The Naked Man

As I rode on the bus up Woodward Avenue one sunny Sunday morning away from the center of town, I saw a man naked standing in front of a very old hotel. He looked alarmed and since it was very cold outside, I guess he was not comfortable. I wondered what happened? Did he get caught in a woman’s bed by her husband or boyfriend? Was he robbed? Later after I returned to my hosts home, I asked about the area I saw him in and was told the hotel he was standing in front of was an historical landmark. In its time back in the late 30s it was a grand place to live. Many of the popular jazz musicians and other performers stayed in this hotel. The Fox Theater was only a few minutes away by bus or car. However, over time the neighborhood had changed a lot for the worse. The place now was what some called a flop house.

What’s a flop house? A place where people who do not have money go and stay a day or two and leave or get kicked out. A lot of drug addicts go in and out to buy and use drugs. Some working women (prostitutes) take their customers there to transact business. It remains open only because it is a historical building and there is a fight to keep historical buildings from being torn down. Some say keep it and eventually some very wealthy person or group will buy it and rehab and put it to good use.

Seeing him naked at first was a shock. He was all the way naked just a coat barely hanging on his shoulders and flung open in the front. You could see all his family jewels. My mind began to wonder, was he caught with a woman he was not supposed to be with and had to flee for his life? Or maybe he got tricked by one of the prostitutes and her pimp came in and ran him off. I think about this scene every so often when I think of my time in Detroit. Some very funny things happened to me the year I spent in Motown. It is strange how something painful at one time in your life a few years later is not painful. The reason why I was in Detroit was not pleasant. I laugh now at situations that brought me to tears when I lived there. The city is a place you either love dearly or hate. For me I hated it and could not get back to Atlanta fast enough.

My time spent in the AmeriCorps program in the city was very rewarding. It was truly a joy working with children at Webster Elementary. The principal was great, dedicated and truly a professional. He loved his school and it showed. The neighborhood was one of areas with large gang activity in fact the gang problem was so notorious it was featured on 60 Minutes. A woman I cannot remember her name now was credited with bringing the gangs together and assisting many of them to get jobs, return to school and get assistance with their legal problems. Many of the elementary school students I worked with at Webster were younger brothers and sisters of some of most dangerous gangsters in the city.

The main goal of the school principal and staff was to help deter their students from following the path of their older siblings. There were many after school programs and other activities to keep them busy as well as offer them opportunities to explore and grow. The program I worked with was building a structure to have all the programs work together as a network. Each would continue to do whatever it was doing however work as a team to keep the children focused on academics and the arts. If your program was providing instruments for musically talented students and one of the student’s needed clothing you would refer them to the program that provided clothing, etc. Team building no competition between the organizations for space in the school or the students. A continuum of services in one place to help the students and their families move forward and thrive.

The parents would meet mostly in the day because coming out at night was too dangerous. Many of the parents were stay at home moms so meeting during the day was very convenient. The racial makeup of the school was very diverse although it seemed that the Latinos were in the majority. There were some children of Vietnamese or Cambodian heritage as well as a sizeable number of black or African Americans in the area. The buses ran often along the main street near the school. Making it easy to go to work, shopping or social activities.

The year I spent at this school really helped me open up and learn more about other people, their plight, culture and use skills I had not used in years. For once I used my science knowledge in a way that was fun for me and beneficial for the children. To see children, open minds to something new and see that they could learn what was in the textbooks that they once thought was foreign and difficult was very heartwarming and uplifting. In one class the students made a rap song about the names of the planets.

Since many of them came from homes that the income was extremely low, we relied on some of the community organizations to help buy supplies for them to use at school. This is what was so good about the group I was working with connecting all the resources making it easier for the students to have what they needed. I also for a month facilitate an after-school class on Nigeria. This made me have to return to my social studies books and dig deep and find ways to make the subject matter interesting. One session we discussed how the term Yoruba was a religion and also the name of the largest group of people in Nigeria. Too see the student’s eyes light up to hear the new terms, see them try to dance the African ballets. In fact, for them to know that what many called African dance was actually a ballet. Stories told through movement and music was such a revelation to them. Sometimes during the day when they would see me, they would perform a step or two as a way to greet me. My year at the school was an experience that I will never forget and treasure for the balance of my life.