Today we’d like to introduce you to Nef Price.
Hi Nef, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I AM Nef. I’d characterize myself as a: Deconstructionist, Cynical-Optimist and Al-Khemist, who is Guided by Torah. The Exalted people’s diplomat. I am just starseed here to Raise YAH Frequency.
My brand is called BLKPHNX.
Blkphnx has 2-components… Tennis & Education.
As a kid my dad trained me as an elite tennis player. I went to IMG growing up, and was at a few points in my junior career, among the best National players in the United States who was competing at a high international level. I came from a highly disciplined, motivated and educated family.
My dad is a doctor, currently serving as a CEO of a hospital system and my mama is a retired English teacher (one of the first ever at IMG) and my big sister is also a CEO of a hospital.
As a kid, I was up every morning by like 4:30am as I had a strict diet, stretch routine and workout before school. After school I played tennis with my coach for about 2-3 hours and did a plyometric workout or run afterwards.
The expectations for me and my sister were always high and it was expected that we reach them.
As hard as I worked in my sport, I needed to work just as hard in school and maintain a high GPA.
My parents always taught me of that age old double standard of excellence when it came to us showing we deserved to be in the spaces that we were in because most times we were the only black kids and the only black family in many of the circles we were in.
You’d think between my parents being a doctor and a teacher and the fact that we belonged to country clubs was enough to quell imposter syndrome, but unfortunately those low frequency forces were strong enough as they wanted us to be reminded of “our place” often.
Both my sister and I earned a full tennis scholarship to The University of Southern Mississippi. Although we are 6 years apart in age… for a while we disrupted the status quo of country club politics in Mississippi.
I played #1 Singles and Doubles my entire college career and was Conference Player of the Week a couple of times.
As I was coming in as a Freshman, my sister was leaving the school as a graduate assistant coach. I graduated with a degree in Political Science and Spanish, then decided that I too wanted to continue my educational journey.
I graduated college a semester early and in January of 2009 I moved to New York City and earned a Master’s degree in Education from Wagner College on Staten Island.
I was probably one of the youngest. college coaches in the country, as I was just 21 years old when I became the interim head coach for the D1 Men’s and Women’s tennis teams. I had no assistant coach and was able to still recruit, travel, set player’s schedules, coach and still graduate Magna Cum Laude without any guidance or training.
After graduation, I moved into a an apartment in Queens and got a tennis coaching job with Forest Hills Tennis Club in Queens, where I was also asked to play Althea in a movie about Althea Gibson as the club was the first site of the US Open. The director approached me and told me I look, act, walk, talk and play just like Althea so it was perfect!
After working there from April 2009 to September, I was asked by the then head tennis coach to be his graduate assistant. The crazy thing was, a week before school was set to begin, he disappeared and I never spoke to him again. The athletic director made the decision to allow me to maintain my scholarship and position as GA, although I actually took on the role of an unpaid college coach.
After graduation, The National Urban League offered me the position of education coordinator, to then be promoted to interim Education Director later that year.
In this job, I worked across all 5 boroughs and contracted with middle and high schools to develop curriculum and teach critical thinking / life skills to particular students in each school. Some programs were honors kids and some programs were “at-risk” kids.
I even took a group of 5 boys to New Orleans for a conference where we had breakfast with President Obama at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center for one of our projects.
My office was located in the Heart of Harlem, and on Fridays, I went to Wall Street to visit our National Office in the Silverstein building for meeting with our executive board.
I lived in Brooklyn and on the weekends I still had a tennis job at a prestigious club in mid-town Manhattan.
I literally experienced every socio-economic situation and its conditions every single day on every level and extremity. As an empath, you can imagine how overstimulated I was at times, but I leaned into it so that could expand my consciousness more and this clarity brought me peace.
After clarity and disillusionment with the politics, I left the Urban League and became Assistant Tennis Director at New York Tennis Club in the Bronx and Assistant Summer Camp Director in Partnership with Maritime College and the club.
I was also a Site Director for Advantage Tennis Clubs in Manhattan and contracted with The United Nations School and The Avenues Global School where I wrote the curriculum, managed staff and facilitated classes.
