Hello...Win 2 Tickets

Thank you to the Supporters of Mad One. Your subscriptions enable this work to continue. If you haven’t yet subscribed, here is your motivation: Today’s poem was written in 2017, 7 years ago when I was homeless. There were a few recitals of this poem to strangers at the West Oakland Bart Station after midnight, and to the EMTs that were taking me to the hospital. I always prefaced it with; I’m on my way to NY to read this at The Apollo. After jail, the hospital was like a revolving door for me. I wrote this as an email response to a ticket giveaway. The Subject Line was: “Win 2 Free Tickets to Hamilton”. It was a mass email from a non-profit I volunteered for in Petaluma the year before. My response was this poem. I wrote it in a wellness center, RAMS, Downtown SF on their public computer and was able to print it there. I carried it from place to place and it became so warn and leathery that it looked like an artifact of epic poetic proportions. I recorded the piece last year when I had an artistic residency two blocks from that wellness center. I can’t say it’s aged well, but it’s certainly a time capsule. Being back downtown brought many memories, but it also made me realize how far I had come. One of the projects I worked on during last year was a video series where I went to the corners where I experienced these “street tales” and talked about my life in the actual location. I may have gotten a few worthwhile clips from filming, 6 years later looking like a shiny example of an affluent individual. Nobody knows your stories until you tell them. I’m still working on that series, but for now, there's this… Thank You for reading and listening to these experiences. Mad One provides “creativity as practice for mental health”. Your support ensures this work can continue: This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit madone.substack.com/subscribe