A Statue for the Unknown Slave Woman?

Posted on July 5, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I was watching the news, and saw people at the Statue of Liberty, which was reopened today, the Fourth of July. Many people commented on this statue as a symbol of freedom. And it made me think of that other passage to America, the Middle Passage, the antithesis of freedom — slavery. And I wanted to share this poem I wrote, “Statue for the Unknown Slave Woman?,” which will appear in my next collection of poetry, “The Black Feminine Mystique”:

Her broad hips had launched a thousand slave ships.
On the transatlantic “trip” her fate was sealed;
She was repeatedly raped, bore slaves for an alien race.
On the auction block she stood protuberantly pregnant,
While White men gathered around her, rubbed her belly,
And then fiercely bid to own her fertile body.
America harbors the Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island,
A torch upraised in one of her hands, lighting the way,
For the tired, poor, huddled White masses yearning to be free.
Perhaps off the coast of the Carolinas, on Sullivan Island,
America should erect a statue, call it Lady Slavery,
For the stolen, shackled Black masses also yearning to be free.
Untold wealth had issued from Lady Slavery’s womb.
Why not a statue for this unknown woman, or a tomb?

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What I learned from my mother about tolerance…and appreciation

Posted on June 18, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Growing up in Marcy Housing in Brooklyn, one of my neighbors was gay. Everyone in the building knew this. Everyone accepted this, because this is who he was. I won’t say that everyone in the projects accepted this, but most if not all the families in my building did. My mother was a friend of Charlie’s mother, and I recall going over to her apartment to borrow a cup of sugar. I recall Charlie sometimes being at our place. I can’t recall anyone ever voicing the word, but we all knew. Charlie had his ways, but he was essentially a good person. Parents would allow him to babysit because they knew that Charlie wouldn’t hurt a fly. They also intuitively knew the difference between a gay man and a pedophile. Because of this upbringing, later in life I didn’t understand the hatred and homophobia. This is yet one other thing I am grateful for that my mother taught me, not just tolerance, but appreciation for others and what we might call their differences.

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Superman and a Little Girl’s Imagination

Posted on June 16, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

I am walking down a busy Brooklyn Street when a little girl sees me and says, “Superman to the rescue!” I strike a pose and walk, not fly away. I am wearing a Superman tee shirt, and I feel Super. Children have a way of making us feel Super. They see clearly, their vision open to the possibilities of superheroes.

As I walk away I hope that that little girl, as she grows older, doesn’t become so jaded that Superman just becomes a man, and not a very good one.

There’s a lesson in this that women can relearn, if they can tap into that time when they were little girls and their imaginations were open to magic, saw miracles in everyday life, and saw infinite possibilities in the world around them.

Feeling Super is a great feeling. Wearing a Superman tee shirt, given to you by your fiancée, who sees the Super Man in you — we’ll, it makes me believe that I can fly…

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Fathers’ Day

Posted on June 15, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Fathers’ Day is tomorrow. Nowhere near as many cards, gifts and flowers will go to fathers as Mothers’ Day . In fact, Fathers’ Day, after Mothers’ Day, is anticlimactic. Nonetheless, fathers are important in any equation when we talk about children, that is, children being brought into this world.

Today I attended a conference, Urban Impact, highlighting the importance of fathers in the lives of their children, how in their absence the quality of life of their children suffers. I participated on a panel discussion, looking at fatherhood and mentoring.

I facilitated this exercise, in which I asked the men to do three things: 1) to list characteristics or traits of the “ideal father”; 2) to list characteristics or traits of their fathers; and 3) to list characteristics or traits of themselves as fathers. This exercise almost always reveals that most fathers fall far short of being ideal fathers, and that men, for the most part, become their fathers, both positively as well as negatively. Depending on the population, one can see more positive than negative, or vice versa. (Many men in attendance were living in homeless shelters.)

The event was positive. In any event, after such, it is about action, about next steps.

