7 10 188 https://melrosestories.org/files/original/e8b9bc6919adb18232d00e9a01b8b66c.jpg 3d314a9408c64b0332fc6f8f8c4b0899 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tony Dalton's Mott Haven Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Justin Lanier Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Justin Lanier Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource St. Jerome's School https://melrosestories.org/files/original/6ddffc8ae41626fdfd50dad3c51cecb5.jpg cdc2ecfaa906e0b745248207f9b52554 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tony Dalton's Mott Haven Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Justin Lanier Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Justin Lanier Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tony in his Chapel https://melrosestories.org/files/original/ac206ae20b290b84311ceb4b1bfefb24.jpg b952f45ba744e6cb5815314dba285ad4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Collaborate or Collapse Subject The topic of the resource The Importance of Collaboration in Music Description An account of the resource An examination of the creative and collaborative culture of the Bronx, and how it allowed for the formation of todays more popular genres of music - specifically Hip Hop. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource M.B.P. Description An account of the resource A group photo of the Morrisania Band Project Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare https://melrosestories.org/files/original/f147f63ff189934228016f73f6eb6cdb.jpeg d2219dcb52aafdbc6de9d9c3c2e6bdf5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tariq Snare Description An account of the resource Tariq drumming on stage with Native Dean. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Collaborate or Collapse Subject The topic of the resource The Importance of Collaboration in Music Description An account of the resource An examination of the creative and collaborative culture of the Bronx, and how it allowed for the formation of todays more popular genres of music - specifically Hip Hop. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tariq Snare Description An account of the resource Tariq Snare on stage. Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare https://melrosestories.org/files/original/f97635db4f180a6557c954540f7fbdee.png 7658df386a06df103b6df44af4b6007f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Collaborate or Collapse Subject The topic of the resource The Importance of Collaboration in Music Description An account of the resource An examination of the creative and collaborative culture of the Bronx, and how it allowed for the formation of todays more popular genres of music - specifically Hip Hop. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Carmelo Castro Netsky Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Tariq Snare Location The location of the interview DreamYard Project 1085 Washington Ave. Bx, NY 10456 Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Transcript: CCN: My name is Carmelo Castro Netsky and we are interviewing… TS: Tariq Snare CCN: and this is for (Dis)placed Urban Histories, Professor Rebecca Amato, 2017. TS: We started um… like September and October like the end of September was our first like workshop. So what, what M.B.P. is Morrisania Band Project um… brings any musicians that respond to the ad the ad was on craigslist and um… and it was on Facebook so we got a lot of responses from a lot of people in the neighborhood like uh musicians in the neighborhood like you've seen, a lot of these cats are from the Bronx from this area from Melrose from Morrisania um… from Castle Hill um a lot of Bronx natives responded. So you know uh everybody’s just showing their musicianship and sharing their musicianship uh, you know in Morrisania with this program which was started by Elissa, Elissa Carmona she’s, she's a definite Morrisania, Melrose native. She was born and raised here and uh she was interviewed as well by another one of your colleges I know thats gonna be a good interview because she's she's a die hard melrose person you know and she connects her music she has a love for music she has a love for her neighborhood and uh… I, I think she was born in Staten Island and she grew up here you know so uh her and her daughter you know they they love the bronx man. She's part of the Bronx Council of the Arts uh, which we have uh a couple of performances coming up and uh, she's just very active in the community and uh, I wish she was right here with me so she could give me some information for you and stuff but um… CCN: Through this project what’s the… what’s the goal, what’s the…. TS: The goal of this project is to give musicians a platform to uh… to work on their craft to go out to make a living as a musician you know um… basically its its its a place to conglomerate with other musicians and share and do jam sessions and uh… you know get your workshop on it’s a workshop so we work on our shop you know so we can um… so we can go out in the field a lot of these musicians are musicians that don't have gigs that do want gigs and uh we encourage uh, getting their resume together on who they’ve played with and uh… you know working on specifics. Like we have uh… we have a vocal coach that comes out and uh, teaches, teaches vocal lessons and its any level of musicianship you don't have to know all your chords and all your everything we have a lot of beginners and they're getting a lot better already you know, so the Morrisania Band Project the main goal is to give musicians a platform to strive in their instrument and to meet other musicians and you know to act as uh, uh, a workshop and a network. A network for musician to get gigs you know, because we really so far we've had since we've been together since October we've had about four shows, we've had about four performances where uh musicians that wouldn't have had a gig before now they have a gig because of Elissa’s project M.B.P and I just think it’s a positive thing. I'm her musical director so I, I try to bring my expertise, uh I'm graduate from Music and Art High School which was in Harlem… CCN: Yea, yea… take, take me through your your history TS: Okay, Okay I could do that. Right I graduated from Music and Art High School in Harlem uhh… I traveled from Brooklyn um… for the first time to go to high school, you know, on the train and everything um… to the specialized high school where you have to take a test, and a lot of my friends who were musicians in Brooklyn they didn't get in. So when I got in I had to make a whole group of new musician friends but it was amazing, because you had musicians from the Bronx, from,Manhattan, from Queens, from Staten Island, from everywhere you know and um… I joined this crew my first year as a freshmen I joined this crew called the Five Borough Crew, now Hip Hop was uh… just being born when I was in high school CCN: You… 80’s right? TS: Yea, yea like in in the… in the early 80’s, in the early 80’s when I was in high school CCN: Yea, it was just starting to pop TS: It just started Hip Hop, uh… I’ll tell you a couple of people that were in my graduating class was Slick Rick, Dana Dane these are uh, pioneers of Hip Hop um… in the Five Borough Crew we, we had uh, people from every borough and in every, during every, for every weekend we would go to a different borough and a different party and a different borough and different party one weekend, but it was 60, 70 of us getting on the train at one time going to this party so we, we would like take over the train, you know, and we came down the street it was like, it was amazing it was nothing but rappers and musicians and artists so it was it was a very artistic uh… kind of time of my life. You saw the movie fame? I don't know if you, a lot of the people saw the movie fame and it was based on uh the school I went to it was Laguardia High School of Music and Art. So Music and Art was one school of Laguardia and Performing Arts was another school of Laguardia, but now they have a new building where they've both came together where they've come together, and