After 21 years with US Steel, drugs and alcohol have left Michael homeless. (photo: Reed)
In the early hours of October 5th I had just given my money to Alexander and Phaze. I was talking to Alexander and getting my things together to leave because it was about 1:00am and I had to be at work in a few hours. Right then a guy pulled up on a Trek bicycle. My initial thought was that the bike might have been stolen since it was missing the seat. In a soft voice he approached me and said, “You want the real story?” He claimed that Alexander’s story was not representative of those facing real hardships on the streets. “I don’t choose to be out here,” he said. Although he was critical of Alexander’s choice to sell
StreetWise magazines, I support it. I have seen how Street Sense here in DC has changed the lives of many individuals here in DC. Michael was telling me that he was deserving of the $10 because of the hardships of his life.
So to give you an idea how this went down, I was filming Alexander and just let the camera running when Michael rolled up and started talking to me. Here is the raw unedited (with the exception of one part where we were interrupted) video from that conversation.
Michael said he goes daily to the labor lines in search of day work. “I get work probably once a week,” he told me.
Michael showed me the scars from where he was shot in Seattle. (photo: Reed)
He also told me that he survived a shooting in Seattle. Michael explained that it resulted from an incident where some other man pulled up the skirt of the woman he was with. He stood up for her and ended up getting shot six times. Michael pulled up his shirt to show me the wounds.
Michael's seatless bicycle (photo: Reed)
Before leaving Michael offered to give me the money back. I don’t really know why and I told him to keep it and he did. He said he was going to use it to buy food that week.
Right as I was packing up my stuff, another guy named Tim came by and also asked for money. What is going on here? Did someone tweet that a crazy guy was handing out money at Michigan and Randolph? Anyway, I politely told Tim no and headed home.
On my way home a filmed the following video debrief.
I gave my $10 away on Michigan Ave between Randolph and Lake (photo: Reed)
So today I broke a 293 day streak. It was Monday, October 4th, 2010 and I failed to give away my $10. Well, sort of. I gave it away a few minutes after midnight.
As you might remember I got to Chicago on Day 293. On Day 294 I was in meetings all day and then went to a work related dinner. By the time dinner was over and I said goodbye to my colleague, it was almost midnight. I had just a few minutes to find someone. I headed east on Washington Street toward Millenium Park. I was about five blocks away so I hustled down there. On the way I saw a woman walking by herself. I tried to give my $10 her but she refused. It’s particularly difficult to give to women by themselves during the middle of the night.
I got to Michigan Avenue and decided to walk north. The cold wind off the lake made it feel like it was in the 30s. I later saw that the low that night was 45, so I probably wasn’t far off. I was glad I had brought a light jacket along on my trip. I checked my watch and saw that it was now about 12:15am. Dammit, I failed to give it away before midnight. I slowed down now and took my time. The streets were a far contrast to the bustling foot and car traffic that filled them during the work day. Taxi cab headlights lit up the shadowy office complexes that surrounded me.
Alexander captures one of Phaze's pieces (photo: Reed)
Between Randolph and Lake I saw two guys sitting on empty milk crates playing chess. I slowly approached them. They ignored me…talking trash trying to distract the other’s next move.
Alexander finally noticed me and I said hello. I wasn’t sure what to think. All of a sudden I started realizing that it was probably not a good idea to just be venturing out in a city that I am not familiar with after midnight. Although I go to plenty of unsafe areas of DC, I usually know where I am, have someone with me, and know exactly what I am going to do if I get into trouble. Here I found myself not really knowing where I was and not knowing what to expect with these two guys.
Behind them were several cans of 16 ounce Steel Reserve 211 beer, some plastic grocery bags and a bicycle with a hooded sweatshirt draped over it.
Alexander told me that he was released from prison on August 18th. “I’ve been in and out of prisons and correctional facilities since I was 13,” the 55-year-old told me. Although he seemed harmless, there was something a little unnerving about reaching into my pocket and taking out my wallet in front of a life long criminal…but I did it anyway. I gave each guy $5.00.
