00:00:14.848 --> 00:00:18.101
(soft music)

00:00:41.751 --> 00:00:44.503
(people chattering)

00:00:44.503 --> 00:00:46.130
[James] The Dorchester
neighborhood in Boston

00:00:46.130 --> 00:00:48.633
is just three miles from downtown.

00:00:49.925 --> 00:00:53.303
It's the biggest, most diverse
neighborhood in the city.

00:00:53.303 --> 00:00:55.098
But I didn't know much about it,

00:00:55.098 --> 00:00:57.850
until I started making this film.

00:00:57.850 --> 00:00:59.726
[Jack] You have to hand it in,

00:00:59.726 --> 00:01:01.311
it doesn't matter if your
handwriting is a mess.

00:01:01.311 --> 00:01:02.355
I just wanna see that you did it,

00:01:02.355 --> 00:01:04.565
and what kind of stuff that you wrote.

00:01:04.565 --> 00:01:05.941
[James Rutenbeck] I
came here five years ago

00:01:05.941 --> 00:01:08.653
to follow students
in the Clemente Course,

00:01:08.653 --> 00:01:10.905
a free night course in the Humanities

00:01:10.905 --> 00:01:13.073
for people living in economic hardship.

00:01:13.991 --> 00:01:16.076
- Kafi's note says, "I'm supposed
to be speaking at a rally

00:01:16.076 --> 00:01:19.080
against gentrification tonight,
for the Women's Co-op."

00:01:19.080 --> 00:01:19.955
[Woman] Uh-huh.

00:01:19.955 --> 00:01:21.916
- So that's why she had to leave early.

00:01:21.916 --> 00:01:24.335
- Did you say we have
to pass these in, Jack?

00:01:24.335 --> 00:01:26.420
- Yeah, don't worry about it just...

00:01:26.420 --> 00:01:27.463
[James] Over time I've noticed

00:01:27.463 --> 00:01:30.090
one of the students is
usually late for class,

00:01:30.090 --> 00:01:31.216
or has to leave early.

00:01:31.216 --> 00:01:32.468
- This is good.

00:01:32.468 --> 00:01:33.301
(soft music)

00:01:33.301 --> 00:01:35.721
[James] Kafi Dixon, has a lot going on.

00:01:37.598 --> 00:01:41.101
She's at the course, two nights
a week and up every morning

00:01:41.101 --> 00:01:43.436
at 4:00 AM to drive a city bus.

00:01:43.436 --> 00:01:46.231
(soft music continues)

00:01:46.231 --> 00:01:48.526
Kafi is a working class black woman,

00:01:48.526 --> 00:01:50.403
born and raised in Boston.

00:01:51.821 --> 00:01:54.240
I'm a white filmmaker
from an affluent suburb.

00:01:55.283 --> 00:01:57.660
The odds couldn't have
been more against us,

00:01:57.660 --> 00:02:00.580
but overtime, the two
of us became friends.

00:02:00.580 --> 00:02:04.000
(soft music continues)

00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.545
It was 2015, and Boston was booming.

00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:12.550
5,000 luxury residential
units were in the works.

00:02:14.801 --> 00:02:17.638
But in neighborhoods where
those towers were going up,

00:02:17.638 --> 00:02:20.558
no African-Americans
were getting mortgages.

00:02:20.558 --> 00:02:23.143
(soft music continues)

00:02:23.143 --> 00:02:26.230
(car engine revving)

00:02:29.650 --> 00:02:31.443
I didn't understand back then

00:02:31.443 --> 00:02:34.363
how desperately Kafi longed
for a stake in her city.

00:02:35.656 --> 00:02:39.035
A city I've always loved,
but never truly understood.

00:02:39.035 --> 00:02:41.286
(people chattering)

00:02:41.286 --> 00:02:42.455
(soft music continues)

00:02:42.455 --> 00:02:44.498
But occupying land owned by the city

00:02:44.498 --> 00:02:47.460
seemed misguided, even risky.

00:02:47.460 --> 00:02:50.213
It's a prime spot in
pricey Jamaica Plain,

00:02:51.088 --> 00:02:52.923
and no one has permission to be here.

00:02:54.216 --> 00:02:55.510
[Woman] You wanna smile?

00:02:57.178 --> 00:02:59.971
[James] Carl Chandler is
another Clemente student.

00:03:00.890 --> 00:03:03.935
It's clear he's very
serious, about his time here.

00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:07.021
- "12 years A Slave"?
- Yeah.

00:03:07.021 --> 00:03:11.858
- 1838, one of my relatives
was stolen from Shirley, Mass.

00:03:12.818 --> 00:03:14.070
Nahum Hazard.

00:03:14.070 --> 00:03:14.903
- Really?

00:03:14.903 --> 00:03:16.613
- I'll bring the article in.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah please do!

00:03:16.613 --> 00:03:18.406
- But it was three years before,

00:03:18.406 --> 00:03:20.075
so when that stuff
comes up, it's like...

00:03:20.075 --> 00:03:21.493
- So you gotta write a book about it!

00:03:23.621 --> 00:03:24.455
- All right good.
- Thank you.

00:03:24.455 --> 00:03:25.706
- Awesome, all right I'll see you soon.

00:03:25.706 --> 00:03:26.623
(birds chirping)

00:03:26.623 --> 00:03:28.333
[James] Most of the films I've made,

00:03:28.333 --> 00:03:30.586
are about the kind of
people I grew up with,

00:03:30.586 --> 00:03:33.631
in a small farming town in Eastern Iowa,

00:03:33.631 --> 00:03:35.508
white working-class.

00:03:36.466 --> 00:03:39.136
I made this film in the late 1980s,

00:03:39.136 --> 00:03:41.805
when my friends families
were losing their farms.

00:03:43.015 --> 00:03:46.185
I was angry about it, and thought
I could make a difference.

00:03:47.686 --> 00:03:51.065
I worked for other people and
when I can, make my own films

00:03:51.065 --> 00:03:53.233
by piecing bits of funding together.

00:03:54.610 --> 00:03:56.861
I came into this new
film with some anxiety

00:03:56.861 --> 00:04:00.783
but trusting what I learned
back in Iowa many years ago.

00:04:01.825 --> 00:04:05.120
Be a witness, listen,

00:04:05.120 --> 00:04:08.165
let people like Carl
tell their own stories.

00:04:11.626 --> 00:04:15.840
- When Stella let me know
that she was pregnant,

00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:18.175
she was 20-years-old.

00:04:19.510 --> 00:04:23.640
From the moment she
saw the first pictures

00:04:23.640 --> 00:04:25.891
of the baby in the womb,

00:04:25.891 --> 00:04:30.020
she was a mother, and a great mother.

00:04:32.231 --> 00:04:36.276
After a year or so, Stella
came to me and said,

00:04:36.276 --> 00:04:40.948
"Dad, I want to work, but
daycare is so expensive.

00:04:40.948 --> 00:04:41.823
What do you think?"

00:04:43.033 --> 00:04:46.328
Well, the answer was obvious to me.

00:04:48.330 --> 00:04:51.291
This is Cedar,

00:04:52.168 --> 00:04:54.461
one of the Four Sacreds.

00:04:55.338 --> 00:04:57.131
Put this in your pocket.

00:04:57.131 --> 00:04:58.966
Smells really good when it dries.

00:05:05.598 --> 00:05:09.601
My professors are

00:05:09.601 --> 00:05:12.438
uniformly excellent.

00:05:13.605 --> 00:05:18.318
And they care about all
of us like we're family.

00:05:18.318 --> 00:05:23.115
And that's been a kind
of an eye opener for me.

00:05:23.115 --> 00:05:25.701
Even if I take some time off

00:05:25.701 --> 00:05:29.955
and put some of my thoughts
and feelings down in writing,

00:05:30.915 --> 00:05:32.375
I'll be doing something.

00:05:32.375 --> 00:05:36.711
And that has to do with
evolving and education.

00:05:36.711 --> 00:05:38.130
(child shouting)

00:05:38.130 --> 00:05:40.508
- Good boy, thank you for helping me.

00:05:43.343 --> 00:05:44.178
You did this?

00:05:44.178 --> 00:05:45.178
(metal clangs)

00:05:45.178 --> 00:05:46.013
Come on.

00:05:48.056 --> 00:05:50.976
[Tim] I wanna start out today
just talking very briefly

00:05:50.976 --> 00:05:53.561
about the paper, right? Your
first paper for my class

00:05:53.561 --> 00:05:56.356
is gonna be due next Monday in class.

00:05:56.356 --> 00:05:58.608
But if you have not finished your paper,

00:05:58.608 --> 00:06:00.151
I don't want you not coming to class.

00:06:00.151 --> 00:06:01.320
That sometimes happens,

00:06:01.320 --> 00:06:04.198
when things are due students disappear.

00:06:04.198 --> 00:06:05.115
- I have to get to Tim

00:06:05.115 --> 00:06:06.908
because he always looks at me crazy,

00:06:06.908 --> 00:06:09.203
and then he won't let me
ask questions. (laughs)

00:06:10.955 --> 00:06:13.498
He looks at me like,
I always feel guilty

00:06:13.498 --> 00:06:16.501
about asking him questions when
I come into his class late.

00:06:16.501 --> 00:06:20.338
- So Douglas' narrative
is an autobiography

00:06:20.338 --> 00:06:24.010
that he wrote and published in 1845,

00:06:24.010 --> 00:06:26.886
after he had escaped
from slavery in 1839.

00:06:26.886 --> 00:06:27.680
So he's-

00:06:27.680 --> 00:06:28.596
[James] Clemente teachers

00:06:28.596 --> 00:06:30.516
believe studying the humanities,

00:06:30.516 --> 00:06:33.310
makes their students
more critical thinkers.

00:06:33.310 --> 00:06:36.438
They want their students to
see themselves differently,

00:06:36.438 --> 00:06:39.608
to become fuller and freer citizens.

00:06:39.608 --> 00:06:41.985
And those were the stories
I came here to tell.

00:06:44.155 --> 00:06:46.073
These nights students live in a city

00:06:46.073 --> 00:06:47.450
where the median household wealth

00:06:47.450 --> 00:06:50.953
for a white family is $247,000.

00:06:50.953 --> 00:06:53.246
(upbeat music)

00:06:53.246 --> 00:06:56.250
And for an African-American
family is $8.

00:06:57.835 --> 00:07:00.045
When I first read this
in "The Boston Globe",

00:07:00.045 --> 00:07:01.671
I thought it was a typo.

00:07:01.671 --> 00:07:03.756
- You can see how slavery affected him,

00:07:03.756 --> 00:07:05.801
he was 12 and thinking about

00:07:05.801 --> 00:07:07.636
he didn't wanna be a
slave for his entire life.

00:07:07.636 --> 00:07:10.221
And people who own slaves

00:07:10.221 --> 00:07:12.308
probably don't think about the fact that

00:07:12.308 --> 00:07:13.810
these kids are growing up thinking,

00:07:13.810 --> 00:07:17.061
"I want a different future,
I don't wanna be a slave."

00:07:17.061 --> 00:07:18.521
How can I, you know-

00:07:18.521 --> 00:07:20.858
[James] I'd soon see how cruel

00:07:20.858 --> 00:07:24.236
and unforgiving that disparity is.

00:07:24.236 --> 00:07:26.696
- Someone could always enslave you

00:07:26.696 --> 00:07:28.950
but they could never enslave your brain,

00:07:28.950 --> 00:07:33.203
because even they deny them from books,

00:07:33.203 --> 00:07:36.748
and reading, and stuff,

00:07:36.748 --> 00:07:41.545
but they could never take
freedom from them, really.

00:07:41.545 --> 00:07:45.758
- I can't possibly be the
only woman of color here,

00:07:45.758 --> 00:07:50.763
in Dorchester, in Boston, in
Massachusetts, in New England,

00:07:51.721 --> 00:07:53.850
where connecting with the lands,

00:07:53.850 --> 00:07:58.061
and finding a place of
peace, becomes so important

00:07:58.061 --> 00:08:00.981
that it becomes like
a fire inside of you.

00:08:00.981 --> 00:08:04.901
- To me, what's sort of
central to the story is

00:08:04.901 --> 00:08:07.405
the fact that he taught himself to read.

00:08:07.405 --> 00:08:08.238
- Yeah.

00:08:08.238 --> 00:08:12.116
- And of course he had

00:08:12.116 --> 00:08:14.870
something of a conflict

00:08:14.870 --> 00:08:19.333
within himself because it
opened up a world for him

00:08:21.585 --> 00:08:25.380
understanding the possibilities
or lack of possibilities.

00:08:25.380 --> 00:08:27.800
(soft music)

00:08:34.931 --> 00:08:39.103
I come from a tradition
where silence is respected.

00:08:40.270 --> 00:08:45.275
And we lived next door to
my grandfather's sister,

00:08:45.610 --> 00:08:47.403
she was an educator

00:08:47.403 --> 00:08:48.946
and she basic...

00:08:48.946 --> 00:08:50.823
Bottom line was, "He
doesn't have a problem,

00:08:50.823 --> 00:08:52.616
he just doesn't want to speak."

00:08:53.533 --> 00:08:54.868
(soft music continues)

00:08:54.868 --> 00:08:57.413
She turned me loose in her house,

00:08:57.413 --> 00:09:00.791
and she had books and she said,

00:09:00.791 --> 00:09:03.251
"Pick up some books." And I
think I was five years old,

00:09:03.251 --> 00:09:05.253
I basically taught myself how to read,

00:09:06.296 --> 00:09:09.800
and shortly thereafter I was talking.

00:09:11.385 --> 00:09:13.011
- He's hearing stuff, he's reading stuff

00:09:13.011 --> 00:09:14.013
and he's writing stuff.

00:09:14.013 --> 00:09:16.473
And as all of this is happening,

00:09:16.473 --> 00:09:20.518
he's beginning to imagine a
different life for himself.

00:09:20.518 --> 00:09:23.438
(upbeat music)

00:09:23.438 --> 00:09:24.773
- Jack.

00:09:24.773 --> 00:09:26.608
I'm at the door.

00:09:26.608 --> 00:09:28.860
(jazz music)

00:09:54.970 --> 00:09:57.806
[Jack] So every time there's
an art history class,

00:09:57.806 --> 00:09:58.931
look at the date,

00:09:58.931 --> 00:10:01.268
figure out what chapter
you should have prepared,

00:10:01.268 --> 00:10:03.228
this is how you prepare
for an art history class.

00:10:03.228 --> 00:10:04.771
You go to chapter two,

00:10:04.771 --> 00:10:07.775
and you flip through it and
you look at all the pictures.

00:10:07.775 --> 00:10:09.068
(students laughing)

00:10:09.068 --> 00:10:10.110
How awesome is that?

00:10:10.110 --> 00:10:12.070
[Woman] Yeah.

00:10:12.070 --> 00:10:15.658
- Yeah, we'll have plenty time
for opinions in this class.

00:10:15.658 --> 00:10:17.451
Right now I just want facts okay.

