I am writing this article about the heart because I suffered a heart attack. I stopped taking my daily dose of Simvastatin (40mg) for my high cholesterol because the side effect was memory loss. This side effect impacted my memory so badly that I could no longer retain anything I read from books, newspapers, or any other literature. So, I decided to try herbs and oatmeal. Though I tried to replace the synthetic heart medicine with these natural remedies, I did not maintain a truly nutritious diet. For instance, I continued to eat things like cookies, ice cream and the wrong type of butter, which I now know are the foods that caused clotting in my proximal lad and mid lad heart arteries.
I was helping a friend move on March 5, 2014 to a new apartment. On my second trip to his apartment to bring his clothes I became short of breath and decided to take a break to get my breath back. There was no improvement so I went out side. I told the other movers to take the remaining clothes. I said my Moorish American prayer and drove to the V.A. Hospital where I went to the emergency room. My breathing was light like using only half of my lungs and my chest was hurting like a toothache. The nurse gave me an aspirin and later a nitrogen tablet, but the pain was too great for the aspirin and tablet to have an effect. The doctors had to put a stent implant in my proximal lad and the mid lad artery of my heart.
I have faith in God and on Thursday the six of March a nurse told me that a patient with a similar problem like mine died. I know that the doctors can do all they can to save you, but it’s up to God if you live or die. I spent two days in the ICU where normally patients stay five to seven days. I drove myself back home; there I began to hear surreal stories surfacing about my alleged demise.
I work in Potomac Gardens as a greeter. When someone first comes into the building, I am there to give directions and a friendly smile to anyone who needs it. After I didn’t show up for work at the usual time at 11 AM, my coworker asked a neighbor about me who informed her that my van was parked outside. Another neighbor has a similar colored van, so to clear up who the van belonged to, the coworker asked a maintenance person to check inside my apartment. The Washington Post newspaper was outside my door. He told me later that he thought that I had passed away inside the apartment.
To read more of the MOORMAN’s story check back next week.
President Elect Aquarius Vann-Ghasri and two other Potomac Gardens residents prepare to cast their votes for the resident council board.
Although the official vote count won’t be complete until June, Grasroots DC would like to congratulate Aquarius Vann-Ghasri on her unofficial re-election to the position of president of the Potomac Gardens Resident Council. Vann-Ghasri credits her promotion of what she calls a Resident-Driven Leadership Model. Using this model, she has coordinated many presentations, focus groups and round table discussion based on the concerns and issues identified by Potomac Gardens’ residents.
Events coordinated by President Vann-Ghasri include presentations by representatives from Bread for the City’s Legal Clinic, the Office of the Tenant Advocate, the US Attorney General’s Office, Empower DC, etc. She has also brought speakers from Washington, DC’s activist community including Linda Leaks of the Justice Advocacy Alliance, Lucy Murphy of the DC Labor Chorus, Ronald Moten, author of Drinking Muddy Waters and Nisa Harper, author of Confessions of a Crazy Baby Mama.
Potomac Gardens has two resident councils. One representing those who live in the family residencies and another for those who live in the senior building.
The board for the family residents includes:
President – Aquarius Vann-Ghasri Vice President – Diane Hewitt Secretary – Shirley Ford Treasure – Misha Pettway Seargent of Arms – Vacant
The board for the seniors’ building includes:
President – Martha Moore Vice President – Lionel Adams Treasurer – Claudia McCormack Secretary – Karen Clyburn-Bennett Seargant of Arms – Robert Woodard
• Grassroots DC provides Internet access and basic computer literacy classes to the residents of Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex, where our office is located.
• We provide media production training–radio, video and digital storytelling–to those who want to use the media as a tool for community advocacy.
• GrassrootsDC.org continues to be one of the very few news sites covering a range of issues that impact DC’s under-served communities, including gentrification, education, the impact of the prison industrial complex on DC’s communities, etc.
You’ll hear about all these programs on Thursday night as well as our most exciting new project Potomac Gardens Inside and Out a documentary being produced by Grassroots DC media students and producers from within the Potomac Gardens community. Those who attend the fundraiser will be treated to a performance by BE STEADWELL!!! Her performance alone is worth a donation.
We’re not only looking for funds, but also volunteers and partnerships. Come find out how you can get involved with Grassroots DC. If you can’t make it but want to support CLICK HERE!
When Grassroots DC began setting up shop within the Potomac Gardens Public Housing complex in May of 2013, it was with the intention of providing media production training for and media coverage of DC’s traditionally underserved communities. As we moved into Potomac Gardens we realized two things. First, Potomac Gardens’ residents wanted and needed access to the Internet and basic computer training. Second, many Potomac Gardens residents who wanted to participate in our media production training program wouldn’t be able to without access to the Internet and basic computer training. So, we decided to provide basic computer training and access to the Internet.
As Grassroots DC’s executive director, I faced a pretty steep learning curve. Having taught media production for much of the last two decades, I had curriculum for radio and video production but nothing for basic computer literacy, let alone the more advanced classes that might be required. Grassroots DC also had the media production equipment that I brought along via my freelance work, which included three aging Macintosh computers, but we had none of those IBM clones otherwise known as PCs that folks seem so fond of in office environments.