I started to take some notes and they both got very suspicious. I mentioned I wanted to take some photographs too and they became even more skeptical. “You are a cop, man.” Phaze told me. He was convinced that I was with the police. I showed them my DC driver’s license, but that didn’t help, now they thought I was with a federal agency. You’ll love this though. Alexander chimed in, “No, no, no. He ain’t no cop. You know what he looks like. He’s a sorry ass public defender, that’s what he is. And I should know, I’ve known a few of them.” I loved that.
They stopped talking with me and redirected their attention to the match at hand.
Alexander showing me his picture and poetry in StreetWise. (photo: Reed)
“You ought to buy one of his magazines,” Phaze, the 29-year-old chess challenger said to me breaking the silence. Alexander reached over into one of the plastic bags and pulled out a copy of StreetWise, a street magazine similar to the Street Sense newspaper we have in DC. These papers/magazines are designed to give employment opportunities to the homeless and poverty-stricken as well as provide valuable insight into the challenges they and others in their situation face today. I am a big fan of Street Sense so when I saw that he was a vendor for StreetWise, I had to buy a magazine. “They’re two dollars,” Alexander said.
While I was searching for a few bucks Phaze shouted over for me to look at the last page. “Check out whose picture is in there next to their poetry,” he told me. It turned out to be a photograph of Alexander next to three poems that he had written. When I get caught up with my blog posts you will meet a Street Sense vendor named David on Day 304 who is a former convicted felon who also took up writing and poetry while in prison.
Phaze before he started to spit. (photo: Reed)
In my wallet I had two $5 bills and a ten. I gave him five knowing that there would be no change. He tucked the money away and went back to the game. Phaze knew his moves were numbered. “He is really good,” Phaze said about Alexander’s chess ability. “He usually beats me.”
I am not really sure what Phaze does. His passion is spitting or spoken word poetry. It’s a cocktail of poetry, hip-hop and rap all mixed together. After being defeated at chess, he asks me to buy one of his CDs. He keeps trying to get me to buy the CD for $5. In an effort to convince me to buy it, he gives me a sample of it. On this video you can see Phaze, whose full name according to him is Phaze Da King, spitting. At the end he gets a little bothered by my videotaping and hits the camera out of my hand. It’s all on video. Check it out!
I was ok and so was my camera. After getting him to settle down some, I gave him $5 for his CD. It doesn’t play in my CD player so I need to take it to a computer that has a CD tray so that I can listen to it.
Spitting was not Phaze's only means of expression. (photo: Reed)
So what do you think these two guys told me that they were going to do with their respective five dollars? Well, Alexander told me that he was probably going to use it to buy some more magazines to sell. “Or I might use it to buy me some food before that…or a toupee!” he said letting out a deep laugh. I looked over at Phaze and asked the same question. “I’m gonna hold on to it and give it to my son who is supposed to be born on January 1, 2011,” he said.
It was now about 1:00am. I was tired and had to get up early in the morning for more meetings. But my night was not nearly over. As I was leaving I met another guy named Michael who met Alexander while they were in prison. As it was now after midnight, I decided to make him the recipient of Day 295 and will share his incredible story with you tomorrow!
I recently had to travel to Chicago for some work related meetings. I got some emails this morning from readers who read my post that today’s blog post was from Chicago and they thought Oprah had me on her show. Nope, not the case. I was there for some work related meetings. My original plan was to arrive Sunday evening and return home Tuesday late afternoon. You know how ticket prices can be and it turned out to be a lot cheaper to fly in Sunday morning. Since I had all day to spend there I decided to find something to do. As you might be able to tell from some of my posts I am a bit of a baseball fan and love seeing a game at the ball park. I checked to see if either the Cubs or the White Sox where in town and sure enough the White Sox were playing their last game of the season.
