The New Hue; Meet Donnis Draper

Photo by Chris Braggs, The New Hue

What would you say to your 17-year-old self?

“I definitely would have told myself stay focused, save, invest and just really work on being a better or great person. See the world travel meet new people Enjoy life’s experiences as much as you can because that’t the only way you are going to learn. Experience is our best teacher.

JOLIET, IL -- Donnis Draper’s entire career was, in some ways, a complete accident.

“I actually started cutting hair when I was 12,” he said. “I had a background of barbers in my family.”

Draper’s uncle Percy Conway owns Conway’s Barber Shop in Lockport.

“I just kind of grew up watching him and being aware of the whole barber business,” he said. “I actually started cutting hair on accident; I had a friend who wanted his hair cut. I said, I could do it. He ended up letting me cut his hair and he liked it.”

Earlier this year, Draper’s friend Chris Braggs asked him to do a photo shoot at the barber shop where he now works -- Williams in Joliet. Braggs had an idea in his head for what would grow to be The New Hue.

“At the time, I wasn’t really clear on what The New Hue was,” Draper said.

Draper became a part of the group and after a video shoot with Braggs and other members Anthony Bradley and Courtney Ellis, Draper and the group went to Juliet’s to eat. It was here that the decision to not only host a black tie event to introduce the community to The New Hue happened, but also where a story Draper had heard at the barber shop that bothered him turned into the reason to raise money at the event.

“I meet young men everyday,” Draper said of his work at the barber shop.

One afternoon, he had been speaking with a young black man about the young man’s life.

“We were having a discussion and for him to tell me he has no real hope for the future and for him to tell me he did not think life could go any further, it really bothered me,” he said. “Sometimes they don’t get to live past their reality.”

“And they don’t understand that it’s bigger world out there.”

Draper wanted to help not only by being a mentor in his own community, but also by connecting his own mentors to the young men.

“I think that it was something that we really needed,” he said “It was something that was really missing in our community and I felt like we could make a difference.

“Knowing the guys that we have, knowing the capabilities, I knew that we could do something bigger, something different.”

The New Hue will select four young, black men in the next year to mentor. Mentorship will include a photo shoot by Braggs, a haircut by Draper and mentorship by the four men and their own mentors growing up. The boys need to be between the ages of 13 and 19.

"We figured that 13 would be 8th grade boys going into their high school years," Draper said of the age range. "This would be them ushering themselves into manhood now, understanding how life is."

"As we go through high school when we get to their junior senior year, now you are

17 to 19 is where they figure out exactly who they want to be or start figuring out who they want to be at the time."

To see the rest of Donnis Draper's photo shoot, click here.