I don't think it's different raising them, I just feel like,


it was good. It was a excellent school you know. We was all


cool. And then you got folks moving in from crazy areas. Then you got everybody else. Around my area growing up, venturing out and stuff.


AP classes. but throughout middle school,


Of course the basics. Math, reading and science, social studies.


I don't know, man. I just try and create. I try not to like look at it like I just do art,


I been doing this graphic design shit damn near my whole life.


at twenty-five mill. I just make art at the crib.


I wrapped that shit up. They was just looking like, damn, bruh.


Cause, you know, we from Georgia, nigga, we don't see no snow. Y'all got a bunch of fucking snow.


violent shit. It's not like, you know what I'm saying, too much disrespect or, you know what I'm saying, disobedient shit. It's just mainly like


All the bitches in there just start clapping and standing up and shit, you now what I'm saying. They all was looking at me. I'm looking like, what the fuck?


I swear to God, bruh. I said, man these niggas is weird as fuck. I'm finna be late.


I got to do what the fuck I wanted to do. I was smoking blunts and shit at work.


we didn't clock out for breaks. But they didn't pay me shit, so


we fucked around and got a new GM. And the lady that hired me was like,


shit, they was trying to slave me like a motherfucker, bruh. It really was-


gate dividing your porch and their porch. But when you come out and they stand there, you're gonna say, hey.


zone area, like you had to go to your zone school.


I grew up with my moms. My pops is from the same place, they're both from St. Vincent and the Grenadines.


tell my mom she needed to get me out that class, cause


And I know he saw them following him. So when they finally caught up to him, I just went up the escalator.


And then we also had corn on the cob and black beans


Vegetarian, not vegan. Vegans don't really eat like,


So, it wasn't hard for me to like transition from


family members there, but not really. Like, I still know I was the only child,


you come outside, all you see is your neighbors, all you gonna see is your neighbors.


I feel a little bit safer in New York. I think that's cause I grew up there though.


And I was at Doraville Station, and when we got to Chamblee,


when you come into this life, so I'm not ashamed of my name neither.


right now, I'm just still living out a poor rendition of the nineties.


Man, you know how many numbers I still know by heart?


what Wi-Fi does to the body. It causes cancer so quick.


that wasn't given to you by mistake. That was given to you on purpose.


If a man eats meat all the time, you just killing yourself.


like it's all these strings attached to it when you enter the system. And some-


to think that we going to sleep and we waking up. No you sleep in two cycles.


doing stuff that it ain't supposed to be doing to us.


it's because something is playing that up that way.


you see a insect you ain't never seen before, and it's got this long stinger on and all this other-


Some of them take shape and wanna whisper in your ear destructive stuff to you all the time.


And yeah they can overload but all you gotta do is put 'em in the sun or under a full moon and they fully recharge.


the reason why this virus is here because it needs to feed,


I keep thinking I wanna be a lot of things.


Uh, but the rest of 'em with these unidentified names, I don't have no use for 'em, you know, uh. They make but one record, and you hear no more about them.


You have a line, a double line, going around to the next block.


a standard thing at night when everybody was going in, all the kids


and we gets a couple of girls maybe and we go out to the beach uh


from the dance, like get out about two, three o'clock in the morning. Then we go to somebody apartment and finish off til the


time you know. You didn't have the parks, so you had to play in the streets.


So the Ugly, he finally survived through the desert


so these two got together again, the Good and the Ugly, they got together again,


we gonna have to have a show down for it, he said, I'm'a write it on this rock.


went for the draw, he was the first to draw but he couldn't shoot, so the Good shot-


Math class because I liked to work with figures and


always wanted to know what different kind of animals and


would attempt to do it. I'd go right along. You know, I was


to me, Christmas is family time,


and this seemed to be the same in uh,


Uh, like they want to see the Sound of Music three time.


about twelve years old. We had to put him to sleep.


I would say to me, it was uh,


uh, those days it was to be expected, because uh,


And that's why he can't function so very well as a secretary anymore.


my promotion both to Captain and Battalion Chief.


debatable way of talking, but uh he's not one of my favorite uh


Yes, it's on every day at ten thirty except uh,


So I ain't know nothing about it, so my mother's like, you know, go to SYP, sign up for them


I don't know what it is. Either somebody did something from our neighborhood to them,


I grew up in Kentland though, that's a part of Landover but


Probably already got a fucking billion dollars, you know what I'm saying.


Nobody fucking voted for me for MVP? Oh hell to the no no.