00:10:17.451 --> 00:10:19.953
And I want everyone, to tell me a fact

00:10:19.953 --> 00:10:21.455
about the art that they
see on the screen.

00:10:21.455 --> 00:10:23.790
And we're just gonna go
in order okay, Portia?

00:10:24.916 --> 00:10:26.001
- What do I see?

00:10:26.001 --> 00:10:27.001
- Yeah, one thing.

00:10:28.378 --> 00:10:30.088
Okay, this is the thing,

00:10:30.088 --> 00:10:33.800
you think I'm like some
brilliant guy. I'm not.

00:10:33.800 --> 00:10:36.511
I'm saying, "I see blue" is fine,

00:10:36.511 --> 00:10:39.056
that's what I'm looking for
here okay, nothing fancy.

00:10:39.056 --> 00:10:42.976
- Okay I see that there are
people right here at the end.

00:10:42.976 --> 00:10:45.145
[Jack] There are people, thank you next.

00:10:45.145 --> 00:10:47.146
- Okay (laughs).

00:10:47.146 --> 00:10:48.356
[Jack] Lolanda.

00:10:48.356 --> 00:10:53.361
- I see on the second
row that there's a cow.

00:10:53.361 --> 00:10:56.115
- As I look at each of
the three register,

00:10:56.115 --> 00:11:00.660
they all seem to be doing
different jobs or things.

00:11:00.660 --> 00:11:03.746
- Thank you. Edrena?

00:11:04.915 --> 00:11:06.666
- That there's a blue background.

00:11:06.666 --> 00:11:09.045
- Blue background. Carl?

00:11:09.045 --> 00:11:10.713
- It's a hierarchy.

00:11:11.921 --> 00:11:12.965
[Jack] Whoa.

00:11:12.965 --> 00:11:14.383
[Woman] Mh-hmm.

00:11:14.383 --> 00:11:15.300
- That was gonna be mine.

00:11:15.300 --> 00:11:16.968
[Jack] It's a hierarchy.
What do you mean by that?

00:11:16.968 --> 00:11:21.181
[Carl] There's laborers,
tradesmen and people in charge.

00:11:21.181 --> 00:11:23.558
(sirens blaring)

00:11:23.558 --> 00:11:25.895
[James] The more I
heard Carl speak in class,

00:11:25.895 --> 00:11:27.855
the more I wanted to get to know him.

00:11:28.730 --> 00:11:31.858
Carl became a full-time single
dad to his two daughters

00:11:31.858 --> 00:11:33.776
when they were teenagers.

00:11:33.776 --> 00:11:36.238
They lived in this tiny space.

00:11:36.238 --> 00:11:39.241
The girls shared the room
and Carl slept in the closet.

00:11:41.076 --> 00:11:43.245
Carl tells me he's poor,

00:11:43.245 --> 00:11:45.790
but doesn't consider
himself impoverished.

00:11:45.790 --> 00:11:49.501
(train bell ringing)

00:11:49.501 --> 00:11:51.503
- I can remember as a young person

00:11:51.503 --> 00:11:53.380
reading about the civil war,

00:11:53.380 --> 00:11:56.883
and it said that Indians didn't do much,

00:11:56.883 --> 00:12:00.511
and black people are
basically relegated to

00:12:01.721 --> 00:12:03.806
digging ditches.

00:12:03.806 --> 00:12:07.436
Why would I wanna
contribute to something

00:12:07.436 --> 00:12:10.815
that really wasn't respectful
of me or my family?

00:12:10.815 --> 00:12:14.193
(train squealing)

00:12:14.193 --> 00:12:15.401
I did the best that I could

00:12:15.401 --> 00:12:18.363
so I could get out of there
as quickly as possible.

00:12:20.073 --> 00:12:21.366
I'm a descendant

00:12:21.366 --> 00:12:25.411
of people that were in
the 54th, Massachusetts.

00:12:25.411 --> 00:12:27.998
My grandfather told me those stories,

00:12:27.998 --> 00:12:31.918
when he got to the textbook,
it was like: "Well that's odd,

00:12:31.918 --> 00:12:35.546
that's not what my people have told me."

00:12:35.546 --> 00:12:37.841
Well my father cut to the chase

00:12:37.841 --> 00:12:40.135
and loaded me into the car,

00:12:40.135 --> 00:12:42.680
and we went to the 54th Memorial.

00:12:42.680 --> 00:12:43.805
- Yeah.

00:12:43.805 --> 00:12:46.350
- Across from the State House,

00:12:46.350 --> 00:12:50.436
and he said that they
don't make memorials

00:12:50.436 --> 00:12:53.231
for people that dig ditches.

00:12:53.231 --> 00:12:54.650
[Woman] Mh-hmm.

00:12:54.650 --> 00:12:56.651
(people chattering)

00:12:56.651 --> 00:12:58.361
- People would say,
"Well, what's the story?

00:12:58.361 --> 00:13:02.991
Is there a moral? This is
not a history painting."

00:13:02.991 --> 00:13:06.120
It's like "No, this is what I saw."

00:13:06.120 --> 00:13:06.953
Go ahead.

00:13:06.953 --> 00:13:07.871
- Oh, this one looks more

00:13:07.871 --> 00:13:09.998
like he just kinda dot,
dot, dot, dotted it.

00:13:09.998 --> 00:13:12.250
(student laughing)

00:13:12.250 --> 00:13:17.255
And this one is more the lines
are more smooth, softer...

00:13:19.383 --> 00:13:20.716
[Jack] Soft and well defined.

00:13:20.716 --> 00:13:21.551
- Yes.

00:13:21.551 --> 00:13:24.596
- I think Monet's painting especially,

00:13:24.596 --> 00:13:27.223
the further away you
are, the better it looks.

00:13:27.223 --> 00:13:28.808
- Yeah and in fact, if
we look at the paintings

00:13:28.808 --> 00:13:31.478
that are on the wall there,
those are also Monet's,

00:13:31.478 --> 00:13:33.313
let's actually walk up to
them and look closer...

00:13:33.313 --> 00:13:35.815
Pretty much everyone I
know went to college,

00:13:35.815 --> 00:13:37.316
and that's actually one
of the questions I ask

00:13:37.316 --> 00:13:38.235
when I interview people.

00:13:38.235 --> 00:13:40.653
"Do you know anyone
who's gone to college?"

00:13:40.653 --> 00:13:41.488
And they'll often say,

00:13:41.488 --> 00:13:46.493
"Well my pastor, or my
cousin or my uncle."

00:13:46.993 --> 00:13:49.705
Exactly right, that's
what he wanted to capture.

00:13:49.705 --> 00:13:52.833
Sometimes it's hard for
us to realize, like...

00:13:52.833 --> 00:13:56.586
The standard, college
level, whatever that means,

00:13:56.586 --> 00:13:58.713
it can feel impenetrable
I think to people.

00:13:59.715 --> 00:14:02.133
(soft music)

00:14:03.010 --> 00:14:04.511
- What do I do,

00:14:04.511 --> 00:14:07.180
what do I do as a homeless
woman with children?

00:14:08.640 --> 00:14:10.725
Like I'd be going through
these really hard things

00:14:10.725 --> 00:14:13.353
like, living in a hotel out in Saugus,

00:14:13.353 --> 00:14:16.981
with like a rat in the room,
and two kids, with one bed.

00:14:16.981 --> 00:14:17.816
(soft music continues)

00:14:17.816 --> 00:14:19.485
And thinking about Thompson's Island

00:14:19.485 --> 00:14:22.153
and sitting on the beach and
looking out at the ocean.

00:14:25.198 --> 00:14:26.491
When I started Thompson,

00:14:26.491 --> 00:14:30.578
I think I was probably around 10 or 11.

00:14:30.578 --> 00:14:32.205
(bird chirping)

00:14:32.205 --> 00:14:36.668
I signed myself up for it,
forged my mom's signature.

00:14:36.668 --> 00:14:39.838
Went to the orientation
said my mom dropped me off,

00:14:39.838 --> 00:14:41.881
but she had no idea
that it was doing it.

00:14:43.300 --> 00:14:46.511
And Thompson's Island Education
Center changed my life.

00:14:48.555 --> 00:14:50.515
I had a science teacher named Jack,

00:14:50.515 --> 00:14:52.893
who really got me into marine biology.

00:14:54.101 --> 00:14:56.605
And you know, living on an
Island out in Thompson's Harbor,

00:14:56.605 --> 00:14:59.231
really took me under his wing
and we would walk around,

00:14:59.231 --> 00:15:02.110
and he would show me different
things about the water.

00:15:02.110 --> 00:15:03.945
(soft music)

00:15:03.945 --> 00:15:04.780
But then I'd come back

00:15:04.780 --> 00:15:06.573
to this reality of going back to school.

00:15:06.573 --> 00:15:09.451
And these teachers
who could've cared less

00:15:09.451 --> 00:15:11.161
about this little black
girl that wanted to be

00:15:11.161 --> 00:15:13.580
a marine biologist.

00:15:13.580 --> 00:15:14.831
(bird wings flapping)

00:15:14.831 --> 00:15:16.708
(birds chirping)

00:15:16.708 --> 00:15:19.586
So I have nobody to talk to.

00:15:19.586 --> 00:15:22.213
(soft music continues)

00:15:22.213 --> 00:15:23.298
And I'm always going back

00:15:23.298 --> 00:15:25.550
to this place called Thompson's Island.

00:15:25.550 --> 00:15:28.803
(soft music continues)

00:15:30.221 --> 00:15:32.431
This kid, I still see him around,

00:15:35.101 --> 00:15:36.895
is that a fish they are messing with?

00:15:36.895 --> 00:15:37.771
[Kafi] I have no idea.

00:15:37.771 --> 00:15:39.523
[Tolga] I have no idea
what they'd be doing.

00:15:39.523 --> 00:15:41.441
- I thought I was a little scientist.

00:15:44.903 --> 00:15:45.736
[Kafi] There was one group.

00:15:45.736 --> 00:15:48.156
- And we had the same
group every year we went.

00:15:48.156 --> 00:15:49.575
[James] Ah, okay.

00:15:49.575 --> 00:15:51.576
- That better not be me, that was you?

00:15:51.576 --> 00:15:52.410
[Tolga] Yeah, walking past.

00:15:52.410 --> 00:15:55.746
[James] Kafi and Tolga
met more than 30 years ago,

00:15:55.746 --> 00:15:58.208
on that small island
off the Boston Harbor.

00:15:58.208 --> 00:15:59.460
- Okay, show me.

00:15:59.460 --> 00:16:01.211
- They were just kids back then.

00:16:01.211 --> 00:16:02.045
- Wow.

00:16:02.045 --> 00:16:04.130
- 'Cause definitely that,
and some other experiences

00:16:04.130 --> 00:16:06.591
of why I always go to land for peace.

00:16:06.591 --> 00:16:09.176
You literally went out
there and felt safe.

00:16:09.176 --> 00:16:10.845
- Mh-hmm.

00:16:10.845 --> 00:16:15.391
- And my big thing was the
healing power of safe spaces.

00:16:15.391 --> 00:16:17.268
- Mh-hmm, you're absolutely right.

00:16:17.268 --> 00:16:19.480
My memory is just so bad now

00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:21.648
that I think a lot of it's
due to stress.

00:16:21.648 --> 00:16:22.481
A lot of it is due

00:16:22.481 --> 00:16:25.610
to like just some deep
shit that has happened,

00:16:25.610 --> 00:16:29.906
and how my mind
likes to self edit, so...

00:16:29.906 --> 00:16:31.241
And protect itself.

00:16:35.203 --> 00:16:37.080
- Jordon was African-American,

00:16:37.915 --> 00:16:40.125
and he was killed in his own home.

00:16:41.960 --> 00:16:43.711
And was such a good kid that

00:16:43.711 --> 00:16:46.298
it would've been taken
a lot more seriously

00:16:46.298 --> 00:16:48.550
than what it's been taken now so...

00:16:48.550 --> 00:16:50.093
I don't want to talk about it no more.

00:16:50.093 --> 00:16:51.803
[Kafi] Yeah.

00:16:51.803 --> 00:16:52.636
[James] It was three years

00:16:52.636 --> 00:16:54.806
before Tolga would tell
me how her son died.

00:16:55.890 --> 00:16:59.310
She was fixing dinner, and
Jordon was sitting on his bed.

00:17:00.686 --> 00:17:02.688
An unknown assailant fired bullets

00:17:02.688 --> 00:17:05.233
through his bedroom window
and killed him.

00:17:06.735 --> 00:17:11.656
That was 2013, Jordon was 20 years old.

00:17:11.656 --> 00:17:13.908
- I never, ever in my mind,

00:17:16.620 --> 00:17:19.873
would have expected that to happen

00:17:21.291 --> 00:17:23.001
because we didn't live that life.

00:17:24.251 --> 00:17:28.131
I didn't live that life, my
children didn't live that life.

00:17:29.006 --> 00:17:33.261
My parents made sure that my
children didn't live that life,

00:17:33.261 --> 00:17:34.430
or I lived that life.

00:17:34.430 --> 00:17:38.433
So that was the last thing
I would have ever expected.

00:17:38.433 --> 00:17:40.518
- People pass away, that
happens it's normal,

00:17:40.518 --> 00:17:45.440
but I could never ever,
nothing could ever be as bad

00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:46.275
as that day.

00:17:49.026 --> 00:17:50.820
- He was just the best.

00:17:54.700 --> 00:17:57.535
He could read by the time he was three,

00:17:57.535 --> 00:17:59.203
he was just the best.

00:18:00.413 --> 00:18:04.668
Not 'cause he was my son,
he was a good person.

00:18:04.668 --> 00:18:08.671
He really was a good person,
and I'm proud of that,

00:18:08.671 --> 00:18:12.716
I'm proud, I'm proud that
I raised a good person.

00:18:12.716 --> 00:18:14.553
I would give anything,

00:18:14.553 --> 00:18:18.640
I would give my life
for him to be here now,

00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:20.683
because he had so much to offer.

00:18:23.603 --> 00:18:24.436
(siren blaring)

00:18:24.436 --> 00:18:25.813
There's a gas station corner,

00:18:25.813 --> 00:18:27.816
there's a gas station across the street.

00:18:27.816 --> 00:18:28.691
[Amani] A liquor store.

00:18:28.691 --> 00:18:31.026
[Tolga] There's a liquor
store with a camera.

00:18:33.030 --> 00:18:34.698
[Amani] They still have
his phone, his computer-

00:18:34.698 --> 00:18:37.408
[Tolga] They still have his
phone, computer, everything.

00:18:37.408 --> 00:18:39.995
- Any picture that we
would want on there,

00:18:39.995 --> 00:18:42.580
they have you know, they still have it,

00:18:42.580 --> 00:18:45.541
and at this point, it's like for what?

00:18:45.541 --> 00:18:46.793
You know, at this point

00:18:46.793 --> 00:18:49.128
I think I'd appreciate
seeing the things...

00:18:49.128 --> 00:18:51.548
like seeing videos of my
brother and things like that,

00:18:51.548 --> 00:18:54.216
rather than it sitting in your custody.

