Meet Denzel Peoples | Founder & Staff Lead, The Summerskool Company

We had the good fortune of connecting with Denzel Peoples and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Denzel, how does your business help the community?
The Summerskool Company is a faith-based STEAM organization created to deepen faith, broaden minds and raise expectations of teens in Atlanta, Georgia. We endeavor to create spaces that would foster a fusion of spiritual, social, mental, emotional, artistic and educational growth for 12-16 year-olds. This mission & vision are the driving force for approaching the whole of a child and propelling them to success into adulthood.

An issue that we see (and attempt to address) here at Summerskool is that students have to seek different spaces to help foster their various needs, many of which they do not even know need to be addressed. Whether it’s social media, friends, opinions, entertainment, parents, educators or pastors, seeking out help in their growth and development from so many things and people creates fractured morality and random voices who begin to shape a child into identities that could be helpful or harmful.

When we look back at history, the greatest artists were also inventors, and also poets, and also mathematicians, and also ecological scientists, and also theologians; to be a “renaissance man” or “polymath” as we now call it was to be someone who was an expert in STEM fields, artistry and godliness. We believe this means these individuals had core values that spread into all areas of their passions, not random, disparate hobbies.

We want to foster the whole-child to make sure that students can excel academically, socially, emotionally, mentally, artistically, and spiritually AND we endeavor to do this with urban kids in Atlanta so that those who have historically been marginalized and disenfranchised can (1) gain support they otherwise would not have had access to and (2) become change agents in their communities so that all who come after them will not have to face the same hardships they had to endure.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
One of the things that has prepared me most for starting the Summerskool Company has been a life dedicated to art in its various forms. As a child, I drew Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh!; then as I grew, I fell in love with the stage and acting and writing plays; finally I found my home in spoken word poetry.

My poetry is set apart because it is my experiences with faith, love, divorce, parenthood, addiction, loneliness, etc. No one can tell my story and tell it like me except me, and I can only pray that it resonates with others and brings them closer to God.

I got where I am because of God and the doors he’s opened up for me. I had opportunities in the late 2010s, to perform at places I’d always looked at through screens. Performing in auditoriums, at the Poets in Autumn Tour and at P4CM’s Rhetoric were dreams of mine as a young teen and I found myself performing pieces on those platforms that were bold in topic and uncomfortable to put into the world, but that’s what makes art art.

Being an artist and business owner has not been easy; as I’ve alluded to before, I’m currently going through a divorce, starting a non-profit, recording poetry albums all while still trying to teach middle school, be a good dad, and keep my grass cut. But I’m currently learning to plant my feet, face my fears and move forward into the next phase(s) of life, influencing young people on a grander scale for Jesus.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Atlanta is fun, but it’s big; it’s not just the actual city of Atlanta, but all of the surrounding cities, town and counties that we refer to as the amorphous metro-Atlanta. With that being said, a week ain’t long enough but if we gotta find some things to do, here’s my thoughts:

• Go to Waffle House
• Go to Ponce City Market (specifically the rooftop)
• Hit up Hattie B’s
• The Dwarf House in Hapeville is wild
• Gotta hit Portrait Coffee
• Georgia Aquarium & World of Coke I guess
• Centennial Olympic Park
• Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park
• Six Flags
• High Museum
• Krog Street Market
• National Center for Civil and Human Rights

The list is just too long. Let’s move on, haha!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My shoutouts go to all those who have formed me into the amalgamation of a human that I am; those who have fostered my educational, artistic, social-emotional, and mental health. Those individuals would be:

• Denise Peoples-Jackson, my mother;
• Joan Peoples, my late grandmother;
• Booker Phillips, my uncle;
• Dr. Isaiah Hill, my high school Science teacher;
• Je’Mahl & Jennifer Ray, my youth pastors;
• Jalen Havior, Kelvin Johnson, Paul Simpson, Will Guy, and Merman Austin, my brothers and fellow artists;
• Desmond Robbins & Justin Goss, my brothers in ministry;
• Gil Acevedo, my former supervisor and an artistic genius;
• Preston & Jackie Hill-Perry, Ezekiel Azonwu, Janette…ikz, Joshua Bennett, Carvens Lissaint, Chris Webb, Joe Solomon, poets I looked up to as a budding artist;
• and last, but not least, Zarah, Zakai & Zacchaeus, my kids

Website: https://linktr.ee/denzelpeoples

Instagram: @summer.skool & @denzelpeoples

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denzel-peoples-11bab2266/

Youtube: @Summerskool. & @misterpeoples