Ring Ghetto Gastro's Bop Line

October 14, 2024

Bronx-based culinary collective Ghetto Gastro, founded by Jon Gray, Pierre Serrao, and Lester Walker, recently unveiled their 'BOP LINE' campaign through @ghettogastrogoods with none other than wellness guru-in-chief, actress Gwyneth Paltrow. In what feels like a tongue-in-cheek nod to Goop’s ever-expanding wellness empire — where a jade egg and a detox tonic are considered life essentials — THE BOP MOBILE flips the script, embracing flavor over fasting.

Upcoming installments will feature actors Michael Ealy, Siddiq Sanderson, Jerrie Johnson, and rapper Malibu Mitch. But the real showstoppers are Ghetto Gastro’s newest toaster pastries: Brown Sugar and Sweet Potato, now available at Target.

Because sometimes, the real 'clean eating' is just a damn good pastry.

By Enzo Holdt
Video by Ghetto Gastro

Culture

Kaep Does It

September 05, 2018

Kaep is back. Nike has unveiled former 49ers quarterback-turned-activist Colin Kaepernick as the face of their new ‘Just Do It’ campaign in honor of the iconic slogan’s 30th anniversary. The campaign features a black-and-white portrait of Kaepernick by photographer Martin Schoeller, along with the caption “Believe In Something. Even If It Means Sacrificing Everything.”

The message is especially poignant given Kaepernick’s highly contested on-field protest of racial injustice which began in 2016 before the Wisconsin native ended up opting out of his contract and becoming a free agent. Since then, Kaepernick has not been signed to a new team—something he believes is a consequence of his protests, and has led to his ongoing lawsuit against the NFL for allegedly working in collusion with team owners to keep him off the field.

Text by Charles Caesar

The demonstration, which involved Kaepernick, and later other players’, decision to kneel during the NFL’s pregame tradition of playing "The Star-Spangled Banner," received international attention—and criticism. But the peaceful protest has still persisted with other active players continuing to kneel during the anthem, or choosing to remain in the locker room until game time.

For his part, Kaepernick has steadfastly stood behind his actions and supports all athletes who choose to use their public platform as a means to bring awareness to systemic injustice.

I imagine it would take a lot of mental gymnastics to view Kaepernick as anything other than brave AF, given American society’s recurring habit of violence towards those who make large-scale efforts towards social and systemic reform. Colin Kaepernick is only a few years older than me, yet my own parents were alive when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. With all of this in mind, it makes total sense that Kaep was awarded with Amnesty International’s ‘Ambassador of Conscience Award’ earlier this year—because It takes far more guts to stand up to an established system of inequality than it does to stack your sponsorship checks and remain silent.

Though Kaepernick has been under contract with Nike since 2011, this week’s campaign marks his first major endorsement with the label. The use of his image in the ad, which also features a selection of other top-tier athletes, including Serena Williams, Odell Beckham Jr., Lacey Baker, and LeBron James, has already created a polarized response, with many, like co-star LeBron James, celebrating the feature, and others choosing to publicly burn their Nike apparel. The NFL, who counts Nike as one of their corporate sponsors, released their own statement reading, “The social justice issues that Colin and other professional athletes have raised deserve our attention and action.”

So, whether you rock the swoosh or not, we at office will continue to back the message of respect and justice for all.

Photo courtesy of Nike

Culture

In Brooklyn with Sarah Benjamin

September 04, 2018

On one of the hottest, stickiest days New York has seen this summer, models from Akrav Agency can be found hanging outside their shared duplex in Greenpoint. The kids are skateboarding, blasting rap from their speakers, and chatting without a care in the world. An eighteen-year-old with a missing front tooth, crashes past me on his skateboard, while another sits wide-legged on the duplex doorsteps, texting on his phone.

The whole scene feels like a fashion ad, or something straight out of Larry Clark’s Kids. In the middle of it is Sarah Benjamin, the casting director responsible for finding and placing this group of undeniable cool kids, landing them in some of pop culture’s biggest moments of the year, from A$AP Rocky’s "A$AP Forever" video to the Testing lookbook.

Interview by Andre Wheeler
Photos by Kevin Buitrago

You can immediately tell Sarah does not fulfill the cliché perceptions of what a casting director should be.

“A lot of it is in the eyes,” she says about her casting process as we escape the at a nearby coffee shop. “People say I’m quick to trust, but I feel like if you really pay attention, you can see a lot in a person very quickly.”

This thoughtfulness, and the maternal way she engages with her models, makes her approach completely radical. For the “A$AP Forever” video, she went to Harlem—where A$AP Rocky is from—to streetcast young faces. But it wasn’t just about dropping brown faces into a historically brown neighborhood and calling it a day—it was about ensuring real authenticity, something “a lot of casting people don’t take into consideration,” she says.

Another disruptive aspect of Sarah’s method: actually taking the models’ needs into consideration. For example, one of her models, Audi, is working on starting his own pickle brand, Audi’s Bizarre Spicy Slovak Pickles, zine and hoodies included.

“We always ask the model ‘Do you really want to be in this?’”

What is a casting director?

My role as casting director is different than the traditional casting director. I’d say, generally speaking, it’s to choose and curate the faces of the image—whether it’s film, print, or music videos.

How did you become a casting director?

For me, it started kind of backwards. I just had a group of friends that were very saturated character wise. I started casting because I was taking photos of the people who were around me. I thought I wanted to be a photographer, but I never wanted to do the whole thing. I photo assisted for some time—but I never lasted for more than like three weeks. I just took photos and people noticed that. Photographers started hitting me up on Instagram, being like ‘Who’s this?’ I would link people up, kind of like a middleman. And then I slowly started working as a casting director.

There’s a lot of talk about change going on in the fashion industry right now, especially when it comes to better protecting models. What improvements can casting directors make?

I think the people who are deciding who should be in images should be close in age to the models and the consumers that the designer is making clothes. Casting directing is a job that requires a sense of connection with what’s going on. It’s 2018. It’s no longer cool to treat your interns like shit. I’m the oldest person in the company—it’s mad young—and that’s why it’s very natural and fun.

And there’s a mindset in fashion of ‘Use people once and then throw them away.’ It’s really stupid. It doesn’t have to be that way. For me, it’s very important to work with the same people when I can.

You grew up in Jerusalem, a place that really isn’t seen in fashion imagery. How important is shining a light on the Middle East to you?

A lot of people only talk about us in the news. There’s people who are making hip hop in Arabic and Hebrew. There’s so much happening. Last time I was there, I found this crew of Palestinian kids that skate. They’re really, really good skaters. Now I’m trying to figure out how to work out a project with them to bring them to Paris.

What is your advice for aspiring models?

Just be yourself. I feel like people don’t tell you that enough. A lot of people try too hard, or pretend to not try too hard.

What’s next for you?

I want to move to Paris, because I want to do things more on the Europe side. I want to do more work in the Middle East, just in general. Whatever I do, if it’s for more documentary purposes or film or fashion, I just want to scout in the Middle East. It’s going to be a lot more easier to do if I’m in Paris than if I’m in New York.