00:18:54.216 --> 00:18:56.010
And you're acting like you're
gonna do something about it.

00:18:56.010 --> 00:18:59.013
It's, I don't know, it's kind of like...

00:18:59.013 --> 00:19:01.225
It's starting to feel
like you don't care.

00:19:01.225 --> 00:19:04.978
- If a white person would've
got shot in their home,

00:19:04.978 --> 00:19:06.688
they would have been helicopters,

00:19:06.688 --> 00:19:09.566
there would have been SWAT teams.

00:19:09.566 --> 00:19:11.693
The city would've been locked down.

00:19:11.693 --> 00:19:13.236
(siren blaring)

00:19:13.236 --> 00:19:15.988
For us, we got none of that.

00:19:15.988 --> 00:19:19.241
(plane engine roaring)

00:19:21.245 --> 00:19:23.413
[James] I left Toga feeling shaken

00:19:23.413 --> 00:19:26.541
and did remember when Boston
police turned the city

00:19:26.541 --> 00:19:28.710
upside down to find a Black assailant.

00:19:28.710 --> 00:19:30.920
(siren blaring)

00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:34.090
It was October 1989.

00:19:34.090 --> 00:19:37.176
Charles Stuart called
9-1-1 on his car phone

00:19:38.011 --> 00:19:41.348
to report he and his wife had
been shot by a Black robber.

00:19:42.598 --> 00:19:45.810
His wife was pregnant,
she and the baby died.

00:19:46.895 --> 00:19:49.313
It happened a few weeks
after my son was born.

00:19:50.273 --> 00:19:52.650
I still feel a pit in my
stomach when I remember.

00:19:52.650 --> 00:19:54.068
[Police Officer] Get your weapon down.

00:19:54.068 --> 00:19:56.153
[James] For five days,
police threw a dragnet

00:19:56.153 --> 00:19:58.698
on the city's poorest
Black neighborhoods.

00:19:59.866 --> 00:20:04.245
Roxbury, Mission Hill,
Hyde Park, Dorchester.

00:20:05.205 --> 00:20:08.958
Stop and frisk searches,
even public strip searches.

00:20:10.251 --> 00:20:13.463
It seemed any Black man
was the likely suspect.

00:20:14.840 --> 00:20:16.048
Stuart jumped to his death

00:20:16.048 --> 00:20:18.301
from the Tobin bridge in early January.

00:20:19.595 --> 00:20:21.178
Prosecutors were hours away

00:20:21.178 --> 00:20:23.515
from arresting him
for his wife's murder.

00:20:24.348 --> 00:20:26.518
He'd collected life insurance payments,

00:20:26.518 --> 00:20:28.436
before he checked out.

00:20:28.436 --> 00:20:32.356
- I have had enough, this
community has had enough.

00:20:32.356 --> 00:20:33.441
(crowd clapping)

00:20:33.441 --> 00:20:35.943
Mayor Flynn is not gonna tell us

00:20:35.943 --> 00:20:38.113
what's gonna be good for us.

00:20:38.113 --> 00:20:42.366
We collectively are going to
tell you what's good for us.

00:20:42.366 --> 00:20:45.120
(crowd cheering)

00:20:47.163 --> 00:20:50.083
[James] Then Kafi told me her own story,

00:20:50.083 --> 00:20:52.210
about finding the body
of her daughter's father

00:20:52.210 --> 00:20:56.171
in their backyard. He was shot to death,

00:20:56.171 --> 00:20:58.341
and his case was never investigated.

00:21:01.428 --> 00:21:02.971
Tolga and Kafi talk often

00:21:02.971 --> 00:21:04.765
about summers on Thompson Island.

00:21:05.806 --> 00:21:09.268
It may well be the last safe
place they've ever known.

00:21:15.983 --> 00:21:18.736
(sirens blaring)

00:21:24.575 --> 00:21:26.703
[Julia] We take seriously the dictum

00:21:26.703 --> 00:21:27.996
of the great medieval philosopher

00:21:27.996 --> 00:21:31.750
Thomas Aquinas:
first seek to understand.

00:21:31.750 --> 00:21:33.168
Which means not just to read it,

00:21:33.168 --> 00:21:35.586
but to really understand
what motivates this,

00:21:35.586 --> 00:21:37.296
how does this argument fit together,

00:21:37.296 --> 00:21:40.800
to try to give it its best reading.

00:21:40.800 --> 00:21:43.386
This is a Glaucon's main argument,

00:21:43.386 --> 00:21:48.391
that it is natural in us
to want our own advantage,

00:21:49.141 --> 00:21:53.105
and not to be so concerned
about the advantages of others.

00:21:53.105 --> 00:21:55.981
He's fundamentally saying
that we are self interested.

00:21:55.981 --> 00:21:56.816
[Student] Yeah.

00:21:56.816 --> 00:21:57.650
- Right?

00:21:57.650 --> 00:22:00.278
Justice is just something
we do for Glaucon,

00:22:00.278 --> 00:22:03.406
for Socrates justice is who we are.

00:22:06.075 --> 00:22:07.951
- Which floor? I think it's the sixth.

00:22:09.996 --> 00:22:11.540
I don't think a lot of the policies,

00:22:11.540 --> 00:22:13.916
that the city has in place right now

00:22:13.916 --> 00:22:17.253
are intentionally excluding people,

00:22:17.253 --> 00:22:21.048
but it's intentionally
catering to another group

00:22:21.048 --> 00:22:22.300
that is not us.

00:22:24.301 --> 00:22:26.846
Without ruffling the
city's feathers too much,

00:22:26.846 --> 00:22:30.808
we went and started
putting down some beds,

00:22:30.808 --> 00:22:31.810
[Megan] Mh-hmm.

00:22:31.810 --> 00:22:34.186
in this empty lot in JP.

00:22:35.855 --> 00:22:39.316
And we didn't want to
get on the city's...

00:22:39.316 --> 00:22:42.028
we didn't want the city to
say, "What are you doing?"

00:22:44.280 --> 00:22:47.825
So we weren't organizing, per
se, the women to come out here

00:22:47.825 --> 00:22:50.911
but a lot of the women
who have been interested

00:22:50.911 --> 00:22:55.041
in urban farming and food
systems and community health,

00:22:55.041 --> 00:22:57.501
have been showing up
on the sites to help.

00:22:58.586 --> 00:23:03.591
And literally we have like
maybe six or seven beds.

00:23:03.758 --> 00:23:05.926
- Are you open at all to finding a space

00:23:05.926 --> 00:23:07.720
that's a similar size to that?

00:23:07.720 --> 00:23:08.638
- Sure.
- Some place elsewhere.

00:23:08.638 --> 00:23:10.640
Have you seen the Flint
sheet parcel at all?

00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:11.475
- No.

00:23:11.475 --> 00:23:14.143
- So this one is 13,821 square feet.

00:23:14.143 --> 00:23:15.478
- Well that's cool.

00:23:15.478 --> 00:23:16.646
- It's in Mattapan.

00:23:16.646 --> 00:23:17.688
- Yeah.

00:23:17.688 --> 00:23:19.606
It's not that we're
declining any of these spots,

00:23:19.606 --> 00:23:23.026
I think we put a lot of our hopes

00:23:23.026 --> 00:23:25.030
and dreams into that space.

00:23:25.030 --> 00:23:25.905
- Yeah.

00:23:25.905 --> 00:23:29.785
- And is there any way to get approval

00:23:29.785 --> 00:23:33.371
at this point to offer the...

00:23:33.371 --> 00:23:35.123
I mean for the women to come out,

00:23:35.123 --> 00:23:37.166
and for a few more women to come out,

00:23:37.166 --> 00:23:41.378
and all the spaces empty and
only growing knotweeds to...

00:23:43.423 --> 00:23:44.256
- Farm in there?

00:23:44.256 --> 00:23:45.091
- Yeah.

00:23:45.091 --> 00:23:47.051
- I don't know if I can give
you permission to do that,

00:23:47.051 --> 00:23:50.221
but at the same time, there
are a lot of abandoned lots.

00:23:50.221 --> 00:23:51.055
- Mh-hmm.

00:23:51.055 --> 00:23:53.850
- Throughout the city that
people are farming on.

00:23:53.850 --> 00:23:57.478
- Is there any way to get a
passive approval from the city

00:23:57.478 --> 00:23:59.271
and not to just be quote-unquote

00:23:59.271 --> 00:24:02.066
stalking, at least till
the end of the season.

00:24:02.066 --> 00:24:03.568
- That's something I can also look into.

00:24:03.568 --> 00:24:05.028
- That would be great.

00:24:05.028 --> 00:24:05.861
- Yeah.

00:24:07.155 --> 00:24:09.950
- The issue about my rent,
you know, it was coming up

00:24:09.950 --> 00:24:11.868
but I just want you to have faith in us,

00:24:11.868 --> 00:24:14.286
and we're just gonna bite
the bullet a little bit,

00:24:14.286 --> 00:24:16.706
I can be a procrastinator
and I can get overwhelmed

00:24:16.706 --> 00:24:18.708
and I can have too much on my table.

00:24:18.708 --> 00:24:23.128
And I'm sorry to cut the
conversation so early,

00:24:23.128 --> 00:24:25.173
Nadia are you still on the line?

00:24:25.173 --> 00:24:26.465
[Nadia] I'm here.

00:24:26.465 --> 00:24:28.635
- I want to get the
women to the point that

00:24:28.635 --> 00:24:32.430
they just understand, like
this is a part of developing,

00:24:32.430 --> 00:24:34.181
equity or something of your own.

00:24:34.181 --> 00:24:35.975
Like, I don't know, in my mind,

00:24:35.975 --> 00:24:39.270
I try to imagine it
like baby birds maybe,

00:24:40.938 --> 00:24:42.731
or any type of, you know little thing

00:24:42.731 --> 00:24:46.026
that's learning to walk on their own.

00:24:46.026 --> 00:24:46.861
(birds flapping wings)

00:24:46.861 --> 00:24:51.156
Just trying to get them to
dry off their wings and fly.

00:24:52.533 --> 00:24:55.661
(all laughing)

00:24:55.661 --> 00:24:57.538
(Man shouting)

00:24:57.538 --> 00:24:59.415
- I met William at a conference,

00:25:00.708 --> 00:25:03.920
he was seated at a table
with a bunch of brown women,

00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:05.421
and he was a doll.

00:25:06.296 --> 00:25:09.300
Either William or his
father had said to me,

00:25:09.300 --> 00:25:12.636
"Raising one cow is like raising 10,

00:25:12.636 --> 00:25:15.515
and raising 10, is like raising one."

00:25:15.515 --> 00:25:16.808
(birds chirping)

00:25:16.808 --> 00:25:20.020
As if to say, it's not a problem

00:25:20.020 --> 00:25:24.148
if you guys want us to raise a steer

00:25:24.148 --> 00:25:28.611
so that you can learn
more about beef.

00:25:28.611 --> 00:25:31.948
We know about farms but to actually see

00:25:31.948 --> 00:25:36.953
and be in the process of all
what it entails is really...

00:25:37.203 --> 00:25:40.081
- But it's right out your back door,

00:25:40.081 --> 00:25:42.333
only an hour and a half away
or something.

00:25:42.333 --> 00:25:43.166
- Mh-hmm.

00:25:43.166 --> 00:25:45.420
- And then you can really
get a grip on what goes on.

00:25:45.420 --> 00:25:47.171
- If we're at all going to start getting

00:25:47.171 --> 00:25:50.008
to some of the things that
are ailing our communities,

00:25:50.008 --> 00:25:54.595
spiritually physically, mentally,

00:25:56.013 --> 00:25:59.600
environment and food go hand in hand.

00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:00.435
[Woman] Yeah.

00:26:00.435 --> 00:26:02.811
- And if we can't necessarily
be in that environment,

00:26:02.811 --> 00:26:05.773
we should be thinking more
of how do we get our food

00:26:05.773 --> 00:26:08.693
from that environment to plate.

00:26:08.693 --> 00:26:10.736
(breathes heavily)

00:26:10.736 --> 00:26:14.323
(birds chirping)

00:26:14.323 --> 00:26:17.118
Do you mind if we ask a quick question,

00:26:17.118 --> 00:26:19.453
about the pricing really quickly.

00:26:19.453 --> 00:26:21.413
- Oh, I don't know the price of the

00:26:21.413 --> 00:26:23.333
- Just roundabout.

00:26:23.333 --> 00:26:24.750
- I don't know the pricing.

00:26:24.750 --> 00:26:27.170
What is it, $6.50 to $7?

00:26:27.170 --> 00:26:30.798
- $6.50 to $7 was what you
and Mom were talking about.

00:26:30.798 --> 00:26:34.635
$6.50 to $7 a pound hanging weight.

00:26:34.635 --> 00:26:35.803
Do you know what hanging weight is?

00:26:35.803 --> 00:26:37.263
- No. (laughs)

00:26:37.263 --> 00:26:38.096
- So.

00:26:38.096 --> 00:26:39.890
- I'm figuring when
it's hanging after being

00:26:39.890 --> 00:26:41.600
slaughtered and being bled.

00:26:41.600 --> 00:26:42.726
- The whole carcass.

00:26:42.726 --> 00:26:46.731
- Then from there, you do all the cuts,

00:26:46.731 --> 00:26:48.525
and trimming so that you get the actual

00:26:48.525 --> 00:26:51.610
retail processed butchered cuts.

00:26:51.610 --> 00:26:56.573
- So we'll trust you to still
continue to help me educate

00:26:56.573 --> 00:26:57.825
the women about the process

00:26:57.825 --> 00:27:00.453
as I become more
knowledgeable about it myself.

00:27:00.453 --> 00:27:01.286
- Yeah.

00:27:01.286 --> 00:27:02.455
- It's not just about buying a cow,

00:27:02.455 --> 00:27:04.165
it's what can we do together?

00:27:04.165 --> 00:27:05.000
- Mh-hmm.

00:27:05.000 --> 00:27:06.751
- What can we do collectively

00:27:06.751 --> 00:27:08.961
with the friendships from
really cool families?

00:27:08.961 --> 00:27:09.795
[Woman] I know.

00:27:10.921 --> 00:27:11.965
- You're awesome.

00:27:11.965 --> 00:27:13.966
[Woman] Our pleasure,
you can come back any time,

00:27:13.966 --> 00:27:15.010
bring your friends.

00:27:15.968 --> 00:27:18.555
(All laughing)

00:27:22.141 --> 00:27:24.893
(birds chirping)

00:27:25.895 --> 00:27:28.856
- There's a beast that resides in you,

00:27:28.856 --> 00:27:32.151
and they say feed the one that you want.

00:27:32.151 --> 00:27:34.736
You know, you don't want
the beat dragging the human.

00:27:34.736 --> 00:27:37.906
The truth of the matter
is in our society,

00:27:37.906 --> 00:27:41.995
there are more people feeding
their beast than their human.

00:27:41.995 --> 00:27:42.828
- Yeah.

00:27:42.828 --> 00:27:44.871
- And if you have enough
reflections of that

00:27:44.871 --> 00:27:47.958
then the beast becomes the
norm rather than a human.

