WENDELL
BENNETT

Coming from a broken home, Wendell Bennett knew what it was like growing up in a home and not having a father around to guide him through life. In his early years, he witnessed the deterioration of his neighborhood and many other surrounding communities. He saw the the destructions of many lives that was plagued by drugs, alcohol and gang activity. He confided that when he reached the seventh grade, he started hanging out with the wrong crowd, and that’s when a man by the name of Mr Strong, that was a skinny white guy who taught science at Rock Junior High School, in East Saint Louis, pulled him to the side and seriously talked to him. That was a conversation that he would never forget. tWendell said that really helped him make up his mind and think about his life. That was a turning point for him to gain the confidence he needed to believe in himself. Wendell knew that every child deserved to have good parents to guide them and help them receive a good education in order to help them reach their full potential in life. That was the beginning of understanding life in many ways. He decided to stay focused on higher things and stay away from those who would eventually get him involved with things that have brought so many others down. He later met Bernie Dunlap, a musical genius, who worked closely with the Katherine Dunham, an American dancer, choreographer, anthropologist, and social activist. Bernie was a great inspiration and became a close friend. Bernie taught Michael Jackson music when he took a job working as an elementary school teacher when he took a job in Gary Indiana. He taught Wendell to learn to write his own music and he would be able to create many compositions of his own. “HELL ON FIRE,” was a group of singers, dancers, and musicians that Bernie formed to travel around the world to perform. Before Bernie passes away in the late 80’s, he gave Wendell the blessing and permission to carry HELLS on FIRE into the future. So he did by creating a Foundation that would later be the catalyst and production company. That was when Wendell created his talk show, KIDS TALK GANG TALK, A Show That Deals With Interventions to Gang Violence. Wendell wanted the foundation to focused on a single goal—and that was to provide funding for at-risk youth to help to prevent them from getting involved in drugs and gangs, and stop them from entering the Juvenile Justice System. “We are losing many youth to gangs, drugs, prison, and even death.” These are all contributing factors that have lead to the breakdown and destruction of the nuclear family.