An interview with Joel ‘Bonco’ Ramos
Several years ago, I was sitting at the Little Brown Jug. I had a brief conversation with someone as we reminisced about our days in the Oakbrook projects. Before our conversation was over I was asked “it’s important where you came from, but it’s more important to know where you’re going…so where are you going?”
Twenty years ago, it may not have been obvious to many where Joel Ramos was going, or what he would become. Joel is the second child of four to parents born on the island of Puerto Rico. When his parents moved to Pennsylvania, they spent three years in the Oakbrook Projects before moving into inner city Reading. Here is where Joel’s infatuation with wrestling and Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage were probably created. During this same time he was anointed with the name ‘Bonco’, and the nickname has stuck the same way an elbow from the top rope sticks.
At the age seventeen, Joel started messing around with a pair of hair clippers. Like anyone of us, he probably experimented with his own hair, the hair of siblings, and anyone else’s hair who would be willing. During this same time, Joel found himself with a huge dilemma. There was a possibility he wouldn’t be able to graduate high school. He fell short one math credit, and wouldn’t be able to walk with his peers in June of 1997. His only option was to take a summer course in order to make up the credits needed. So, he did. Unfortunately, a family death left him unable to finish summer school, and Joel never was able to finish high school. He didn’t allow this to hold him back.
Joel enrolled at the Lancaster School of Cosmetology. Here, he embraced the art of barbering and began to be one with the clipper at age 22. After graduating, Joel accepted his diploma as a symbol of finishing high school and cosmetology school. He began working in Lancaster as a barber at The Cutting Edge. After some time, Joel was given the opportunity to create art (barber) at Mike and Joe’s across from the Glenside Projects. Along with owner Eric Rodriguez, Joel is able to make a daily impact on his community and the young men and women who enter the shop on Schuylkill Ave.
Like any other barber, Joel has a fear. His fear is saying ‘next’ for the rest of his life. From this fear and boredom the idea of ‘The Line Up’Barber Magazine was created. Joel had done some marketing and photography for Reading’s Barber Battle and Kick Jam, created by Eric Rodriguez. Joel took this concept of bringing together local barbers and stylist and wanted to highlight them in a magazine. This idea was tested when Charles Seright questioned Joel. Charles believed Joel shouldn’t limit the magazine to Berks barbers, but expand it to highlight the best of the best – anywhere. With the purchase of a camera given to him by his wife Ashley, Joel began to experiment with picture taking and editing – yet another art form. He meshed his keen eye for the lens, and his networking capabilities to form ‘The Line Up’Barber magazine. The rest is history.
Joel continues to barber and create art at Mike and Joe’s. His support from his friends and family is endless. His cousin Marco and brother Hector both find it admirable that Joel could take this idea of a magazine and make it real. His sister, Maria, sees him as a always putting others first. She states that her brother wears his heart on his sleeve, while being kind, gentle, and funny. She calls him an ‘amazing dude