00:27:47.958 --> 00:27:48.876
[Julia] Of course.

00:27:48.876 --> 00:27:52.296
- If you decide to feed
your beastly nature,

00:27:52.296 --> 00:27:55.633
after a while you become
completely unjust.

00:27:55.633 --> 00:27:59.220
If you begin to feed your human nature,

00:27:59.220 --> 00:28:01.890
which in all of us is the ability,

00:28:01.890 --> 00:28:03.766
to want to do things justly.

00:28:03.766 --> 00:28:04.600
- Yes.

00:28:04.600 --> 00:28:07.020
- Then you become that.

00:28:07.020 --> 00:28:09.563
[Julia] And yet, you may well suffer

00:28:09.563 --> 00:28:12.358
all sorts of unfortunate
consequences for that.

00:28:12.358 --> 00:28:13.191
- For that.

00:28:13.191 --> 00:28:15.070
- Right, and Glaucon would argue then

00:28:15.070 --> 00:28:16.821
that's why we shouldn't bother with it,

00:28:16.821 --> 00:28:18.906
but Socrates will say

00:28:18.906 --> 00:28:21.785
that it is part and parcel
of our humanity, right?

00:28:21.785 --> 00:28:24.078
Justice is not just what you do.

00:28:24.078 --> 00:28:25.621
- It's who you are.
- It's who you are.

00:28:25.621 --> 00:28:28.040
(soft music)

00:29:00.781 --> 00:29:01.615
(Kafi shuts car door)

00:29:01.615 --> 00:29:02.450
- Oh thank you.

00:29:03.366 --> 00:29:06.453
(soft music continues)

00:29:06.453 --> 00:29:08.330
(car engine revving)

00:29:08.330 --> 00:29:10.416
- I think my stuff is gone.

00:29:12.168 --> 00:29:13.001
[James] I've been wondering

00:29:13.001 --> 00:29:15.421
if the city notice what
the women were doing here,

00:29:15.421 --> 00:29:16.671
or if they even care.

00:29:17.798 --> 00:29:20.385
But they came out and put up a sign:

00:29:20.385 --> 00:29:23.136
take your rakes and shovels,
and get out.

00:29:24.680 --> 00:29:26.598
- You wanna hold it up into place?

00:29:27.516 --> 00:29:29.351
(nail gun drilling)

00:29:29.351 --> 00:29:31.186
[James] Kafi and Tolga struck back,

00:29:31.186 --> 00:29:32.188
with their own sign.

00:29:33.063 --> 00:29:33.898
- And I'm sure somebody,

00:29:33.898 --> 00:29:36.108
some developer has their
sights set on this land,

00:29:36.108 --> 00:29:38.611
of course they would,
this is prime property.

00:29:38.611 --> 00:29:41.113
(tense music)

00:30:04.886 --> 00:30:07.473
(tense music continues)

00:30:12.936 --> 00:30:16.773
[Julia] Seeming-the
way something appears.

00:30:16.773 --> 00:30:20.026
Being-the way something really is.

00:30:20.026 --> 00:30:22.155
Now sometimes those match up,

00:30:22.155 --> 00:30:24.573
the problem is,
it's not always the case.

00:30:24.573 --> 00:30:28.201
The ways things seem isn't
always the way they are.

00:30:28.201 --> 00:30:30.705
(tense music)

00:30:33.625 --> 00:30:36.251
[Kafi] As time went on,
our conversations

00:30:36.251 --> 00:30:38.295
with William around the caf waned.

00:30:39.671 --> 00:30:42.341
I realized in going forward,

00:30:42.341 --> 00:30:44.760
that whatever it is that we wanted:

00:30:44.760 --> 00:30:47.055
the space, the life, the peace,

00:30:48.556 --> 00:30:50.433
we would have to get it for ourselves.

00:30:51.600 --> 00:30:53.476
(dramatic music)

00:30:53.476 --> 00:30:56.188
[Andrea] In Antigone the
statement is made that,

00:30:56.188 --> 00:30:58.190
money is the root of all evil.

00:30:58.190 --> 00:31:00.735
[Student] And then money
comes into the picture,

00:31:00.735 --> 00:31:02.653
everything changes.

00:31:03.946 --> 00:31:06.615
[Kafi] Even back in the
days of Socrates,

00:31:06.615 --> 00:31:09.035
we're talking about just and unjust.

00:31:09.035 --> 00:31:11.996
So why is our society still in this day

00:31:11.996 --> 00:31:13.623
trying to address these issues?

00:31:13.623 --> 00:31:15.625
- Okay, Glaucon's answer,

00:31:15.625 --> 00:31:20.003
why things go wrong is human nature.

00:31:20.003 --> 00:31:20.838
- Yes.

00:31:20.838 --> 00:31:24.216
It is human nature to want
every unfair advantage

00:31:24.216 --> 00:31:26.426
you can get, and the only reason

00:31:26.426 --> 00:31:27.261
you stop yourself from that

00:31:27.261 --> 00:31:30.348
is that you don't wanna
have that done to you.

00:31:30.348 --> 00:31:32.850
(tense music)

00:31:40.231 --> 00:31:42.693
[Carl] Emotionally you have
those moments

00:31:42.693 --> 00:31:46.363
that are...everything
right, comes together

00:31:46.363 --> 00:31:48.156
at the same time.

00:31:48.156 --> 00:31:51.285
Everyone is the best
version of themselves.

00:31:51.285 --> 00:31:53.621
It's real appropriate
if you're a parent,

00:31:53.621 --> 00:31:54.705
and you have children.

00:31:54.705 --> 00:31:56.665
And they're not always
gonna give off the vibe

00:31:56.665 --> 00:31:58.291
that they love you back.

00:31:58.291 --> 00:32:03.296
But you have memories of
them that are just wonderful,

00:32:03.380 --> 00:32:05.966
and you keep those cataloged away,

00:32:05.966 --> 00:32:09.803
they're like islands in all
of the bullshit, you know.

00:32:11.680 --> 00:32:14.766
(people chattering)

00:32:14.766 --> 00:32:16.101
[James] Carl's headed to Philly

00:32:16.101 --> 00:32:17.853
to see his younger daughter Carrie.

00:32:17.853 --> 00:32:18.688
- I got a B.

00:32:21.398 --> 00:32:22.400
[James] She's a dancer,

00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:24.401
at the University of the Arts.

00:32:26.903 --> 00:32:29.031
(people chattering)

00:32:29.031 --> 00:32:33.703
- I'm limited financially and disabled.

00:32:35.078 --> 00:32:37.665
So I retired somewhat early.

00:32:39.125 --> 00:32:43.295
I have a small pension,
so it's sort of like,

00:32:43.295 --> 00:32:47.883
I don't have an unlimited
amount of options.

00:32:47.883 --> 00:32:50.301
(soft music)

00:33:29.550 --> 00:33:32.636
(bus engine revving)

00:33:34.221 --> 00:33:36.640
(soft music)

00:33:57.786 --> 00:34:01.831
(soft music continues)

00:34:01.831 --> 00:34:04.501
When their mother and I split,

00:34:06.711 --> 00:34:10.381
and we asked where did they wanna live,

00:34:10.381 --> 00:34:13.343
it ended up they came with me.

00:34:13.343 --> 00:34:15.971
(birds chirping)

00:34:15.971 --> 00:34:16.930
- I feel like a lot of people

00:34:16.930 --> 00:34:19.725
think that New York
is just the next step,

00:34:19.725 --> 00:34:20.560
and like,

00:34:26.023 --> 00:34:29.360
this thing almost has to
happen instantaneously.

00:34:29.360 --> 00:34:32.488
Where just taking a year

00:34:32.488 --> 00:34:34.990
and like figuring things out for myself

00:34:34.990 --> 00:34:37.493
and working and saving money,

00:34:39.411 --> 00:34:41.413
could potentially be
the best option for me,

00:34:41.413 --> 00:34:43.081
as opposed to like moving to New York

00:34:43.081 --> 00:34:48.086
and making this big move and
like struggling just to live.

00:34:48.295 --> 00:34:51.048
(birds chirping)

00:34:54.093 --> 00:34:56.595
(dog barking)

00:34:57.805 --> 00:35:00.683
- Maybe this is time to
take a breath, you know,

00:35:03.060 --> 00:35:04.186
and that's good.

00:35:04.186 --> 00:35:05.020
- Yeah.

00:35:07.815 --> 00:35:09.566
I know with the goals that you have,

00:35:09.566 --> 00:35:13.111
it's not gonna be long and it
won't be a wasted time period.

00:35:14.738 --> 00:35:17.741
Think of it as kind of like
you're renewing yourself.

00:35:19.826 --> 00:35:22.955
I'm more proud of you as
the kind of person you are

00:35:24.665 --> 00:35:28.043
then all the accomplishments
that you have, I mean it.

00:35:28.043 --> 00:35:31.546
I'm proud of those, but I'm
more proud of the kind of person

00:35:31.546 --> 00:35:32.715
you've become.

00:35:32.715 --> 00:35:33.841
Good luck.
- Thank you.

00:35:33.841 --> 00:35:34.675
- You're gonna be great.

00:35:34.675 --> 00:35:35.510
- Thank you.

00:35:36.426 --> 00:35:41.015
- Somebody like Carrie, the
most important part is the art.

00:35:41.015 --> 00:35:43.935
(people chattering)

00:35:43.935 --> 00:35:48.940
But along with that, she
has kind of the foundation

00:35:49.023 --> 00:35:53.193
of knowing that she's going
to a first-rate school,

00:35:53.193 --> 00:35:58.198
and she's recognized
for being a good artist.

00:36:00.951 --> 00:36:03.120
So for her school to say

00:36:03.120 --> 00:36:07.250
you're worthy of performing
in Paris (chuckles),

00:36:08.625 --> 00:36:10.293
that's pretty spectacular.

00:36:10.293 --> 00:36:12.880
(upbeat music)

00:36:41.075 --> 00:36:44.078
(suspenseful music)

00:36:48.123 --> 00:36:51.960
(suspenseful music continues)

00:37:26.120 --> 00:37:28.705
(soft music)

00:37:35.336 --> 00:37:37.881
The poem is really about life.

00:37:37.881 --> 00:37:41.301
Leroy John's poem "The Struggle."

00:37:41.301 --> 00:37:42.135
[Woman] Yeah.

00:37:42.135 --> 00:37:43.428
- But you look back and you go,

00:37:43.428 --> 00:37:45.430
"Wow, there was that love there

00:37:45.430 --> 00:37:47.350
and there was great moments there."

00:37:47.350 --> 00:37:48.183
[Woman] Yeah.

00:37:48.183 --> 00:37:50.226
And the happiness is a feature of it,

00:37:50.226 --> 00:37:53.896
but it's beyond that. And so
it's like living a full life.

00:37:54.773 --> 00:37:56.316
[Woman] Beautiful, thank you.

00:38:10.831 --> 00:38:12.123
[James] Kafi just called to tell me

00:38:12.123 --> 00:38:13.291
she's been evicted.

00:38:14.293 --> 00:38:17.338
She's living at her
friend Joanna's apartment,

00:38:17.338 --> 00:38:18.546
in a storage closet.

00:38:21.216 --> 00:38:24.636
- I could've really ended
up, like in a bad situation.

00:38:26.138 --> 00:38:26.971
(cutlery clanking)

00:38:26.971 --> 00:38:29.308
But Joanna saved my life, she
was like, "Come stay with me."

00:38:29.308 --> 00:38:31.976
(Kafi laughing)

00:38:34.480 --> 00:38:37.900
- Joanna said "Yeah, sure.
You can come stay with me."

00:38:40.903 --> 00:38:42.320
But lately I've been
doing a lot of ranting

00:38:42.320 --> 00:38:43.155
on the phone to people.

00:38:43.155 --> 00:38:44.531
[James] Wow.

00:38:44.531 --> 00:38:46.575
- Like just a select
few-maybe two or three.

00:38:48.118 --> 00:38:49.911
Epic ranting.

00:38:49.911 --> 00:38:52.790
Clemente course epic, right?

00:38:52.790 --> 00:38:54.458
When I first got the job with the T

00:38:54.458 --> 00:38:56.126
they were doing route guides.

00:38:56.960 --> 00:38:58.128
So they was showing you all the routes

00:38:58.128 --> 00:38:59.546
they have for that garage.

00:39:00.756 --> 00:39:02.633
And I was sitting on
the back of the bus,

00:39:02.633 --> 00:39:05.051
while the instructor was
showing us the routes

00:39:05.051 --> 00:39:08.721
and visual points, and he said...if you,

00:39:08.721 --> 00:39:12.141
he was like, "Remember just
look for Town Line Inn,

00:39:12.141 --> 00:39:14.811
and then you'll know you're
about to access route one."

00:39:14.811 --> 00:39:16.771
I looked over to Town Line Inn

00:39:16.771 --> 00:39:18.065
and it was just surreal to me

00:39:18.065 --> 00:39:20.776
because that was the last
homeless shelter hotel

00:39:20.776 --> 00:39:22.110
that I was just placed in.

00:39:22.110 --> 00:39:24.613
(car engine revving)

00:39:24.613 --> 00:39:27.073
From at the age of like 18 or 19

00:39:27.073 --> 00:39:31.328
I had moved from Town Line
Inn into my first apartment.

00:39:35.206 --> 00:39:39.461
And then last week they put me
back on that 430 Route again.

00:39:40.755 --> 00:39:41.755
And I was coming back

00:39:41.755 --> 00:39:43.506
and I was picking up
the little children,

00:39:43.506 --> 00:39:45.843
I realized they had to
be staying in a hotel

00:39:45.843 --> 00:39:47.970
because you could smell
the hotel on them.

00:39:47.970 --> 00:39:48.803
[James] Mh-hmm.

00:39:48.803 --> 00:39:51.015
Like these old, this old detergent,

00:39:51.015 --> 00:39:52.475
this old carpeting and stuff like that.

00:39:52.475 --> 00:39:53.516
You could smell it on the children

00:39:53.516 --> 00:39:55.185
as they were getting on the bus.

00:39:56.103 --> 00:39:57.980
And so I was like, "Just
go ahead. Go ahead."

00:39:57.980 --> 00:40:00.648
And like really making this
association with the smell,

00:40:00.648 --> 00:40:04.778
the kids, the hotels,
homelessness when I was 19.

00:40:04.778 --> 00:40:06.821
Homelessness when I'm
deep into my 40s

00:40:06.821 --> 00:40:08.365
and like what the hell is going on?

00:40:08.365 --> 00:40:11.076
But I stayed emotionally
sound, so it was good.

00:40:11.076 --> 00:40:14.078
I didn't have a mini
breakdown like... (chuckles).

00:40:15.496 --> 00:40:17.415
We try to keep this a meat free house.

00:40:17.415 --> 00:40:18.708
[James] Mh-hmm.

00:40:18.708 --> 00:40:21.420
- And it's so weird because
I think when Joe's out,

00:40:21.420 --> 00:40:22.838
she gets a hamburger from time to time.

