By Ryan Makuch
An active involvee in the Washtenaw County for much of his life, and especially while living in the area, Jamall Bufford plays a key role by serving his community in a myriad of ways. Whether with Washtenaw My Brother’s Keeper (WMBK) as their Project Specialist or with CLR Academy, Bufford is an active presence with a vast array of life experiences to impart wisdom from.
Bufford’s journey does not begin in Michigan, but rather in Atlanta, Georgia, where he was born. He would move with his family at the age of three to Michigan, but his roots in Atlanta have remained vital, shaping his sports (as an Atlanta Hawks, and Dominique Wilkins, fan in his youth) and music (without hesitation Bufford offered Outkast as his favorite musical artist when asked).
At Scarlett Middle School in Ann Arbor is when another key moment in Bufford’s life happened – he would pick up rapping. Music remains important to Bufford through to this day, “I try and incorporate music in everything I do. When we do our CLR Academy sports activities, I’m always playing music. I just think music is like the connector of people in so many different ways.”
Bufford would know a thing or two about that, having been a full-time rapper at one point in his life. He would form the ‘Athletic Mic League’ with a group of his friends while he was at Huron High School. Initially attending the University of Michigan, and eventually a graduate from there, Bufford would drop out in 1999 to move to New York with his group and pursue the passion full-time. Bufford would move back home to pursue his degree on a part-time basis while traveling on the weekends, carefully balancing travel to Chicago, New York, and Minneapolis, among other cities, with his course work.
As is the case with many independent artists, financial issues are always a possibility, and unfortunately for Bufford, he encountered these issues while in Los Angeles. Moving out there in 2008 for a couple of years, he would return home to pursue other passions, and Bufford’s story only picks up from here.
Bufford’s passion and love of music was a key jumping point into community service, as he served as the MC Program Coordinator upon his return to Michigan at the Neutral Zone, the teen center located in Ann Arbor. He would eventually ascend to Music Coordinator at the Neutral Zone, and these experiences would really help shape an important project in his WMBK career, Formula 734.
A documentary and an album, Formula 734 is an intriguing blend of art forms on the exterior, and an effective way to reach young people and have meaningful conversations and interactions on the interior. He got the idea for the project while at the Neutral Zone, saying, “We were working with some young, court-involved, individuals at the Neutral Zone and instead of them doing community service, they could come to the Neutral Zone and do some artistic workshops.” As luck would have it, a documentary film was already in the works by the time Bufford joined WMBK, with whom the Formula 734 project is being done. Bufford took the existing material and tweaked it to his vision, adding the music component to make it exactly what he’d hoped for. The film is not out yet, however, it has already taken home a pair of Best Documentary honors from film festivals in Detroit and Austin, Texas, and Bufford and WMBK continue to shop it around the festival scene before giving it a more widely-available release.
Bufford’s other passion, aside from music, is sport. Describing basketball as his “first love” as a kid and a valuable connecting tool as an adult, Bufford says he wants to use sport and music in a similar way and in combination with one another. He explains, “I try and use sports and music in connecting with young people, but while not letting that be the whole of the experience.” With music or sport as the hook, Bufford wants to build bridges and allow for better academic, personal, or emotional support through topics that traverse boundaries of all types.
In discussing AFC Ann Arbor, Bufford feels the work being done at an organizational level is huge, both by supporting community leaders and empowering them with programming, and making an active, anti-racist, stance. Especially, as Bufford notes, in a region with such stark economic segregation like Washtenaw County.
The topic of income inequality and economic equity surfaced several times in AFCAA’s conversation with Bufford, and it’s a deeply difficult question to solve with no one person having the right answers. Bufford offered a few of his own personal suggestions, including investing in public transportation to allow better ease of accessibility for opportunities for employment, and investing in sectors that more and more young people are finding interest in. “Whether it be the arts or sports or tech, social media, whatever it may be, investing in opportunities to get involved and be paid to do it I think would be huge,” Bufford would say.
Bufford would also note the intentionality of the work being done. “It’s all very intentional work,” he said. “[We are] trying to provide resources to support and begin trying to shine a light on the inequities and disparities and using some of the network connections that we have to potentially bridge that work.”
Growing up in Ann Arbor and currently residing in Ypsilanti, Jamall Bufford is an absolute staple of his community. With active involvement in several community-oriented projects, he has been a huge factor in aiding in the operation of CLR Academy, while also doing important and valuable work through WMBK. Bufford’s road has been one less traveled, but it has provided him with valuable life experiences and opportunities to teach the youth. He has been and continues to be, a cherished member of the Washtenaw County community, and his understanding of, and willingness to listen to, his community aid in making him an excellent leader.
About AFC Ann Arbor
Association Football Club Ann Arbor (AFC Ann Arbor) was founded in 2014, and competes in USL2 (men’s) and USLW (women’s) national amateur leagues. We are a community-based club, focused on equity, justice, and anti-racism. We consider all of our stakeholders, including supporters, players, staff, and ownership to be part of the #AFCAAFamily. Come On You Mighty Oak!