(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.

View this post on Instagram

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!

A Letter to My Students

A Letter to My Students,

Dear Students,

I have no idea how this will come out at all so I’m just going to say what I need to say. Stay safe! Stay alive! There are too many kids, too many youth losing their lives over dumb stuff. Even if the stuff is serious, is it honestly worth killing over? I’ve attended my fair share of funerals for students I had when I was a teacher at John B. Kelly Elementary School on the Southwest side of Germantown. I hate going to young funerals, especially for kids I’ve had in my classrooms as students. Almost every time I hear of a student passing, I immediately go to the 3x5 cards I had you fill out in the beginning of the year. You told me your hopes. You shared your dreams. You showed me your vision. No one envisioned themselves checkin’ out early. How did we get from there to here? Should we not even make goals anymore? Should I stop asking for your 3x5 cards? Should I not get your autographs? Something won’t make me stop. Something won’t make me give up hope. Something won’t make me think that it’s always going to be like this. Some kids I’ve had at the Youth and even at King do believe that. That this cr ain’t never gonna change. I get it. When you look around and there’s not much to look at, it’s easy to think that way. But how is it that some people make it and others don’t? How do some people go on to live successful lives, whatever that looks like for them, and others don’t? Is it something in them? Is it their support system? Is it their mindset? What? I don’t know all the answers. Shoot! I might not know any of the answers. What I know is this, I want y’all to stay alive! Fight to stay alive! Fight to not just survive, but thrive! Fight to make it! Fight to grow old! Fight to help others grow old! Sure, when you look around, things look like cr. But take a second look. Look at the ole heads in the neighborhood. They lived. Look at the trees and the grass, they lived. They’re still here for some reason. Look at the papi stores. They’re still here. Listen to the birds. They’re still here. When’s the last time you saw a dead bird in the hood? How many can you count? They’re still here, eating the bread we throw down, chasing the bees around, flying above everybody else and whatnot.

2017

Just live, kings and queens! Long live the kings and queens! School might seem boring and useless and all that, but right now it’s the best thing we got going. Nah, it ain’t perfect. Nev. But the more I, I mean the more YOU learn, the more you’ll know, even it’s the path NOT to take. I feel like I’m rambling. Y’all feeling me or nah? Maybe I’m in my bag because one of my former students was shot in the head and found in Fernhill Park on Thursday. Crazy thing is, I just saw him here last year. We caught up after a 5-year hiatus. I had him in 5^th grade. Anthony Scott. That’s him. Little boy. Girls liked him a little bit. He liked to draw and be annoying to his teachers and whatnot. He was in my homeroom. Said he wanted to be a professional sports player. Then I get a text accidentally. Someone looking for their loved-one, begging them to hit them up, to call, something!

Maybe I’m in my bag. But I’m human. I think I’m strong sometimes, but sometimes that thing hits a little hard when it all comes at once. Know what I mean. Anyway, I guess we better get to work. This young Black woman was the U.S. Poet Laureate. She was the U.S.’s official poet back in 2018 or 2017 I think. Sometimes poetry helps you through rough times. Like an ode. Ode to my students:

To my students,

You can do this!

I dedicate this to you…

Okay I can’t really think of anything right now, but give me time and I can come up with one!

I wrote this during lunch as I thought about my old kid and the accidental text I got. Just had to get my feelings out on paper because I’m not about to cry in front of y’all. They tell us, especially the brothers to be tough. To not cry. They say it shows weakness. I got a secret though, I do cry sometimes. Mainly in the car, though. This new age says it’s okay to cry. Not now, but maybe later. Maybe the poetry is in my tears. Who knows? Maybe I just cried without even realizing it. Wait, was that poetic? Ard, lemme stop. Let’s get to work. Your “Do Now” for today is…