00:40:22.838 --> 00:40:26.300
And so do I, but nobody dares
cooking hamburger in here.

00:40:26.300 --> 00:40:28.468
Joanna have you not had a hamburger?

00:40:28.468 --> 00:40:29.761
[Joanna] I have.

00:40:29.761 --> 00:40:33.015
(both laughing)

00:40:33.015 --> 00:40:35.350
Well we dare not offend the sanctuary

00:40:35.350 --> 00:40:36.685
by cooking a hamburger in there.

00:40:36.685 --> 00:40:37.520
- No.

00:40:37.520 --> 00:40:38.895
(both laughing)

00:40:38.895 --> 00:40:42.065
The ghost of the cows past
would come here like, "No."

00:40:42.065 --> 00:40:43.858
(both laughing)

00:40:43.858 --> 00:40:44.943
I know it's supposed to be

00:40:44.943 --> 00:40:46.986
like a storage room or
something like that.

00:40:46.986 --> 00:40:49.448
And then she turned it
into a meditation room,

00:40:49.448 --> 00:40:50.281
and then...

00:40:53.368 --> 00:40:55.328
then was like, you know,
you can stay in here.

00:40:56.830 --> 00:40:57.665
I'm really thankful

00:40:57.665 --> 00:40:59.916
to end up in this space
and not somewhere else.

00:40:59.916 --> 00:41:02.836
with people that have the
same beliefs that I do.

00:41:04.755 --> 00:41:07.006
- And this is a landmark
Supreme Court ruling,

00:41:07.006 --> 00:41:08.883
one of the most important
Supreme Court rulings

00:41:08.883 --> 00:41:10.468
in the history of the United States.

00:41:10.468 --> 00:41:13.555
Basically says that to separate
black kids and white kids

00:41:13.555 --> 00:41:16.266
in schools is not constitutional,

00:41:16.266 --> 00:41:19.436
because the black schools are
unequal to the white schools.

00:41:19.436 --> 00:41:21.605
That's a kind of top down decision

00:41:21.605 --> 00:41:23.356
that really rattled the nation.

00:41:23.356 --> 00:41:27.276
It overturned the longstanding
segregational practices

00:41:27.276 --> 00:41:28.320
of the country.

00:41:28.320 --> 00:41:30.363
And it was a huge deal.

00:41:30.363 --> 00:41:33.116
- I am a child of the
civil rights movement,

00:41:33.116 --> 00:41:34.951
because I went to segregated schools.

00:41:34.951 --> 00:41:35.785
[Student] Uh-uh.

00:41:35.785 --> 00:41:38.246
I went to Southie, in Charlestown High,

00:41:38.246 --> 00:41:40.665
where my bus was still being bused.

00:41:40.665 --> 00:41:43.376
They still didn't want
us in the town, we stood,

00:41:43.376 --> 00:41:45.045
they still didn't want us in the school,

00:41:45.045 --> 00:41:47.923
and it was very much a segregated...

00:41:47.923 --> 00:41:50.716
we were trying to bring about change,

00:41:50.716 --> 00:41:53.511
and I was in the thick of it.

00:41:53.511 --> 00:41:56.348
(soft music)

00:41:56.348 --> 00:41:57.683
[James] When I heard Clemente students

00:41:57.683 --> 00:41:59.851
talking about being bused
to white neighborhoods

00:41:59.851 --> 00:42:01.186
in the 1970s.

00:42:02.813 --> 00:42:04.523
I had to go back and
look at news footage.

00:42:04.523 --> 00:42:07.358
(sirens blaring)

00:42:07.358 --> 00:42:08.776
(people chattering)

00:42:08.776 --> 00:42:10.486
- When they do take some
of the police out here,

00:42:10.486 --> 00:42:13.406
there will be more trouble
than anyone realizes,

00:42:13.406 --> 00:42:14.991
'cause these kids are
not gonna stand for it,

00:42:14.991 --> 00:42:16.451
neither are the parents.

00:42:16.451 --> 00:42:17.285
[News Reporter] How about attendance?

00:42:17.285 --> 00:42:19.288
How do you feel school
attendance will be

00:42:19.288 --> 00:42:20.121
as the year goes on?

00:42:20.121 --> 00:42:22.540
- All colored. No white.
Not in our schools.

00:42:23.791 --> 00:42:26.836
Yeah give it to the niggers.
That's what they want.

00:42:26.836 --> 00:42:29.673
(people cheering)

00:42:43.895 --> 00:42:45.355
(crowd cheering)

00:42:53.863 --> 00:42:55.656
(people chattering)

00:42:55.656 --> 00:42:59.578
Nearly 50 years on,
there's still no justice,

00:42:59.578 --> 00:43:03.165
no truth, no reconciliation.

00:43:03.165 --> 00:43:06.043
- Where I grew up was in Uphams Corner,

00:43:06.043 --> 00:43:08.086
Dorchester on Dudley Street.

00:43:08.086 --> 00:43:10.130
One of the first thing my
brother told us not to do

00:43:10.130 --> 00:43:11.840
was don't cross Columbia Road.

00:43:13.341 --> 00:43:16.636
I remember my brothers
telling me these stories

00:43:16.636 --> 00:43:21.641
of their buses, dropping
them off at the wrong stops.

00:43:22.726 --> 00:43:24.478
In these predominantly white areas

00:43:24.478 --> 00:43:27.648
and having to run home
with grown white men,

00:43:27.648 --> 00:43:30.191
chasing them, calling them niggers.

00:43:30.191 --> 00:43:32.986
(soft music)

00:43:32.986 --> 00:43:34.488
You know, sometimes I
feel afraid for myself,

00:43:34.488 --> 00:43:38.491
like this could be a space

00:43:38.491 --> 00:43:43.496
for a million dollar
housing development.

00:43:46.416 --> 00:43:47.918
And I'm squatting on it,

00:43:47.918 --> 00:43:50.711
and occupying on it and planting food.

00:43:52.046 --> 00:43:53.465
And I'm in somebodies way,

00:43:55.008 --> 00:43:55.841
if you are in development here

00:43:55.841 --> 00:43:58.345
in the city of Boston in real estate,

00:44:02.431 --> 00:44:04.935
this has become your paradise.

00:44:04.935 --> 00:44:06.436
And this is somebody's paradise,

00:44:06.436 --> 00:44:08.605
and this is somebody's money,

00:44:08.605 --> 00:44:10.481
and somebody's been on a handshake

00:44:10.481 --> 00:44:13.360
probably promised this and
then they're waiting for it.

00:44:15.361 --> 00:44:17.363
(soft music)

00:44:17.363 --> 00:44:21.160
There is some mind
blowing shit that goes on

00:44:21.160 --> 00:44:25.996
with knowing that you don't
own a home, you don't own land.

00:44:29.291 --> 00:44:30.835
If Joanna was to lose that apartment,

00:44:30.835 --> 00:44:33.546
she'd be packing up her shit
the same way I packed up mine.

00:44:37.968 --> 00:44:39.470
- Dealing with relationships

00:44:39.470 --> 00:44:42.848
is hard because I have to bring up that.

00:44:42.848 --> 00:44:43.890
- You have been dealing with it.

00:44:43.890 --> 00:44:48.311
- This past issues I've had
and what could possibly happen

00:44:48.311 --> 00:44:50.271
in the relationship so.

00:44:53.775 --> 00:44:56.611
- I think a lot of times
I find myself on the brink

00:44:56.611 --> 00:45:01.575
of feeling like I'm...

00:45:01.575 --> 00:45:03.576
going through some of the
things you go through.

00:45:03.576 --> 00:45:04.411
[Joanna] Mh-hmm.

00:45:04.411 --> 00:45:06.788
- But really around like some
of the emotional pressures.

00:45:08.581 --> 00:45:09.416
- Oh really.
- I wanna meet,

00:45:09.416 --> 00:45:11.335
honestly I wanna meet someone like me

00:45:11.335 --> 00:45:13.503
who has had these...

00:45:15.005 --> 00:45:17.215
you know, psychotic experiences,

00:45:17.215 --> 00:45:21.303
and just see how they're
surviving and what they're doing.

00:45:21.303 --> 00:45:23.388
- I always come back to when you said,

00:45:23.388 --> 00:45:25.973
when we were on the farm site you said

00:45:25.973 --> 00:45:28.226
being angry is so exhausting,

00:45:28.226 --> 00:45:31.355
and then laid down in
the grass and took a nap.

00:45:31.355 --> 00:45:33.773
(soft music)

00:46:14.271 --> 00:46:17.025
(sirens blaring)

00:46:18.693 --> 00:46:21.196
(car hooting)

00:46:23.198 --> 00:46:27.368
- My landlady said, "You've
been a great tenant,

00:46:29.036 --> 00:46:31.581
you know, everything that a tenant

00:46:31.581 --> 00:46:34.710
is supposed to do you've
done. I want to sell."

00:46:34.710 --> 00:46:37.503
And I said, "Okay, how much time?"

00:46:37.503 --> 00:46:40.423
And she said, "Well, two, three days."

00:46:41.383 --> 00:46:43.343
And I'm thinking,

00:46:44.010 --> 00:46:45.553
"Well, this is a nightmare."

00:46:45.553 --> 00:46:46.388
- Mh-hmm.

00:46:47.680 --> 00:46:52.018
- So we discussed it and I said,

00:46:52.018 --> 00:46:53.311
"Well, I'm gonna need some time, okay?"

00:46:53.311 --> 00:46:54.145
- Mh-hmm.

00:46:54.145 --> 00:46:57.523
- I'll pay the rent
day by day at this point.

00:47:00.235 --> 00:47:02.486
[Kafi] My situation is not isolated,

00:47:02.486 --> 00:47:04.615
but it's part of a very large machine,

00:47:04.615 --> 00:47:07.366
that's moving through
the city of Boston,

00:47:07.366 --> 00:47:11.330
to displace and move out
residents as far as I'm concerned.

00:47:11.330 --> 00:47:15.250
It's not okay to move families
to New Bedford and Fitchburg,

00:47:15.250 --> 00:47:16.960
in the name of affordable housing.

00:47:16.960 --> 00:47:19.796
(people clapping)

00:47:21.756 --> 00:47:23.466
Then my concern is,

00:47:23.466 --> 00:47:26.135
what happens to women
who are lower income,

00:47:26.135 --> 00:47:28.263
who don't advocate for
themselves properly,

00:47:28.263 --> 00:47:29.848
who don't have that information.

00:47:32.183 --> 00:47:34.393
(people chattering)

00:47:34.393 --> 00:47:35.728
[James] Why has the number of homeless

00:47:35.728 --> 00:47:38.315
in greater Boston increased
by nearly 50%,

00:47:38.315 --> 00:47:39.858
in the last 10 years?

00:47:40.983 --> 00:47:42.401
Maybe it's because the waiting list

00:47:42.401 --> 00:47:46.071
for affordable housing is
40,000 applicants long.

00:47:47.448 --> 00:47:50.160
[Man] People who had been
there 30, 35 and 40 years

00:47:50.160 --> 00:47:52.120
are all facing $500 rent increases.

00:47:52.120 --> 00:47:55.081
- I just want to thank
everybody for coming out,

00:47:55.081 --> 00:47:56.750
for supporting me...

00:47:56.750 --> 00:47:59.836
[James] This is Felicha
Young, she's on that list.

00:48:01.380 --> 00:48:04.716
And holding onto her life by a thread.

00:48:04.716 --> 00:48:07.176
[Man] I'm tired, I can
breathe a little bit now,

00:48:07.176 --> 00:48:10.346
because I didn't wanna take
any money that they offered me,

00:48:10.346 --> 00:48:13.016
because I didn't have
anywhere to take it.

00:48:13.016 --> 00:48:15.768
Why would I take money and
move out on the street,

00:48:15.768 --> 00:48:16.895
that don't make no sense to me.

00:48:16.895 --> 00:48:18.105
[Man] That's right.

00:48:18.105 --> 00:48:20.023
- I've been looking for an apartment

00:48:20.023 --> 00:48:23.568
and I couldn't find anything
that I could afford.

00:48:23.568 --> 00:48:26.488
I don't know, I'm just
real grateful right now.

00:48:26.488 --> 00:48:27.363
[Man] Yes oh yes.

00:48:27.363 --> 00:48:30.116
- Thank you all so much I swear,

00:48:30.116 --> 00:48:32.285
this made me feel so good-
[Man] You're family.

00:48:32.285 --> 00:48:33.120
- To know and have people behind me.

00:48:33.120 --> 00:48:34.663
[Man] That's right-
- It's hard

00:48:34.663 --> 00:48:36.998
to do this by myself.

00:48:36.998 --> 00:48:38.916
- And the question I ponder to God,

00:48:38.916 --> 00:48:43.546
God if these people are
evicted, where will they go?

00:48:43.546 --> 00:48:46.800
(train engine roaring)

00:48:52.263 --> 00:48:55.933
[James] Felicha Young,
Kafi Dixon, Carl Chandler.

00:48:55.933 --> 00:48:58.686
All the others like them
who end up in shelters,

00:48:58.686 --> 00:49:00.938
storage closets, or on the streets.

00:49:00.938 --> 00:49:02.023
(soft music)

00:49:02.023 --> 00:49:03.858
No one will tell us the official numbers

00:49:03.858 --> 00:49:05.526
of persons displaced.

00:49:09.571 --> 00:49:12.658
But each time a name is
erased somewhere in city hall,

00:49:14.326 --> 00:49:16.245
the city changes.

00:49:16.245 --> 00:49:18.665
(soft music)

00:50:10.841 --> 00:50:13.678
(water splashing)

00:50:15.680 --> 00:50:18.891
(soft music continues)

00:50:32.196 --> 00:50:35.200
(people chattering)

00:50:38.120 --> 00:50:41.706
- Anomie is a not sublime
feeling, and I think that,

00:50:41.706 --> 00:50:43.166
we can see Wordsworth
feeling like that

00:50:43.166 --> 00:50:48.171
when he talks about hours
of weariness in the city.

00:50:48.171 --> 00:50:50.965
Anomie means that you are surrounded

00:50:50.965 --> 00:50:55.636
by a world with which
you feel out of step.

00:50:55.636 --> 00:50:59.265
That you feel like, the world,
the culture you're living in,

00:50:59.265 --> 00:51:01.016
might even be hostile to you.

00:51:01.016 --> 00:51:03.478
(tense music)

00:51:04.353 --> 00:51:07.356
(suspenseful music)

00:52:21.388 --> 00:52:23.433
[Tim] The closer
we get to the present,

00:52:23.433 --> 00:52:26.435
the more intense and
contentious the debates are,

00:52:26.435 --> 00:52:30.648
and I think you see that
every year in the final class.

00:52:30.648 --> 00:52:35.653
- It's a class where we really
get at these core conflicts

00:52:35.861 --> 00:52:38.490
about race and democracy,
about freedom and equality,

00:52:38.490 --> 00:52:41.366
about rights and
responsibilities, about power.

