimberly Juanita Brown, associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College and specialist in visual culture studies. Registration information for the event can be found on the museum’s website. Also, for more information about “Us Them We” visit www.worcesterart.org.

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