POV Shorts: Familial Healing

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Birds chirping ] -What's happening, bro?

-What's up?

-My family used to live here.

-Yeah?

Yeah.

-You remember an attack on MOVE in 1978?

-I wasn't living [indistinct], but I knew about it.

-So this is where the house was.

This is where all the police were.

And this is where the side windows to the house were.

And they were shooting and aiming inside of the house with the bullets.

Yeah.

12 adults and a bunch of kids were inside the house.

My mom was pregnant with me, she was inside the house too.

So... My dad was in there, too, but when -- when the whole thing went down and all of the shooting, a cop got killed.

And of course, they blamed it on us.

So nine people went to prison.

Yeah, so my mom and my dad, they both did 40 years in prison.

My mom just got out last June.

My dad just got out last October.

When Ma first came home, her and I used to talk for hours every day.

One time she was in her room and I went in, and I looked -- I looked down on the floor.

She was barefoot, right?

And I realized that's the first time I ever saw her feet before.

When I was looking at her feet, it was kind of like the first time I remember seeing her.

It was like it matched.

It matched with the image that, if I had one, that would have -- would have been.

I talked to my friend Bobby and he said, "Wow, you're learning at 40 years old what babies learn about their mothers."

-Oh, my God, he was so cute.

He was a really golden, olive-brown skin like color.

He had lots of hair.

It was like slick on his head once I wiped him off.

His hair would curl up a little bit.

I just wanted to keep holding him and keep...

I wanted to keep him.

Like, tears were just streaming down my face.

And I just, you know, almost at that point, I almost just... Yeah, but physically... very, very begrudgingly gave him to her, you know, and just saying that, "gave him to her," was just so hard, like those words.

We weren't free to go and come as we wanted to.

This was a -- This was an ongoing harassment by the city of Philadelphia's police.

I thought it was necessary.

I thought it was necessary to -- to fight for my home, to fight for my freedom, actually.

I didn't think that they was going to attack the house the way they did.

[ Helicopter blades whirring, sirens wailing ] That guilt is still there because I'm supposed to be their protector, I'm supposed to be their... you know, their mother.

I wasn't there when they were hurt, I wasn't there, you know, when they needed me.

-Aleeyah!

-Yeah?

-Today.

-What?

-Today, today, today.

Did you find it?

-No.

Did you really not?

[ Cellphone ringing ] You didn't find it?

[ Sighs ] -[ Indistinct ] -Hello?

You all tangled up?

[ Exhales sharply ] Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Can I see these?

Here.

[ Engine starts ] I'll tell you when I felt angry.

I felt angry when she tried to tell me something that I didn't need her to tell me because you haven't been here to teach me anything about this.

So now that I'm figuring -- I figured it out on my own, I don't need you to try to change what I'm doing.

[ Whistling ] I used to call myself "the back burner kid."

Everything else was always more priority.

Everything else.

-You know, I never, ever, ever wanted that for you or, you know, your sister.

But... the reality is, is, you know, it was there.

But, you know -- And I'm sorry for, you know, any grief or pain or whatever misery you had to go through behind me not being there.

She said, "Oh, Grandma was the goalie.

Grandma was a good goalie.

How come [indistinct] her?"

[ Laughs ] You remember that?

-No.

No.

-No, you wasn't there.

-I think the one thing I had to learn...

I didn't learn until I was a parent myself.

I thought that because you are my parents that meant that... you're incapable of making mistakes that would cause me pain.

-Yeah.

-Learning that that is not true took a long time.

[ Indistinct conversation ] -Ah!

[ Laughs ] Okay.

Aha!

See?

I knew she was gonna jump!

[ Laughs ] Ah!

Whoo!

Don't expect me to do that.

[ Laughs ] -Stay still!

Stay still!

Where are you?

I can't see what's going on.

Stay still, will you?

-No!

-You gonna fall.

-Oh!

[ Chuckles ] Oh!

No, he's too heavy!

Ah!

-Alright, Aleeyah.

You told me this thing when you were -- when you got out, the day that we picked you up, and you said you're free now.

You said, "I want you to fly, baby."

-[ Chuckles ] -You remember that?

-Mm-hmm.

-And... ...the thing that I took from that... You just got out of prison.

You didn't say, "I'm free now, I can do whatever I want."

-[ Laughs ] -You said, "I'm free now.

You are free."

[ Music playing indistinctly ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Hey, hey.

How are you doing?

Good.

How you feel?

-Pretty good.

[ Indistinct ] -Oh, really?

That's pressure.

Hey, how you doing?

-[ Indistinct ] -No doubt.

We on the move.

♪♪ Alright.

And go to the white one.

Just tap it.

No?

-We are in a political moment where we have brought several of our lockdown revolutionaries home and we are going to fight until we bring Mumia home too/ In the words of Mumia Abu-Jamal, every single incarcerated person is a political prisoner.

[ Applause ] Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, free all political prisoners.

Bring them all home.

-Home!

Bring them all home!

[ Applause ] -That was Lorraine's house Miss Lorraine.

[ Chuckles ] That's [indistinct] house.

-Alright, I'm going to read off here the names of the fallen warriors.

George Jackson, Geronimo Pratt, Afeni Shakur, Tom Manning, John Africa, Raymond Africa, Frank Africa, Rhonda Africa Theresa Africa, Conrad Africa, Delisha Africa, Netta Africa, Katrice Africa, Tomaso Africa, Little Phil Africa, Merle Africa, Phil Africa, Lynne Stewart, Herman Wallace, Yogi Pinel, Safiya Bukhari, Kuwasi Balagoon, Mondo we Langa, Malcolm X, [ Continues indistinctly ] [ Brakes squeal ] ♪♪ [ All speaking German ] [ Water rushing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Indistinct conversation ] [ Lively, indistinct conversations ] -[ Laughs ] [ Children gurgling ] [ Water rushing ] [ Rushing continues ] [ Rushing stops ] [ Laughter ] [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Child crying ] [ Indistinct conversations ] [ Indistinct conversations ] -[ Grunting ] -Yeah!

[ Water rushing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -[ Exhales shakily ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Exhales shakily ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