00:52:41.366 --> 00:52:44.286
- Cooperatives and unions

00:52:44.286 --> 00:52:46.413
were started during the
civil rights movement

00:52:46.413 --> 00:52:48.833
or before the civil rights
[Man] Oh, way before-

00:52:48.833 --> 00:52:52.545
- And a lot of the night riding
that went on with the KKK,

00:52:52.545 --> 00:52:55.923
was really towards people's
homes that had cooperatives,

00:52:55.923 --> 00:52:58.510
that had unions and that
were separating themselves

00:52:58.510 --> 00:53:00.178
from the white dollar.

00:53:00.178 --> 00:53:01.011
- Right.

00:53:01.011 --> 00:53:03.640
- So I don't think the
problem's been solved.

00:53:03.640 --> 00:53:06.350
- When you look at the
laws that govern the land,

00:53:06.350 --> 00:53:08.436
we're in a whole other place right now.

00:53:08.436 --> 00:53:11.355
And although black men are being killed,

00:53:11.355 --> 00:53:14.191
there takes now the leaders of this day,

00:53:14.191 --> 00:53:16.360
to stand up and create...
- We just had our voting registration rights

00:53:16.360 --> 00:53:17.903
peeled back in Mississippi?

00:53:19.696 --> 00:53:23.368
We've been relaxed into this idea again,

00:53:23.368 --> 00:53:25.036
that just because we're fine

00:53:25.036 --> 00:53:26.996
and we have these certain rights,

00:53:26.996 --> 00:53:29.165
that things are not going to affect us,

00:53:29.165 --> 00:53:31.960
but when they do it's a
slow drip on a hard stone,

00:53:31.960 --> 00:53:33.420
it eventually makes it's hit.

00:53:33.420 --> 00:53:36.546
And it is actually pushing us back,

00:53:36.546 --> 00:53:38.048
if I have to worry about my son,

00:53:38.048 --> 00:53:40.676
my son can't come
live with me in Boston,

00:53:40.676 --> 00:53:42.678
because I'm worried about him being shot

00:53:42.678 --> 00:53:44.388
on the streets in Boston,

00:53:44.388 --> 00:53:47.683
I don't feel like I have
enough equity in my community.

00:53:47.683 --> 00:53:49.936
- I'm thinking about us as a people.

00:53:49.936 --> 00:53:50.770
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

00:53:50.770 --> 00:53:52.480
- In this day and age we are better off

00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:54.106
than we were back then.

00:53:54.106 --> 00:53:55.108
- I don't think so.

00:53:55.108 --> 00:53:58.110
- Because you are able to
become president if you want to.

00:53:58.110 --> 00:53:59.988
- To say that we're better off,

00:53:59.988 --> 00:54:00.905
mmh-mmh.
[Kafi] No.

00:54:00.905 --> 00:54:04.325
- It may be a trickle effect.
- Well this is

00:54:04.325 --> 00:54:07.036
a real slow trickle.
- You may see it

00:54:07.036 --> 00:54:07.870
like it's a trickle effect.
[Carlos] It's a real slow...

00:54:07.870 --> 00:54:09.956
Turn that faucet up!

00:54:09.956 --> 00:54:11.581
(all laughing)

00:54:11.581 --> 00:54:13.083
- But what I'm saying is that-

00:54:13.083 --> 00:54:15.045
[Narrator] If we are
going to begin to talk

00:54:15.045 --> 00:54:19.048
about the deaths of our
sons and our daughters.

00:54:19.048 --> 00:54:20.925
[Woman] Hold one end of
it so it's sturdy enough-

00:54:20.925 --> 00:54:24.178
About the displacement
from our communities,

00:54:25.305 --> 00:54:28.600
if we're going to begin to
talk about bias and racism,

00:54:30.560 --> 00:54:31.811
and gentrification.

00:54:32.770 --> 00:54:34.063
- I thank you for helping me weed...

00:54:34.063 --> 00:54:35.440
[Narrator] But,

00:54:35.440 --> 00:54:38.108
we're going to have to
do this on our own.

00:54:38.108 --> 00:54:39.860
- Even more, I want to just remind you

00:54:39.860 --> 00:54:42.363
that this is an open
space and an open site.

00:54:42.363 --> 00:54:44.156
(soft music)

00:54:44.156 --> 00:54:46.785
[James] I set out looking
for transformations,

00:54:46.785 --> 00:54:48.620
in the lives of the Clemente students.

00:54:48.620 --> 00:54:50.455
[Lecturer] Always dream here-

00:54:50.455 --> 00:54:51.288
[James] But got derailed

00:54:51.288 --> 00:54:53.165
by the realities of their lives.

00:54:54.291 --> 00:54:57.378
Knowledge is power but so is property,

00:54:58.671 --> 00:55:00.631
the ability to get a loan,

00:55:00.631 --> 00:55:03.676
or pass wealth to the next generation.

00:55:03.676 --> 00:55:08.890
Not to mention peace, safety,
the benefit of the doubt.

00:55:09.598 --> 00:55:11.016
Whiteness.

00:55:13.018 --> 00:55:16.063
if I'd gotten onto Kafi's
bus a year ago,

00:55:16.063 --> 00:55:17.731
would I have even noticed her?

00:55:21.360 --> 00:55:25.615
[Tim] We can get really mad about
the fact that every 35 hours

00:55:25.615 --> 00:55:27.908
a black man is shot by a cop in America.

00:55:29.285 --> 00:55:32.996
And if we know that history,
that's happened forever,

00:55:33.623 --> 00:55:35.708
then that fire can consume us,

00:55:35.708 --> 00:55:37.501
or it can burn the whole thing down.

00:55:38.961 --> 00:55:42.673
Well, are we in or are we out?
And if we're in, what are we doing?

00:55:42.673 --> 00:55:43.550
(soft music)

00:55:43.550 --> 00:55:45.051
And where do we put that fire?

00:55:46.135 --> 00:55:47.345
It's been a pleasure.

00:55:47.345 --> 00:55:50.890
(students clapping)

00:55:50.890 --> 00:55:53.308
(soft music)

00:55:54.851 --> 00:55:56.686
- Oh, I'm so sorry.

00:55:56.686 --> 00:55:59.940
(soft music continues)

00:56:09.616 --> 00:56:12.161
(crickets chirping)

00:56:12.161 --> 00:56:16.290
After many months of searching,
Kafi found a new apartment.

00:56:16.373 --> 00:56:18.543
(tense music)

00:56:21.128 --> 00:56:22.505
- I can't seem to set this house

00:56:22.505 --> 00:56:24.715
up the way I've set other apartments up.

00:56:26.216 --> 00:56:31.013
And it's really made me want
to own things; own a home.

00:56:31.890 --> 00:56:33.433
Even when I see the landlord here,

00:56:33.433 --> 00:56:35.016
like he has this power over me

00:56:35.016 --> 00:56:36.476
that he doesn't even realize he has,

00:56:36.476 --> 00:56:37.561
because I feel like I have to

00:56:37.561 --> 00:56:39.938
really work with him
around certain things,

00:56:39.938 --> 00:56:41.481
because I don't want him to evict me.

00:56:41.481 --> 00:56:42.775
(vegetables sizzling)

00:56:42.775 --> 00:56:45.945
So I'm like, my daughter asked me today,

00:56:45.945 --> 00:56:48.363
because she's being
evicted out of her place.

00:56:48.363 --> 00:56:51.116
She said can she bring
her dresser over here?

00:56:53.786 --> 00:56:55.705
And I was just like, "No."

00:56:55.705 --> 00:56:58.750
I don't want him asking
me any questions

00:56:58.750 --> 00:57:00.793
about why you're moving stuff in here.

00:57:02.336 --> 00:57:05.673
(tense music continues)

00:57:10.051 --> 00:57:13.013
Loosing my housing again
has me so freaked out

00:57:14.223 --> 00:57:18.018
that it's like bothering me
that I can't seem to let it go.

00:57:18.936 --> 00:57:21.730
When I finally relax from this nonsense

00:57:21.730 --> 00:57:23.273
of getting this thing up and running,

00:57:23.273 --> 00:57:25.235
and deflecting all of the bullshit

00:57:25.235 --> 00:57:29.238
that...that is intended to
stop it, or to stop me,

00:57:29.238 --> 00:57:30.071
that I have to sit down

00:57:30.071 --> 00:57:32.700
and talk to the woman about policy work.

00:57:32.700 --> 00:57:35.578
As I sat there and
emailed my city counselor,

00:57:35.578 --> 00:57:37.163
who is yet to get back to me.

00:57:38.371 --> 00:57:40.583
As I sat there and
emailed my city counselor

00:57:40.583 --> 00:57:44.753
about that land, and they
have yet to get back to me,

00:57:44.753 --> 00:57:48.800
and the votes that went in
from communities of color

00:57:48.800 --> 00:57:50.091
that would benefit this farm

00:57:50.091 --> 00:57:52.928
went to put your ass in that seat.

00:57:52.928 --> 00:57:54.888
But when I put the Women of Color Co-op

00:57:54.888 --> 00:57:57.975
on the title of that
email, it's disregarded.

00:57:57.975 --> 00:58:00.811
One of the things the city
is going to have to look at

00:58:00.811 --> 00:58:03.731
and identify when they think
about what's gonna happen

00:58:03.731 --> 00:58:08.151
to that land is the
500 and something women

00:58:08.151 --> 00:58:10.321
that are sitting on that meetup.

00:58:10.321 --> 00:58:11.906
(food sizzling)

00:58:11.906 --> 00:58:14.908
That's the only thing that gets
me a meeting with the city.

00:58:18.370 --> 00:58:21.290
- The site that you were looking at
had a long community process

00:58:21.290 --> 00:58:23.416
and the community's behind the developer

00:58:23.416 --> 00:58:25.878
that was selected to develop
this site that you're-

00:58:25.878 --> 00:58:27.671
[Kafi] As a building or as a farm?

00:58:27.671 --> 00:58:28.505
- Both.

00:58:28.505 --> 00:58:31.425
- They're gonna build
housing into the slopes,

00:58:31.425 --> 00:58:32.676
so down where you are on Terrace

00:58:32.676 --> 00:58:33.510
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

00:58:33.510 --> 00:58:34.678
- It's gonna be on three stories,

00:58:34.678 --> 00:58:37.806
middle of the site is going to be two
stories, and the top is going to be one.

00:58:37.806 --> 00:58:41.351
When you walk out on Parker
Street, it's all gonna be level.

00:58:41.351 --> 00:58:42.186
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

00:58:42.186 --> 00:58:45.273
- So panels there, it's going
to be energy positive.

00:58:45.273 --> 00:58:47.650
So the committee's totally
in support of that.

00:58:47.650 --> 00:58:48.776
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

00:58:48.776 --> 00:58:50.445
- We probably wouldn't be
talking about this now

00:58:50.445 --> 00:58:51.778
if there wasn't this lawsuit

00:58:51.778 --> 00:58:54.490
that has held it up for three years,

00:58:54.490 --> 00:58:56.283
it would be completed right now.

00:58:56.283 --> 00:58:58.201
It'd be the most unique development

00:58:58.201 --> 00:59:00.246
I think that I've seen in Boston.

00:59:00.246 --> 00:59:04.250
- Mh-hmm. It's not to say
that I can't wrap my head

00:59:04.250 --> 00:59:08.921
around the success of a green
building in that territory,

00:59:10.923 --> 00:59:13.008
but my real feeling is if that success

00:59:13.008 --> 00:59:16.261
is not inclusive of the
women of color here in Boston

00:59:16.261 --> 00:59:18.640
who are still feeling the pressures

00:59:18.640 --> 00:59:22.601
of trying to remain
rooted in their cities.

00:59:25.145 --> 00:59:27.356
I can't celebrate that
success with the city,

00:59:27.356 --> 00:59:29.191
unless I'm celebrating that success

00:59:29.191 --> 00:59:31.485
with the women specifically.

00:59:31.485 --> 00:59:33.780
- We get property through
tax foreclosure,

00:59:33.780 --> 00:59:34.821
or if a property is surplussed

00:59:34.821 --> 00:59:37.825
it comes to DND for disposition.

00:59:37.825 --> 00:59:40.411
98% of our property probably goes out

00:59:40.411 --> 00:59:42.538
for neighborhood uses.
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

00:59:42.538 --> 00:59:46.375
- So we can look at sites
that might meet your needs,

00:59:46.375 --> 00:59:48.878
and then we can talk about them.

00:59:48.878 --> 00:59:53.173
Once we sort of land on an idea,

00:59:53.173 --> 00:59:55.593
you have a very thorough
community process,

00:59:55.593 --> 00:59:56.426
because we just do.

00:59:56.426 --> 00:59:59.305
- What do we do with D&D that allows us

00:59:59.305 --> 01:00:03.935
to get access to space to
grow food for the women

01:00:03.935 --> 01:00:07.313
that have been on the farm site
and worked on this farm site

01:00:07.313 --> 01:00:09.065
in a way that doesn't have them prepared

01:00:09.065 --> 01:00:10.650
to chain themselves to a rock?

01:00:12.568 --> 01:00:14.278
- I think if we would've
been having this conversation

01:00:14.278 --> 01:00:15.363
a number of years back

01:00:15.363 --> 01:00:16.196
[Kafi] Mh-hmm.

01:00:16.196 --> 01:00:18.741
- you know, the process that
we had on this particular site,

01:00:18.741 --> 01:00:21.326
I think you would've been
welcomed into that process.

01:00:21.326 --> 01:00:22.161
[Kafi] Yeah

01:00:22.161 --> 01:00:23.620
- Unfortunately, it's
just the timing.

01:00:23.620 --> 01:00:25.706
You weren't necessarily
organized around that site

01:00:25.706 --> 01:00:28.960
back when the community had
a conversation.

01:00:28.960 --> 01:00:31.503
[Kafi] Well that's not true,
- Is to look for a site-

01:00:31.503 --> 01:00:33.046
- That's not true 'cause
I've had meetings

01:00:33.046 --> 01:00:36.216
with Megan Costello and
I've emailed to the city

01:00:36.216 --> 01:00:38.426
that that was a site
we were interested in.

01:00:38.426 --> 01:00:40.261
- So I think what we...

01:00:40.261 --> 01:00:41.096
I don't think we're saying,

01:00:41.096 --> 01:00:43.725
oh go work with these
groups 'cause they...

01:00:43.725 --> 01:00:47.061
There is a whole urban farming movement

01:00:47.061 --> 01:00:48.855
which I think is great,
and it's good for the city.

01:00:48.855 --> 01:00:50.731
- When you talk about it's
been good for the city,

01:00:50.731 --> 01:00:55.068
we're also talking about a
city that is changing rapidly.

01:00:55.068 --> 01:00:58.488
Changing just because somebody
is in the same neighborhood

01:00:58.488 --> 01:01:00.950
that doesn't automatically
make them community,

01:01:00.950 --> 01:01:03.745
when their struggles are
completely different,

01:01:03.745 --> 01:01:06.246
their experiences in the same space

01:01:06.246 --> 01:01:07.873
are completely different.

