March 2021 Recovery Newsletter

3rd Street Beat

How You See Yourself Matters

Produced by Clients of The Recovery Center 8 east 3rd Street 10003 #16 March 2021

Tiktok @Dtrain360

The 3rd Street Beat Mission Statement

TABLE OF CONTENTS FEATURES

The Third Street Beat is a newsletter written by and created for people with addiction. Our mission is to validate that experience so people know that they are not alone, and to emphasize the many unique roads that we take to recovery. This is an opportunity to share our experiences to creatively support each other. We are non-political, non-denominational, multi-racial, and gender neutral. Our mission is one of recovery and harm reduction, and all experiences are welcome. All the viewpoints herein are personal in nature and related specifically to our contributors’ recovery.

People Power

by Shams da Baron p. 5

The 3rd Street Beat Editorial Team

ART

The 3rd Street Beat is produced by The Recovery Center community with assistance from the occupational therapy team.

POETRY & PROSE

Who is the real monster?

By Moses Flores and Noyes p. 3 Louisiana Purchase

by Steven McGlothlin p.4 To Do Me by Mark Johnson p. 4 Dante’s Stuck in the Game

by Dante Hargitt p. 4 Without You by Antonio Cruz p. 7 My Story is Called the Forest

by Dante Hargitt p. 7

How You See Yourself Matters...

Cover art by David Martinez Tiktok @Dtrain360 The Rest

3rd Street Beat back issues can be downloaded at:

Sudoku p. 2 Sudoku solution p. 3

www.projectrenewal.org/rc-newsletters

Follow TRC on Instagram! @recoverycenternyc

SUDOKU (solution p. 3) The rules of the game are simple: each of the nine blocks has to contain all the numbers 1-9 within its squares. Each number can only appear once in a row, column or box.

These pieces were written in the TRC Writing Group after reading an excerpt of the novel Frankenstein. Who is the real monster, Dr Frankenstein or his creation?

Who is the Real Monster by Noyes “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good…” being birthed was not my choice...abandoned at birth...in search of my father...guided by instinct, alone...for years I wandered, in search of him...guided solely by my heart’s direction...the very heart given to me by my creator...I did not choose to be born or abandoned…

Drugs and alcohol have undoubtedly had an adverse effect on my life...but there were also the good times...the absolute bliss,,,the same could be said for my relationships with women...but can I blame these elements for the unfortunate position I’ve assumed?... drugs and alcohol were here long before me...and women long before them…”sex drugs and rock n’ roll’ has always existed (for me). I’ve always had the choice to take it or leave it...and, even in my decision to dance with the devil, I always had the chance to lead...I was seduced by the rhythm - swept off my feet...to explain my present condition, it’s easy to say, “the devil made me do it…” but this devil is my creation...a sum of the parts I assembled and incorporated into my life...if not for my curiosity and compulsion, much pain could have been avoided...both, my pain and that of those I claim to love.

The Right Way by Moses Flores

SUDOKU solution

To do things the right way always feels much more gratifying. The road without short cuts will be exhausting, but you will get to sleep so much more relaxed and at peace. My mom always told me to do the right thing when nobody's watching. Although this advice seems very obvious, for some people this simple advice doesn’t resonate as easy as it’s said. When you do the right thing when others are watching, it’s most likely for show and/or with hidden malice. Being righteous is doing the right thing for the right reason. A small, silent good gesture goes farther than a loud selfish act. In my lifetime, I’ve noticed that people offered me more stuff when I was doing well. In my opinion, they only offered because they knew I would say no or because they had their own interest in mind. In other words, so I would owe them a favor.

The world is not designed for one to like everyone.

Nor is it designed for every day 2 be all peachey and creamy. Not everyone in the world likes peaches or cream. So there you have it! Live life on life’s terms, then.

3

That Louisiana Purchase

By Steven McGlothlin

To Do Me by Mark Johnson

Born outta furnace, that Louisiana purchase When I was younger, I always like Short fuse burn one to help others. It made me feel good.

Stuck my finger in the circuit I guess I got that from when I was Affliction learn it no idea set certain Backhanded myself, guess a closed curtain younger watching all those movies. I W/ the grace of God. came to start to worry that if they I back hit the slab workin’ That didn’t work, pain I was hurtin fail, somehow I failed them. So now Left places that I had no ties I’m starting to realize that I can’t Set sail toward my grind help no one unless I help myself.

