Source: Grant Halverson / Getty
As the Carolina Hurricanes resume their regular season schedule on Tuesday, the organization begins its Black History Month activations.
Including a pre-game panel with the Durham Success Summit, an evidence-obsessed nonprofit providing career readiness programs to young Black men 16 through 24 years old, organizations such as Jack & Jill of America will have a presence at the contest.
The organization’s Community Spotlight, presented by TEW Design Studio, will also highlight important individuals and entities throughout the month, starting with Mike Jones, the designer of the team’s first Black Excellence Campaign jersey.
A North Carolina-born artist who owns and operates his brand and business VIOLET, Jones drew inspiration for the sweater from “The Rose That Grew From Concrete“, a poem by Tupac Shakur.
“Tupac’s one of my favorite artists and as I was looking at a rose, it kind of reminded me of seeing a hurricane on a graph,” Jones described. “A rose can symbolize many different things, including love and passion, and you have to have love and passion for the game, so that’s part of why I thought it fit.”
Not just a reference to the physical similarities between the team’s logo and a flower, Jones also believes that the deeper connections between the poem and an athlete’s journey to reaching the highest level of professional sport can also be tied together.
“A rose from concrete can be symbolism for not letting somebody deter you from blossoming or being successful, even if it’s in an environment where it doesn’t seem possible,” he continued. “No matter the circumstances or adversity faced, you don’t let it become who you are and you can still become something beautiful.”