01:01:07.873 --> 01:01:10.793
And how do we value those experiences

01:01:10.793 --> 01:01:12.670
and support those experiences,

01:01:12.670 --> 01:01:15.590
for people who it's not positive.

01:01:15.590 --> 01:01:17.383
- I got to say any land used here

01:01:17.383 --> 01:01:19.010
at the city, it's a process.

01:01:19.010 --> 01:01:23.388
And I think we're saying to
you we want to be supportive...

01:01:23.388 --> 01:01:25.306
- We don't even have a list of land

01:01:25.306 --> 01:01:28.143
that's available to us
except for these few sites.

01:01:28.978 --> 01:01:31.688
- Well, there was a couple
that I thought were really,

01:01:33.858 --> 01:01:34.691
that were-
- You have women and...

01:01:34.691 --> 01:01:36.651
Can I say Tolga, can I say this?

01:01:37.861 --> 01:01:41.115
I'm not putting women on
Harvard Street in places

01:01:41.115 --> 01:01:43.700
anywhere near where
they've experienced violence,

01:01:43.700 --> 01:01:46.495
where their sons have been
shot down in the street.

01:01:46.495 --> 01:01:48.163
Harvard Street is a dangerous street,

01:01:48.163 --> 01:01:50.750
I have a woman sitting here
who's lost her twin son

01:01:50.750 --> 01:01:53.501
on Cummins Highway who
was shot in his bed

01:01:53.501 --> 01:01:54.420
through the window.

01:01:54.420 --> 01:01:57.090
I'm looking for an environmental space

01:01:57.090 --> 01:01:59.508
for these women to feel safe.

01:01:59.508 --> 01:02:01.718
- Neither of us wants to
invest too many resources

01:02:01.718 --> 01:02:02.928
in a site that we know

01:02:02.928 --> 01:02:04.763
there's going to be too much
opposition on, right?

01:02:04.763 --> 01:02:05.598
- Mh-hmm.

01:02:05.598 --> 01:02:07.015
- So we work together
over the next few weeks,

01:02:07.015 --> 01:02:09.143
I would presume, and we
try to find that site.

01:02:09.143 --> 01:02:11.228
If you come to us, we find the site,

01:02:11.228 --> 01:02:12.980
we put the RFP out for that site.

01:02:12.980 --> 01:02:13.815
It's the way the process is.

01:02:13.815 --> 01:02:15.608
[Sheila] William we have
licensed in the past,

01:02:15.608 --> 01:02:16.816
too, for a faster process.

01:02:16.816 --> 01:02:19.320
[William] Absolutely, and
that's the more expedited way-

01:02:19.320 --> 01:02:20.153
- Mh-hmm.

01:02:21.238 --> 01:02:22.071
[James] What's up?

01:02:22.071 --> 01:02:22.906
[Sheila] Can you kill that for a sec?

01:02:22.906 --> 01:02:23.740
[James] Sure.

01:02:24.950 --> 01:02:26.618
At this point, Sheila and her team

01:02:26.618 --> 01:02:28.745
told us to stop recording,

01:02:28.745 --> 01:02:30.790
so they could explain how insiders

01:02:30.790 --> 01:02:33.625
get access to licenses for vacant lots.

01:02:33.625 --> 01:02:35.461
- I'll send you our public site,

01:02:35.461 --> 01:02:37.171
everybody right now
can go to our website...

01:02:37.171 --> 01:02:38.005
[Kafi] DND.

01:02:38.005 --> 01:02:39.340
- All of our parcels...

01:02:39.340 --> 01:02:42.301
- "That's interesting, but
know this about that site,"

01:02:42.301 --> 01:02:44.011
because they all have histories.

01:02:44.011 --> 01:02:46.138
- Alright, so we'll
send you the dream list

01:02:46.138 --> 01:02:49.433
and without responding,
we'll set up another meeting

01:02:49.433 --> 01:02:50.391
at that point.

01:02:50.391 --> 01:02:51.226
[Sheila] Yup.

01:02:51.226 --> 01:02:52.060
- And then take it from there.

01:02:52.060 --> 01:02:54.313
- You know what I'm
saying just to make sure...

01:02:54.313 --> 01:02:55.815
[James] Kafi would never say this to me,

01:02:55.815 --> 01:02:58.066
but I sensed she'd like to give up

01:02:58.066 --> 01:03:00.026
on white people altogether.

01:03:00.026 --> 01:03:01.528
- Thank you for your time.

01:03:01.528 --> 01:03:02.905
[James] If only she could.

01:03:04.865 --> 01:03:05.658
(door shuts)

01:03:05.658 --> 01:03:08.368
- I had a meeting about this last year,

01:03:08.368 --> 01:03:11.496
with two different departments,

01:03:11.496 --> 01:03:13.123
so you can't say you didn't know.

01:03:13.123 --> 01:03:15.501
If we look at the people
who typically participate

01:03:15.501 --> 01:03:18.420
in this process, and who have
done well in his process,

01:03:18.420 --> 01:03:21.090
who have made wealth, who
have made investments,

01:03:21.090 --> 01:03:24.801
they are not Brown folks, they are not.

01:03:25.928 --> 01:03:27.888
So who's in this process and who's not?

01:03:27.888 --> 01:03:29.681
Who's informed and who's not?

01:03:29.681 --> 01:03:32.016
Who's kept in the loop and who's not?

01:03:33.268 --> 01:03:37.731
I feel like I have to kind
of go up there with you,

01:03:37.731 --> 01:03:40.233
and show that somebody
cares about this besides

01:03:40.233 --> 01:03:41.818
the women that are dealing with this.

01:03:44.530 --> 01:03:46.490
[James] Kafi had been
getting nasty emails

01:03:46.490 --> 01:03:48.158
from Metro Housing Boston.

01:03:49.076 --> 01:03:50.118
For weeks they've threatened

01:03:50.118 --> 01:03:51.953
to take away her housing subsidy.

01:03:53.121 --> 01:03:57.293
Her fear of being displaced
again was real and palpable,

01:03:58.293 --> 01:04:00.755
and she asked me if I could help.

01:04:00.755 --> 01:04:02.256
I sent an email to their office

01:04:02.256 --> 01:04:04.841
and said, I'd be coming to her meeting.

01:04:04.841 --> 01:04:06.260
When we got there,

01:04:06.260 --> 01:04:09.971
two nervous white guys
took us to a conference room

01:04:09.971 --> 01:04:13.641
and told us the issue had
been resolved in Kafi's favor.

01:04:15.686 --> 01:04:18.480
It actually makes me sick to my stomach,

01:04:18.480 --> 01:04:20.523
that someone as sharp and knowledgeable

01:04:20.523 --> 01:04:22.360
as Kafi Dixon gets ignored,

01:04:23.193 --> 01:04:24.820
and all I have to do is show up.

01:04:26.113 --> 01:04:27.740
(tense music)

01:04:27.740 --> 01:04:28.573
[News Reporter] How about attendance?

01:04:28.573 --> 01:04:30.200
How do you feel school
attendance would be,

01:04:30.200 --> 01:04:31.285
as the year goes on?

01:04:31.285 --> 01:04:33.661
- All colored. No white.
Not in our schools.

01:04:34.955 --> 01:04:35.915
Yeah, give it to the...

01:04:35.915 --> 01:04:36.748
(video squeaking)

01:04:36.748 --> 01:04:39.168
[James] Why was I ever
shocked by this woman?

01:04:39.168 --> 01:04:40.961
Kafi wasn't, Neither was Carl.

01:04:40.961 --> 01:04:41.795
[News Reporter] How about attendance?

01:04:41.795 --> 01:04:42.963
How do you feel school
attendance would be?

01:04:42.963 --> 01:04:44.298
[James] But I shouldn't
have been because-

01:04:44.298 --> 01:04:45.506
- All colored. No white.
Not in our schools.

01:04:45.506 --> 01:04:47.091
- I've heard it too.

01:04:47.091 --> 01:04:49.595
When Martin Luther King
was shot in his face,

01:04:49.595 --> 01:04:51.013
and fell to his death.

01:04:51.013 --> 01:04:52.473
(crowd cheering)

01:04:52.473 --> 01:04:55.726
My friend's dad said it
was all for the best.

01:04:56.810 --> 01:04:58.938
I heard it, and didn't say anything.

01:04:59.938 --> 01:05:02.441
Maybe other white people need to admit

01:05:02.441 --> 01:05:05.151
there have been times when
they've been silent too.

01:05:06.361 --> 01:05:07.488
(soft music)

01:05:07.488 --> 01:05:10.406
(birds chirping)

01:05:10.406 --> 01:05:14.161
My family and I live less than
10 miles from Kafi and Carl,

01:05:14.161 --> 01:05:16.705
but our ZIP codes show
we're worlds apart.

01:05:18.081 --> 01:05:21.543
I make films for a living, but
I can't make this film alone.

01:05:22.836 --> 01:05:26.006
Kafi says sometimes she
just wants to shake me–

01:05:26.006 --> 01:05:27.006
to wake me up.

01:05:28.591 --> 01:05:30.551
She invited me to housing court,

01:05:30.551 --> 01:05:33.846
where every week, dozens of
poor people face eviction,

01:05:33.846 --> 01:05:35.431
most with no legal support.

01:05:36.725 --> 01:05:38.726
I tried to film the chaos
and despair in there,

01:05:38.726 --> 01:05:41.980
to show you what's really
going on in the city,

01:05:41.980 --> 01:05:43.523
they wouldn't let me.

01:05:43.523 --> 01:05:45.066
(metal clanking)

01:05:45.066 --> 01:05:46.068
(car engine revving)

01:05:46.068 --> 01:05:47.736
I'm a conflict–averse person

01:05:47.736 --> 01:05:50.530
but this film is bearing down on me.

01:05:50.530 --> 01:05:51.406
(sirens blaring)

01:05:51.406 --> 01:05:54.035
The city just threw us
out of a public meeting,

01:05:55.828 --> 01:05:57.705
Kafi is inside talking to her neighbors

01:05:57.705 --> 01:06:00.540
about plans for the Co-ops Urban Farm,

01:06:00.540 --> 01:06:04.545
her agricultural training,
studies of Arugula and bees.

01:06:07.213 --> 01:06:08.673
The city had offered the Co-op

01:06:08.673 --> 01:06:11.801
a chance to license a
mixed bag of vacant lots.

01:06:13.261 --> 01:06:15.681
Kafi and Tolga had driven
around looking at them.

01:06:17.306 --> 01:06:20.018
One is on Arvale Road in Dorchester.

01:06:20.018 --> 01:06:23.646
It needed serious rehab
but had potential,

01:06:24.648 --> 01:06:27.901
and there was a two family
house sitting right on it

01:06:27.901 --> 01:06:28.943
that's up for sale.

01:06:31.363 --> 01:06:32.823
- HUD had this program called

01:06:32.823 --> 01:06:34.741
the family Self-Sufficiency Program,

01:06:34.741 --> 01:06:36.785
where they actually matched

01:06:36.785 --> 01:06:40.163
your portion of the monthly
rent into an Escrow account.

01:06:41.456 --> 01:06:43.458
And that Escrow account could be used

01:06:43.458 --> 01:06:45.251
towards a down payment for our home.

01:06:46.503 --> 01:06:49.465
And I kind of was holding
onto it for that, right?

01:06:50.925 --> 01:06:52.510
And so I fought with
the housing authority

01:06:52.510 --> 01:06:54.303
to crack open the Escrow account,

01:06:56.221 --> 01:06:58.515
and use it as a portion
of my down payment.

01:07:00.851 --> 01:07:02.351
Ended up with the house.

01:07:02.351 --> 01:07:03.311
- Yup?

01:07:03.311 --> 01:07:04.146
- Deal.

01:07:04.146 --> 01:07:05.188
- Deal.

01:07:07.733 --> 01:07:08.566
- Deal.

01:07:08.566 --> 01:07:09.401
(soft music)

01:07:09.401 --> 01:07:11.445
(birds chirping)

01:07:11.445 --> 01:07:13.405
- Turns out Carl didn't get evicted,

01:07:14.281 --> 01:07:16.783
his landlady just didn't
have the wherewithal

01:07:16.783 --> 01:07:17.785
to go condo.

01:07:19.453 --> 01:07:21.913
Tonight he's speaking
at Clemente graduation.

01:07:21.913 --> 01:07:24.541
- Congratulations.
- Congratulations bruh,

01:07:24.541 --> 01:07:27.168
like I said, you were
always my hero, man.

01:07:28.045 --> 01:07:32.466
[Carl] Seven years ago tonight, exactly,

01:07:32.466 --> 01:07:35.676
I ended up at a homeless shelter,

01:07:35.676 --> 01:07:37.805
walking up the steps to go to that place

01:07:37.805 --> 01:07:40.515
was the hardest thing that I ever did.

01:07:40.515 --> 01:07:45.186
I was so ashamed, as I
reached the top stairs,

01:07:45.186 --> 01:07:47.105
I heard three words in my head,

01:07:49.065 --> 01:07:52.611
kindness, generosity and humility.

01:07:52.778 --> 01:07:54.946
And in these seven years,

01:07:54.946 --> 01:07:57.323
I've tried to live my life that way,

01:07:58.241 --> 01:08:02.245
And I have one more thank you,
and that's for my grandson.

01:08:02.245 --> 01:08:06.291
He's helped me to see the
world through a child's eye,

01:08:06.291 --> 01:08:12.088
and he's pure,
he's my everyday companion.

01:08:13.840 --> 01:08:16.260
(soft music)

01:08:21.973 --> 01:08:24.143
For those of you who aren't aware,

01:08:24.143 --> 01:08:28.396
I'm apparently native and
I know some of the language

01:08:28.396 --> 01:08:34.903
so I'm going to leave you with
a goodbye in my language.

01:08:36.363 --> 01:08:38.781
Mishamay waskay,

01:08:38.781 --> 01:08:40.200
It means forever young,

01:08:40.200 --> 01:08:42.326
and that's what I wish for all of you.

01:08:42.326 --> 01:08:45.330
(audience clapping)

01:08:48.583 --> 01:08:51.836
(soft music continues)

01:08:54.631 --> 01:08:57.635
(people chattering)

01:08:58.676 --> 01:09:00.345
- Hi.
- This is my daughter Carrie.

01:09:00.345 --> 01:09:01.221
- Hi Carrie?

01:09:03.556 --> 01:09:05.058
- Nice to meet you.

01:09:05.058 --> 01:09:07.268
- Of all the things that
have happened to me,

01:09:07.268 --> 01:09:11.273
besides the obvious of my
daughters and my grandson,

01:09:11.273 --> 01:09:13.900
it's been the most transformative.

01:09:16.111 --> 01:09:19.448
I found out that people
outside of my neighborhood

01:09:19.448 --> 01:09:22.408
care about people like me.

01:09:24.328 --> 01:09:28.831
I got an education,
not an indoctrination,

01:09:28.831 --> 01:09:33.336
and I got to go to class
with really bright people.

01:09:33.336 --> 01:09:36.881
(soft music continues)

01:09:36.881 --> 01:09:40.593
You add all of that up
and I'm making plans.