Found sum ground to gather the mind Oh the healing takes its time Now that I look back I see I have Candles aren't always bright TO DO ME! But you can find the light, if you just might Set down pride, get humble Open eye Dante’s Stuck in the Game by Heart full of love, like a bug don’t bite I ain’t one of a kind, I just speak my sight Dante Hargitt Call me wrong or right As 󰈗o󰈞g 󰈀󰈻 󰉙󰈢u c󰈡󰈝󰉄󰈏nu󰈩 󰈥󰈘󰇽yi󰈝󰈈 t󰈊󰈩 Im just right when things wrong ga󰈚󰈩 󰉙󰈢u w󰈎󰈗󰈘 󰇽l󰉒a󰉙s 󰈻󰉄󰈀y 󰇼󰈹󰈢ke, I mean I'm on another side Not on 2 at the same time ho󰈚󰈩󰈘󰇵s󰈻, 󰉄ho󰉉󰈇󰈋t󰈗󰇵󰈼s, a󰈝󰇶 󰉉s󰇵󰈗e󰈼s.

I don’t wanna live a lie Mos󰉃 󰈦󰈩󰈢p󰈗e 󰉓󰈎t󰈊 󰇽󰇶di󰇹󰉄󰈎󰈢n So I set a blaze pain en󰇷 󰉉󰈦 󰈏n 󰈑a󰈎󰈘 󰈢r 󰈥󰈹og󰈸󰈀󰈛s 󰈢󰉏e󰈹 󰈀n󰇷 Don't think no I you do not exist Let it burn, this I reinforcement ov󰈩󰈸 󰉊󰈞ti󰈗 󰉄h󰈩󰉘 󰈹󰇵ac󰈊 󰉄h󰈩󰈏󰈸 󰇻o󰉅󰈡m. arguably positive

We c󰈡󰈚󰇵 󰉄o b󰈩󰈗󰈏e󰉐󰈩 t󰈊󰇽󰉄 a po󰉒󰈩󰈹 g󰈸󰇵a󰉄󰈩r 󰉃󰈋󰇽n o󰉉󰈸󰈼󰇵l󰉏e󰈼 w󰈎󰈗󰈘 re󰈻󰉄󰈡r󰇵 u󰈻 󰇿r󰈡󰈚 󰈢u󰈹 b󰉉󰈸󰇶󰇵n a󰈝󰇶 re󰈗󰈎󰇵󰉐e 󰉉s 󰇾󰈹󰈢m a󰇹󰉄󰈎v󰇵 a󰇷󰇶󰈎c󰉃󰈏o󰈞.

On󰇹e G󰈡󰇶 b󰇵󰇹o󰈛󰈩s 󰈢u󰈸 󰇶󰈀󰈏l󰉘 󰈘if󰈩 󰉒󰇵 s󰉃a󰈹t 󰈊󰈀󰉐󰈏n󰈇 󰇸onfi󰇷󰈩󰈞c󰇵 i󰈝 󰈡󰉊󰈹 ow󰈝 ab󰈎󰈗󰈏󰉄y. A󰈗󰈼o, t󰈊󰈀󰉄’s 󰉒󰈋en 󰈸󰈩󰇸󰈢ve󰈸󰉙 is 󰈥󰈡󰈼s󰈏󰇼󰈘e 󰈀n󰇷 󰉓󰇵 no 󰈗󰈡󰈞g󰇵󰈸 a󰈹󰈩 p󰈗a󰉙󰈩r󰈻 󰈢󰇿 t󰈊e 󰈈󰈀m󰇵!

4

PEOPLE POWER MUST BE THE LAW OF THE LAND This speech was presented at the 2nd Annual State of the People Conference hosted by The Public Advocate Jumaane Williams on 3/4/2021 Greetings everybody.

I’m honored to be here, among you all. I would like to thank Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and the housing equity team for asking me to be here today. It is a true privilege. It is a monumental moment for me to be given this seat at the table and a voice in a discussion that centers around the issue of housing equity.

A year ago, from this day, my life was much different. None of you knew me. I was just a Cares Number, the number given to you when you enter the shelter system, the same way they give you a number when you enter a jail. At that time while in the shelter I was in the beginning stages of my recovery for my struggle with alcohol as well as seeing a psychiatrist for my struggle with mental illness. It was a rough period for me because I was still contemplating suicide.

The trauma of me, being a descendent of 400+ years of slavery, systemic racial oppression, depression and suppression had taken its toll on me. The trauma of growing up after being born into the world by parents who were heroin addicts that lost custody of me, into the foster care system at age of two, then being 10 years old and homeless in the streets, walking the streets in the cold darkness of the night or riding the trains as a child with no place to go, having to protect myself from the perverts and predators, all has taken its toll. I experienced the trauma of watching my childhood friend become front page news after a shoot-out with thirty NYC cops, escaping unharmed, and leading the country on one of the biggest manhunts in history, had taken its toll on me.