Antoine fucking Walker, old ass Gary Payton, old ass Shaq,


Dwayne Wade had one of the highest scoring averages in finals history that year.


I did but I didn't. Like I liked to go to school,


But when you young, y'all ain't thinking like that. Like everything is fucking funny and fun to you.


I had the baddest little joint in there, like I always just had the little bad joints and-


You know what I'm saying like, one of my men are always there I'm like, damn like, I had to catch myself like damn slim,


Like she's been doing her thing, and my sister she was good in school, you know what I'm saying.


I had a job and all that. This nigga gonna tell me-


right now my favorite artist is Kevin Gates.


Like don't son me, don't try to son me, like don't tell me what to do.


I have no type of feelings or no type of energy or anything towards like what our people went through for four hundred years,


My legs long enough, I can get around it. Nah, just walk the other way.


If you watch the Breakfast Club they got the bottle in the back of they joint now the whole time.


They not looking for the recognition all that, they just wanna play ball, they love playing ball.


what people kind of forget is that


That is the way that it is done. People that don't understand economics fall to the bottom of the list.


come up with a vegan juice smoothie bar.


there's no way that you can't kind of grow from this if you're not open to growing.


I don't know, I hate my hair, I think I'm gonna cut bangs into it. Like, that's-


black presence in east of the river. I'm talking about like Frederick Douglass home strong, you know what I mean. So there


looked for parking for forty-five god darn minutes.


then maybe the rental company, whoever dropped off the tables and chairs, but nine times out of ten it's the caterer, it's always been the caterer.


So on the day of the wedding, there she is in her little tent, she's getting it all set up. Tables in-


and they left, uh, their son there cause he was about eighteen, nineteen. And, you know,


and then we had people that was just moving big heavy stuff.


Like they parented me, they gave me wisdom, they ga-


My grandfather was in the Air Force and that's how he met my grandmother, so they-


And it's funny because they used to say Maryland girls were bamas.


Somebody in a small town in Oklahoma or the people in the city?


It was people that were our brothers, our cousins, our-


our family members. These were people that we knew, these were neighborhood members


gentrifiers, as they're called, when they get in my vehicle, um, when they aks me about DC, I say, if you hear


That's one of the reasons why there were so many fights at the go gos. There were so many fights cause they would start calling out one territory,


And even within DC they had their own factions.


that was like the era that I was coming up in because there were go go bands and they would do go gos in places like Marlow Heights Shopping Center.


um, hanging out with my dad. And at one point,


Never had to worry about nothing. We would roam Alexandria, we would walk from-


and that was like weekends for me. So like weekdays was back to PG County. It was back to, um,


block and you're just standing there next to them at Panera just getting a sandwich. And that's the crazy part about DC. There's so many people that come to DC for so many different reasons.


Like, man I'm trying to go to LA. He's like, nah you're not gonna like it. I was like, okay. You know, it's just


the chocolateness has nothing to do with the fact that


And it just so happens, me as a wedding planner, I welcome


the parents were very much involved in the school. All the parents went to PTA meetings,


it was mostly because it was sort of de facto segregation in that,


it was about this little family that was going to Kalamazoo, Michigan to see they si-


I guess she thought I was talking, but it was the girl next to me.


cause see it's some classes I really like and I don't get,


once a week, and you know I had to study from then to see if I can do it.


over a pass a C anyway, because she only see me one time.


Yeah, about three or four of us sometime. It's four of us, you know.


Well I think I'd go out and help a lot of people that couldn't help themselves. And I'd


Yeah, I still do. I mean, I haven't gave up yet.


It's somewhat like an institution where they are, I guess.


I go to the bathroom and I brush my teeth, I wash my face,


Then Christmas morning came, everybody sat and looking,


they take the bone from the chicken and then they say you make a wish.


mm, they might get the bone and they might say, mama what is this.


Well swings, and sliding boards, and-


What did she do? Oh boy, she got me with that cane, boy.


in general, I guess sometimes we might go over to some friend's house.


Well quite a few of them have taken French, German, Spanish, Latin.


there's not as much cohesion as there was. People have learned to rely on


Usually anyway, so there's no way you can really beg out of a fight around here anymore.


and things like this, I find this pretty interesting.


in this connection that I find, uh, sociology


and just sitting around on the porch talking, and bicycle riding,


a nun hit an eighth grader with a dictionary on top of the head and-


Yeah, she was tough. But, so, other than that, we really, I mean, I have to if-


and you know, we'll give you back Africa in their name. You know, like


and I'm worried about my cat. I got midterms and everything, and my cat is missing, and I'm going crazy.


you're coming in here and trying to change it. They don't look at it from that perspective.


for the most part, from first grade up until sixth grade, and now I'm in this new school where


you know, I wound up going out to DC our first year.