01:09:45.556 --> 01:09:47.976
(soft music)

01:09:49.353 --> 01:09:50.770
Freedom of the good
is the same for the city

01:09:50.770 --> 01:09:51.771
as for the individuals.

01:09:51.771 --> 01:09:54.358
Still, the good of the city
is apparently a greater

01:09:54.358 --> 01:09:57.401
and more complete good
to acquire and preserve.

01:09:58.861 --> 01:10:00.738
[James] Tolga enrolled in Clemente,

01:10:00.738 --> 01:10:02.115
but ended up dropping out.

01:10:03.325 --> 01:10:05.868
She's taking prep courses
for a nursing program.

01:10:08.830 --> 01:10:10.665
She's still waiting to hear anything

01:10:10.665 --> 01:10:14.378
from the Boston Police Department
about her son's murder.

01:10:16.921 --> 01:10:17.756
(people chattering)

01:10:17.756 --> 01:10:20.300
The city has been jerking
Kafi around for two years,

01:10:21.343 --> 01:10:23.428
I've come to see it for what it is:

01:10:24.346 --> 01:10:28.808
a cold and calculated strategy
to dash these women's dreams.

01:10:30.143 --> 01:10:33.271
- Just a process of two
years of slow rolling things,

01:10:33.271 --> 01:10:37.525
and then blaming me, and
sometimes feeling dumb as hell

01:10:37.525 --> 01:10:40.070
again. I'm like, "If I didn't
buy the house, they're right

01:10:41.363 --> 01:10:42.571
I would've given up,"

01:10:42.571 --> 01:10:47.911
but we have this cooperative cottage.
So there is no giving up.

01:10:47.953 --> 01:10:49.830
I'm staring at it every single day.

01:10:49.830 --> 01:10:51.873
Something's going to go in that ground.

01:10:51.873 --> 01:10:53.375
Something's going to grow.

01:10:53.375 --> 01:10:55.751
I don't care if it's plant
or children, (laughs)

01:10:57.211 --> 01:10:58.921
something is going to flourish.

01:10:58.921 --> 01:11:04.303
And as we would say in philosophy,
that land will flourish.

01:11:04.303 --> 01:11:06.846
(soft music continues)

01:11:17.481 --> 01:11:19.693
- Come on man, let's go outside.

01:11:19.693 --> 01:11:21.611
(Carl opens door)

01:11:21.611 --> 01:11:24.030
(soft music)

01:11:31.621 --> 01:11:32.621
[James] I finally understand

01:11:32.621 --> 01:11:35.291
why Carl worked so hard
at being a good father

01:11:35.291 --> 01:11:36.335
and grandfather.

01:11:37.043 --> 01:11:39.755
He's available, tireless,

01:11:39.755 --> 01:11:41.756
relentless in service to his family.

01:11:44.008 --> 01:11:46.720
Why he loves that Leroy Jones poem,

01:11:46.720 --> 01:11:49.640
about love and suffering
bound so tightly together.

01:11:49.640 --> 01:11:51.725
(soft music continues)

01:11:51.725 --> 01:11:52.726
- Are those?

01:11:52.726 --> 01:11:55.020
- Yeah, we gotta get you
some boots in there...

01:11:56.230 --> 01:11:57.773
- Y'all afraid of snow.

01:11:57.773 --> 01:12:01.485
[James] And how he and Kafi, so
wildly different from each other

01:12:01.485 --> 01:12:03.653
in so many ways, align.

01:12:05.946 --> 01:12:08.616
It seems to me they do
it because they have to,

01:12:09.368 --> 01:12:13.788
it's about survival, creating safety,

01:12:13.788 --> 01:12:16.250
and even the possibility of flourishing,

01:12:16.250 --> 01:12:21.046
in a city that's harsh and
violent and dismissive to them.

01:12:23.840 --> 01:12:26.218
- I think I can take him
now, I think I'm ready,

01:12:27.135 --> 01:12:29.471
because it's just everything
that is on the test

01:12:29.471 --> 01:12:30.930
is stuff that I've learned.

01:12:30.930 --> 01:12:35.310
Working all the codes I
know when I type in the...

01:12:35.310 --> 01:12:39.021
There's a whole process, I have
to take a passport picture.

01:12:39.021 --> 01:12:39.856
[Carl] Do you really?

01:12:39.856 --> 01:12:43.110
- Yeah, I have to get the official
license sent in the mail.

01:12:43.110 --> 01:12:43.943
[Carl] Good for you.

01:12:43.943 --> 01:12:45.820
- It's official, they take it seriously.

01:12:45.820 --> 01:12:48.156
And then when I get
national, I get another raise.

01:12:51.160 --> 01:12:52.076
[James] In a few months,

01:12:52.076 --> 01:12:55.871
Yadiel and Carl will no longer
spend their days together.

01:12:55.871 --> 01:12:58.375
Carl will be at Harvard University,

01:12:58.375 --> 01:13:00.210
and Yadiel will start kindergarten.

01:13:02.128 --> 01:13:04.255
Tim McCarthy teaches at Harvard,

01:13:04.255 --> 01:13:07.133
and helped Carl enroll
as a part-time student.

01:13:08.260 --> 01:13:09.470
Maybe the first step,

01:13:09.470 --> 01:13:11.763
to being a full-time Harvard undergrad.

01:13:17.435 --> 01:13:19.521
Carl keeps telling me he is common.

01:13:19.521 --> 01:13:20.355
(people chattering)

01:13:20.355 --> 01:13:22.816
There's so many others like me, he says:

01:13:22.816 --> 01:13:25.943
people full of promise
who once had dreams.

01:13:26.903 --> 01:13:30.365
- Widener Library, right?
Best library in the world.

01:13:30.365 --> 01:13:33.576
I get to the gates, okay,
and look to my left

01:13:33.576 --> 01:13:36.788
and like the security
people they're looking

01:13:36.788 --> 01:13:39.875
and smiling at me, it's like,
"Oh, okay."

01:13:39.875 --> 01:13:41.126
And then I look off into the distance

01:13:41.126 --> 01:13:44.420
and clearly there are
Harvard students, who are like,

01:13:44.420 --> 01:13:47.841
"Oh the street
guy, what's he doing here?"

01:13:47.841 --> 01:13:51.178
So I take out my plastic, hit
the gates and walk through,

01:13:51.178 --> 01:13:52.678
and their whole demeanor changes.

01:13:52.678 --> 01:13:53.596
- Whole thing changes.

01:13:53.596 --> 01:13:54.890
- Yeah.

01:13:54.890 --> 01:13:56.183
- "You're valid now."

01:13:56.183 --> 01:13:57.016
- That's right.

01:13:58.268 --> 01:14:00.645
- While the department of
neighborhood development

01:14:00.645 --> 01:14:03.606
was sending Kafi's Co-op mixed messages,

01:14:03.606 --> 01:14:06.193
and withholding the license
for the lot they wanted,

01:14:07.026 --> 01:14:10.780
big time developers were
busy creating Seaport,

01:14:10.780 --> 01:14:15.243
a brand new neighborhood with
$18 billion in public funds.

01:14:16.661 --> 01:14:18.038
You'd have to look long and hard

01:14:18.038 --> 01:14:20.373
to find a person of color around here.

01:14:21.416 --> 01:14:24.670
Lenders have issued over
600 residential mortgages

01:14:24.670 --> 01:14:28.465
in the last decade. Black
buyers got three of them.

01:14:30.300 --> 01:14:32.886
I tell you this, in case
you still have doubts

01:14:32.886 --> 01:14:34.386
about our story.

01:14:36.348 --> 01:14:39.016
(bird chirping)

01:14:40.560 --> 01:14:42.520
- I was talking to Tolga on the phone

01:14:42.520 --> 01:14:45.023
and just out of the blue,

01:14:45.023 --> 01:14:47.901
I said, "You know I used to
always recite this poem."

01:14:48.860 --> 01:14:51.111
Just out of pure obsession

01:14:51.111 --> 01:14:53.490
with the woman that wrote the poem.

01:14:55.366 --> 01:14:58.578
And this mother Anne Sexton,

01:14:59.453 --> 01:15:02.623
with these children, constantly telling,

01:15:02.623 --> 01:15:04.166
like anybody who would listen

01:15:04.166 --> 01:15:05.918
that she was about to kill herself,

01:15:07.211 --> 01:15:08.505
and..

01:15:11.090 --> 01:15:13.176
identifying with that.

01:15:14.218 --> 01:15:15.136
if we as women of color

01:15:15.136 --> 01:15:17.388
don't talk about a despair;

01:15:17.388 --> 01:15:21.016
if we as women of color
have never really identified

01:15:21.016 --> 01:15:26.481
a despair in our life that
causes us to constantly...

01:15:26.565 --> 01:15:27.606
And I'm not the only one

01:15:27.606 --> 01:15:29.358
'cause even Tolga identified in a way

01:15:29.358 --> 01:15:31.445
that she wanted to say something more.

01:15:31.445 --> 01:15:32.778
She said after her son died

01:15:32.778 --> 01:15:35.156
she did not think she
was going to survive.

01:15:36.450 --> 01:15:37.366
And for someone to say

01:15:37.366 --> 01:15:38.826
they don't think they're
going to survive,

01:15:38.826 --> 01:15:41.203
it's not as if some gaping
hole in the ground

01:15:41.203 --> 01:15:42.288
is going to open them up

01:15:42.288 --> 01:15:44.290
and they'll be swallowed up into it.

01:15:44.290 --> 01:15:47.126
The gaping hole exists in
our minds and our hearts,

01:15:47.126 --> 01:15:51.965
and we want at that point
to stop existing.

01:15:51.965 --> 01:15:54.718
So to say to Tolga,

01:15:54.718 --> 01:15:58.180
I don't even friggin' remember
the name of the poem.

01:15:58.180 --> 01:15:59.180
I said,

01:16:00.931 --> 01:16:05.311
"This land has given me hope,

01:16:05.353 --> 01:16:09.065
that there's some way, that
this is now a reflection

01:16:09.065 --> 01:16:10.733
and a way to find peace."

01:16:11.191 --> 01:16:17.950
Now, even more, I'm just like,
I need a clear path to peace.

01:16:18.408 --> 01:16:19.701
(soft music)

01:16:19.701 --> 01:16:21.328
(pigeons cooing)

01:16:21.328 --> 01:16:24.080
[James] I wish I had
known those two back then,

01:16:24.080 --> 01:16:25.706
before everything else happened.

01:16:25.706 --> 01:16:27.250
(soft music continues)

01:16:27.250 --> 01:16:31.630
I bet they were funny and
full of life, they still are.

01:16:31.630 --> 01:16:32.463
- They let us drive a boat,

01:16:32.463 --> 01:16:34.883
that's how we know how to
drive a boat now. (laughs)

01:16:34.883 --> 01:16:36.385
- I never got to drive a boat.

01:16:36.385 --> 01:16:37.260
- You never got to drive the boat?

01:16:37.260 --> 01:16:39.888
- No I was so shy back then.

01:16:39.888 --> 01:16:40.846
- Yeah you were.

01:16:40.846 --> 01:16:43.516
- I was like a serious introvert,

01:16:43.516 --> 01:16:46.185
we were just like
really quietly existing

01:16:46.185 --> 01:16:47.270
out there-
- Yeah.

01:16:47.270 --> 01:16:48.980
- Comfortably.

01:16:48.980 --> 01:16:49.815
- There's no groups....

01:16:49.815 --> 01:16:51.525
- I don't know how we did fundraising...

01:16:51.525 --> 01:16:53.026
- Yeah, there was no
group of white people

01:16:53.026 --> 01:16:54.610
coming to look at us, you know...

01:16:56.946 --> 01:16:58.323
- To look at us through a glass...

01:16:58.323 --> 01:17:00.033
- "Little black kids..."

01:17:00.033 --> 01:17:02.910
I don't remember any of that.
- Never never never...

01:17:02.910 --> 01:17:05.080
(Seagulls squealing)

01:17:05.080 --> 01:17:07.331
[James] I'm grateful
for our time together.

01:17:08.291 --> 01:17:11.251
I'm grateful for their
friendship and patience.

01:17:12.836 --> 01:17:16.131
I'm ashamed it took me
a lifetime, to see,

01:17:16.131 --> 01:17:19.635
really see why people like us

01:17:19.635 --> 01:17:21.220
live the lives we lead.

01:17:21.220 --> 01:17:23.640
(soft music)

01:17:27.226 --> 01:17:29.061
Not far from Seaport

01:17:29.061 --> 01:17:31.856
is the dock where ferries
once left for Thompson Island.

01:17:32.856 --> 01:17:36.611
The place Kafi and Tolga
remember as a safe place to be.

01:17:36.611 --> 01:17:39.030
(soft music)

01:18:00.135 --> 01:18:03.388
(soft music continues)

01:19:43.155 --> 01:19:46.783
- I have an extended family
that's really special,

01:19:46.783 --> 01:19:50.828
I have friends. People don't see that,

01:19:50.828 --> 01:19:54.040
they just see this exterior
and make a judgment,

01:19:54.040 --> 01:19:56.291
and it's like the real me is invisible.

01:19:57.168 --> 01:20:01.088
Well I came here,
and had this experience

01:20:01.088 --> 01:20:02.298
and I became visible.

01:20:02.298 --> 01:20:03.131
- Mh-hmm.

01:20:03.131 --> 01:20:07.011
- Most of all I became visible
to people that I respected,

01:20:07.011 --> 01:20:09.013
and I became visible to myself.

01:20:09.013 --> 01:20:10.098
(soft music)

01:20:10.098 --> 01:20:13.100
- Amen to that.

01:20:15.353 --> 01:20:17.938
(upbeat music)

01:20:48.928 --> 01:20:52.348
(upbeat music continues)

01:21:07.071 --> 01:21:09.490
(soft music)

01:21:19.875 --> 01:21:21.711
[Kafi] Black women are
going to come forward,

01:21:21.711 --> 01:21:23.630
and we're going to start
looking at our numbers

01:21:23.630 --> 01:21:26.131
and our constituency,
and questioning our place

01:21:26.131 --> 01:21:28.133
in this country, right?

01:21:28.133 --> 01:21:31.136
As landless, flagless people, right?

01:21:31.136 --> 01:21:33.431
With a generational tie
to White America.

01:21:34.933 --> 01:21:38.520
And what that exactly
means for us going forward.

01:21:38.520 --> 01:21:40.938
(soft music)

01:21:53.200 --> 01:21:55.620
- And sometimes you don't
actually have to understand,

01:21:55.620 --> 01:21:57.121
you just need to trust.

01:21:57.121 --> 01:21:57.955
[Woman] Yes.

01:21:57.955 --> 01:22:00.125
- So that we are able to do the work

01:22:00.125 --> 01:22:02.585
that we need to do for ourselves.

01:22:02.585 --> 01:22:04.753
And that you can trust our leadership,

01:22:04.753 --> 01:22:07.715
and our lived experience
to be solutions.

01:22:08.925 --> 01:22:10.635
Trust black women.
01:22:10.635 --> 01:22:13.136
(soft music)