"I've had my share of ups and downs, times when there was no one around, God came and spoke these words to me, praise will confuse the enemy, so I started singing, I started clapping"
Ason came out with the real real on NYC. I never lived in NYC but I was there every summer and multiple times a year running the streets with my college roommate who was from Brooklyn. Our house, her grandma’s 👵🏾 apartment, my honorary grandma, lived on Nostrand Ave. The corner stores were life giving when we had been endlessly running around NY and wanted sustenance.
I watched that city transform with a different lens. Each summer shit just kept changing. The corner stores were gone and they became organic fruit markets or whatever the F, all the nail shops that my friend would get her fancy tips done for pennies were shuttered, soon replaced with like some indie micro brewery.
Needless to say summers in NY don’t exist anymore. Grandma passed away and with her the heart of NY went with it and it has never been the same since.
I feel this and watching the transformation in Detroit.
The way you describe NY is how I feel about growing up in St. Louis and Ferguson. The two cities I love so much just like I love Detroit is slowly changing.
Seriously though. I’ve been thinking about this for the past 4 years. I don’t know the answer yet. Right now for me, it’s Oakland but my partner is itching to get to Mexico. I saw something that talked about how we need to adjust to the idea that abroad is the answer for a few reasons and it got me thinking. So maybe we can continue to explore the avenues we can create.
You know me. I am going to try to make something shake if the people are willing to show up for it!
Girl I see you and I’m here for it!! I have my eyes on Portugal 🇵🇹. I went there in April and was like is this home because it sure felt like it.
I saw us there! A lot actually. We were chillin’. The way I was treated. The service was excellent. The admittance of the ways they have done black culture wrong and on the governmental level are trying to make it right or be honest about it at least.
It’s like wait a second this country is old as hell. Older than nacent ass US of A and they are even trying to do better and be real about their history.
Basically, all that told me is America 🇺🇸 can do better.
Another great SSA! I've never been to NY but I can only imagine what that looks out there. Detroit is facing a very similar situation with more gentrified neighborhoods and price hikes on even the smallest things. Bring back the $1 chips and sodas! Badiana mentioned finding community and sense of kinship amongst the people of color and I couldn't agree more. 🖤
I didn’t know you were in Detroit. You know @A Dope Black Girl With Anxiety is from Detroit too!
I’ve been to Detroit a few times and I was shocked. It didn’t look how I expected it to look. The houses are beautiful but abandoned. So many of them. It made me sad seeing the conditions of the city based on different areas.
…I’d also like to say THANK YOU FOR BECOMING A PAID SUBSCRIBER!!!! 🥹🫶🏾
Yeah I just noticed that she's in Detroit. Actually, I live in Redford, right outside of Detroit but soon I'll be a Detroit resident by the end of the month.
Detroit has a lot of work to do with tearing down the abandoned buildings but slow and steady progress is being made.
@Alex B - Queen 👸🏾 the vulnerability of your piece is palpable and stunning. I don’t know what it is about reading a piece about the journey of self that makes me breathe a sigh of relief probably because it’s being talked about and it’s not this truth you are bottling up inside and locking away to eat you from the inside out.
I love that you shared this piece and the layers of self so openly. My journey of self is different from yours but rooted in sameness and I see you and feel you and let’s be like trees together.
Jacquie no words aside from you are weaving magic 🪄 in these Substack streets and you deserve a round of applause 👏🏾
Jul 7Liked by Jacquie Verbal, Magnetic, BlackStack
Amen! What a beautiful service!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how Ason’s piece resonated so deeply. The thing that NYC has turned into has ruined some good pieces of my spirit. It’s not what it used to be and the classicism is, and continues, to kill the heart of what this city was and what WE once were. I no longer recognize this city and the gems we know and loved. There are way too many of THEM and others that have come in and destroyed it without so much as thinking twice ab it. Unfortunately I too, am one who is currently planning my departure bc we can’t save this, we are absolutely facing extinction here. I’ll be damned if I let NYC ruin me and all the good memories of my childhood here that haven’t been tainted yet.
I’m excited to see how @Ason Magnetic got all of NY in the front this morning!!!
Katie, I don’t think I knew you lived in NY. Where are you looking to relocate?
