Today we’d like to introduce you to Will Bradford

Hi Will, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?

I grew up in Detroit, a city rich in Black culture and history. We were always surrounded by great music, food, and lots of family. My parents were blue-collar workers, the “salt of the earth” you might say. They emphasized the value of education from an early age. But I came up in the 80s and 90s when Detroit was facing some tough challenges related to economic decline, crime, and violence, and it was a rough place to be in high school. You could be bullied over anything.

The only city I ever knew was feeling like a bubble that I needed to bust out of. As soon as I turned eighteen, I joined the military as my ticket out of Detroit.

What I didn’t fully realize was that for the first time I would be in a majority White setting where racist insults and jokes were the norm. There were guys in my troop who’d never been around Black people. I wanted to understand…why are things still like this in our society? Then I was stationed in Kosovo, where I saw European people caught up in their own conflicts based on ethnicity and religion. I guess it was those experiences in the military that first sparked my interest in sociology.

After my term in the military was complete, the G.I. Bill let me finally realize my dream of going to college in New York City. I enrolled at Marymount Manhattan College.

Once again, I found myself in a whole new environment. This time I was in the center of one of the world’s greatest and most diverse cities, and it felt like I was always meant to be here. I met like minded people and my passion about social issues grew stronger.

During my sophomore year at Marymount, I spent a summer interning with Save the Children in Uganda. I can’t emphasize enough the deep impact it had on my soul. Those months of discovery in Africa enriched me forever. Once I earned my bachelor’s degree at Marymount, I wanted to refine my storytelling abilities and pick up the technical expertise I would need for a career in the media. I wanted to be a voice for social justice, so I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Media Studies at The New School, known for its progressive values.

Two internships, one at Huffington Post Black Voices and the other at AOL Music, made me realize one thing: I wanted something different than a career working for a mainstream media company!

To be honest, by the time I completed my Master’s Degree, I wasn’t sure about my next move. I worked a variety of hustles to pay the bills while I figured things out. I even got a real estate license, and showed listings for about a year. It gave me an inside view of how the real estate industry operates in NYC, and it wasn’t in line with my core values.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?

Finding my voice, and my audience finding me, is a big challenge. Being a content creator on YouTube means you have to get your videos in front of the people who will be interested in them, but the algorithm is a non-human gatekeeper to your visibility and success. You have to feed the algorithm an enormous amount of content before it learns where to effectively place it. You have to strategically try to drive engagement and retainment, which isn’t easy on a platform with billions of competing videos being uploaded.

On a more personal level, I’m facing the same financial challenge that so many New Yorkers are trying to overcome, which is how to afford staying in a city where rent and food prices have skyrocketed in recent years. A flood of very wealthy people have decided to move here, and it’s a survival-of-the-fittest competition for housing. The wealthy newcomers are winning. I just want to be able to stay in the city I love, and continue creating content about it.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I’m happy to say that I’ve found my passion project! I created a YouTube channel called ‘Black in the Core’ and recently passed the 100,000 subscribers mark. The channel spotlights Black culture, history, life, and communities in the Big Apple. Neighborhoods such as Harlem, Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, the South Bronx, Queensbridge (and many more) provided fertile ground for the growth of urban Black culture in America that proceeded to influence the whole world.

For example, Fort Greene, Brooklyn had a rich Black history going back to the late 1800s, and now the few remaining Black businesses are struggling to survive. So I recently did a video showcasing Brooklyn Moon Cafe, one of the last standing Black-owned businesses in the neighborhood. It’s where stars like Erykah Badu and Chris Rock used to light up the stage at open mic nights before they blew up. In the video, Mike Thompson describes the rich cultural past of Fort Greene, as well as the challenges he’s now facing.

I want Black in the Core to be a platform for celebrating, supporting, and uplifting Black communities and businesses at a time when gentrification is pushing them out of the neighborhoods they love. A lot of newcomers to the city don’t even know the fascinating Black history of places they’re moving to. My content will be an eye-opener for them.

The channel also features videos of local events like The Soapbox Presents: Stoop Sessions, Soul Summit, professional dance performances, concerts, and much more. You can go to my channel and plug into some of the best Black talent in New York, no matter where you are in the world.

I’m building a pro-Black channel, but it’s not anti-anybody. I love diversity and it’s one of the main reasons I continue to live in NYC. I value and appreciate every single person that supports the channel, no matter what their background is. I think there’s something universally appealing about it, for anybody who loves big cities and all of the amazing things that happen in them.

How do you define success?

Success is having learned to enjoy the accomplishments you’ve already made, not taking them for granted, while always reaching for self improvement. It’s also having meaningful relationships in your life. I can’t imagine feeling any complete sense of success without love. We all want that.

Contact Info:

• Youtube: http://youtube.com/blackinthecore

Image Credits

Christopher J. Petsos – https://www.chrispetsos.com