{"id":297601,"date":"2026-10-01T13:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297601\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T13:26:07","slug":"big-rubes-philly-will-little-progress-over-pride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/297601\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Rube\u2019s Philly: Will Little, \u201cProgress over Pride\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Will Little has been a known quantity on the scene for a while now. Ten years ago, The Philadelphia Citizen wrote about how he gave out gun locks to anyone<\/a> who\u2019d come by Jazz-U-Up, his barbershop at 16th and Tasker.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Listen to the interview edition here:<\/p>\n

He\u2019s done a TED Talk that featured his original poetry. Been featured on TV with Lamont Hatton, whose brother Little shot and killed in 1989, while they were going around to schools, trying to reach youth, talking about gaining emotional intelligence, building the ability to resist violence, even though violence might be one of the first things they come to learn.<\/p>\n

Will and I connected 20 years ago, through a great mutual friend, Leon Woodard, aka Big Zah. He invited me onto a show he did with Comcast to talk about navigating mental health as Black men in Philly, and in America. By then, he\u2019d come a long way from his origin story.<\/p>\n

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Little moved around a lot as a kid, mostly around South Philly. When his house caught fire, he, his mom, his grandma and his sisters moved in with one of his aunts on Passyunk. He went to school at Bregy, Smith and Childs. This was the 70s and 80s, and students there, at the time, were \u201ca real mixed climate of Italians and Blacks.\u201d He was a quiet kid, introverted. When he was eight or nine, he got chased through the streets by older White youths. But he also stood up for \u201cyoung Italian dudes\u201d getting picked on at school. \u201cI don\u2019t like to see bullies; I don\u2019t care what nationality they were,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, there were shootouts in the neighborhood and fights between his mom and her boyfriends at home. He was the only male in the household. \u201cI had those different thoughts in my mind, like. Where\u2019s my dad at? Why he ain\u2019t around?\u201d He longed for someone to look up to. Instead, he developed a temper that served as his armor.<\/p>\n

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At age 13, he jumped into a fight between his mom and her boyfriend, and the man took him outside to show him his 32 Dillinger. \u201cI guess he was trying to do something to intimidate me or scare me, but I was so angry that I showed no signs of fear,\u201d he says. \u201cThat trauma right there shaped my world for being in the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

By age 14 or 15, he was robbing. At 16, he was selling drugs and buying guns, riding around in a car he bought himself, getting into disputes with neighborhood guys. You can almost predict what happens next. At age 19, Little found himself outside the old skating rink at 20th and Christian streets, in a group of kids who\u2019d gotten into an altercation earlier that night. One group who\u2019d left came back, and shot at Little\u2019s group. He took out his gun, too, hitting and killing 18-year-old Terrence Brice.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, Little was locked up at Holmesburg, charged with murder, attempted murder on a witness, aggravated assault, conspiracy, and possession of a gun. He waited 30 months for a trial, because the court system had been overwhelmed that year with cases, nearly 500 murders in 1989 alone. Holmesburg was \u201cwild at the time.\u201d He nearly killed another man with a pipe. He started to change after eight months, when his son was born.<\/p>\n

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In the middle of \u201cchaos and riots,\u201d he started a journey of reflection. \u201cI knew I couldn\u2019t be a good father unless I was a good man,\u201d and he couldn\u2019t wait until he got out of jail. \u201cReflection became my freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thought about his childhood, that he was a \u201cgood kid, laid back \u2026 genuine, respectful \u2026 I reflected on my father not being there \u2014 abandonment: That\u2019s trauma. Seeing my mom go through this struggle: That\u2019s trauma. The dude putting a gun in my face: That was trauma.\u201d He started to forgive himself for the things he\u2019d done. He also converted to Islam, taking on the role of imam and mentoring younger men around him, \u201cdudes that had triple life, double life, dudes that wanted to just go fight and stab somebody \u2026 I became the voice of reason for a lot of arguments in that joint.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In 1998, he was released to a halfway house, and started talking to kids from his neighborhood about his experiences. \u201cMy motto was, \u2018Progress over pride,\u2019\u201d he says. He worked in a warehouse, and had another baby. When a barbershop opened on the corner around from his house, and the owner offered him a chair, he practiced on his nephews, then took the leap. It didn\u2019t take long to learn the trade. What surprised him was having to learn to interact with all kinds of people. \u201cI got to really work on my social skills,\u201d he says. \u201cI needed thicker skin if I was going to deal with the public \u2026 I was learning people\u2019s emotions, learning how to communicate, learning how to de-escalate certain things in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, Will was writing poetry and organized \u201cPoetry in Motion\u201d events at Warmdaddy\u2019s and other spots \u2014 and Hatton, the brother of the young man he\u2019d shot and who\u2019d spent years talking about seeking revenge, came into the shop, and forgave him. They also started working together, talking to kids.<\/p>\n

Little kept learning, too, absorbing everything he could on personal, emotional development from YouTube and Instagram. Soon, he was accepting invitations to talk to all kinds of groups about his transformation \u2014 and sharing that same information with people left out of those circles through personal development courses on Instagram Live.<\/p>\n

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These sessions are \u201cgeared towards helping people in the community who are dealing with trauma, trying to find their way through life, going through some kind of mental breakdown \u2026 We have not been given the tools on how to live; we\u2019ve just been learning how to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

He tells his audiences that they\u2019re all part of Allah\u2019s creation, that given what they\u2019ve been through, they\u2019re stronger than they know, strong enough to make choices. This fall, he\u2019s inviting his students to the Poconos, where he rents a couple of houses away from the noise of the city to be in nature, a space that\u2019s \u201cconducive to healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get time to calm down, get your pocket of peace, relax, reflect on your life \u2026 recalibrate a little bit and figure out your direction where you\u2019re trying to go,\u201d he says, all the while, \u201crelating to other people just like you, same dilemma, same trauma, same childhood.\u201d These escapes offer a \u201clasting impact,\u201d he says, one that he\u2019s experienced himself, and knows others can, too.<\/p>\n

West Philly born and raised with a slosh of Brooklyn,\u00a0Big Rube<\/a>\u00a0partnered with Mitchell & Ness in 2000 to help make it a global brand marketing and selling high-end throwback jerseys. He has been photographing Philly since 2009, including in a Daily News Column from 2011 to 2017. He\u2019s also a chef, preparing to open his own space in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"\" MORE FROM BIG RUBE\u2019S PHILLY<\/p>\n