This is a follow up from the previous story about Voices of Kansas City, with an indepth feature of Dontavious Young.
This interview is part of Voices of Kansas City, a project created in collaboration with KKFI Community Radio and Kansas City GIFT, a nonprofit supporting Black-owned small businesses, to highlight the experiences of Kansas Citians making an impact on the community.
Dontavious Young, showed up to the studio at Kansas City GIFT flashing a big smile and carrying a jar of the chai tea he concocted at Equal Minded Cafe, the business he owns at 4723 Troost Ave.
The Kansas City Star invited the 26-year-old entrepreneur to the Prospect Avenue studio, to participate in a new project launched in partnership with GIFT, a nonprofit that supports Black business in the city and KKFI Kansas City Community Radio. With his shoulder-length locs tucked beneath a black nylon sleep cap, Young sat down for an interview with Mará Rose Williams, The Star’s assistant managing editor of race and equity issues, to tell his story – about growing up in Iowa and Kansas City, the death of a beloved cousin, and how he came to open his cafe on Kansas City’s East Side in 2018.
Their conversation, edited for length and clarity, is presented in a question and answer format to share Young’s story in his own words.
Meet Dontavious Young. The Kansas City Star’s Mará Rose Williams interviews Dontavious Young, owner of Equal Minded Cafe, about this business in the KC Gift studios. Monty Davis madavis@kcstar.com The Star: We’re going to talk a little bit about the man behind the business. So, Dontavious, are you from Kansas City? Dontavious Young: Actually, I was born in Waterloo, Iowa, and I moved to Kansas City in about third grade for the first time. And then I moved back to Iowa. But a different part, about an hour away from where I was born. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, it is called. I moved there right before ninth grade, right before high school. So what was it like being a young Black child growing up in Iowa?
Well, actually, Waterloo, Iowa, where I was born, has a lot more Black people than people would expect. It’s actually the high school that I would have gone to, Waterloo East, is actually a predominantly minority school. I think it’s somewhere upwards of 60% or more as minority students. And the town itself has a lot of Black people, of course, but also a lot of crime, a lot of issues that people wouldn’t expect in Iowa, such as gangs, such as violence, such as gun problems, etc., etc.. That place, honestly is not much different than Kansas City, other than the size and the population. That is about the biggest difference between the two. Now, places like Cedar Rapids and Marion, Iowa — where I went to high school — were a lot different. It was a lot more predominantly white. They judged me because of some of the tendencies I had from being from Waterloo and from Kansas City, a combined kind of thing.
And so they label me as like a thug and like an outcast and like the Black kid kind of thing. So it was a big switch-up. So you started in Iowa and moved to Kansas City. Where in Kansas City did you move to when you left Iowa?
Well, my grandmother lives east of Troost. She lives off of Elmwood, somewhat close to the Blue Parkway Sun Fresh, if you know where that’s at. And so I lived with her for a while. But me and my mom, we have a long story. A long, long story. So you know, I’ve lived alone with my mom for most of my life, especially my teenage life. We moved back and forth between different places. We were homeless at one point, you know, and living with different family members at different points. So, we went from living with my grandma in her house, to living in Overland Park with friends and family, to living in Lee’s Summit with friends and family, to moving back to Iowa. You know, really back and forth.
And so when I was here, I lived on the Missouri side the majority of the time. But I went to school in Overland Park because she wanted me to go to better schools, because Kansas City schools aren’t the best historically, as we know. I moved to Kansas City in third grade. And I moved back to Iowa in eighth grade. Your middle and high school years were in Iowa. What was that period like for you? It was actually very interesting. Like I said, me and my mom moved a lot. So when I first moved back to Iowa, I moved back to Waterloo for about a year. And then after living there for a year, we moved to Cedar Rapids.
And so that was a big transition because moving from Waterloo where I was from, which I still went back to in the summers and regularly for family and stuff like that. I probably spent the most time there as far as leisure time. Going back there I was still hanging out with a bunch of friends who were doing stuff they shouldn’t be doing. You know, every single one of my core friends from Waterloo that I grew up with — like as kids — before I moved away in third grade. Every single one of them has either been shot, been to prison, or they’re dead right now, every single one of them.
So that’s the path they were going down, that I luckily broke away from when my cousin was killed. That’s when I moved to Cedar Rapids, with my mom. I kind of got out. When your cousin was killed? Can you tell me about that? How old were you when that happened? What kind of impact did that have on your life?
Yeah, I was about 13 years old. The impact it had, it really just motivated me to want to have a better future for myself, to create more of a legacy, more of a successful story that people would remember positively when I’m gone. Something we talked about a lot, me and him. Yeah it just really instilled a growth mindset, but also a dedication to myself. Really. And actually got his name tattooed right here (on his forearm) and got dedication right here within a year of his death. So, you know, I really, really was serious about it. I saw the path that my friends were going down before. I saw that path coming for him. I was like, I don’t want to end up like that. I also looked up at the role models that we had, and I was like, wow, you aren’t really someone I want to end up like.
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article277825768.html#storylink=cpy