people like Alecia Keys have gone to the school um… Nas’ ex wife, what’s her name? Kelis, I used to play with Kelis as well. Alright, I’ll tell you a couple of people I used to play with over the years too… uh, I played with Keith Sweat, P.M. Dawn, Kool & The Gang, Queen Latifah, umm… Amel Larrieux, Groove Theory, Ledisi CCN: Wow. TS: Yea, I've been, I’ve been around for a minute. With P.M. Dawn was one of the uh… biggest groups I've ever played with. We went on a tour with Peter Gabriel, it was a world tour, he has a world tour called W.O.M.A.D. it’s World of Music Art and Dance and there was Peter Gabriel, Talking Heads, Sinead O’Connor, Ziggy Marley, Lenny Kravitz, um… Youssou N’Dour, and P.M. Dawn and we went… it was like for about 9 months we just went everywhere we went to so many continents, so many cities that was the biggest time of my life man, you know… CCN: Yea TS: So from that, coming from P.M. Dawn, uh, you know… [Distant singing from Mike Abner, frontman for M.B.P.] TS: Yea MA: Oh, excuse me TS: Nah we good, it’s all good brother MA: what’s happening Tariq? TS: Mike, Mike, Mike MA: My brother… whats going on man TS: My brother, this is my brother the singer Mike, Mike, Mike MA: (incomprehensible audio) TS: (chuckles) MA: Let me in over there… TS: He’s the, one of the main singers in M.B.P. and he’s from the Bronx MA: Yea, from the boogie down… TS: He’s from the boogie down Bronx, and he knows the importance of music in Hip Hop and R & B and the roots of Hip Hop and R & B in the Bronx… MA: That’s cause… TS: Cause if it wasn't for the Bronx the Rap would be gone with it… wouldn't be going on MA: Exactly! TS: So tell me where you're from? MA: I’m an O.G. from Patterson Projects South Bronx TS: (chuckles) … right MA: The South, South Bronx TS: Right MA: Uh, same, the home of uh, Nate Tiny Nate Archibald TS: Right, Nate Tiny Archibald no doubt MA: You know, the home, the home, of Iran Barkley TS: Right, okay… MA: You know, the boxer, you know we all came up together… and I'm a O.G., I know I look good for my age… TS: (Laughs) MA: I’m an O.G., Baby… CCN: I’m not even going to ask you how old you are MA: I’m sixty, I’m sixty three years old TS: Wow. MA: And I'm still out here doing my thing thanks to guys like this here TS: Wow. MA: This guy is one of the best drummers I've ever played with and I've played with a lot of drummers… TS: Thanks brother, appreciate it… MA: And I’ve… eyy no, this is true this aint no I aint stroking his ego none of that I'm telling it like it is. this boy is, is, is dynamic. Now, I'm a member of the legendary Escorts we've had bands through the years… and drummers and, and, and, and guitar players and all… this guy here… is like he, he, he, is like the, the, the truth. You know when guys say this guys the truth… this guy here is the truth… TS: He gassing it up a little bit MA: You know, no seriously! TS: But I think a little bit… MA: No, no, no you know why, you know why I say that Ima tell you, I've been in the game long enough to say that… TS: (Laughing) MA: You know, I know when guys… you know the great ones you know what they do…? They do what they do, he do stuff I a’int never see him do before… just… ah CCN: It’s natural… MA: You know, he a’int a show off, you know, a guy that a’int that good you know what he do? The best thing he can do, he gonna show you right away I do this “rrrrrrrraaaahhh rrrrrrrr wen ding dingy ding ding ding brraahhhh tat bruhh brudududum brum”… and you go, okay what else you got? And, and, and you know its like, its like, its like [laughing] somebody say is that all you got? Yea nigga thats about it TS: (Laughing) MA: You know TS: (Laughing) MA: This guy comes out with something new every, every, every rehearsal, every… showtime is his time that’s when he really shines and I hear it and I know what I'm listening to. Is a lot of people, 80 percent of the people around probably a’int on what I’m, what I know when I'm listening to him… CCN: And he brings up everyone with him too… MA: You know… CCN: What I saw out there. MA: And thats what he does… CCN: Yea. MA: He’s, he, he, he’s the, he’s the like the CCN: The orchestra… he's the orchestrator. MA: The meat in our sandwich! TS: (laughing) MA: He’s the meet in our sandwich, you see what I'm saying CCN: Yea. MA: I’m serious and this guys so, he's so, then, you know what, you know whats cool when you good or you great… but you are humble… about your talent… that makes your talent come across even more so. He's humble with his talent he's not one of these dudes thats, thats… I play with some drummers that think they're the baddest drummers that ever lived… and not that they, they don't suck, they are good TS: (Laughing) MA: They are good but they blow their own horn… so when you blow your own horn you, you, you give expectations people are going okay show me what you've got… CCN: Mhmm… MA: He never does that… I, I still don't know all of what he got cuz every time we do a show I see more, he’ll show me something different he’ll show, and other people don't see it, all they hearin’ is a drummer, they know, they know they cant see his hands… when they moving so fast but they say okay we've seen that before… but no, its called, rudiments right? TS: Rudiments, of course man MA: Rudiments that he does… are so precise and so on point, and unexpected, that it makes everything else sound better you know what I mean? CCN: Mhmm MA: It puts everything else in perspective… you know what I mean? its like… its like… if you have a sandwich and you put like mayonnaise on it… TS & CCN: (Laughing) MA: And you eat it, it tastes delicious right?… he’s miracle whip doe TS: (Laughing) MA: When you put miracle whip on a sandwich it go “BOOWW!” I love miracle whip! TS: Its cause of my love, you love miracle whip. I love music I have a love for the game of music… MA: I already know… TS: And being a musical director and pulling things together and just giving my ideas and my experience man, yo, I've jammed with Paul McCartney on stage at the, at, at Earth Day in Los Angeles. I've jammed with Stevie Wonder on stage at the Cellar Restaurant, he loved coming to the Cellar Restaurant back in the day, and I could just say that I've jammed with these people man and I could see how they handle themselves up there and I’ve, I've learned a lot man I've learned a lot… MA: See… TS: So I’m… MA: See … TS: So I’m passing it on, I'm just passing it on… MA: See what he just said… TS: Passing it on… MA: Now I’ve, now I’ve, I've performed on the same stage as with The Temptations… TS: No Doubt. MA: With the, with the, with, with, with Ray Goodman and Brown… TS: Mmmm… MA: With the, with The Stylistics… TS: Mmmm… MA: With “The Delfinates”… TS: Mmmm… MA: With The Intruders… TS: Mmmm… MA: With, with, with, with, with, uh Peaches & Herb… TS: (Laughing) MA: With uh, these are all of the, all of the people that I’ve, that I’ve actually worked with been in the same… TS: Pioneers… MA: Dressing rooms, you know we talkin’… TS: Pioneers… MA: I’ve got pictures to show, but… that’s not to say, anything about, you know, like, like name dropping or anything like that. But that’s just to say that when you're around greatness it’ll, it'll rub off on you… TS: Mhmm… MA: If you, if you're talented enough to absorb… their, their, their gifts. You feel what I'm saying? CCN: Mhmm… MA: You know some time you have to, some time you have to, its not about you all the time its about what you can do or what you can, what you can share with somebody else CCN: It’s a, it’s a chemistry MA: You know… TS: It’s a chemistry, that’s the word… MA: Like, he’s, he’s actually playing with, with artists that are lesser than him. I know that he know that, I'm saying what people they, you know, that I'm not saying… they can sing! You know… TS: It’s not about them being lesser it’s about them having determination to be greater and I just want to share what I can and help them out… MA: No, no what I'm saying, I don't mean lesser I take that back… TS: I try and push… MA: I’ll take back the lesser… TS: I know what you mean… MA: I take back the lesser thing… TS: Less experienced. MA: Less