KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Clark Rooseveltte runs his business "Clvr Wrld" out of a shipping container on Troost Avenue, just behind Ruby Jean’s Juicery.
“It’s small, it’s compact — I made it stylish,” Rooseveltte said.
He’s also using his business to create a safe space for people to think outside the box using a journal and desk.
“If you sit down in our chair and you fill out your first page — it's absolutely free,” Rooseveltte said. “It gives you a space to be real with yourself outside of your mind, it starts a lot of conversations that maybe you have been avoiding.”
Clark says when he talks to customers, he reminds them his business is safe space to express whatever they want.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a journal entry, or like a 'How your day was bad,' or anything like that. It could be something good; it could be how good you felt today," Rooseveltte said. “It could be something about your mom or something like that, but it could also be a picture. If you’re an artist, you can draw in there. Or like what I tell people my favorite is, just write down your goals, your dreams, your aspirations.”
Clark said he knows all too well the importance of self expressing, after losing his best friend to COVID in 2021. Clark says journaling allowed him to bring his emotions to the table.
“We all gotta be connected with our emotions, cause we can’t move without emotions, and as Black men, we're kind of taught to ignore them,” Rooseveltte said.
Trying to turn the page around mental health in the Black community, Clark says if you cant talk it out, write it down.
“We all lose people, we all lose jobs, we all lose opportunities and that weighs heavy on us and sometimes we just need to write it down and get it out,” Rooseveltte said. “It’s important because it brings peace, it’s important because it brings clarity, it brings relief.”
In all forms of life, Clark says a pen, paper and chair can give someone a new reality.
“It’s a step towards happiness, it’s a step towards being complete, it’s step toward righteousness,” Rooseveltte said. “It’s a seed that’s going to grow to the tallest tree of your life.”
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