I didn’t have to leave my city for this reason but I can see the similarities here in Oakland. It’s nothing but Chinese people here, it’s called the Chinese ghetto. Well a block to the left from my street.
I haven’t been to NY in a few years but I don’t know it well enough to have a conversation about it. I hate that but I can talk about the move lol cause I just did one of those!!!
Yea girl, I’m a native who’s def leaving in the next year or two. (I actually just inboxed you ab this lmao) it’s crazy bc I wanna be around my people but can’t live in another fkn ghetto. My soul is tired of it. Was contemplating Chicago for a while but considering Cali bc I need to be by water. NYC def used to be a time but Ason hit all points on the head. He and I being from the same hood makes it that more real for me, and feelin like damn it’s not just me who sees and feels it.
Jul 7Liked by Jacquie Verbal, Magnetic, BlackStack
Ason’s piece speaks so deeply to how I feel about Brooklyn. As someone who left and went to the south because I was priced out. I felt like he was reading my whole life. Thank you, fam.
This is such a dope compilation of writing. Thank you for this. As a Brooklyn-born, Queens raised 90s hip-hop head, I totally appreciate your piece and equally lament the dilution of us that we are seeing. I recently went to downtown Brooklyn and my lack of recognition of landmarks that were the mainstay frightened me. Every new high-rise feels like an attack on us, our history and our future.
The prayer hotline really got me today!! Thank you, BlackStack!! I really hate that my scheduling isn’t aligning for the writing circles because I really would like to meet you all. But until then keep SSA flowing!
SSA strikes again!
Ason came out with the real real on NYC. I never lived in NYC but I was there every summer and multiple times a year running the streets with my college roommate who was from Brooklyn. Our house, her grandma’s 👵🏾 apartment, my honorary grandma, lived on Nostrand Ave. The corner stores were life giving when we had been endlessly running around NY and wanted sustenance.
I watched that city transform with a different lens. Each summer shit just kept changing. The corner stores were gone and they became organic fruit markets or whatever the F, all the nail shops that my friend would get her fancy tips done for pennies were shuttered, soon replaced with like some indie micro brewery.
Needless to say summers in NY don’t exist anymore. Grandma passed away and with her the heart of NY went with it and it has never been the same since.
I feel this and watching the transformation in Detroit.
The way you describe NY is how I feel about growing up in St. Louis and Ferguson. The two cities I love so much just like I love Detroit is slowly changing.
Where are we dispersing to is the question? 🙋🏾♀️
I’m hearing about so many black Americans moving abroad. Not going to lie, it’s definitely on my radar.
Seriously though. I’ve been thinking about this for the past 4 years. I don’t know the answer yet. Right now for me, it’s Oakland but my partner is itching to get to Mexico. I saw something that talked about how we need to adjust to the idea that abroad is the answer for a few reasons and it got me thinking. So maybe we can continue to explore the avenues we can create.
You know me. I am going to try to make something shake if the people are willing to show up for it!
Girl I see you and I’m here for it!! I have my eyes on Portugal 🇵🇹. I went there in April and was like is this home because it sure felt like it.
I saw us there! A lot actually. We were chillin’. The way I was treated. The service was excellent. The admittance of the ways they have done black culture wrong and on the governmental level are trying to make it right or be honest about it at least.
It’s like wait a second this country is old as hell. Older than nacent ass US of A and they are even trying to do better and be real about their history.
Basically, all that told me is America 🇺🇸 can do better.
I’ve never considered Portugal. Wow! I love this idea. Not we about to take this community offline in real life?!
Another great SSA! I've never been to NY but I can only imagine what that looks out there. Detroit is facing a very similar situation with more gentrified neighborhoods and price hikes on even the smallest things. Bring back the $1 chips and sodas! Badiana mentioned finding community and sense of kinship amongst the people of color and I couldn't agree more. 🖤
I didn’t know you were in Detroit. You know @A Dope Black Girl With Anxiety is from Detroit too!
I’ve been to Detroit a few times and I was shocked. It didn’t look how I expected it to look. The houses are beautiful but abandoned. So many of them. It made me sad seeing the conditions of the city based on different areas.
