A b e c e d a r i a n

Tyrone has been working for 4 years now at Greater Harlem Nursing Home, in New York on 138th between 5th and Lennox.

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What did you derive from the program?

 

A sense of direction...That's the age where you need that direction and guidance...That's the age where you can go either way. You can go left you can go right you can go straight you can go back. There was someone there to say grab my arm this is the way we want you to go....We're like parents, friends, mentors... Just that guidance that you need outside of the home, outside of the schools, somewhere to go and say, "hey, I can do my homework here, play a little basketball...."

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Bard, Bard College

That was an experience of a lifetime, David Penberg. That was an experience. I remember it just like it was yesterday. Everytime the summer come there's a feelin in your heart that there's no Bard....You took students out of one environment and put them in another. Showed them that this was something else, which I think is good. Because if you don't see this, then you have no idea. You took us from a city environment with a lot of distractions and you placed us in a college environment where there was time to get focused, a peaceful place where you could make goals and accomplish....You had a rigorous schedule that started from 8 in the morning to 10 at night. [It was] Something to keep you motivated, to say: you know what: next year, same time, same place, you look forward to it.... That was an experience doing real science, not just sitting in a classroom. This was like hands on experiences catching butterflies in a creek; writing...I think I did some of my best writing there....

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Direction, guidance

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School & Liberty: How were they different?

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When you were at school you were pretty much being ordered, bossed round or told. Here it was more reason. Nobody forced you; nobody turned your hand behind your back and said, "You will do this." The options were there.

The help was there. And it was up to you to make the next step. At school, sometimes the people there wouldn't care if you didn't care. At least here, if you didn't care, someone still cared. That may not make sense but....it helps. School they come for the paycheck....Like I had teachers tell me I'm getting paid regardless if you learn or not. It wasn't like that here, the Learning Center that we had, you practically hunted us down to bring us in there, to sit down and do the work. That shows caring....Not only was this a school on Saturdays, it was like a home. You met a lot of different needs that a lot of students needed. At important times in our lives.

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How important was it that adults were caring in this program?

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The future...You have to be able to care. You have love and hate, the two strongest forces in the world....For example, if you didn't love what you was doing, those Saturday mornings, early, you wouldn't have came. I gonna be honest David Penberg. The care showed. Not just by saying it. At 12 years old if you don't have anyone caring, you gonna grow up say saying, "They don't care, so I don't care." And that's one of the worst things you can do.

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What do you want for yourself ?

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Right now, I'm lookin for a little peace. ... Last year, March 19th my father passed away. Young man, 45. I won't use that as an excuse....I was withdrawing from school prior to that when I knew he was sick and was about to die....

Peace is something I want with myself before I start dealing without a lot of other people. Before, I used to be popular. Now I've moved from that.... I want to be able to become comfortable. I don't want to be uptight. I don't want to not be easy'....You just want to be satisfied at the end of the day be at peace with yourself . But sometimes you can't. Certain things that you might have to do or that's done to you. And it makes you wonder why is this done ? Why do people act like this ? I'm looking for an understanding of why certain things happen. Everybody has their own goals of what life should be for them. I think life is a learning process. You have to learn a lot and remember....Peace is what I am looking for now. Because I have had a lot of uneasy times, family wise...and a lot of stuff: wear and tear, that takes its toll on you. So you have to be strong for the family. And I'm the only guy in the family. Nothing but sisters, My mother, my aunt....And life hasn't been too good to them either. My father died of aids. Its just another kind of thing that makes you wonder what kind of world we live in where Nothing should be taken for granted. There is nothin etched in stone that saying you're owed this and this. You know. I may not be the fanciest dresser or the smartest man. I don't want that. I just want to be able to say I am at peace with myself, with my family, with what I do. You know. ....A lot of times people make a showcase of their lives....If I don't have this and this my life is not complete. The man that walks around not looking the sharpest has something more valuable than the guy who flashes his jewelry , big cars and fancy women. I think there's more to life than that. And when it's all said and done, when you meet the maker, or whoever you need to say, okay, this is what I got out of life!

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I don't want to look towards life as accumulation of material things. Now I look at it as more of an understanding of why are we here; why does this go on . Stuff like that which might sound corny to a lot of guys my age and that's probably why I don't deal with a lot of people no more. Because we just have 2 different goals.

I'm more just lookin for understanding , and why this happens.
 

What would have happened if here was no Liberty in your life ?

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On Adults/Bonds

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And that's a reason why this program played such a big part in my life.....When I came here, everyone was just so helpin and carin... that it helps....

You offered support. There were days, David Penberg, when I sat there we spoke and I don't think it was no secret: You was my favorite person. A lot of the colored student, colored students, let's be honest, felt comfortable going to Cliff....But I didn't. I felt more comfortable with you. And you look at that relationship , and a lot of people, and I'm gonna be honest they look at that relationship: a white man and a black kid . But I didn't look at it that. I looked at it as a good man and a good kid. Making a bond.

It's incredible how if you look back and think if there wasn't a Liberty a lot of things could have happened. We know if it wasn't for Liberty maybe a lot of you wouldn't be speaking to me today. Possibly....You never know. You all turned a lot of people around. You turned me around. And then you turned me around again. You know. It was a helpin hand you all played a part in. ...When you need help is when you would like to get it. Not when you don't need it. And I was in need. I turned around and there was someone there to help me. And that's what carin and people is all about....

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Hope, faith, belief, goes together. I don't want to base my hopes of winning the Lotto to become successful. I prefer to believe in myself and have hope and believe in myself that I can achieve.

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Knowledge:

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That's a strong word....Knowledge is power....You can teach someone what you know. Knowledge is not just in the school books..... You can learn it from everyday life. You can learn it from watchin, observin, listenin. It's everywhere. It's in the room now. Within to be grabbed for someone to take it and store it in your head. And you can't get enough of it. That one thing. You can't get enough. No one blamed you for being too smart. You can't go to jail for being too smart.

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Community:

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I'll say Liberty cause a community is like a little place, like a family actually, where it's your world....This is the people that wouldn't harm you. And this is where you feel safe at....Community is something like what Liberty was. We got together, after school, weekends....

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Learn:

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I think when you stop learning that's when you're ready to die. You have to be able to learn to process and grow....If we don't learn...We don't grow as people. It's the only way to do it in this business, is to keep learning and don't stop learning. And then, you never too old to learn. You learn somethin new every day. Just about. That's a good word: learn, because I think about it like this, too....
 

I think if I didn't learn from some of the stuff that you taught me, we'd probably not be speaking. I really say that strongly and seriously, David, because when you go back out there...if you don't take something with you that you got from here than when you get out there, everything you learned meant nothing. It went in one ear and went out the other. It be just that little situation, that one little thing you learn that might help you, save you from a big situation.... I learned a lot from this place that's kept me going....

12 and 13 years olds, we need someone to encourage us to tell us, "You good, you smart, you bright, you can do it." Cause if no one tells you that, and say if someone says, "You can't learn anything. You will not amount to nothing," you gonna believe that. Then goes your hope, then slowly but surely there goes all your dreams.

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I like to learn. I really do. Cause if I don't learn nuthin I won't have nuthin to show for or to teach. What I've come to find out is that I respect my father more for what he could teach me, than give me. Cause a lot of the stuff he taught me, it comes back and now I know what he meant.....At least with the knowledge and stuff I learned I have something to take with me as I go on my journey through life. It's the littlest things that can make the biggest difference. A big difference.