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Reentry is an Odyssey

Posted on June 10, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

The Odyssey, the epic poem by Homer and the second oldest extant work of Western literature, is a reentry story. It is a story about returning, of trying to get home, of how hard it is to return, of how hard it is to get home.

Odysseus, the hero of the Odyssey, is away from home for twenty years. After leaving for war, to fight in the Trojan War, which lasted ten years, it took Odysseus another ten years after the end of the war to finally make it home. For seven of those ten years he was held in captivity on the island of Ogygia.

In many languages, including English, the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage.

Some individuals who have spent time in prison and jail have described their imprisonment as an odyssey. Of course, we do not think of people in prison and jail as heroes. Many of them, though, mothers and fathers, are their children’s heroes. What many of these individuals have in common with Odysseus is that they leave a minor child or children behind, and a wife or partner. Odysseus has a wife, Penelope, and a young son, Telemachus, whom he leaves behind when he sets out to war. Before he leaves, though, Odysseus places his friend, Mentor, in charge of his son.

Given the effect of mass incarceration and the separation of millions of children from their mothers and fathers, mentoring children of incarcerated parents has, unsurprisingly, become a big part of the reentry narrative in the last twenty years. Some mentoring training will even trace this very idea of mentoring to the Odyssey. This other part of the story, which is often lost, is what happens to the families left behind. When you look at the story of Odysseus, and how his family coped with his absence, you see a particular “family style” that you also see in families when a parent is imprisoned – in this case, the “family on hold,” that is, the family that patiently awaits the return of the family member at war or in captivity (imprisonment), where life practically stops for them. Penelope, Odysseus’ faithful wife, has one-hundred-and-eight suitors. They want her and her husband’s wealth. Still, she holds out, hoping that Odysseus, even after twenty years, will return home. There are countless women across the country like Penelope, faithfully waiting for their men to return from extended periods of imprisonment, for not only does the U.S. imprison more people than any other nation in the world, but it also confines them for longer periods of time than any other nation.

The Osborne Association, realizing the importance of family in the reentry narrative, pioneered a parenting curriculum in prison about thirty years ago. This parenting curriculum, under the FamilyWorks umbrella, is nationally recognized, and includes child-friendly Family Centers in prison and jail visiting rooms where mothers and fathers bond with their children; relationship and marriage education classes; family events, outreach to families, visiting opportunities and individual and family counseling. Additionally, Osborne launched the New York Initiative for Children of Incarcerated Parents in 2006 following the creation of the Children of Incarcerated Parents Bill of Rights by the San Francisco Children of Incarcerated Parents Partnership. (The Bill of Rights was developed with input from families affected by incarceration and from interviews with over thirty young people whose parents are or were incarcerated.)

The incarceration of individuals, of course, most often impacts families negatively. The other side of this coin, though, is how a supportive family positively impacts incarcerated individuals. The research shows that those who receive visits from family and friends while incarcerated have better outcomes than those who do not receive them. The research also shows that incarcerated people who are connected to their families during incarceration have better outcomes than their counterparts who are not connected to their families. Moreover, beyond having a supportive family, when incarcerated individuals have supportive families that believe in them, that is, families that believe that their incarcerated relative has changed and/or are making changes to improve themselves and not return to prison or jail, have even better outcomes than those simply with supportive families. Thus, families are critical to their relatives’ success when they return from prison and jail.

Mass incarceration and the reality that the overwhelming majority of incarcerated people will return to society, and hopefully to their families, has created the need for comprehensive reentry services.

The reentry literature has suggested the following improvements for “systematic preparation for release” from prisons and jails:

• Documentation for work and a photo ID
• Job assistance, including search tips and referrals to potential employers
• Help applying for Medicaid, which would be activated immediately upon release
• Mental health assessment and connections with clinics
• Connections to representatives from community-based programs, who might be able to meet individuals on the day they are released
• Help involving their families so they are prepared to provide the support their relative will need upon release. (Families would also have an opportunity to ask questions about their relatives’ parole requirements)
The Odyssey is a metaphor for life, a voyage of ups and downs, of challenges, sometimes involving captivity. On his way home, Odysseus, has to pass through a very treacherous strait, “Scylla and Charybdis” – oftentimes, a voyage fraught with dangers is the only way home. This part of the story has given us the phrase, “between a rock and a hard place.” This is the place that many people in prison and jail find themselves. They are looking for a way to successfully navigate from prison and jail back home, and it is our goal to help them along their journey.