Um, eighth grade I wound up going to DC for, uh, a program due to


we had, um, dorms but it was a big community school as well.


you know, it was just everything was going on. She was, um,


still be able to run a office at the same time and still put on events


My asthma will bother me, then I'll wind up catching pneumonia or some other sickness and


And people that knew me from when I was two


I know I could get to the doctor's office, whether it's East Side, West Side, or wherever. I know


uh, income or affordable apartment that they have.


everybody has to have a liquor license because if you're on the Lower East Side, of course you have to have alcohol.


upper income families that have came back from the suburbs, or


friends of my mom's from way back when. Or I go to the credit union, which


And, you know, um, my mom taking us there every Sunday after church. I remember


my memories of my foundation years


my mom, by the way of her family, South Carolina, and my dad by the way of his family, Florida.


my mom lived with her aunt, and her mom lived in the South, so she kind of came to the city


they came up to First Avenue to go to school there.


didn't really wanna come back, but I think I needed to come for the sake of my brother.


They weren't your average junkies, they were very social.


to take care of my kids while I hit the streets of New York where I-


circus. They was death around, young people were dropping dead around and in this building,


They are the ones that are going to initiate the change and make sure the change stays change.


because they live there, they're the primary stakeholders.


You know, my grandmother, she has central air, central heat. She never had that. She used to have th-


And you know, once it's heating up, it's hot. You can't control it because it's wood in there.


our cafeteria for like, our auditorium. It was just small and um,


I called her not to long ago, and she was like, they're having a good time.


But you know what's funny? Floyd was not so bad, but


think it was a day and a half people called and said like, people were standing-


in the trees, in the bushes, just everywhere all over


my granddaddy has a handicap shower so it's just one shower, standing up


But kids and stuff, we was labor in school because we stayed in Princeville.


and your mind plays a big part of how you feel and how you feel about yourself, and


I'm very proud of 'em. And we have to motivate our kids and stuff.


So he told my mama, I put it in the shop to get it serviced.


to a certain age, I wanted to work and take care of my family.


and as I began to work and God began to bless my bus-


dad, aunts, and them used to tell me, you know, sometime you just got to put up some stuff until you find you another job. You just can't hop up and just leave like that.


And from there I went to East Carolina University.


kids were not about me and I was most certainly not about them


things being as they were and the water staying in here so long,


got everything cleaned out of the apartment, and he was going in the bathroom.


have no town and you gotta make some decisions about your town.


Our church used to sit back down in that


he said, you aren't gonna cry are you? I says, no I'm not gonna cry.


he wanted me back. He told the owner, he says, uh,


uh, finished cutting the roads and what have you all through Princeville


that they used to go around and


in the disaster of the flood and they were rebuilt,


some of the kids have been a little bit more fortunate because, uh,


they just move into the city with the same mindset, so.


we couldn't all be on the same page, but again going back to high school resources, you know. How come the city schools aren't targeted or marketed by colleges? How come they don't have programs where,


the polite way of doing it is breaking it down economically. So, you know, you're black, you're gonna live in a poor neighborhood. We don't have to fund you.


you should've pumped more money into that school, given them more resources and helped the kids, and it might've


like, I was talking about college, what to look forward to. I don't think a lot of kids even realize that the corner is


but depending on where you're from, your experience with


even in nursing school, like I experienced so much


So, a lot of it is kind of old school ideology and people not really realizing that


And then sometimes they say, we can tell you're from New York. So it just depends, I guess.


when we talk to each other, you can hear it,


and it pisses me off cause I'm like, what do you mean? Am I supposed to sound smart talking stupid?


if I'm at home and comfortable, okay, it's one thing for me to break everything down, but if I'm tryna convey an idea or get you to understand my point,


Unfortunately, so many people have missed that, and


those two pair of pants better be polished and clean every day, even if those were the only two pair of pants you had.


You went through vocal, drama, music, creative writing.


I'm really thankful that I went to that school for so many different reasons. Um, it-


I don't know, I've always wondered about that too. I just feel like


speak anything into me other than, you're going to college.


um, ended up being waitlisted for the nursing program,


So, lately I've been going back and forth with, um,


And, you know, traveling in the states. I've been to different states, mm.


