cycle: sans umbrella / lest i be / mary poppins / et e.t. (fin) dam or skate park? that's one alp, ig. social media free? finally: win back penelope
read invisible child: poverty, survival and hope in new york city by andrea elliott
the girls from the projects who know where she lives..the homeless are the lowest caste
the scratching of mice. it makes no difference that the family lays out traps or hangs food from the ceiling in a plastic bag
"how can i pull up any straps with no boots?"
chanel might refuse to buy her children timberland boots, but she stuffs their mouths with ring pops and twizzlers, bubble gum and hershey's kisses. candy is a trick. it distracts them from all that is missing. "it's a blinding thing," she says
dasani's grandmother was born..in the maternity ward of cumberland hospital..another thirty years would pass before the hospital closed, becoming auburn, the city-run homeless shelter where dasani came to live
moses had little regard for the poor and a particularly loathing for black people, whom he considered "inherently 'dirty,'" according to interviews conducted by his biographer, robert caro. of the 255 playgrounds moses built in new york city in the 1930s, only two were in black neighborhoods
money was so tight that the following year, in 1994, chanel agreed to have some teeth pulled. a dentist in east new york was offering a subway token, worth $1.25, for each tooth. working from a dingy office on pennsylvania avenue, he billed medicaid for this scam. none of that mattered to chanel, roach, margo, or joanie, all of whom had teeth pulled. chanel remembers her body thrashing in pain as strangers held her down in the chair. the dental office charged medicaid $235 for pulling four of chanel's teeth. she left with a few subway tokens
"how long have you known the deceased?" read the last question on the form.
in careful script, chanel wrote three words.
"all my life"
her fifth school in five years
at the bravo supermarket for values..where polaroids of thieves fill the store's "wall of shame." wearing naked expressions, they are forced to pose with their stolen items - things like goya beans and kraft cheese. a woman named mary holds a can of tuna in a photograph titled "catch of the day"
"it takes a lot of courage to be different..sometimes you have to be alone..i don't regret it for one second"
the 1787 preamble to the constitution.."to promote the general welfare"
"homeless kid of the year"
avianna has settled into her desk and is now staring at the teacher, unaware that they are both homeless
"we could have a mansion and they'd all wind up in one room"
they snore with their limbs tangled, one child's foot in another's face. lee-lee can only fall asleep while holding dasani's right earlobe. no one tries to fool the baby. the ear must belong to dasani
if we get lost, i enlist the gps, which has the whitest voice of all. chanel supplants it with her own improvised gps, reengineering each set of directions into phrases like, "yo, bitch, i said hang a right on roosevelt" or "ah shit, you missed it again, now we gotta reroute this motherfucker." she wants to launch an app called hood gps, to spare drivers from the robotic white voices in their cars
"it's a sin for a man to die rich"
over half of all black children in america are subjected to at least one child protection probe before turning eighteen
"i will kill you if you don't buy these paper towels"
"at least you're not sleeping on the ferry, right?"
living in a shelter so dangerous that she hides a razor in her hair
"you know, you know, you know - y'all hurting my heart, right?"
"you see how quick they come and take the kids? .. that's how quick they should have had them people come and fix the hot water and gas"
she keeps repeating the same four words, against all available evidence. "it's gonna be okay"
a constellation of crisis
the care of chanel and supreme's children is costing more than $33,000 per month
"you understand? didn't nobody else get this opportunity like you. you are blessed. i'm tellin' you. and use your blessings. use them wisely. and it doesn't seem like it's gonna pay off now. but at the end, baby girl, it's gonna pay off. and you gotta be so glad that you did it. you gonna kiss my wrinkly-ass toes"
one might assume that nana is homeless. but to foster care veterans, the trash bag gives her away. very few foster children have a suitcase
almost nothing counts more than the person who shows up
7/18