This article was published in the Osborne Association’s Reentry Journal.

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Spring Cleaning and Other Discoveries

Posted on June 3, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

During the Spring Cleaning that I mentioned in another blog, I did not mention that I discovered something else: two manuscripts I wrote in my 20s, when I was aspiring to be a novelist. The first, “Streets of Rage,” is about the mean streets of Brooklyn, with the Marcy Projects, where I grew up, as one of the main characters. As I stated in a previous blog, I became politically conscious in 1968, at age 7, when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. That year, 1968, marks the death of the Civil Rights Era and the birth of the Black Power Movement. It also marks the modern “war on crime,” spearheaded by Richard Nixon, who was running for president. Nixon had declared that the Great Society was “lawless” and America needed some “law and order.” Nixon was specifically referring to the urban uprisings that sprang up across the country in the aftermath of the assassination of King. Additionally, with the war on crime, America set itself on its path of mass incarceration, which we would experience the full brunt of in the 1980s through the beginning of the 21st century. The second manuscript, “Return of the Prodigal,” deals with the back end of mass incarceration, that is, reentry. I sent to Holloway House and got some feedback. The publishers found the white woman KKK leader interesting and thought I should make her role more prominent. In any event, I relegated the manuscripts to a box, and forgot about them – well, not exactly forgot, but they were relegated to the corners of my mind – because I had moved on to other writing projects. I intuitively knew that trying my hand at novel writing was simply a way to sharpen my writing tools.

Over the next couple of years I wrote and published on crime and punishment in a number of magazines and papers, including the New York Times and Newsday. I wrote a number of one act plays and, of course, poetry. When I was doing a lot of writing on crime and punishment, I fancied myself an essayist. I would say I was an essayist at heart, someone who had tried his hand at novel writing and short stories.

I have won awards for nonfiction, playwriting, and of course poetry, and I know, in my heart of hearts, that I’m a poet at heart.

William Faulkner wrote, “I’m a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can’t, and then tries the short story, which is the most demanding form after poetry. And, failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.”

I seemed to do the exact opposite, starting with novels. Even Shakespeare wrote his poetry for his literary credentials, to prove that he wasn’t a hack.

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Mother’s Message on my sister’s Christening Day – January 4, 1959

Posted on June 3, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

To Jeanette:

I want to wish you on this your Christening Day all the happiness, prosperity, health, and wealth through your entire lifespan.  I also hope that you will continue to be as well behaved as you were today.

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“Memories”

Posted on June 2, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

“Memories,” by Barbara Streisand, is one my favorite songs. I love the lyrics:

Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were
Scattered pictures
Of the times we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were

Can it be that it was all so simple then
Or has time rewritten every line
If we had the chance to do it all again
Tell me — Would we? Could we?…

In the blog I previously posted there are those scattered pictures. There’s this picture of me at 8, and I write about this because at 8 I have my first “political memory.” I remember the death of Martin Luther King., Jr. in 1968. I don’t remember the death of Robert F. Kennedy, Malcolm X or John F. Kennedy, but I remember the King’s. The year, 1968, part of what one historian has called the Decisive Decade, was a decade of Death.

In researching my roots, I have also searched the corridors in my mind, tapping into memories. What I know is that we all experience the same event differently, that is, our response to the event. With Dr. King, for the first time in my life that I can recall, the earth moved. I knew that something monumental had happened, something that would change the world, even though I didn’t understand it. Later, in poetic form, I would capture these memories in my epic poem, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass: Remembrance of Things Past and Present.

Twelve years ago I began writing notes for a memoir. Scattered pictures have memories flooding my mind. I have to revisit and get to writing or….