experienced, they don't have the experience, they don't have the knowledge, they don't have the, you know, the, the, the, the tools that he has, you know, or the reach, he can reach back and, and, and, and, and pull something from something he’s already done. Been there done that type thing a lot of them cant do that… but now they can say… playing with a guy like this they say I played with Tariq, you know, I played with Tariq. And y'all don't know.. this, there’s some, I did some drummers out here that I know, that he knows, people that I know thats good… he already knows them, he already knows them. Everybody, seems like everybody I know, that I say yo lets see how good… he says you talking about so and so… TS: (Laughing) MA: He done already played with them, but anyway I'm gonna let your interview go on man… TS: Yea thanks I appreciate that man… MA: God bless you brah… TS: No doubt… MA: And you the best… TS: You about to be out? MA: Yea, I'm out of here… TS: Okay, alright, I’ma hit you up during the week man… MA: Okay… okay…. TS: It was a nice show tonight man… MA: No you did that, you did your thing man like always… TS: We all did our thing, we all did our thing… MA: Yea we did man… you know. TS: We did our thing. MA: You know… TS: And it’s gon… the video is going to come out nice enough for you, us to use, and to put on YouTube so the rest of the world could see, and they could hire us you know what I mean… The Morrisania Band Project up in melrose, thats how we do it… MA: Trust and believe what I tell you man… TS: No doubt. MA: You the meat in this sandwich man. TS: Alright man. MA: Alright. TS: Keep, keep that, keep telling everybody that so they… MA: You know I tell… TS: (Laughing) MA: As-Salamu Alaykum. TS: Laikum-Salaam… (Laughing)… Peace brother, peace … Yea thats cool, now what he just said um with all these musicians coming together… like back in the day when I learned my essence of playing when I was like 16, 17, 18, I was coming to Melrose after school on a daily basis. This is where, Melrose is where I call Melrose the South Bronx cause Melrose is part of the South Bronx right, so I know South Bronx is made up of a bunch of different communities and Melrose is one of them and I used to definitely come up here… this is where I met Keith Sweat, this is where I met Johnny Kemp, this is where uh.. I met GQ. These groups, all off these groups and artists I've played with are from the Bronx. GQ uh… one of their big hits was Disco Nights, when disco was big like in the 80’s. This is where they're from man that was a huge hit, it was a multi platinum single and uh Raheem was the lead singer and he's definitely a Bronx, Melrose, South bronx native and I learned a lot of my stuff from him. So um.. everything I have with me now, uh, it started in the Bronx man, it started in Melrose. CCN: What, what is it from the Bronx, what is it from this area that, that was able transpire into the music that created… TS: The street’ness… the street’ness of the Bronx man is, is, like people that have like… no money… don't know where their food is coming from for the next day, they have this inner talent where when they sing or when they play their instrument those blues and that hunger just comes out. And when I was up here it was about Hip Hop and R & B, was on its way up and uh, so many artists like Grandmaster Flash and, and uh, Kurtis Blow all these guys from the Bronx… it just, it developed Hip Hop the Bronx is the, the, the mecca of Hip Hop is the birthplace of Hip Hop. So, um, after high school when I, when I was deep into Hip Hop with the Five Borough Crew and Slick Rick and Dana Dane and all these guys who were in my class in my school um I graduated and I went on to L.I.U. At L.I.U., at L.I.U. that was a different change Long Island University that was in Brooklyn, I know Prince, Prince started getting big at that time and Hip Hop was taking on another you know taking another realm of positive Hip Hop and… you know, uh, fight the power Hip Hop with Public Enemy and stuff and then there was another realm of R & B and Pop with Prince, you know, he was fusing the Rock and the genre of the you know kind of sexy and funky and all that stuff together and that had a lot to do with me too you know so my styles were gelling over the years and just intertwining with R & B, Soul, Hip Hop and when I went to L.I.U. I started learning Jazz. So I started playing Jazz more uh a lot of my professors cause my major was Jazz and Classic I majored in Classical and Jazz at L.I.U. So after I graduated from L.I.U. thats when I started touring you know uh P.M. Dawn, Kool & The Gang. After Kool & The Gang kind of split up from J.T. Taylor was the lead singer for Kool & The Gang, Kool & The Gang went this way J.T., I went with J.T. I was playing with J.T. Taylor for a few year after they split up and uh… but right now recently, most recently I've been the musical director for Native Dean. Native Dean is a Muslim Hip Hop group you know, I hope you can look it up, just go NativeDean.com CCN: No I, I definitely, I definitely… TS: Oh you did… CCN: I have some paperwork I… TS: Oh thats good… CCN: I wanted to ask… TS: Yea… CCN: Specifically um being that they’re, being that they're a Muslim group TS: Yea… CCN: Did you grow up Muslim, or did you convert? TS: I converted, I converted to Islam, yea I converted to Islam after 9/11. Like in 2003, uh… cause one of the members of Native Dean is married to my cousin and um my nephews are his father, right so, he's one of the members of Native Dean so I was around, around Islam a lot and with, uh, after 9/11 everybody was like what is this Islam and what are these Muslims, uh, hating America so much why 9/11 had to happen at all and I just did my own research and I found that it was nothing about uh, Islam and these, these are just terrorists it had nothing to do with a religion, it had nothing to do with a religion, these are just terrorists in my opinion, uh, terrorism is an act of gaining power, and gaining money through fear and violence CCN: Mhmm… TS: You know what I mean… people been doing that for years since the Nazi’s and since communism and before that… [Short Interruption by Elissa Carmona M.B.P Founder] EC: Sorry to interrupt… TS: Yes… EC: Im gonna walk um Ron to my house to drop his key board so you're by yourself here i’ll be right back… TS: Oh you're coming back … EC: Yea … TS: And you're gonna you're gonna close the door, the front door right … EC: Yea… TS: And lock both of those doors … EC: They’re gonna be locked … TS: And nobody’s gonna be here, nobody else is gonna be here… EC: No… TS: Is that room locked, is the um, the office locked? EC: I’m locking it when we put everything away… TS: Okay great, great, did y'all take those tables, did y'all put those four tables back out? EC: No. TS: Alright…I’ma, I’ma EC: I can't do the tables… TS: I’ma handle that when I finish this… EC: Okay. TS: Alright thanks. CCN: Thank you. TS: Alright so what was your question specifically…? CCN: So Native Dean being, being um, being a, a Muslim group… TS: Yea.. CCN: And, and spreading the word of Islam… TS: Right… CCN: When you joined, when you converted to Islam… TS: Yea… CCN: Did that affect your Music, did that change the, the way you were going? TS: Definitely it added, it added a whole n’other genre and realm to my music, to my style of playing because Native Dean travels to the Middle East a lot, like we've gone to Kuwait, we've gone to uh… CCN: Is that how you've ended up at these, at these, um, at these, uh, where you’re, where you're teaching, you're teaching… TS: Oh my workshops… CCN: Drumming… exactly, workshops thank you TS: Um…kind of, yes, kind of, yes, uh, because the State Department, Native Dean was working with the State Department. The State Department has a cultural affairs section that shares their culture shares the American culture with other countries and thats the uh, you know thats the trade off… CCN: Mhmm… TS: Um… we have embassies, we have U.S. embassies in like every major country every country in the world except a couple like Iran, a couple that are hostile countries that are hostiles