The White Sox would go on to beat Cleveland 6-3. (photo: Reed)
I got into O’Hare, took the subway downtown, dropped my luggage off at the hotel and headed over to U.S. Cellular Field. I got there and followed the crowd over to the stadium. A scalper approached me with some tickets for $40. I told him that I only wanted to spend like $10 on tickets and he explained that the tickets he was selling were lower level good seats between third base and left field and he couldn’t sell them for that. In the end he sold me the ticket for $15. I spent another $5 on a White Sox cap (I buy a hat at every stadium I visit, I have 10 different ones now) and headed inside.
The ball park is beautiful. It was built in 1991 to replace the legendary Comiskey Park which dated back to 1910. Comiskey was the oldest baseball park in use up until 1991; a title now owned by the Red Sox’s Fenway Park which I have also visited.
Dan has been a White Sox fan for as long as he can remember. (photo: Reed)
I grabbed a bratwurst and a beer and went to find my seat. Although decent, I was more impressed with the seat location and the stadium than the brat. As I sat down the guy next to me asked if I had bought my ticket from a scalper outside. I told him I had and we had fun comparing notes from our negotiating experience. I think Dan paid $20 or $25, I can’t remember. Two other guys showed up later who had paid $40 for the last two remaining tickets the guy was selling.
Dan and I posed for a photo on top of the White Sox dugout after the game.
Dan was very sociable at the park. He’s the kind of guy that by the end of the game knows the people in front of him, in back of him and on both sides…and maybe even a vendor or an usher. He shared a lot of information with me about the White Sox and the stadium. It was nice to have my own personal guide!
I offered Dan my $10 and he accepted it. This was the farthest west in the US that I have given away my $10 so far. Dan works on the trading floor at the Chicago Exchange. He is a big White Sox fan and comes to about 25-30 games a year. He says he hasn’t been to a Cubs game since the Reagan administration. “This here is for real baseball fans,” he says gazing around the stadium, “and the 2005 season was amazing!” I noticed he was wearing a 2005 White Sox World Champion hat. He missed most of the series though due to a trip down to the Caribbean island of Saba. He also recalls the tie-breaker game in 2008 (also called the “Black Out” game on September 30th between the White Sox and the Minnesota Twins.) “I was sitting high up over there behind home plate,” he says cocking his neck around and pointing to the top of the upper deck. “This place went crazy when Jim Thome hit a homer in the 9th inning to win the game!” It was Thome’s 541st home run and if you want to get an idea of how crazy things were at the ball park that evening, check out this link. You can see how crowded it was and they show the home run and crowd reaction. Simply beautiful.
Final scoreboard message (Photo: Reed)
I went to grab another beer and offered to get Dan one. He told me that he didn’t drink. “I stopped drinking on December 24, 1998 – It’ll be 12 years this December.” I congratulated him on his sobriety and told him a little bit about some of the other people I had met through my year-long journey who are now sober (Bob and Michelle). Dan continues to go to AA meetings and said that he was going to donate his $10 to his meeting group so that they can buy coffee, etc. for the meetings.
I asked him about family. He is single now although he does have children he doesn’t have a relationship with them. “That’s all part of why I went to AA,” he said. Although he didn’t think there was a chance to rebuild that relationship I hope that some day he is able to be involved in their lives in some capacity.
Photo: Reed
After the game Dan and I went down near the dugout to see if any players were coming out. I took some more photos down there and then we decided to leave. We walked back all the way to the subway together. We were both going the same direction, however I was getting off before him. He was a really nice guy and I hope to stay in touch with him. We traded emails and said our goodbyes. He told me to go to Al’s Beef on Taylor Street for the best sandwich in town or if I wanted pizza to check out Malnati’s. I unfortunately didn’t make it to either one. Next time.
I gave $10 every day for a year. Would you make a $10 donation (that's less than 3 cents a day!) today to help those in need that I have met through the Year of Giving. You will get updates on how your donation is used.
Alexander told me that he was released from prison on August 18th. “I’ve been in and out of prisons and correctional facilities since I was 13,” the 55-year-old told me. Although he seemed harmless, there was something a little unnerving about reaching into my pocket and taking out my wallet in front of a life long criminal…but I did it anyway. I gave each guy $5.00.
Year of Giving 