(3/3) “We take a lot of stuff for granted…”

Courtesy: phillystreetmag.blogspot.com

For those who have been following along, you’re aware that I’ve been reflecting on the work of a former student of mine, Tyjae. I had Tyjae as a 6^th grade student back at the beginning of the 2010s. That moment of pride aside, another rose in its place.

His autograph and goals back in September, '09

Over the course of two weekends in November, Tyjae and his team of family and friends set out to provide food and clothing band aids to our homeless neighbors in Kensington. Ignoring the chitter chatter against engaging in these types of efforts believing they “enable” the homeless or those struggling with addictions, Tyjae’s goal was to provide clothes and something to eat at those particular moments in time; not at some future point in a possible shelter with maybe some services.

It’s an understatement to note that our neighbors were very appreciative and expressed as much! As one man put it, “Just a blessing you know, thank you…because we’re struggling ourselves. Thank you and God bless you!”

The foci of this final reflection are just a few of those who assisted Tyjae in putting these events together. When asked how important it was for them to be out there, doing what they were doing, here’s how they responded:

Rahsheen

“I feel as though this is important. All my life I wanted to do something like this because I see that a lot of people that got a lot of money don’t do stuff like this. And I don’t have a lot of money myself but I just always wanted to give back. I would like to do it again anytime.”

John

“Very important…come out here just to show love, to give back to those less fortunate, you know. We have donations and we have other donations from families and friends and we just tryna give back just on the positive, not tryna get any recognition…really from the heart.”

Jordan

“It’s good because it’s not a lot of young people out here doin’ stuff like this because they afraid at a certain image, like to do positive things, it’s not bad to give back, it’s a good thing, you gone get blessings from it.”

Ant

“Yeah, it’s a lot going on, you just gotta help people out, not everybody got it, some people don’t eat every day, some people really got real struggles that people really don’t understand. It’s a lot of people like that. Seeing people come through, they need stuff so it’s like good, so I thank Ty all the time, like “Bro this really heavy!””

[My bad bro, forgot ya name, hmu]

“It’s important to do this for our community because it’s important to lift each other up as a people and like he said it’s not a lot of people that are fortunate to do that. We take a lot of stuff for granted, even waking up every day. So to be able to wake up every day, have clothes on our back, somewhere to sleep, and not everybody has the opportunity to be able to provide stuff like this to people that don’t. Feels great!”

Tara

“Being a person who organized this event, I appreciate being able to see the people I’m helping. It’s a rawness about it being under the subway, people walking past, seeing their story on their faces, them telling me their story. It just reminds me of how pertinent it is to give back!”

To read more about Tyjae and his work, hit him up.

Instagram - (see below)

Blogger - https://phillystreetmag.blogspot.com/

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Thank you to everyone who came out to support an help also thank you to anybody who donated anything 🙌🏾 we appreciate it. It’s was a great turn out for @phillystreetmagazine first day of our thanksgiving give back ‼️‼️ @psm.snipe put on a good event 🐐🐐🐐

A post shared by Creator @psm.snipe 🖊 (@phillystreetmagazine) on Nov 23, 2019 at 3:52pm PST

(2/3) "It hits the heart..."

Earlier this year the city and Penn released a study examining the process by which Philly closed the homeless encampments in Kensington along with the impact of the closures on those who were displaced and the surrounding communities where the encampments once were. According to the study, “57 percent [of the encampment residents] previously spent time in a homeless shelter; 40 percent of encampment residents surveyed were homeless for over one year, meeting the federal definition of chronic homelessness."

A little over a month ago, Philly Street Magazine, a group of 20-something-year-old entrepreneurs led by Tyjae Sullivan, a former student of mine, set out on a mission. Their goal? Play some role, great or small, in being a part of the solution. With several bags of donated clothes in tow and boxes on boxes of hot pizza along with hot coffee, and other drinks and snacks, twice they went out to feed and clothe their brothers and sisters from other mothers and misters.

When asked why doing this was so important to him, he responded...

“It’s something I always wanted to do when I was younger…and now that I have a business I’d like people to know I’m about my community.”

As important as it was for Tyjae to give back and to be a blessing to others, it also meant a lot to his co-organizers and most importantly, to those on the receiving end of the clothes and food. In this 2nd reflection on those two weekends in November,  I wanted to focus on the people served. Although the question was simple, the acts of kindness meant the world to them!

Me to them, “Why is this important?”

In their words…

“I mean it definitely is a little hard to afford stuff and it’s freezing out.”

“Very important, I didn’t have anything like last week and I came by here and I got boots, which I been tellin’ him I needed them and…clothes I got. I got a pair of jeans from here earlier and…gloves…it’s really important. It’s awesome.” Her opinion of the food? “Good, great! Thank you!”

“It definitely fills the need for warmer clothes, you know what I mean? I don’t really have pants. I was able to get some pants, some new shoes; my shoes were leaking. For her the boots, you know and for self-esteem to get some new clothes, we’re on the streets and to get something like that’s newer, nicer, it helps out, so it—thank you very much!”

