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****<\/strong><\/p>\n When Givens graduated from Poly High in 1989 with his best friend Calvin Broadus, he knew two things: he wasn\u2019t ready for college and he desperately wanted to escape the violence that surrounded his home on the 2100 block of Lime Street.<\/p>\n After spending his first year of high school in the countryside of Chickasha, Oklahoma, where his father was raised and his grandmother lived, the violence was a shock upon his return to Long Beach, where he was born and raised.<\/p>\n “Being a city boy moving to the country was poignant and life-changing because you get a chance to see a different side of life,” he said. “It was there that I really cemented my perspective on the world.”<\/p>\n That experience\u2014one which he would reflect on often upon his return to Long Beach\u2014was defined by a near-tragedy, a car accident<\/a> that left him hospitalized for days. The first time he was able to stand, he walked to the window and discovered nearly the entirety of his high school standing outside in support.<\/p>\n “It wasn’t Black there, no White there, not Latino there, wasn’t Asian there, it was just our friends wanting us to be OK,” Givens said. “It really planted the seed in me that people are cool. Flat out. These experiences were really shaping my life, showing me that humans care about other humans. So returning to Long Beach\u2014you know, it’s the mid-1980s, so gangs are just blowin’ up\u2014I saw a part of life I was never expecting to see.”<\/p>\n For Givens, the same young men he had played sports with before leaving for Oklahoma had become subsumed in territorial violence disguised as brotherhood.<\/p>\n “It was surreal,” Givens said. “A guy I would play Pop Warner with was now willing to kill me because of where I lived and where he lived. I’m trying to process this all in my mind, like, how is this happening to us? You grew up over there and now you don’t like me? Why are we actively seeking to create a war zone in our backyards?”<\/p>\n ****<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1989, Givens and a few friends\u2014including Broadus, known amongst his friends as Cordozar\u2014were approached by military recruiters at the Long Beach Mall in downtown, trying to convince them to face a different war in Iraq. Givens was the sole person in his group to say yes, joining the United States Air Force that same year.<\/p>\n Upon his return to Long Beach in 1993, he discovered that Cordozar was now known as Snoop Dogg and that his neighborhood, plagued by violence, would soon become the focus of his own creative drive, thanks to a gift from his parents that, frankly, he simply didn’t understand. The gift, a 35mm SLR Canon AE-1 camera, initially baffled him; little did he know it would become a key cog in not only his future professional endeavors but a form of expression which has altered the way Givens approaches the world each day.<\/p>\n \u201cI really thought they were crazy\u2014it was like, \u2018Why would you buy me a camera?\u2019\u201d Givens said. \u201cI had no idea it would become a passion but after I took a class at Long Beach City College, my first print\u2014this shot of two young Black girls\u2014won me a contest and some confidence in my photography skills.\u201d<\/p>\n That confidence came into focus with Givens opting to photograph the darker side of life: funerals of young men gunned down, including his nephew, photos of current and ex-gang members, nods to the war that pervaded his home turf. With his friends who, seemingly overnight, became household names worldwide\u2014Nate Dogg (Givens\u2019 cousin), Warren G (a longtime friend), and, of course, Snoop\u2014he produced a calendar that sought to reduce gang violence<\/a> or, at the least, open a much-needed dialogue.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s life in the city\u2014this world is violent,\u201d Givens said. \u201cBut you have to accentuate the positivity\u2026 My Dad was essential in helping me realize that. You can put something up on a wall that degrades women or you can try and do something positive, create an idea. That\u2019s where the real peacemaking happens: ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, Givens, who never joined a gang himself, was able to witness its other side. With many gang members lacking fathers or father figures, there was a fierce loyalty amongst them that looked more like brotherhood than ganghood, a fact that fueled loyalty and connection the young men so desperately needed while simultaneously committing acts of violence.<\/p>\n Givens\u2019 father became a role model for his friends, especially Snoop. Though the boys were required to pull up their pants whenever stepping inside the Givens’ home\u2014\u201c[My father] wasn\u2019t militant; he was hard-working and he sought respect,\u201d\u2014the house was a safe haven of sorts, where Snoop\u2019s budding love of music was welcomed and encouraged.<\/p>\n The friendship gave Givens access into the beginnings of one of rap\u2019s biggest, longest-lasting careers as well as becoming an essential part of its history. After his father had built him a darkroom in the garage and shortly before the Stop the Violence calendar, Snoop rolled up on Givens developing a photo of him standing in front of an Impala, head cocked slightly with confidence. Fresh off the massive success of his debut album, “Doggystyle,” Snoop was putting the finishing touches on his second album, “Murder Was the Case.”<\/p>\n \u201cSnoop just walked up and said, \u2018There it is,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018Say what?\u2019\u201d Givens said. \u201c\u2018That\u2019s my next album cover.\u2019 It was\u2026 uniquely weird. I was developing something that I wasn\u2019t even sure where it was going.\u201d<\/p>\n From a roll of lost negatives that depicted Snoop\u2019s court battle in the 1990s to the day-to-day existence in Long Beach’s Sixth District, from his days in the military to his chronicling of fathers and sons, Givens\u2019 gaze and point of view permitted him to build a portfolio spanning both photos and video.<\/p>\n \u201dCapturing history, even when that history is ugly, is a beautiful thing,\u201d Givens said. \u201cIt provides perspective and it allows for us to channel positivity, to discover change, to have a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>