Meet Berris Henry Jr. | Student & Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Berris Henry Jr. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Berris, other than deciding to work for yourself, what else do you think played a pivotal role in your story?
It would have to be when I took a break from everything to heal and find myself in 2017. I decided to stop living for other people and started listening to myself. That is when everything changed and led me to begin my brand Goodneighborsclub in 2018.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Well I’m an artist/writer, I’d like to call myself a poet. Listening to my music is different from others because I have a certain way of making the audience see my story and feel it, from the beat to the flow and tone of my voice. I put a lot of passion in my music and branding. I think that’s why I get the support I do get as far as fans and merch sales. Definitely wasn’t easy getting to this point, it sucks we did start off as a collective but as you grow, you lose people and out grow others. That was probably the hardest part besides having to self motivate and discipline myself in order to stay consistent. I’d like people to know that I started Goodneighborsclub in hopes to unify Buffalo, Ny and the rest of Erie County communities because if you live here you’d know how separated the cultures/races are by borders. We’ve made an impact and connected so many people by spreading love through live shows, pop up shops, and facilitating other local creatives. I wanna continue to be a positive influence on others and in the future start a non-profit helping young adults with school, housing, and more.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If it was summer I’d say we go to Sunset Bay Beach Club or Kissing Bridge Snow Sports in the winter. Canalside is good to walk through or chill and watch the water during summer or winter time you can ice skate. The Cellar or Metagama are good local shops if I wanna stay close or the Galleria Mall or Outlet Mall if I’m feeling adventurous. Chic-fil-a has me in a hold right now but Ike and Bg’s for burgers and fries and Vice for drinks. The falls for a view of the water at night and Clifton Hills is always a good time but I really like movies so the AMC downtown is my go to.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I want to shoutout my city and myself for making the name. As you know we are the city of good neighbors and I added the club because we were a collective. I was going for something original, but traditional. When I originally started the brand it was Sabi and I drawing the Goodneighborsclub logo on T-shirts with paint markers. That’s when the red bubble letter logo was created. Later on Profit C. helped bring our smiley face logo to life and I started working with vinyl and other printing machines with my brother Antonio. Some loyal Gnc members like Dom, Potts, Retro, & Torrey helped build our influence with promotion and events. Tristan has helped me find manufacturers, photographers or just gave me opinions when needed. Marty plays a part in bringing the vision to life as our graphic designer, he definitely deserves a lot of credit.

Website: https://www.goodneighborsclub.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Goodneighborsclub/

Image Credits
instagram credits: @shaynenevilles, @whois_akil, @leemsworld, @grxzz, @creativeconnect