Dom Jerry
Spend time in the SCORES community and you’ll quickly realize it’s filled with dynamic and charismatic personalities, including the incredibly energetic Coach Dom. Energy practically vibrates off of him and he shares that zest and love of words with the poet-athletes he coaches. Dom has worked with SCORES as a poetry coach and curriculum specialist since 2018. in 2024, he created the SCORES Poet-Athlete Podcast to capture the voices and stories of young poet-athletes and SCORES staff. Below are edited snippets from our freeform conversation about Dom’s early days, his approach to teaching poetry and hosting the Poet-Athlete Podcast, and how he formed a punk band with co-workers at a phone bank in the Haight.
On growing up in Long Beach:
It was amazing. I grew up five blocks from the Queen Mary. We used to sneak onto the ship. We knew all the ways to get in because we had friends with moms who worked there – we’d go through the service entrance. My best friend was Hispanic and his Mom was a maid. So we had a pool because she worked at a hotel. I grew up in the ghetto, but when you’re in it, you don’t realize you’re in it. You’re just doing it. And this was life.
I grew up around a lot of cultures right in downtown Long Beach. You had Fender’s Ballroom, and it was punk rock. Red Hot Chii Peppers, No Doubt, Jane’s Addiction – they all started there. So you’d have white kids with mohawks and guys in low riders, really cultural. My life was like a '70s record cover with all those bright bands, all kinds of fun.
In 1991, I graduated high school, moved to Moorpark where my Grandma lived, and started playing punk music with my friend Shane. He played guitar, I wrote. We had another friend named Tim, and we had a plan. There was a kind of a resurgence of the hippie movement in music in 1992 – the new Woodstock – and a lot of musical stuff going on in Northern California. So we thought, let’s get out of here.
And then the LA riots happened. I was back in Long Beach at my friend Rodney’s House. He was the beatmaker for the Hip Hop band, Ugly Duckling. He was mixing music, and the TV was on, and then all of a sudden the news said there’d been an attack, only a couple blocks away. You couldn’t go out. I was there for two days, up on the roof, watching my town burn. All I could think was, “I hate LA. I’m ready to go.” And the day they opened the freeways up, I was out of there. I was done. Went to Ventura to get my stuff and moved to Berkeley, sight unseen.
On arriving in the Bay Area in his early 20s
I often wonder how people feel when they first come to LA and see Hollywood. For me, coming from the Valley, it was all about Haight Street in San Francisco. I practically lived there. To my 21-year-old eyes, it was history. It was all the ghosts - Janis, Jimi. Jimi’s Red House. That was my red house! I felt culture and art. I felt inspired in ways I hadn’t before. I was going to amazing shows all the time. The underground punk scene was huge. I was just soaking it all in, trying to understand what was happening. There was just so much music!
I got a job at a phone bank with my buddy Mark. At that phone bank, it was all about punk. That’s how I got into punk because everyone who worked there was in a band and none of us worked weekends. I’d ask them, “What do you guys do? And they’d say, “Shows.” Who’s playing? It was a cool network. And that led me to get into music. Before that, I never even thought about music. I thought I was going to be a writer, a serious writer.
On how he relates to his students when he’s coaching poetry
I’ve been writing since I was in sixth grade. I was into books, words, history. I had these Time-Life books I used to carry around in my backpack, and I was always writing. Journals, poetry, comics – I was the young Black kid into poetry. Still am. The thing is, I’ve had like 10,000 lives. I think about that a lot. I’m blessed in that I’m adventurous, and I accept it because you never know when you won’t be able to accept the adventure anymore. So I use that with the kids. Because I still see myself as a sixth grader. I’m still that guy in my head. I’m not jaded. I’ve got to bring that energy and excitement. So with the kids, it’s all about discovery when they're writing. It doesn’t matter what they write about, it matters that they care. It matters that they try. So I encourage them – tell me what’s important to you, what you want to do. Let’s figure out what you’re good at. There’s all this energy that builds and it can’t be destroyed. The beat’s always playing. Let’s catch it, let’s write it down.
“SCORES always back me up. It’s my cause. I’m a zealot”
On the origins of his love of radio and the creation of the SCORES Poet-Athlete podcast
My high school had a program called ROP, the regional occupation program, where you could go and learn how to do technical stuff. We had a radio and television program, and I got into that in 12th grade. I fell in love with it. I learned how to do everything – use the mixing board, carry a camera on my shoulder. Remember WKRP in Cincinnati? It was like that. For me, radio is who I am. And so after high school, I went to the junior college in Long Beach, because it had an underground radio station. I took some English classes too. Later up in Humboldt County, I worked at a pirate radio station. I was a morning DJ – three hours of hip-hop.
So I had this idea for a SCORES podcast and talked to Yuri about it. It’s a way for us to keep evolving. We’ve got to keep innovating – and we’re in a growth phase. It could be like PBS. Like Sesame Street or The Electric Company. We can connect to kids in new ways and new places. And I want people to know how dope we are. SCORES is a team, a united front. So a big part of my idea is inviting people from the SCORES community to come on the show – poet-athletes, coaches, program managers and directors – to hear what they have to say. Let them talk!
*you can listen to the SCORES Poet-Athlete Podcast here.
Unusual facts about Dom
He launched a pro wrestling business in 2008 and threw wrestling parties for three years, drawing on his experience in the punk scene. He went by “Caesar Black”.
He began his journey with SCORES as a coach at E.R. Taylor School in San Francisco, learning under legendary coach Manny after a dispiriting stint in insurance sales.
He’s been in both hip-hop and punk bands.
He’s worked in kitchens since high school and knows his way around a deli slicer, pizza oven, and Creole spices.
To read more Five Questions With interviews, go here.
Back in 11th grade, with his (still) best friend, Sirena Lee, whose mom was a drag racing champion.