to us for whatever reasons like Iran, North Korea, and maybe a couple of others but every other country has a U.S. embassy and they also have a cultural affairs section where part of having the embassy in their country you agree to share cultures and you agree to share a lot of things so as I was as I'm working with the State Department with Dative Dean they like what I was doing cause I work with kids a lot and I have a book called, Kids Can Play Hip Hop Drums, I can show you the book… CCN: Okay… TS: Uh-huh… yea, this is the book that I wrote, wrote and illustrated, uh, this is not the best copy this is getting kind of worn cause this is my promotional copy that I show a lot, and its called, Kids Can Play Hip Hop Drums, and this is volume one the snare drum its written and illustrated, self published by Tariq Snare and its basically a simple book for kids, and it shows, it, it encourage, it encourages them to learn how to uh, tune their snare drum how to play the snare drum and it has a urban figure, you know, that they can relate to and uhh, and some of the kids are as young as these, these are some of my students… CCN: So will… will you bring these to the, to the countries you go to? TS: Of course I’ve, I've sold hundreds, not even sold the State Department buys hundreds of my books and I give them out at the workshops… CCN: I love the art… TS: Yea, thanks man, thanks man… this is uh, show you how to hold your drumsticks there two ways to hold your drum sticks, boom, match grip like this, traditional grip like that, you know, and uh… it shows them how to read notes… CCN: So what what is, I'm very curious… TS: Stuff like that… CCN: I’m very curious, what is it that they ask you to share in terms of culture with these countries? TS: Um… Hip Hop music is an American art form… CCN: Right… TS: Because it was uh… it was born and raised in America right, so, I'm from New York they know that the Hip Hop was from New York so they figured out I knew something about Hip Hop because in my solo shows I do old school Hip Hop beats I call it beats and rhymes live. Right, I do old school Hip Hop beats where I rap and play beats at the same time, and they love it man every time, every time I've done it I get more gigs and they they encourage me to go to different countries uh, the State Department to share what I have and what I do is I, uh… fuse genres I fuse the genre and the instrument of the country I go to with American Hip Hop, so well have djembe’s and sitar’s and all kinds of foreign instruments playing with Hip Hop and everywhere we go there are Hip Hop artists like in Indonesia, in Egypt they're rapping in Arabic, in Indonesia they are rapping in Bahasa, you know, in their language so uh… it it was so successful so successful I even when to Iraq, I went to Iraq… CCN: Wow… TS: Iraq was in 2014 thats, thats right before they took over a lot of like Mosul and started moving into Bagdad and taking over, you know, because things started getting messed up. I went right before that, and uh one of the pictures I sent you is from one of the posters and uh you know went to a lot of schools there they have a school for Ballet and Jazz and stuff like that in, in Bagdad its just so sad that a lot of the things had to be broken down you know but um…yea so… CCN: How does that, how does that incorporate back to coming back to the Bronx and spreading music here? TS: Well um, when I come back here I share my experiences I share my experiences with my students, with my workshops I do workshops here in New York too I do workshops up and down the East coast. Um… I'm always doing workshops when I travel with Native Dean cause Native Dean um… when they do their shows its mostly family orientated shows, its not like a club, like when I was younger I used to do a lot of clubs and a lot of concerts there would be no kids there… CCN: Mhmm… TS: You know, there would be alcohol, they would sell alcohol and you know, it would be more like a concert, like you know people were coming to drink have fun enjoy the music like a regular Rock concert CCN: Mhmm TS: You know thats what I grew up playing. But after, after I took Jihad after I accepted Islam the shows that I play now more family, family orientated, whole families come to these shows and thats why I wrote this book because the kids always look at the drums, kids always love drums and they are like this, and there is always a group of kids at our shows and I give workshops before the show and I sell drumsticks after the show and I give like little lessons to the people that buy the, the drumsticks and it just it stuck with me you know like tomorrow I go to D.C. and I my, I sell drumsticks after the show and the kids that buy the drumsticks are the ones… that get like free workshops right… CCN: Okay… TS: Yea, so these be the drumsticks that go with the book like this, so this is like, this is just part of my self publication… CCN: Yea… TS: You know, cause, I’m, I'm self funded you know so I'm just looking for people that donate and help me out so I'm raising money to write volume two ,this is volume one, actually its a book series, down here it says book series, so this is volume one, volume two is gonna be, I'm working on that now its gonna be kick, snare, and hat… CCN: Okay… TS: Volume one is just the snare drum concentrating on the rudiments and the snare drum. Volumes two is gonna be kick drum, snare drum, and a high hat. So basically what I do when I go on these tours I come back with what I've learned and share it at my workshops you know, and uh my connection to sharing it in the bronx is what I'm doing right now. Like the show we just did tonight here in the South Bronx uh… there, there are some kids upstairs that heard it and they just came down and two of them happened to be drummers one did, they're two brothers, one is 8 and one is 12 and I fixed their drums for them, you know, I fixed their drums for them now they're upstairs playing drums and they were broke for a long time so now I have new students you know I gave them a pair of sticks and stuff so, um… CCN: I wanted to go back to, to the, the, your history… TS: Yes CCN: We kind of, we broke that up for a second… TS: Okay, okay… CCN: when you were in university at I.U., was it? TS: L.I.U. Long Island University right, okay, uh, what’s your specific question? CCN: Just where, where did that go, to where you are now? TS: Right, after I graduated from L.I.U. um… actually I became a teacher in the uh, Board of Education in New York City. I was teaching language arts and social studies so I got my bachelors degree in Music and my ultimate goal was to become a music teacher like in, you know, Brooklyn or the Bronx or Manhattan, anywhere, but each school only has only one music teacher they have like a band teacher and a vocal teacher and its hard to get a position, but they have a bunch of language arts teachers a bunch of math teachers so I ended up being a language arts and social studies teacher on the junior high school level. That was like uh for about 5 or 6 years after, right after L.I.U. so thats what I did with my bachelors degree, right. But in the mean time at nights I was playing gigs, you know, as a, as a musician in the clubs like Cafe Wow I was doing, the Blue Note I was playing, um… you know, The Apollo Band I played with The Apollo Band the showtime at The Apollo with Ray Chew uh, for a while too and um… it just started I, I, couldn't even teach anymore you know the gigs just started piling up cause my love for music was showing through my hands you know and I was just getting better and better cause of my love for music so um, then I just started like I said before I went on tour with P.M. Dawn thats when I was in my mid 20’s, you know, world tour this was so big we had like three tour busses every country we went to we had new tour busses and we just driving and we had our own TV’s and VCR’s in our bunks it was just such an amazing experience man, you know… CCN: Yea… TS: Seeing Lenny Kravitz… seeing Lenny Kravitz doing soundcheck is one of the most ex, most, biggest experiences that I’ve, uh, learned in the music