Yet, the difference between last year and today is that, after being a victim of Covid-19 and almost dying, when I regained my strength, and got a new lease on life, and decided to devote every moment of my time to creating the world that I wanted to live in. I vowed not to waste a moment being bitter and complaining but to go out and be the change I wanted to see. So, I evolved into Da Homeless Hero to address the issues of homelessness and challenge the City to do better by those of us experiencing homelessness. And in less than seven months, I and those with me like UWS Open Hearts Initiative and Project Renewal, and Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams and his housing team, have been able to change the narrative about people experiencing homelessness. Media all over the world have covered our story because people wanna know, how did we take on such a powerful Mayor and win. They’re fascinated with this modern-day David vs Goliath story. Today, suffice it to say, I ain’t contemplating suicide, I’m ready to take on the world in order to eradicate homelessness and restore our people’s dignity. In this effort, I will address not just the issue of homelessness but the root causes of homelessness. ….CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 5

CONTINUED FROM PREVIOUS PAGE….

My goal is to help us eradicate systemic racism and abolish the structural institutions that support and perpetuate white supremacy. There can be no housing equity, or housing justice unless you address the issue of racial and wealth inequality in America. All of the issues you see with us today can be traced back to our history as Black men and women kidnapped from our native lands and brought here to be slaves.

They granted us emancipation, but didn’t give us reparations. We never got that 40 Acres and A Mule. So, when you look at us today and you see us in a position that you think is uncivilized or not up to your standards, or to use the Mayor’s words “not acceptable”, there’s a reason for that. A systemic reason for that.

Here we are, after a failed reconstruction following the Civil War, the victims of the Black Codes, which were put in place after the assassination of President Lincoln. His successor made sure that Black people would remain in subservient positions here in the United States in perpetuity. They codified the oppression of Black people in America. The laws were designed to keep us down. It was never meant for us to rise up and be equal in society to white people. So, Roosevelt's New Deal was not designed to help us, it was designed to help poor whites rise out of the depression. The war and its aftermath produced opportunities for home ownership and generational wealth that benefited white people only. Black, Brown and other people of color were left out of that.

When they built the housing projects which we call NYCHA today, it wasn’t built for us. It was built for poor and middle-class whites as a leg up to buying a home, they were granted loans to purchase homes in suburbs. The banks supported the white flight from the City. We couldn’t follow them because we couldn’t get those loans and they wouldn’t let us in those communities anyway. With white people gone there was massive disinvestment in our communities. The disinvestment in our communities coupled with the influx of drugs destroyed our people and further hindered our progress. The notion that many of us live in substandard conditions because we are bad is a farce, the fact is, that many of us are in poor housing and lacking wealth because of the system of white supremacy that has yet to be dismantled.

The Federal Housing Administration of Roosevelt’s New Deal was rooted in discrimination as was the GI Bill of 1944. None of that benefitted Black and Brown people. Those initiatives were not good for us then, just as this fake Affordable Housing Act and the scam they call a lottery is not good for us now. Those who can’t afford to live in the new what I call Fake Affordable Housing, since the levels of affordability do not reflect the population of the city, will be headed to one of those shelters that are planned for each borough and be fed into the ecosystem that is the shelter industrial complex.

In the 1970’s America declared a war on drugs which was really a war on Black and Brown people. This war led to mass incarceration, further building their prison industrial complex which helped change the dynamics of our communities through redlining. The urban planners knew that at some point they would be back to gentrify our neighborhoods. A president declared that certain distressed communities in our City would be “Empowerment Zones”. This opened up the door for big business, real estate developers and banks to come into our communities and benefit themselves but not us. Gentrification feeds the shelter industrial complex and it is deliberate. Along with the prison industrial complex it serves the same purpose, and that is to keep Black people down while maintaining the status quo of white supremacy.

I will close with this: For it to be new we can’t go back to the old way of doing things. We are the people and for this to work, we the people have to design this new deal. The people, you and I, have to be united for the cause of eradicating homelessness from our City. That means moving from a shelter first policy to adopting a housing first policy. We must start by immediately closing all congregate shelters because they are death traps, and then dismantle the shelter industrial complex by building housing for all. People Power Must Be The Law of the Land 6 - The End

Without You by Antonio Cruz Locked in a room with nothing to do, just laying around thinking of you. Dreaming of your hair so black and bright, you pretty brown eyes so full of light.

THE THE GARDEN GARDEN IS IS OPEN OPEN Saturdays Saturdays and and Wednesdays Wednesdays 1pm 1pm -- 3pm 3pm

The way you act, the way you talk, your pretty smile and the way you walk. Your tender touch, your loving kiss, it’s the warmth of your body is what I missed.

I did something wrong I made a mistake, being without you I cannot take. The bench is falling and the rope is tightening, as I grab you I hear thunder and lightning.

The things we did and the things we’ve shared, being without you. I just can not bear.

My Story is Called the Forest by Dante Hargitt My story is called the forest.

After being stuck into the woods for a very long time. I’ve forgotten what civilization looked like.

I was caught in to my own addiction for over 25 years like woods. It seems like I am away from civilization. Also, like the woods, it can be very lonely. Most of the time we can feel lost and also may feel very dirty but with a glimpse of light it seems like hope is there … and all that … God brings us and 7 we can feel the growth and blessing.

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newsletter, we hope you enjoy it!

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