Hoping to set off on a cross country road trip, two OPRF High School graduates are not just looking for a fun summer, but also to unite people from across all walks of life through a new video series.
Lucas Kult-Banout,19, and Ezekiel Wells,18, both 2023 graduates of Oak Park and River Forest High School, are raising money for “Crossroads America,” a YouTube video series they hope to kickstart in the summer, documenting their journey as they travel across the country and speak with people from across all political parties and backgrounds to find that sacred “common ground.”
After noticing political tensions at their prospective college campuses, they came together to use their love of adventure and desire to find that commonality among others and “uncover a fuller American perspective.”
“With the conflicts going on in the world right now, we are both bringing up a lot of debate and events at our campuses,” Kult-Banout said. “We both noticed a lack of dialogue and effort to try to find common ground. It is really easy to talk at each other instead of to each other and try to understand the other side better.”
Kult-Banout, a political science major at the University of Chicago, was not a stranger to being on video. He produces a YouTube channel that Wells, who attends Harvard University for computer science and East Asian studies, had already made guest appearances on, so the video series was a natural fit.
The goal is that by documenting different perspectives in a “fun and intriguing way,” viewers would be able to walk away learning a little more about others who they previously viewed as different from them.
“What we want to show is that people who are seemingly very different, when you look at their values, when you look at their challenges, and the dreams they have, at the end of the day a lot of those things are way more similar than you might imagen,” Wells said.
Kult-Banout, who was recently at the Iowa Caucus where former President Donald Trump scored a win, said he spent time speaking with rural farmers. As a Democratic college kid from Chicago, Kult-Banout said he was able to have those conversations and was surprised by their openness.
“Even though we had those differences, there were many people I talked to who saw the importance of seeking out other perspectives, of challenging yourself,” he said. “People on the other side aren’t as crazy as we make them out to be. They are just people.”
The video series would run on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram posts.
A priority is being placed on ensuring they make it to each region of the United States.
“I think it will be worth it to make sure we are really highlighting all types of people that call this country home,” Kult-Banout said. “America isn’t just for one type of person; this is for everyone and that is what we are trying to show with this project.”
The plan is to be on the road in early June with enough time to be back on their prospective campuses for the start of the fall semester.
While the pair hasn’t set off yet, they are already working on reaching out to communities across the country who would potentially host them and speak with them, including a Native American reservation in Montana and an income sharing community in the Northeast.
While they want to leave room for spontaneity and genuine conversation with the people they meet along the way, three questions are also on the forefront to ask of the people they speak with: What’s their biggest challenge? What are their dreams? And what’s something they respect and admire about “the others?”
To raise the funds needed for the project, the pair initially began working their OPRF High School connections, family and friends, and those with whom they had worked with around Oak Park, raising support across all political parties.
“We have raised support from across the aisle,” Kult-Banout said. “Which is important to us. The fact that we are able to have bi-partisan support means a lot to us and it symbolizes that people on both sides want to see something like this. I think we all do. I think we all know that it can be impactful.”
Through Kickstarter, they have already hit their initial goal of $5,280 and raised $5,464.
This is “seed funding proof of concept,” as Kult-Banout said, for the bigger goal of roughly $55,000.
The money will be used to fund the van, insurance, camera equipment, parking, flights, fees and miscellaneous expenses.
“With our Kickstarter numbers we are able to go to organizations who would be able to help us fund this type of work and show them that this is something that people have proven, financially, that they want,” Wells said.
Kult-Banout and Wells also said they are applying for grants through both of their universities to raise the funds. While they are confident they can raise additional support, they said they want to do their best to make sure they can to avoid having to scale back in any way as the conversations they hope to have are much needed in today’s political climate.
“If we are not able to come to the table and hear about what challenges and hopes they have that led them to that place, as a country, we won’t be able to make progress on those issues,” Wells said.