business you know, seeing how he, he works on each instrument at a time and each instrument, each instrument has their own tech like a bass tech, and a guitar tech, and they get that sound right then that sound then two of them play together then three of them and I, I just learned so much and thats what I do thats what I'm sharing things that I've learned like on tours with Lenny, Ziggy and stuff like that… CCN: So we are getting towards the end… TS: Yes, cool… CCN: I want to know for you, this a… deep question but what does music mean for you, what does music mean to you? TS: To me music is life, music is my life anyway, um… you know, uh I've been, I've had chances… to destroy my life you know, uh… cause in New York in the 80’s and the 90’s at the same time that Hip Hop was coming up something else was coming up too it was crack, crack and drugs, coke, hard rock cocaine hit New York City really hard, and all these people that had no money no jobs no education all of a sudden the driving, driving Mercedes, BMW’s, buying brown stones and this is all from selling drugs on consignment they were giving them these drugs I saw it, I saw it. These people from wherever it was coming from I’m telling you I don't know where it’s coming from but it was being fizzled down to the community where these young boys were selling these drugs on consignment and then they would owe the person, that uh, that they were getting the drugs from and half the time they were getting shot up and just turf wars or getting arrested. Right, so that like killed a lot of the community like in the hood, in the Bronx, in Brooklyn, in Queens you know, I just saw it really tear up and I got caught up in that too I got caught up in wanting to make money, money, money all this money making five thousand dollars a night and stuff and uh… you know, being arrested, being arrested was part of my history on learning the ropes of the streets and uh… basically I learned my lesson, by being locked up I learned my lesson on leave that stuff alone and to focus more on my music career and thats exactly what I did… yea CCN: and so… TS: I didn’t, I didn't see, I didn't see that actually… CCN: Oh you didn’t… TS: Nah, nah… CCN: It just says don't incriminate yourself… TS: Oh, okay okay okay… CCN: Yea, yea just in case… TS: Oh, okay, alright, yea yea, thats cool… CCN: Um… so music became your life… TS: Music became my life… CCN: It pulled you out of everything, it pulled you out of the negative… TS: It pulled me out of the negative man, I had nothing, I had no rope I was being swallowed up by all of these people with these material things and all this power, all this respect, all the girls, all the girls were looking at people with cars, brothers with cars and with gold chains and with nice clothes and the only way they were getting that they weren't college graduates they weren't doctors and lawyers they were street drug dealers you know what I mean and they were making this money but they were getting their respect and everything and I wanted the respect too I was, I am just a human being. So, um… but the music was the rope that pulled me out of that I had nothing, I had no other rope, I had nothing else going on, so the music, my love for the music and sticking with it you know I got, ended up getting my degree, doing positive things, being a teacher. I love working with kids man, so um… music really saved me, and uh, I tried to live I tried to live in L.A. I moved to L.A. for a while you know when I was going back and fourth a lot, um… when I was doing when I was playing with P.M. Dawn and Amel Larrieux and Groove Theory I had a chance to play on television a lot. I did uh, The Tonight Show, I did Jay Leno, Jay Leno twice with P.M. Dawn, I did Arsenio Hall with P.M. Dawn, uh… I did a few B.E.T. things with Amel Larrieux, but a lot of people saw me on TV and stuff and that just made me feel even better like yo I have to stay with this music cause it has a future so, I never went back to anything negative, you know and uh… CCN: Mhmm, after we, after we end… TS: Yea… CCN: Or before we end excuse me… TS: Yea… CCN: Um… is there anything you want to say, anything you want to wrap up on, or… TS: Yea, I just want to let anybody who’s listening know that, no matter how old you are, how young you are, if you have a intrinsic love for music and just that, “ahh I used to play, nah I don't play no more I just have a job,” it’s never too late to just go and pick it up, even if it’s not for audience, even if it’s just for yourself its therapeutic man, music is therapeutic theres something so… so special about, I cant even find the world… CCN: I say magical… TS: Magical, yea but, but yea its definitely magical and its a universal magic. Because the music that I play I meet so many people that don't speak the language, never saw me in my life but when they hear me play… you know my stuff on the drums, I get their attention and they want to learn how to do what I do you know what I mean so, um… music is life man, music is my life, music is my life. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Musical History of Tariq Snare Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare https://melrosestories.org/files/original/79930c6a925b734f7109b1a01e0434d1.jpg 674fe42ed90bdcd4aff13c278b77f2b4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Collaborate or Collapse Subject The topic of the resource The Importance of Collaboration in Music Description An account of the resource An examination of the creative and collaborative culture of the Bronx, and how it allowed for the formation of todays more popular genres of music - specifically Hip Hop. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tariq's Collaborators Description An account of the resource A photo collage of some of the performers Tariq Snare has worked with throughout his career. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Carmelo Castro Netsky Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Tariq Snare Type The nature or genre of the resource photograph Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mike Abner Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sarah Hombach Hyperlink A link, or reference, to another resource on the Internet. URL https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxP_LJIJuHLDX3R1dGwxTHlNWlU/view Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Morrisania Band Project performing "I Like It" at Dreamyard https://melrosestories.org/files/original/056b78e50a7e74640965d92d1040507f.JPG 816ab256aedd40b240d87791a7b02dbb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mike Abner Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sarah Hombach Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource A view from a window in the Patterson Projects Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson_Houses Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Wikipedia Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mike Abner Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sarah Hombach Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Text Any textual data included in the document I’ve been in the Bronx—born and raised. I was born in Morrisania hospital which is not there anymore, on 167th and grand Concourse. In 1954 I was born. So, we moved, after I was born, my grandmother—I was raised by my grandmother, me and my sister. My grandmother and grandparents. After I was born we moved to Marble Hill. That’s further up north in the Bronx. That’s where I was raised up until I was in the 3rd grade or so. Then we moved to Patterson Projects and that was terrifying. That’s in the South Bronx, way down in the South Bronx, like 139th street all the way to 145th. That’s all Patterson Projects, like 17, 18, 20 buildings. And I wasn’t used to that area or those people. It was crazy to me, it was terrifying, it was like from Marble Hill which was all calm and quiet…you know we moved down there and it was hectic, it was…but anyway, when I went to school, after I started going to school and making friends, I joined the track team. I excelled in track. I excelled in