Month: December 2012

2012 East Oakland Project Blogs

Snail Mail Part III: Is Forgiveness for the Victim or the Forgiven?

December 19, 2012 Debora Gordon 0

“On the topic of forgiveness. I have always felt we all deserve a second chance.Would I be able to forgive the person who rape and killed my daughter? I can’t say for sure because I would know. But I’ve forgiven the people or person who shot me. If you think about it, I put myself in that situation and that was part of the gang banging life style. So why should I keep that hatred for them when I am moving on in life.” […]

2012 East Oakland Project Blogs

Snail Mail Part II: A Mellow or a Violent Guy?

December 19, 2012 Debora Gordon 0

“Being locked (up) is not a good thing but for some like me, we need a scary situation to set us straight. If only there were a machine who can tell if a person has truly learn and have change for the better. I would be release real soon. Being in here has stop a lot of my plans and goals but I look at is this is time to build a better me for the future. It is what it is.” […]

No Picture
2012 East Oakland Project Blogs

Recovery

December 19, 2012 Sabirah Mustafa 0

Recovery by Sabirah Mustafa   Tell me What is recovery? Is it what you recover from? Like the opposite of subtraction that uncovers a sum? Or, Is it what you recover to? Like a transparent […]

2012 East Oakland Project Blogs

East Oakland Poet ‘Bossman’ Puts in Work to Heal, Teach

December 18, 2012 Katrina Davis 1

Growing up in East Oakland, Dre Johnson, “the violence and crimes that go on, you don’t talk about. You’re just not supposed to name names, you’re not supposed to say shit out loud.” He says his spoken word allowed him to express his feelings about “how the shit went down.” Poetry became one of the few ways he saw to address some hard experiences. […]

2012 East Oakland Project Blogs

Oakland Teacher Brings Class, Comfort to Sick Students in Homes & Hospitals

December 12, 2012 Debora Gordon 0

Some of Jill’s students have terminal conditions, which affects her deeply. “I get incredibly emotional,” she said. “There is often all sorts of other things going on in the family. You’re in their house. You get very involved with these kids. I had a student who was getting dialysis six days a week, and there were four other sons. I couldn’t help but try to do all sorts of things. I bought groceries, helped with their other kids.”

Jill often finds herself offering comfort to the family. “The mothers cry, and I cry. A lot of students are dealing not only with being ill, they feel like they’re being punished. And the parents often feel so guilty, feeling ‘how come I, as a mother, couldn’t have prevented this?’” […]