Simultaneously, I was a tennis pro with NY Sports Clubs in Brooklyn and The Club of Riverdale in The Bronx.
I was always on the go, barely slept, but I was very hungry so that kept me going.
I was in New York for Occupy Wall Street, Trayvon Martin’s murder and protests, and I was there to witness how populations are forcibly removed and policed through laws like “stop and frisk” and gentrification, until I too could no longer afford the housing market and proper standard of living, EVEN WITH my education, work ethic and modest lifestyle.
When I left NYC in 2015, it felt like a loss as I felt as though I was elevating myself in education and tennis in many respects, to the point where I was beginning to merge the opportunities and connections. However, I ran out of time to collect the amount to money I needed to stay in the game.
I was in one of the intellectual capitals of the country and learned so much about who I was in those years and spaces, that I resolved and accepted that perhaps that season was meant to be over.
I learned so much about the history of the country in that city, cause and effects of wealth and poverty and the perpetuation and re-packaging of the status quo to fit the times.
I now, own and control BLKPHNX LLC (tennis & education) and I partner with Edison Academics as a US History and American Government teacher.
I also partner with The City of Sarasota / Payne Park and teach my tennis programs there.
I have worked as a campaign manager in the 2024 election for Manatee County Commission Candidate and served as advisors to many local community leaders.
I currently live on a farm where we do wellness workshops, retreats and farm to table events.
I have a beautiful fiancé, Lindsey Hudson, a local artist and event / marketing planner who keeps me and my business together. We have a Dutch Shepard named ‘ZO’ who is 3 years old.
In my personal time, I am a true nerd who spends 90% of it researching and writing. I have boxes and boxes of books and journals in my parent’s garage and in me and Lindsey’s tiny camper we live in on the property.
The other 10% of my time I am doing some sort of martial arts, garden shopping, farmer’s markets, museums and art shows, punk and metal bands, listening to hip hop and Jazz in a park and going to the gun range.
I am an introvert who gets Burts of energy when activated in the right spaces around the right people. If I leave the house, I demand substance.
Meeting a friend for coffee, wine, cigar & a bourbon is how I like to get down.
My fiancé and I are vegan foodies and if Im in the right Resturant, I might try the fish if it isn’t shellfish.
I’d say Im humble, but confident and modest with a little bougie for quality.
I’ll never forget the lessons I learned from my mentors. One of my mentors was my Loctician, another was my rasta “juice man” in my neighborhood on Flatbush, the Yemeni corner store where a father and son made my coffee at any point in the day as we discussed world events, the Dominicans saw my face every morning as I would go grab my egg and cheese sandwich from them before getting on the train to work, and of course every body on the block who had stories to tell me.
In my free time I hung out in Union Square with all of the hipsters and the activists and smoked weed on the rooftops of my rich friend’s lofts who lived in the area.
I played soccer with South Americans and listened to rap ciphers from rappers all over the city that wanted a platform to flex on the square, which also included the acrobats and the skateboarders who did tricks in traffic like they WERE acrobats.
My boss was an Italian from Brooklyn who became like a father to me while I was living there, and many of my friends and associates through tennis were always inviting me into rooms I’d never imagine I’d be in.
I loved the Afro-Diaspora. From Brooklyn to Harlem, I was taught and exposed to Shamans, pastors and priests, Imams and former / present revolutionaries.
This is also when I decided to be referred to as NEFER-RA.
EVERYTHING IS IN A NAME.
names carry heavy weight. our names reflect our social and cultural identity, our heritage, and it embodies our hopes and has profound influences on how we are treated.
On Personal Sovereignty:
What IS Sovereignty?
Sovereignty is the Right or Authority to govern oneself.
A person’s sovereignty or self-ownership refers to an individual’s inherent right to govern themselves without interference.
This refers to their body, actions and decisions.
Self-sovereignty in a spiritual context means that we are in control of our own mind, spirit and life…
That we allow space for our OWN reflections and the thoughts and feelings that align us to our authentic selves…
Knowing our purpose and pursuing our passions without external pressures or manipulations…
And a RESISTENCE to being controlled by others and reclaiming our power.