Basketball and I made a lot of friends, and I started to get real popular and everything, it was great. The one bad part was, I didn’t have that many fights. You know, there was a lot of fighting going on back then. There wasn’t no internet (laughs) there wasn’t nothing, everybody, people would actually, you know, converse with one another. Not like now, everybody’s sitting around doing the phone thing. But anyway, when my sister and my cousins--they were all female, and every time some guys would bother them they ‘d come and get me. They’d always pick the biggest craziest lookin’ guy in the projects that they could find; “he hit me!” and I’d have to go out there and fight. So soon enough I got popular with the fighting thing! So now I’m like, yeah Mike! You know, this and that even though I was more of a peacemaker. You know, I was the voice of reason so to speak. And uh, I found that, from being in Church, we went to church in Harlem—it was a episcopal church. And it was just from the teachings and church and from my grandmother... being raised not by my mother but by my grandmother...that I had the old values, I was taught the old values. Which I still have a showed my kids. It was 60…right after we moved to Patterson, like a few, a couple of weeks after the Kennedy Assassination, so the whole world was like crazy. And I was young but I remember sitting in the classroom in class 2-5. My teacher—her name was Mrs. Goldberg, and she came in and she was crying, so everybody’s like “what?”. And all these teachers were in the hallway with the classroom doors open. And everyone was gathering in the halls just murmur murmur, it was about the Kennedy assassination, they had shot president Kennedy. And that was traumatizing so it seemed like everybody was…it was weird, for a kid anyway, you don’t know “why’d they shoot him?” or “where’s Dallas? Where’s that? That’s Texas?” I remember reading, and we wrote book reports after we moved to Patterson and book report got raved, they raved about it because it was like “oh this is great cuz a kid in the third grade..” you know, they didn’t realize I had sat around and listened to my grandmother and my mother and all of them talk about it, about how he, you know, he was trying to do things for the poor, and the black community and how white people didn’t like it and all of that and you know, in Marble Hill there was racial tension because it was all white mostly. And then black people started to move in and that’s right at Riverdale, in Riverdale it’s all Jewish but people got along. My best friend was a little white boy named Brian. And I used to go to his house and everybody, people used to look at us like, “what are they doing? Why are they so friendly with each other?” Cause he was raised like I was raised. We didn’t see color, you know, you was a nice person I was a nice person, we got along. And his parents was like that. Taught him that same way. And, this is funny—there was a program on TV. It was called I-Spy. It was Bill Cosby, and a actor named Robert Culp. And me and him used to act like we was I-Spy guys, cause it was a white guy and a black guy, you know? So anyway to move along, so now I’m in Patterson Projects, and I grew up there and I started to—I was always into music—you know, and sports. It’d be music, sports, school, music, sports, school, life was good! Cause you know, my grandmother always made sure we didn’t want for anything we always had everything so I don’t know what it’s like, I hear about people going “Wuh we didn’t have this, we didn’t have that,” and I don’t know about that. But I do know that, there was people and kids that I knew that was hungry, didn’t have food, didn’t have sneakers, didn’t have Easter clothes when Easter came around. So we used to give some of our clothes away. Like that, and my grandmother always taught me; if you give, and you do good, good will come to you. It’s karma, you know. I grew up with that, you know, 12 years old and one day I pick up a guitar. And I was listening to the radio, WWRL AM, cause there wasn’t no FM back then, there wasn’t nothin happenin’ with FM—that’s how old I am! You see what I’m saying?—you know, everybody was all “you got a color TV?! Let’s go to Mike’s house! They got a color TV!”—it was crazy. So I pick up this guitar, and it was a little plastic, folk guitar. And I start listening to the radio. And I start picking out the notes of the songs and I’m singing it and I would play my 45’s and I actually taught myself to play. So my grandmother on my other side sent me to guitar school cause she was all “oh, this is beautiful! He did that on his own, who taught you that? Nobody!” So then I went to guitar school. When they sent me to a guitar school, in the South Bronx, the only good guitar school there was a Spanish guitar school. So they was playing Spanish music and the guy was trying to teach me but he couldn’t speak English—I didn’t understand him, he didn’t understand me, I’m going “what?”, he’s going “huh?” [imitates accent] “What are you doing my friend, I’m trying to teach you something..” and I wanted to play like Jimi Hendrix, he wanted me to play like, like Emilio Estevez or somebody. Jing-jigga jing jing—I don’t wanna play that! So I flunked. [Laughs] I flunked guitar school. Anyway. That was that. So now I’m going to junior high school. Something about the South Bronx that’s a beautiful this was, living in the projects, everybody knew everybody. People say “oh you live in the projects?” That’s cause it’s raggedy and terrible now. Back then, it was “neighborhood.” Not “the hood”, it was the neighborhood. Everybody knew each other, “good morning!” “hello Mrs. So-and-so!” “Oh that’s Miss Johnson’s boy!” it was like that. Not like now, people don’t even speak to each other. People walk right by, people don’t even look at you. People are getting in elevators and holding their purses and carrying on because you don’t know who’s who. That’s why, when they talk about the projects I think about how I grew up. And the younger people, you know, they talk about when they grew up, how they see it—you know, people are fighting each other and shooting each other and this side of the building hates that side of the building, this side’s fighting that side—we didn’t have none of that. We had basketball tournaments, where our project would play other projects. It was called the City-Wide. And you’d get trophies if you win. I had a lot of trophies, my grandmother used to be so proud. I had like, about 85-90 trophies. Trophies, medals, plaques, everything from running track, playing ball, singing. Then I started singing! I found out I could sing. I thought I could sing, anyway. I was in the choir in my church, and I started singing like they sing in the choir, with that soulful sound, and it was…my life was pretty good. I knew it was a terrible thing goin’ on because the South Bronx looked like somebody had dropped a bomb. It looked like Vietnam when I was growing up. You’ll see the pictures. The way it has built up and up and better through the years, you know, is a plus. But you can’t build up new buildings without building up the people. You have to get to the people, the people make their neighborhoods, not the buildings. Not the, you know what I’m saying, the cars, nothing! You have to build up the people, so we had community centers, and groups like they have here, all of that stuff disappeared in, let’s say the Reagan era. Or even before. It was a mess. But a lot of the programs that we had, like the PAL, the Cedar program, I could go on and on, we had night centers, kids could go all the way up until 11 o'clock at night, you could play basketball and all of that--they closed all of that down, the funding dried up or or they cut it. I’m not gonna get into the Republican-Democrat thing cause that’s a mess. Always been a mess. On both sides. It’s just that fact that I lived through the era when they cut everything, you know, I enjoyed it because I experienced it myself but I saw that that next generation didn’t have it. They didn’t have access to the things that we had. And it was sad, because that’s