“You see, when a person comes out and does something for the neighborhood like this, I think it’s important because it shows the love. It shows love for the fellow man and it shows respect too, because a lot of people feel like they don’t have respect. Sometimes you misunderstand what somebody’s tryna do, but when you find out what’s really going on, you appreciate it! I love you guys, man! Thank you for everything you doin’ and thank Philadelphia for all the good people in there!”

“It’s awesome!”

“Just a blessing you know, thank you…because we’re struggling ourselves. Thank you and God bless you!”

“It turns the tide because you have people that are lookin for positive things in the community and this is one of them. This shows that the youngsters don’t have to wrap up in negativity. This is a good thing!”

Photo courtesy of @phillystreetmagazine

In one of the more interesting interactions, there was one man who declined to take any clothes or food but came back to the site with clothes in his hand. I asked him the same question, why was this important?

Him, “It hits the heart. I grew up in this area. I been fortunate enough to get out. I ended up homeless where I was. So I know how it feels to be hungry, to be cold. I’m in a better situation now.

Me, “Can you tell us what you brought [back with you] today?”

Him, “Just whatever I had to access at the house A few jackets and a hoodie, some toothpaste, some soap, I’m ‘bout to go get some tampons and toilet paper.”

Allow me to insert, that one woman was just looking for a hoodie or jacket when he walked back up with one.

Me, “What motivated you to go back to the house and bring stuff back out here?”

Him, “Seeing you guys out here. Asking me if I was hungry when I walk by, First, I got offended because I thought maybe you thought I was homeless, but I talked myself out of it.”

Part 3 of this reflection will focus on Tyjae’s co-organizers and what these experiences meant to them.

Photo courtesy of @phillystreetmagazine

(1/3) Former Student Serves Up Clothes with a Side of Pizza

I get all the feelz when the updates and activities of current and former students are positive! Who wouldn’t? Since their days with me in 6^th grade (or 5^th or 3^rd, depending on the year) lots of them have graduated from high school or college. Some have started their own side businesses. Others are gainfully employed. Some are serving in the armed forces. Most seem to be doing rather well.

A fair share of them have kept in contact with me one way or another over the years and for that I’m overjoyed! One student, Tyjae, has been keeping in contact with me since he left my 6^th grade class in June of 2010. This past weekend, he, his family, and some of his homies hit the streets of Kensington to distribute clothes and food to that section of the city’s homeless population. I’m honored that he extended an invitation to me to be a part of these efforts.

 

We set up camp at Kensington and Tioga around 1:00 on Saturday November 23^rd. There, we laid out a few hundred new or gently used items of clothing, including shoes, jackets, pants, sweaters, socks, hats, gloves, blankets, and more. In addition to the clothes, Tyjae and company provided free pizza, coffee, soda, water, chips, and other snacks to those in need or those who just wanted a little snack. The energy with which the organizers went about helping others was amazing! There was no hesitation in their motivation to stop passersby and to ensure that they were warm and had something in their stomach. Not satisfied with remaining on location, a few of these 20-somethings took items of clothing, a couple of boxes of pizza and hit the streets, walking down Kensington Avenue helping out fellow Philadelphians along the way.

Tyjae started a group and business called Philly Street Magazine @phillystreetmagazine. They identify themselves as Philly’s “new magazine for urban clothing designers MUA’s, hairstylists, entrepreneurs, lash techs, models, and underground rappers.” He and his group were the organizers of these meritorious efforts. When asked why he decided to do this and where the idea came from, Tyjae reflects and notes “it’s something I always wanted to do when I was younger…and now that I have a business I’d like people to know I’m about my community.” When asked why Kensington, “…because I knew I’d get to help a lot of homeless people.” That he did, as a few dozen people stopped by to check out the donated clothing items and grab something to eat.

It's no secret that Kensington is known nationally for its homeless and opioid and heroin addiction problems. From the Washington Post to NBC News and NPR, Philly has been in the spotlight and may be the epicenter of such a crisis, especially as the city seeks to be among the first to open a safe injection site. The problems in Kensington weren't the main foci on Tyjae's mind. Getting neighbors something to eat for the afternoon and clothes for the winter was his primary focus!

The efforts were to continue on Sunday, the 24^th. The weather had other plans. Part 2 will now take place on November 30^th from 1pm-6pm.

I salute Tyjae, his family, his brothas, including Ant (also a former student) and sistas, and everyone else all about doing some good in the hood!

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Put Your Ands Up!

I have been having a particularly difficult relationship with the word and lately! Part of the difficulty deals with me being an English teacher and reading professor. The other part of the difficulty deals with me being an ardent news radio listener!

On the radio, one of the news anchors constantly uses and to begin a news story. It makes it seem like the next story is related to the previous one. I can't say that I don't get incensed like, "STOP! X has nothing to do with the Y you just read!"

No.

Then on October 9^th, Dictionary.com published this on Instagram just before my old teachers turned over in their graves.

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And we said what we said! #Writing #Writers #Grammar #Truth #InstaTruth #AmWriting #Teacher #TeacherLife #WriterLife #Dictionary #Language #English

A post shared by Dictionary.com (@dictionarycom) on Oct 9, 2019 at 10:47am PDT

No.

Texting and tweeting, that’s one thing. We relax the grammatical rules a lot and it’s okay (or should it be - *And it’s okay). For now, however, and won’t be at the beginning of my students’ papers. And that’s that!