But because recently, as in literally this semester, my sciences expire.


and also our slogan is, urban by choice.


for the people in that neighborhood. If it were moved to College Town, it would


down the street, and you're like in a totally different neighborhood. You're like-


it's a low frequency radio station. It only has like a four mile radius or something like that.


and also like the critique of what's going on in the community is


try to use that space later on. And the-


And I went one year where the headliner was The Roots.


children is really not sparked like it used to be like when,


so that was my plan. Um, I went to my guidance counselor


you know, talking to them afterward, their logic was,


and she was looking for someone to work on some life skills


young moms, so sixteen to twenty-one year old, um, either pregnant


in New Jersey who also have accents


Um, so there's a lot of Midwest and then Southern influence upon their speech.


one, there was a logic class that was like eight o'clock in the morning and I was a senior. And, I was like, I'm not prepped to do this yet.


I mean I could do the work, but I wasn't getting the attendance grade and that was like half the grade. So, I was like, alright.


If you put us side by side, one, you wouldn't really tell that we're brothers.


In comparison to him, he's a little bit more demure. Little bit more


But there's a lot of money and a lot of power, and a lot of influence upon


got our clothes together, hit the road, went to Cincinnati to see her.


They had little things for the kids like bounce houses, and stuff, but


Do you remember, when you were younger, like going downtown to midtown


So when I went to visit her class, I saw.


do a fashion show, and everything we wore in the fashion show we had to make.


I actually have, um, kids from RIT next-door.


So you kind of get attached to 'em, and so it's bad when


they way how you can wing it is play chords. Until this day, that's all I do when I'm at church, I just play chords.


little workshops and classes, and


as a whole. But it was more to it besides that.


Um, right now at my church I am, um,


But that's what's really holding me back, is fear.


But it's like, now I can talk to anybody and be okay with it.


but me, personally, I took the job more serious


But I can say it's this one story, like, we was riding our bicycles around the neighborhood


we're not supposed to touch and hug kids, but he


I was so livid, like I got that kid and I drove off


throughout my life, only thing I've seen is


And I can understand that because she doesn't have a high school diploma,


Where they can make the jump ropes and they can possibly sell the jump ropes,


Um, then we're gonna go to, um, two of the poor schools.


I don't know how to describe it, but it's like, basically they back their breads in it.


we're gonna go down there and help them do that, and we probably gonna


but she was also telling me things about life.


I got experience being around Asian kids, um,


So it was kind of hard by the time I got to my junior and senior year, I probably only had like, one or two friends


and I just started playing a song. And my band director came up to me and he was like, what are you playing?


I also remember, we used to have a little pathway through the woods.


I have a southern drawl, but I don't talk hoodish all day.


vibe of oh, I'm'a cause a problem with anybody.


And then the people they got in a fight with was like, oh, we gonna get more people


do this, this and that, and we gonna come to y'all place, this and all that.


it was really me and my grandma from when I was six, seven, eight years old.


freedom from being told not to keep it cut, just freedom of like


One of my friends, that I'm friends with now, me and him used to hate each other back in the day.


okay, before even school started, everything was way quieter around me.


you don't know nothing about football around here, it's like a-


things got way more intense when we was in high school


just about every thing on the line, really, like a lot of different stuff on the line.


So they gonna bully, I'll be the biggest bully, cause that's not allowed.


Oh subject matter, oh I'm so sorry. English language arts.


And so I couldn't curve to go up in the driveway to kind of stop on the grass. So what I did, curve flop.


they just knocked it down. Built a new school and then renamed it.


I don't know. I'd have to think about that because I had great teachers.


teacher when I was in fifth grade. Then became an assistant principle. I don't know if he became a principal principal, but then got into trouble. So I don't know where he is now.


she had been my rock and so this was the opportunity for me to be her rock, so.


you telling me you had a stroke was just like, oh my god, you know, cause


calm down, she's at the hospital. They got her.


But at the same time, not at the expense of your health.


Just keeping 'em involved in something positive so they wouldn't


And, I work in a residential facility, which is,


I've been in, my position about-


it was the first time in my whole life I ever seen


the program they have available and stuff like that, so


Because I think so many times people get so wrapped up and caught on-


there's a whole bunch of marbles, you make a circle in the sand,


I was good at that. Now one thing I wasn't good at was the yo-yo.


crazy from where we've come now, to


Actually I have two master's. One in counseling and one in, um,