when a lot of kids was on the street doing things that they ain’t got no business doing, cause they had nothing to do. “Idle time is the devil’s workshop”--that’s what my grandmother always told me. Always find something to do: get a job, get a hobby, do something, that’s cause “Idle time is the devil’s workshop”. She had all these sayings, all these old lady sayings that I was like, “what that mean?” She would stay stuff like, “boy, why’d you do that? Sometimes you act like you ain’t got the sense you was born with.” and I would go, “what? wait a minute…” So, it’s a lot of wisdom that my grandmother taught me and you see a lot of those things coming into fruition through time, when you’re growing up, you say “damn, that’s what my grandma was talking about,”. You know, I heard it but I wasn’t really listening. Community is being built up now and now it’s getting better. As far as like the infrastructure of the south Bronx, much, much better than when I came up, programs like one, and the ones that are coming back, I’m all for it, I’m all for promoting it, participating in it. This one’s called DreamYard. And it’s like a cultural center, and it has music—what we do is we try to expose the youth to music, singing, poetry, the arts! You know, they have acting…I became a part of it in September and I’m on the music end. It’s a lot going on here. It’s a beautiful thing because the community needs it. It needs more of it, really, but it’s a start, it’s a start. These were the types of things that were available when I was growing up, that dried up for the last 40 years or so. Now it’s coming back. It seems to be coming back. There’s a few in Harlem, the Bronx. Where it’s needed. And that’s a good thing, and I’m here to support it, and to participate in it, and do whatever I can to make sure it flourishes and stays, you know, afloat. And that’s about it—as far as the crime and all of that, you’re gonna find that everywhere. But if the more you give the youth to do to take away that idle time and give them focus on music, acting, and some of the attributes within themselves that they don’t even know they have, it’ll spread. Just like gangs spread. Just like bad stuff spreads. Bad attitude, bad, bad, company and all of that. You don’t need to that, here’s an outlet for you. To come in and have something that people appreciate from you, and people show you that you are important. That you have some purpose. And when you feel that way, when a child feels that way, they straighten up. They straighten themselves up. You can’t straighten nobody up if they don’t want to straighten up. And a lot of them, when they come here, I see it in their eyes. I see it in their enthusiasm. To do, to be involved in something like music. Everybody’s into the rap thing now, oh my god. Everybody wants to be a rapper. But it’s a great thing too. My thing is classic soul and R&B music. I like a lot of music, but some of that rap I just can’t get with it. You know how you hear these old guys like “ah I’m too old for this,” that’s what I’m like with rap music. I don’t even wanna hear it, you know? You know, to be honest, I got married when I was 22 and I moved away. Around that time is when things when things were actually starting to get under construction, things were starting to get done. Under Mayor Dinkins, Mayor Beame, Mayor Lindsay—it was terrible in the Lindsay administration but I don’t blame it on the mayor or anything but where the funds, the federal funds are allocated, you know, the Bronx was always last. Still is today. The Bronx is always last to be allocated for anything. I watched Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, all of them get better infrastructure getting built up, cleaned up, everything. And the Bronx still was messed up. So, it just seemed like when they rate the boroughs, and they go “the worst borough is the Bronx!” I don’t pay that no mind because I know the Bronx is like that for a reason. It has a lot to do with where those funds are being allocated. Because you know, it’s Hispanic and black, and you know, it got less and less diverse. It used to be Italian, Jewish, Black, Hispanic, but then Hispanic infusion came and it was a lot more Spanish people getting businesses and then the Koreans came and now you got the, uh, Afghani, what do you call them? From the Middle East and all that. The problem I see in the Bronx for my people, for black people, is the fact that it could be a whole black neighborhood but you go in a store and you’re gonna see everybody behind that counter but a black person, in a black neighborhood. You go to a Jewish neighborhood, you go to their stores—it’s a Jewish man behind the counter. You go to an Israeli neighborhood, you see Israelis behind the counter. You go to a Jamaican area, in Brooklyn, you’ll see Jamaicans having stores. That’s what I see. I’m not talking about statistics or anything, just plain seeing it, you see it! Which is a damn shame, because people that’s been living here forever can’t get small business loans, when these people come here—I’m serious. I’m not a Trump supporter or none of that. When he talks about immigration and these people coming here and we don’t know who they are or what they’re up to and all of that—I was living in Texas. In Everman, Texas. That’s where I lived, it was a suburb of Ft. Worth. There was a store around the corner—come to find out it was Arabs. Come to find out when they tried to blow up the World Trade Center the first time, those are the people they arrested, that were associated with the terrorist attack. I was going there buying food, buying, you know, just—I couldn’t believe it. It was right there in Texas. I get back to New York and find out—I just see that, you don’t know who’s here, you don’t know who you’re dealing with, you don’t know what’s going on. So when you say we need some stronger laws on immigration, I agree with that. I don’t agree with runnin’ nobody out of here, running families out of here, putting up a wall and all that nonsense. You know that, I don’t agree with. See you’re talking to an old guy, see when I was coming up it was a lot different. We had access to like, like those night centers, we had parks, it was a lot that these kids don’t have and the kids before them. It’s been that long. I’m talking—my thing was in 1968. When we had Randall’s Island, we had, Van Courtland park, we had Crotona Park, all the parks you could go to and you could barbeque and have fun. Can’t do that no more. Now you can’t barbeque and when the sun goes down, everybody got to get out the park. There’s no more night centers. So the kids are in the street! They create something to do. And sometimes…they think it’s exciting to do things...they don’t go nowhere else to do it, they do it in their own neighborhood, to their own neighbors. If they riot, if they rebel...every uprising, they don’t go nowhere else to do it. They burn their own neighborhoods. They burn down their own stores. They kill their own people. Talk about “Black lives matter”. It matters…but it should matter to blacks. Why are blacks killing blacks? More than anybody else, you know? That baffles my mind, why we don’t have respect for ourselves. How we’re always going “well I ain gonna be disrespected” well you’re disrespecting yourselves. Disrespecting each other. That’s the core of the problem in the communities and in the neighborhoods. It was then, back then. Back then, you know what it was? Back then blacks were united against other groups. Blacks united against other gangs, blacks had families that looked out for each other. You know, your car’s parked, your neighbor right there would watch your car. If you had work or whatever, they’d watch your apartment. Make sure nobody would go and break into your apartment. Now, it’s every man for himself. Everybody’s trying to get over--every man for himself. The Bronx is a place that—getting back to that immigration thing—when you have people coming here, that ain’t from here, they don’t have the respect or the knowledge of what community is all about. They’re all out to step over you and get theirs first and move