So we needed computers, software, curriculum and instructors. Sheesh! As it turned out, the computers were the easiest part. Lowell Dodge founder of the DC nonprofit First Time Computers put me in touch with one of FTC’s graduates Jay Hornbuckle who had recently started his own business, Capitol Computer Solutions. Jay happened to have a donation of five computers that he was in the process of refurbishing. Because Grassroots DC had raised precisely $0.00 for the computer training program, Hornbuckle agreed to donate those first five PC’s to Grassroots DC, with the understanding that when we did get some grant money, we’d pay him to help maintain our computer lab.
I applied for a couple of grants and while I crossed my fingers, recruited some volunteers, Ben Dorger, a student and new resident to Capitol Hill, Brenda Hayes, longtime Grassroots DC member from before Grassroots DC even existed and Central Godbolt, a computer professional who, despite a busy schedule was able to commit two nights a week to the project. Between the four of us, we provided one class on Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10:00 AM until noon, and another on Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM. Central and I began to put together a curriculum, mainly from online sources, and we started classes.
Tuesdays and Thursday morning classes were pretty fluid. Throughout the fall of 2013, class attendance ranged from two to seven students. There were days that we had to turn students away. We had the space, so we got a few more computers and a couple of printers in various states of disrepair through DC’s Freecycle Network. By this time we’d been awarded $1,000 from the Capitol Hill Community Foundation. Yay! So, we were able to call in Capitol Computer Solutions to fix up the donated equipment.
We focused on helping students meet their personal goals so classes were pretty fluid. 9 students set up email accounts, 5 created or updated their resumes. One student was able to use the skills she learned in class to help her study for her nursing certification. Two other students helped us create a basic grammar curriculum. One student signed up for more advanced classes with UDC’s Workforce Development program and will receive his certification as a Microsoft Office Specialist in May. In between scheduled classes, Potomac Gardens residents were able to come in and use the computers and access the Internet.
The four to seven students in the Monday and Wednesday evening classes were more consistent than the morning class. By the end of the 2013, they had not only gone through the basic curriculum but Central Godbolt had them take a computer apart so they could identify its components. This was way more than just a basic computer literacy class.
Four students from the Monday and Wednesday night basic computer class continued into the new year and are now preparing for their Microsoft Office Specialist Certification. They have already completed one desktop publishing assignment and are now working on minizines covering topics such as physical activity and nutrition for children, youth tennis programs and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle after a heart attack. Once published, the minizines will not only be posted to GrassrootsDC.org but also printed out and distributed within the Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex. Once they receive their certifications, these students will assist in teaching a new basic computer class.
Grassroots DC applied for several grants in the hope of funding the computer training program. So far, only the Capitol Hill Community Foundation has stepped up to the plate. Their $1,000 grant has not only allowed us to provide the basic computer classes, but also keep the lab open for the Potomac Gardens community at large. Residents regularly come in to print out documents, create flyers for community events, use the Internet, etc. One mother was able to secure a scholarship for her daughter to a private school.
Anyone reading this post right now takes for granted their access to computers and the Internet. The residents of Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex do not. On behalf of them and all of Grassroots DC, I’d like to express our gratitude to the Capitol Hill Community Foundation.
I was struck by this comment in the Washington City Paper (Chatter, Shelter Skelter, 3/21/14)a week or two ago:
[DC] Public officials attributed the crisis to a confluence of little affordable housing and the vapor trails of the Great Recession. Reader spmoore offered a diagnosis: “The demolition and elimination of thousands of public housing units in the last 10 to 15 years has resulted in a definite spike in family homelessness. There are simply less units to house low income families in need…Society and the city seems perfectly fine with demolishing public housing, negatively stereotyping public housing, and then act so concerned about the homeless spike.”
An apartment in public housing is a whole lot better than being homeless. I happened to have dinner in Potomac Gardens on Tuesday evening. It was a great time eating, talking, and, yes, visioning with a small group of Potomac Gardens residents, local homeowners, and grassroots community organizers. This was part of Art in Praxis’ experiment, “The Future of [Your] Street” “to activate neighbors in collectively shaping the kind of community they want to live in and be a part of.” Potomac Gardens and Hopkins as public housing projects were an essential part of this vision.
The dinner guests discussed ideas that so closely resembled those concepts used in urban sociology, such as Logan and Molotch’s Urban Fortunes. They spoke about the difficulties caused by a mindset focused on protecting or increasing housing values and/or on renovating houses as an investment, especially real estate agents and investment groups seeking to maximize their investments (exchange value), as opposed to the mindset of those focused on having a home and building a community to satisfy social and personal needs (use value)(see pp. 1-2 of Urban Fortunes). Many people have a mix of these, but renters have the most interest in use value, of course. As a result, more of the neighborhood was being mobilized for those with higher incomes and for investors than for renters, especially low-income renters, and those homeowners focused more on use value.
One Potomac Gardens resident spoke so thoughtfully about how he wanted more interactions with the neighborhood like this dinner because he felt that those who were new to the neighborhood needed to know things (such as, I think, the norms and folkways of the neighborhood) to feel more comfortable in the neighborhood. This knowledge would allow people to move beyond their imaginations (or common assumptions) and fears about public housing and about the neighborhood (like assumptions about cities based on “The Wire“). This might allow for a more inclusive discussion about The Future of Our Street/Community.
Are you interested in joining in the visioning, in which public housing is fundamental to the vision?