…I’d also like to say THANK YOU FOR BECOMING A PAID SUBSCRIBER!!!! 🥹🫶🏾
You're welcome🥰
Yeah I just noticed that she's in Detroit. Actually, I live in Redford, right outside of Detroit but soon I'll be a Detroit resident by the end of the month.
Detroit has a lot of work to do with tearing down the abandoned buildings but slow and steady progress is being made.
SSA strikes again Part 2
@Alex B - Queen 👸🏾 the vulnerability of your piece is palpable and stunning. I don’t know what it is about reading a piece about the journey of self that makes me breathe a sigh of relief probably because it’s being talked about and it’s not this truth you are bottling up inside and locking away to eat you from the inside out.
I love that you shared this piece and the layers of self so openly. My journey of self is different from yours but rooted in sameness and I see you and feel you and let’s be like trees together.
Jacquie no words aside from you are weaving magic 🪄 in these Substack streets and you deserve a round of applause 👏🏾
Thank you all!
Thank you and I'm glad that my words resonate with you. I appreciate you. Yes, lets be like trees together. 🌳🖤
Let the church say, Amen and govern yourselves accordingly as you go throughout your week!
Amen 🖤✍🏾
Amen! 🙏🏾
I just love us so much #thatisall 😭🫶🏾
Right!
Amen! What a beautiful service!
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention how Ason’s piece resonated so deeply. The thing that NYC has turned into has ruined some good pieces of my spirit. It’s not what it used to be and the classicism is, and continues, to kill the heart of what this city was and what WE once were. I no longer recognize this city and the gems we know and loved. There are way too many of THEM and others that have come in and destroyed it without so much as thinking twice ab it. Unfortunately I too, am one who is currently planning my departure bc we can’t save this, we are absolutely facing extinction here. I’ll be damned if I let NYC ruin me and all the good memories of my childhood here that haven’t been tainted yet.
I’m excited to see how @Ason Magnetic got all of NY in the front this morning!!!
Katie, I don’t think I knew you lived in NY. Where are you looking to relocate?
I didn’t have to leave my city for this reason but I can see the similarities here in Oakland. It’s nothing but Chinese people here, it’s called the Chinese ghetto. Well a block to the left from my street.
I haven’t been to NY in a few years but I don’t know it well enough to have a conversation about it. I hate that but I can talk about the move lol cause I just did one of those!!!
Do it!!!
Move!!!
…come to Oakland lol
Seriously. NY checked in on this one!🖤
Yea girl, I’m a native who’s def leaving in the next year or two. (I actually just inboxed you ab this lmao) it’s crazy bc I wanna be around my people but can’t live in another fkn ghetto. My soul is tired of it. Was contemplating Chicago for a while but considering Cali bc I need to be by water. NYC def used to be a time but Ason hit all points on the head. He and I being from the same hood makes it that more real for me, and feelin like damn it’s not just me who sees and feels it.
Thanks for the shout! This is impacting every borough at this point which shows the intention smh. Shoutout the west coast too of course!
And to think their intention is only the beginning smh
Ayyyyeee! I’m originally from the East Coast, but I had to get away so I could make my dreams happen so the West Coast was calling me.
But I agree it’s intentional and the intent is clear.
Ason’s piece speaks so deeply to how I feel about Brooklyn. As someone who left and went to the south because I was priced out. I felt like he was reading my whole life. Thank you, fam.
Happy to see you for service today family! Ason did his thing this week!
Yeah so many of my family have done the same. Gotta tell it like it is 🤲🏾
This is such a dope compilation of writing. Thank you for this. As a Brooklyn-born, Queens raised 90s hip-hop head, I totally appreciate your piece and equally lament the dilution of us that we are seeing. I recently went to downtown Brooklyn and my lack of recognition of landmarks that were the mainstay frightened me. Every new high-rise feels like an attack on us, our history and our future.
That’s exactly what those high rises are. Thanks for the read 🙏🏾
The prayer hotline really got me today!! Thank you, BlackStack!! I really hate that my scheduling isn’t aligning for the writing circles because I really would like to meet you all. But until then keep SSA flowing!
Thank you Johanna!!!! Forever live BlackStack! Haha. I felt someone needed a prayer because it just flowed through me. I’m glad it resonated with you!
Dope post.
Thank you!!! 😊