you out the way and compete with you and argue with you… and you got buildings right here in the Bronx…if you look at the names you have to press to get into these buildings, you see Rodriguez, Cruz, Sanchez, this, that, the whole building is full of whoever’s the landlord of that building. They won’t let nobody else in. You feel me? That goes on all through the city, but it’s real prevalent here in the Bronx. My wife is Puerto Rican, so I understand Spanish. I don’t speak it but I hear it—they don’t think I understand them and I just look at them sometimes like, where is all of that coming from? We were here when you got here, what’s wrong with you? What’s your problem? Because you can be proud of your own heritage and your own race without putting down somebody else’s. Just like Black Lives Matter. They matter, but they’re not saying that white lives don’t matter. Or Hispanic lives don’t matter. I’m retired, so I was like, i got time to get involved with something to help out the community because I like doing stuff like that. I’ve been a counselor, I’ve done all that kind of stuff. So I called Aleesa, she said “yes?” and I said, “My name is Mike Abner, and uh, we have something in common. We have the same doctor, she gave me your flier.” She said “yeah!” and I said, “i’m very interested to know, what is the Morrisania Band Project all about?” and she told me she didn’t have anybody yet. I was the first person to come through the door. And uh, I’m an artist really, I’ve been with the Legendary Escorts for years, we’ve toured we’ve done a lot, I know what I’m doing and stuff and I have a lot to offer the kids, you know, if they come through!” and she said, “great” and I told her my cousin, my first cousin Richard, the lead guitar player, we already have a band in Manhattan that I’m not very happy with, I’m about to cut them loose anyway. So I told Richard the same thing, Richard told me the same thing he said, “you know, I’m tired of these dudes, they’re late all the time, they don’t want to put in the work.” They’re talented, all of them are talented but they’re older guys, and something about older black men, that are musicians, or singers, or anything artistic, they think that they know everything. You can’t tell them nothing, you can’t change their mind about nothing because they’re set in their ways. All those new buildings over their, all those new buildings that came up in the past, what, 15 years? 10 or 15 years. But before that, this Washington Avenue was a place--you didn’t wanna come down here. There was pimps, there was prostitutes walking the street, there was drug dealers, it was like the place to go, the seedy, all the seedy people hung out here. And the cops left them alone it seemed like, cause they was out in the open! It was right out in the open. But you could come down here, you could get robbed, you could get mugged, so you avoided places like this. It changed through the years. I would say the renaissance--it was like a renaissance--it came in like 80’s, anywhere from 1979 up into that decade of the 80’s that things started to build up again. And as a kid I saw things that I couldn’t believe. I mean, it was out in the open--you didn’t have to go in a building, but you’d see mothers out here with kids, they’ve got kids and they’re out here buying drugs from drug dealers, you had pimps, you had all kinds of prostitutes, you had the gang element too. They had different gangs up here. They had a gang called the war lords, the Savage Skulls. You didn’t wanna come around here, you’d get jumped, you’d get, you know. They know the people that live around here and they could tell if you wasn’t from here cause you’d see the same people here all the time so if you wasn’t from here, they’d come after them right away. You’d be like “i’m going to see my friend” and they’d be all “give me your money” and you’d say “I’m not giving you no money”. And then you’d have to run. And back then--it wasn’t the guns and all that is now. You know they had like, knives and sticks. Stuff like that. They rode around on bikes, delivering product. It was crazy. But you know one thing about then that was different? You come here in the day time, you would think it was just businesses running their business, people coming home from school…and then nightfall set. There was a group called Houdini, they had a song called “The Freaks Come Out At Night”. And that’s, they wrote it because that’s what it was about. It was true. Now, you see craziness even in the daytime in some of these areas. But back then, there was some kind of honor amongst thieves where you don’t mess around in front of the church. You don’t mess with old people. You don’t bother mothers with their kids. You don’t bother the elderly--you know, they’d help the elderly. But these are crazy people, like gang members, and everything, they would help, But when it came to the street hustle at night, forget about it. And it was almost like an unwritten rule, “ok, everybody in the house. Time to go in the house. Cause you know the crazies are out at night. Now the crazies are out all time. It’s cleaned up now because you’ve got buildings and legitimate businesses, people used to protect their property too. You know, sweep in front of their buildings, keep the stoops and everything clean. And they wasn’t getting paid for it, they wanted their stoop to look good. They would wash it down with hoses just to make sure that where they lived was decent, clean, or looked clean. You don’t see that any more. You don’t see young people participating in a group to do good. Like a good group, like a basketball team, a track team, older guys were coaches. Older guys would coach basketball for free, spend money out of their own pockets. My youngest—I got six kids all together. I got three boys and three girls. Four out of the six are college graduates. Thank god. That’s why I ain’t got nothing. Me and my wife, we just worked, work, work, work, and if I don’t have to pay another tuition for the rest of my life—which I hope I never do!—it’ll be too soon. But now we got the last two, the twins, Jasmine and Dominique, graduated year before last. And they got good jobs. And life is like a “phew!” You know? “Phew!” But now, my back hurts, my knees hurt, everything, I’m going to the clinics, I’m getting therapy, I’m breaking down! But it was all for a purpose, you know? And my kids are the kind of kids that…it’s the ideal of what I would like a lot of these kids to be. Really. And if parents ain’t doing the right thing kids won’t do the right thing. So we basically, like I said, we gotta get to the people. The Bronx is like the hard knock life. If you know how to navigate around the nonsense and stay focused, you’ll be fine, you’ll be fine. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Transcript Subject The topic of the resource Mike Abner discusses his life in the South Bronx Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Sarah Hombach Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Mike Abner Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 8th, 2017 https://melrosestories.org/files/original/c040617bd61bda8b8eeba9d5d212bb5b.jpeg a9a063df504f3d1c3b480cd5b5c22be2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Bobby Sanabria Subject The topic of the resource Exhibit Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nathalia Sanchez Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Bobby Sanabria, Nathalia Sanchez Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nathalia Sanchez Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource April 2017 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource We Stay/Nos Quedamos Subject The topic of the resource Bobby Sanabria Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Photo courtesy of moregardens.org Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available https://bopoulsen.com/2016/02/29/we-staynos-quedamos-a-non-profit-working-to-revitalize-the-south-bronx/ Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Nathalia Sanchez Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource moregardens.org