I first met King Rob in the fall of 2013, at age 14, when I substituted at the alternative school he attended. When he returned back to his regular school, we reconnected again. I then invited him to join my community-based Cultural Arts and Dance Group to help talented, at-risk youth influence change in our community.
In 2015, he helped to cofound the Love is the Answer Community Showcase, where he shared his original music. His messages motivated the mind in an effort to spread love and to stop the cycle of violence that had claimed a few young lives in our community — the young members of the dance group had been caught in a crossfire on our way to drop them off at home after a performance.
It was during an interview about our effort to reach and redirect the youth via artistic expression that Robby stated that he believed that our dance group, or being affiliated with the dance group, could change the world. In summer of 2019, he was featured in our Unity in the Community Video. Yet, as expected, at age 23, he lost his life to gun violence on October 8, 2022.