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Posts Tagged ‘poetry’

Day 305 – David D.

Posted in Something for themself, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 4, 2010| 2 Comments »

David is one of the most interesting and talented individuals I have met this year. (photo: Reed)

You know that I love the Street Sense organization.  Not only do I love what the paper and the organization stand for but I also have got to know many of their vendors and am honored today to call many of them my friends.

So when I heard about the Silent Auction benefit that Street Sense held to raise money for their organization, I made sure I was able to go.  It was a great event and they raised a record amount, but what I will remember most is meeting David.

He was asked to share some of his spoken word poetry at the event.  It was powerful.  David is so talented and brought the house down.  I knew he was my recipient of the day.  Here is one of the poem’s he shared with the attendees of the Silent Auction.

After he was done I approached him while he was by himself having a bite to eat from the delicious food that was generously donated by Fresh Start, a venture created by Day 225’s Robert Egger and the DC Central Kitchen.  David was so excited that I wanted to give him my $10 of the day that he started telling people around him.  His enthusiasm was beautiful.

David shared that he was released from ADX Florence, a level-5 Supermax prison in Colorado about 18 months ago.  “I shot a few people and threw them out of a window,” David told me picking at some fresh grapes on his plate.  “I had to serve my sentence there because of the violent nature of the crimes,” he went on to explain.  It was an odd juxtaposition.  In front of me stood this kind smiling man with a deep warm laugh who was sharing this information that didn’t seem to jive with the gentle giant in front of me.  He seems to be on the right track now; focusing on the positive.

Going through old photos I realized I had seen David once before. Here is a picture I took of him at the David Pike Awards. That's David on the left with Sam Ford of ABC7/WJLA-TV (phot:Reed)

David was homeless before serving his sentence and is homeless again.  One good thing is that he just was able to rent a storage locker.  “That’s a problem when you don’t have anywhere to keep your stuff safe,” says David.  He explained that he needed to go buy a proper lock for it.  “It costs $11, so I’m going to put this $10 toward the purchase of that lock!”  I happily reached in my pocket and handed him one more dollar to fully cover the cost.  He gave me a $100 smile.

David told me a story that I haven’t forgot.  While in prison he befriended another inmate who was illiterate.  Since David was good with words, this other inmate would have David write letters to his lady friend.  David would read the letters that she would write and tell him what she said and then write back to her.  “I was getting pretty interested in her,” he told me.  Here he was vicariously falling for another guy’s girl all because some guy couldn’t read or write… that’s movie material!  And a message for the kids, stay in school so other guys don’t steal your women while you are incarcerated!

I want you to watch David perform two of his other poems.  They’re powerful and deal with heavy subjects. 

David could use your help.  He would like to find additional employment.  “I’ve been cooking for years,” he said, but he would like to find something where he has more community engagement.  I was very impressed with this man.  He is one of the most interesting and talented people that I have met this year.  Although he is not always at the same location, often times you can find him selling the Street Sense at 13th and Pennsylvania in northwest DC.  Go visit him and tell him I sent you!

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Day 294 – Alexander P. and Phaze D.

Posted in Food & Beverage, Something for others, Something for themself, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 23, 2010| 8 Comments »

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!

Here is a short video of Alexander.

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Day 185 – Elijah A.

Posted in Food & Beverage, tagged , , , , , , , on July 2, 2010| 9 Comments »

I am still struggling with my computer issues, but trying to push forward.  Thanks for all the kind emails.   

Elijah Alfred Nature Boy Alexander (Photo: Reed)

 

The man that I am going to introduce you to today is someone that I had seen on Day 124 when I went for a run.  I was jogging through Lafayette Park which is just in front of the White House when I ran by a shirtless black man with matted cotton white hair sitting on a bench holding a wooden staff.  I thought to myself…when I get home I’m going to get my $10 and go down there and give it to this guy!  Well, as it turned out when I got back there I couldn’t find him.  Fast forward 61 days and I was walking through Lafayette Park with a reporter and a photo-journalist (Jon from Day 184!) from Street Sense when I saw the same man.  Unfortunately he was talking to someone so we sat down and waited to see if the other gentleman would leave so I could go and speak with the man I soon found out goes by the name Elijah Alfred Nature Boy Alexander Junior.  

