CGG

A few years ago, CGG saw Street Fight, the hard-hitting documentary about old style machine politics in Newark, N.J. And we’ve been obsessed with its star Cory Booker ever since.

This Newark mayor is a man who lives in politics, often in unconventional and creative ways. In the summer of 1999, he went on a 10-day hunger strike in one of the most drug-infested housing complexes in Newark, an effort that resulted in increased police presence and improved security for residents. For five months in 2000, Booker lived in a motor home on the worst drug corner in the city, inspiring residents and businesses to fight against drug dealing and crime.

Cory fell upon the charity: water gala by accident, having been invited by a friend, but said that he was in awe of how phenomenal the event turned out to be. He told us his favorite charity is the one he started, Newark Now, which does grassroots work in communities.

Having been inspired by his work on film, we had to ask him what advice he had on how young people can make a difference in their own communities. “Well look you know the United States has never been a spectator sport, it’s a participation fully engaged model,” he told CGG. “If we don’t get involved, frankly our country will succumb to apathy, to neglect, to lethargy, to all those values which we don’t…exalt, everything from hedonism, narcissism, materialism and the like. We don’t want to be a nation of that, we want to be nation of love, of strength, of involvement.”