Home > Around Town > Urban Wellness: Building On the Positives

Urban Wellness: Building On the Positives

Denaryl Mojet offers practical advice for surviving and thriving

By Jim Mount

Fort Wayne Reader

2015-06-05

It's a few minutes before “show time” in Access Fort Wayne’s Studio A. It’s a pre-taped show, and there’s no studio audience, but Denaryl Mojet, the host of “Urban Wellness,” seems bursting with energy. He jumps at the director’s cue. Bounding into place, clapping his hands together and shouting out a greeting, Mojet is ready.

Though he’s standing in a stark and simple studio in front of a bluescreen, Mojet addresses the camera with an easy camaraderie. In the control room monitors, the Tri-caster shows him in different, sometimes fantastical, settings. Though the backdrop of his studio show may be an illusion the message of “Urban Wellness” is not — it's as real as the life experiences that have forged and honed Mojet’s message.

Airing on Public Access channels 25 and 55 (Comcast and Frontier respectively), “Urban Wellness” focuses on dealing with life situations and learning to bring out the best in oneself. 39-year old Mojet could easily be taken for a fitness coach, and you’d be halfway right. Mojet is a coach, just more of a life skills coach, demonstrating a knowledge drawn from experiences how to deal with the challenges and situations reality deals out and how to get the best out of life.

For Mojet, his focus is more on educating and building young men about what it means to accept responsibility in life, how to deal with the challenges presented in their lives and to learn about what being strong actually means. Drawing from his own experiences Mojet hopes to get his message out to his target audience. “A lot of my experiences have led me to realize that young men have a lot of misconceptions about strength, both in relationships and manhood in general,” he says. “I'm trying to put the word ‘honor’ in our vocabulary to help us deal with our infidelities, our tempers, our communications issues and our fear of commitment among other things.”

Daytime TV is replete with talk shows offering practical advice for day to day living. Mojets' show is a little different. Mojet has been doing the show for about a year now and originally came up with the idea as a way to communicate with his kids who live away from him. “My children are hours away, and the show came from my desire to find a way to let them know what I stand for and to document all the things that I believe and want them to reference.” Mojet says. Also adding to the substance of the show is Mojet’s own personal resume — enlisted in the Marine Corps for 7 and a half years; earned a Leadership Award and Scholarship from the Department of the Navy; spent 5 years at IPFW majoring in Public and Environmental Affairs with a concentration in Legal Studies and a Minor in History. All of which adds up to an impressive list of skills, experience and education that helps Mojet to reach out to the community at large with his own advice on dealing with the day to day life situations in an effective and positive way.

As the show grew, it took on greater dimension as Mojet discovered the value of sharing his experiences with other people in the community via the power of Fort Wayne Public Access. Although Mojet admits that he's not yet very strong in social media, he does have a presence on YouTube and a page on Facebook, archiving his shows for easier viewing.

Introducing himself at the start of every show, Mojet launches into whatever particular topic a given show is addressing whether it be dealing with teenagers or being a better boyfriend/husband. His focus is admittedly on men — having gone through and dealt with the issues he addresses, Mojet feels he can best serve and enable the community at large by offering his perspective and advice from the viewpoint of one guy to another, how to build up and strengthen another generation.

“It became my chance to share my experiences and lessons with other members of the community, especially men.” Mojet says about Urban Wellness. “ I'm trying to motivate people to use their gifts. I believe that a lot of people have gifts that they have yet to open and when they open their gifts they will connect to their true self and be happier and more productive to our community.

“I believe that we all go through the same things at different times and various intensities in our lives.” Mojet continues. “Once we acknowledge that and recognize the common ground that we all share, we can be more patient when dealing with one another. It also helps when dealing with stressful situations to know that although we may have made mistakes, it's part of life and we can circumnavigate with the help of others who may have overcame a similar situation.” Mojet even offers a word he invented to best describe his approach: “moticate.”

“I hope to ‘moticate’ my viewers,” Mojets says. “That means I want to motivate and educate. I try to bring new information or perspectives as well as fresh Urban centered inspiration.” Information and perspectives he hopes to draw out from his viewers, ”If you have something that you think can edify the community," Mojet says, "whether you're a teacher or dance instructor, or just have a life lesson that you would like to share please get in touch with me."

Urban Wellness airs three times a week Sunday night at 7:30 PM; Monday morning at 2:00 AM and then again at 1 PM on Monday on Comcast or Frontier channels 25 and 55 or on YouTube under “Urban Wellness”.