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Spring Cleaning and Discovering My Roots

Posted on June 2, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Last night I stopped by my sister Jeanette’s place — she’s the eldest, I’m the second eldest — and helped with some Spring cleaning.  We looked through a box, an old box, a box she probably hasn’t looked in for nearly 30 years, and unearthed a treasure of family history — photos; birth; baptismal and death records; elementary school class pictures and report cards.  Our mother saved everything, created scrapbooks.  In the family Bible there was hair from our first haircuts.  The greatest thing though we discovered was the “book of memories” my mother created for Jeanette, in which she recorded all the important events of my sister’s life: her birth, her baptismal, her first word, “Da Da, and even what she enjoyed doing as a toddler — dancing.  We had to laugh at this, because at 2 my sister was dancing, and she’s still dancing, and loves dancing!  The most important part of this discovery though were the words my mother wrote for my sister, what she hoped for in my sister’s life.

My discovery was a scrapbook of first cards: birthday, baptismal and Christmas.  (My mother even recorded the gifts that were given.”

These “discoveries” are very important to me.  I have been tracing our family’s roots, and now I have pictures of grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins — I had no pictures of them.  

One of the most difficult things tracing our family’s roots is that my mother was the youngest of her siblings, having siblings 15, and 20 years older than her, so we are the youngest part of the family in our generation, and our parents died young, while we were young.  For example, when my mother was a child she was already an aunt.  My mother’s nephew, my first cousin, Roland, was my godfather.  Our mother died when I was 17, my father when I was 21, so I never had “adult” conversations with them and didn’t mine family history and lore.  Despite this, as I wrote about, I’ve traced our family roots back, on both maternal and paternal sides, 200 years.

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“I’ll Always Love My Mama” (Part 2) — What I learned from my Mother about Restorative Justice

Posted on May 28, 2013 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

Yesterday, Veterans’ Day, I remembered my father, a World War II vet.  Today, I want to remember my mother.  The 35th anniversary of my mother’s death is fast approaching.  It’s hard to believe that it’s been so long, yet, it’s like it’s only yesterday.

There are almost all these lessons from yesterday.  This lesson, my mother’s death, at 44, taken by cancer, doesn’t seem connected to the subject at hand.  Why one’s mind may make seemingly unconnected connections is not as important as the connections made.

This lesson is from the world of restorative justice.  I’ve been involved in the criminal justice world and work for more than 25 years.  About five years ago I began some work revolving around long-term imprisonment and parole, and in this work a core group of criminal justice advocates reached out to advocates of “victims’ rights.”  Oftentimes these two groups have been seen as advocating for separate and distinct things, but they’re not.  Both are looking for a system of justice where victims are not slighted by the very system that prosecutes in their names, and those convicted of crimes are not stereotyped into non-humans. 

The bottom line is that both groups are looking to realize a system of justice that is just.

In our conversations, what became quickly apparent was that we were talking about the same thing in different languages.  We weren’t even sure what to call the main characters in the criminal justice narrative – “victims,” “survivors,” “perpetrators,” “offenders,” etc.

Inevitably, the language of “closure” came up.  Criminal justice advocates have talked about “closure” in a way that has been translated by victims’ rights advocates as “get over it (the crime).”  What, if anything, could be more insensitive?

In this moment, thanks to some great people seemingly on both sides of this issue, I got it.  The lesson though came through my Mama.  She died of cancer, not as the victim of a crime, and at the time of the conversations with victims’ rights advocates, my mother had been dead about 30 years.  Was there closure for me?  Emphatically, no.  Then how, for a loved one whose life has been taken violently, could there ever be closure?  How could people on “the other side” even presume such was a possibility?  Then, I knew, I would never use that word in the same way.

One thing I learned from the death of my mother is that there’s never closure, that we simply learn to live with their physical absence from our lives, that each day the acceptance of this reality becomes a part of our reality, yet for survivors of crime, and their families, this “acceptance,” if I may call it such, is so much different and even more difficult.

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