GOD. Not man or man’s government… is the Supreme Ruler.
God is King and Authority of ALL things… including human affairs, nature and the movement of the earth and the seas.
ALTHOUGH God’s Divine Purpose and Plans go against our ability to comprehend… God gave us the power of intuition, pattern recognition, discernment, and logical reasoning….
In order to walk by faith and not by sight…
A Power Mixed with love, empathy and compassion to balance it all.
Those of my brethren and sistren who may not recognize this as a characterization of God….
I have for you parallels that interconnect… Such as Universal Law, Cause and Effect, and Energy Transfer.
All truth comes back to the scientific principles of SOURCE.
In science and in spirituality… we are guided by principles that allow for us to receive information or messages in order to reach a higher frequency, a higher self or higher ordered thought process.
I’ll provide you with a bit more context and back story:
blkphnx was created in the mind of Nef.
my objective in any situation is rooted in getting to TRUTH.
this probably stems from my anxiety, adhd and imposter syndrome…
that if I can just get to the root or source of why things are the way they are and how they got to be that way, it puts everything into perspective in a natural light.
“truth is complex, and such is life.”
there is so much history, with so many intersections and nuances…
in order to get to truth we have to let go of our egos to expand our consciousness and thought processes, to raise our vibrational frequencies to a Higher Self.
One way to best describe my intention and thought process in all that I do is within my personal philosophy that I wrote some time last year:
“We often times oversimplify complex concepts;
Our unconscious mind, being the “well-oiled machine” that it is,
Serves as our foundational thought process.
We are witness in a time of global awakening and imperial dissension.
In order to continue to disentangle ourselves from generational oppressive systems, we must first decolonize the frameworks that govern those concepts.
In our journey, which I believe is a journey of The Spirit, we will share and bring forth testimony, draw connections between people, governmental policies, events, and ideologies through methods that are considered unconventional in our mainstream educational spaces.
We will engage in genuine philosophical discourse by rooting ourselves in genuine intentions to fight for democracy, sovereignty, self-determination and justice;
To push back against censorship, discreditation tactics and authoritarian control of The People’s Narrative.
“We can’t stop the wave, but we can learn to surf’”
-Nef
I think this pretty much sums up my goals and objectives with BlkPhnx, in all that I do:
“Everybody can’t be the quarter-back”
The older I get, and the more I research and understand why nations, communities and people…
Are able to…
not only conquer and control others, but are able to prevent and defend themselves from BEING conquered and controlled.
They not only have a strong sense of self, identity and love…
But they have a structure in place in which everyone knows and plays their role, and respects and uplifts the roles of their brethren and sistren who are interwoven into the same struggle… with the same common purpose…
Whether that be on the low, middle or high point of the hierarchy…
A collective consciousness, (not to be confused with group-think)…
Begins with a HEALTHY community who’s individuals seek and work from an inner peace and a higher purpose…
A collective consciousness that serves God with humility, gratitude, discernment and style.
A collective consciousness that acts on the Love that allows us to Atone for the apathy and the greed, the selfishness and animalistic nature that this dog-eat dog, low frequency so-called civil society world has taught us…
It has taught us to keep hating self, to hate reflections of self…
THUS preventing Christ LIKE Consciousness.
A healthy congregation…not only understands the beast that stands before them,, but they overstand the God within them…
They KNOW and REMEMBER
THE PROMISE.
“NO WEAPON FORMED AGAINST US SHALL PROSPER.”
Because there IS no justice. Its JUST US.
For Collective Liberation,
We must re-build…
By re-defining, re-imagining, and offer the most humble Repentance for our intended and unintended misguidance and engagement in destructive practices and policies;
Consciously or Unconsciously.
In Order to…
Connect to our ancestral and cultural roots OUTSIDE the confines and pressures of capitalism and colonialism…
To create an independent, self-sufficient and healthy community….
Even when your government abandons you.
THIS, is my life mission.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Knowing Thyself and To Thine own self Staying True.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Family.
Because “at the end of the day”….
What else is there?
Contact Info:
- Substack: @blkphnx
- Instagram: @blackphoenix_nef | @blkphnxllc