Elijah was very friendly when I approached him and graciously accepted my invitation to sit and talk for a while.  The only item of clothing he was wearing was a pair of jeans that had been cut all the way up the sides like a loincloth.  It’s been years since he stopped wearing shirts and shoes.   

Originally from a place called Grambling in northern Louisiana, Elijah gave up his job at Southwestern Bell in Dallas, TX at the age of 31 and began wandering North America as an objective observer.  He has been married twice and has fathered six children with five women.  He shares a lot of information about himself on his website.  I spent hours reading through different parts of his site and his Facebook Page.  I thought I would share one of his many poems he has written and posted online.    

About the Author, The Poem  

By a midwife in a Mount Olive Community in 1945 was born
Elijah Alfred Alexander, Jr., as he has always been known,
to Elijah, Senior, daddy, and Annie Brooks (Gaulden) mother,
with two sisters older and sandwiched by an older and younger brother.  

December ’63 he finished his high schooling, a year and a half late,
while working also, and by the next year’s end had a military date.
He was married the next spring to one Camala Louise Taylor, by name, who mothered Karn Marshell, a girl, and a boy the third of the same.  

Vietnam was in full swing and took him twice to the east
where he, by one, helped the population to increase.
As an aircraft mechanic he finally got orders for Japan
only to have a medical discharge return him stateside again
where he, by another boy’s wife, increased the population,
totaling six (two in sixty five before the marriage relation).  

In ’72 he divorced, and in ’74 married again,
Dellie Mae Bolton, and before three months was a preacher man.
In August of ’76 he gave up being a telephone maintenance man,
to obey the messianic call to “judge not, go into all the land,
observe all things though you’ll have no place for your head.”
Traveling by foot his comforts got heavy so the extras he shed.  

Living like animals and not judging he used the art of reason,
saw all things relative and put all things of man into a season
and became mentally, physically, spiritually, and financially free.
He believes its how all christs, titled Christians, are called to be.  

                                            – Elijah Alfred Nature Boy Alexander Junior  

Photo: Reed

 

He now divides his time between two residences in DC where he does some house sitting.  This past winter he was the “fire guard” for the wood burning stove at one of the homes he stays at so he was not at the park as often.  Given his choice to not use a lot of clothes, I asked him how he gets by in the winter.  “I shovel snow,” he said with a smirk.  

Elijah has traveled extensively through North America, all by foot unless offered a ride.  He tells me stories about the 5 Canadian provinces, 44 continental US states, 11 Mexican states that he has visited.  He then remembers that he even made it to Belize.  “How could I forget Belize!  I spent nine months there!  Three and a half months of which I was in a mental institution there because they thought I was crazy and then four and a half months locked up in jail.”  That is not the only place he has had accommodations behind bars.  He has made visits to several jails around North America for indecent exposure; 32 visits in Louisiana alone, a place where he says the jails are usually quite nice and the people treat you pretty well.  Elijah tells me about being arrested for taking an avocado from a fruit stand.  “I was told by a higher power to get a piece of fruit, so I got it.”   According to Elijah there is an old law on the books that allows the poor to enter grocery stores and take fruit without paying for it.  I haven’t been able to find that law yet.  

I could go on and on talking about how interesting I found my chat with Elijah, but I want to encourage you to visit his website and get to know him for yourself.  Elijah is someone who reminds us not to judge others by the clothes that they wear (or don’t wear).  

As for my $10, he said he would use it to get some fruit, this time he said he will pay cash for it.  He learned his lesson about taking fruit and not paying for it a long time ago!  

Notes: Elijah holds office hours in Lafayette Park from roughly 10-5:00 every day.  I bet he would love to meet you.  You can see other photos of my visit with Elijah in this week’s Street Sense!  Go buy a copy and help a vendor out!  

References:  

Elijah’s website  

Elijah’s Facebook Page

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