Flights and Perchings III

In Streams 7, schools were discussed from varied points of view.

“I Wonder” by Sharrif

I wonder if I had never been
with the wrong crowd--
where would I be?
I wonder if I were a teacher--
what would I be teaching?
(page 45)

“The Classroom Where I am Sitting,” was Hope’s description of an alternative school housed in the New York’s South Jamaica projects:

I am sitting in the classroom at SJ40. The teacher, Mrs. Cook, has just finished explaining the lesson on the chalkboard. Now she asks questions. She explains each answer one by one and very slowly; so that she is understood.
At this time my classmates, who are four girls (including myself) and five boys, begin to get into our lesson. We each sit at our desk and think hard. There is not much talking. I hear the pencils scratching the paper. I hear pages in books turning, the fan going, and cars passing by outside. The class begins to get a little noisy because some of the students have finished.
We have many windows in our school. It looks like they haven’t been washed in a long time. The blinds are tan and dingy. In the morning the windows are open. In the afternoon all windows must be closed before leaving. Our lights look like ice trays. We have one that’s broken. Otherwise they are in good condition.
(page 60)

“School Daze” by Bell on the facing page, described a different attitude:

I hope they don’t want
much from me. I’ll give my
best; and hope they will
remember the things I forgot.
Why do I sit here? Why must
I stay? Only thing I’ve learned:
it’s not Burger King. I can’t
have it my way.
(page 61)

In "What Do I Like About Rikers Island,” Sam wrote how he felt about the school in prison:

I like school at Rikers Island because you can think and you can learn from your mistakes. I like it because you meet nice people and they care about you -- some people. If they did not care about you, they would not have a school. They would just let you kill each other. I like the people that work here because they do things that your own family would not do for you.
(page 64)

In contrast, Cindy wrote in “Children” about her father’s interest in education:

He brought my mother this country so she could make something out of herself. He found her a job and made her go to school to get her diploma. He also helped the rest of the kids to go to school. I wish I could give every child a father and mother like mine.
(page 135)

Flights and Perchings II

Many accounts throughout Streams 7 looked at the subject of friendship from various perspectives of urban adolescents.

I will always remember you
for the beautiful times
you gave me
I will always remember you
for making me feel free

I will remember you forever
my friend because
you showed me how
to be me
(Sheila, page 83)

The depth and beauty of friendship was expressed in Spanish as well as English:

Tu eres una bella persona,
importante e intersante.
Tu amor hacia los demas
es immenso y profundo
como el mar.

Tu honestidad y tu sinceridad
enriquesen dia tras dia
el desarrollo de tu vida.

Eres un buen amigo
que sirve como antidoto
a quien esta desilucionado
de lo bello de la vida.

Reconoce la importancia
de la buena educacion;
por eso te preocupa
por la superacion tuy
y de los demas.

Tu eres un ser inigualable.
Siempre esta dispuesto
a escuchar al noble,
lo mismo que al torpe.
Pues para ti todos somos
hijos de Dios.

Que Dios te bendigas siempre “Eugenio”
y que nuestra amistad
perdure por toda una vida.
(Valentin’s “Querido Amigo” and his English translation are on pages 20-1)

The difficulty of making friends was expressed in “My Point of View”

I find it hard to make friends with people
I want to be liked by everyone
I think that I’m too serious sometimes
I know that I have a good personality
I am kind and loving when I want to be
I love when I am treated equally as everyone else
I hate hypocrites who lie and deceive you
I desire love and eternal happiness
I say that I strive to get what I want
I feel that life is sometimes unfair
I dream of a better place to live in
I am going to make it against all the odds that may lie ahead.
(Sophy, page 19)

Peer support during rehabilitation was the essence of correspondence between V and Tiger: “And remember, if ever you feel messed up inside, that in V you have a friend to talk to, even if it’s only through the computer.”
(page 25)

In “My First Full-Time Job” friends helped each other find work in the city: “One summer two of my closest friends, Harrison and Mark, joined me in a hunt for jobs. Harrison and I went about canvassing Manhattan for job openings. We looked for almost any type of work except fast-food work.”
(Trevis, page 97)

Betrayed friendship, guilt, urban junkyards, greed, drugs and the unbearable weight of the paranoia dominated the narrator’s conscience in “Murder He Wrote”: “This place was known to me and my man as the car cemetery. In there was a little of something: crack bottles, needles, old rags, human waste and dead dogs that either got shot or electrocuted.”
(William, page 7)

In “An Experience That Changed My Life,” a tragedy at a celebrity basketball game in City College led the narrator to realize: “how much I took life for granted. It also helped me to understand that you should always tell the people you love how much they mean to you, because you’ll never know when they will be gone! I always thought nothing like this could happen to me, but I’m living proof that it can!!!”
(Andrea, page 13)

Streams 7

Flights and Perchings

Two quotes from William James’s “The Principles of Psychology” (1890) opened Streams 7 (1993):

“Consciousness...does not not appear to itself chopped up in bits . . . A ‘river’ or a ‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described. In talking of it here after, let us call it the stream of thought, of consciousness, or of subjective life.”

And,

“As we take, in fact, a general view of the wonderful stream of our consciousness, what strikes us first is the different pace of its parts. Like a bird’s life, it seems to be made of an alternation of flights and perchings.”

For Ten Penny Players, the streams metaphor applied to the many different schools in NYC from which contributions to the anthology “streamed” in; particularly those schools serving students outside “the mainstream.” Over 60,000 students were attending New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs in 1993. The anthology contributors’ streams of thought were channeled together as a strong current.

The Streams anthologies were particularly useful for discussions during “Family Group,” a period each alternative school set aside to help students articulate and evaluate their emotions while getting support and guidance from peers and professionals. Family Group was put in place by Stephen Phillips, the superintendent of New York City’s Alternative High Schools and Programs.

Damon wrote, “Streams”

All of our emotions
go into streams.
All of it’s told.
All of it’s seen.

The stream of life,
the stream of thought,
the stream of poetry
can’t be bought
in a store
or on the shelf.
Reach for it deeply
and you will find
it in yourself.

The harmony of it
and the power it holds.
Don’t fight the power.
Be bold.
Just grasp the light,
so pretty and green.
Open your hand and see,
you’ve reached the stream.
(page 67)

Streams 7