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- [Radio] 39 People were shot in Chicago over the weekend,

part of a surge of gun violence that has plagued the city

since January.

Shootings that month were more than twice

the number of a typical January.

Ever since, there's been a new victim

roughly every other hour.

WBEZ in Chicago has embarked on a year-long project

called Every Other Hour.

(upbeat hip hop music)

- So here I am.

Back in the belly of the beast.

Ready to do this?

Let's do this.

(car door slams)

Yeah, I'm Tamar.

Oh, y'all are Masons?

Okay, you take the chairs out?

- Nah, I think it's gonna rain, Ma.

I think it's gonna rain hard too.

- Where you settin' up at? - Right here.

I still need my chairs.

I mean it probably is about to rain.

How you doing, I'm Tamar?

How are you?

MASK is Mothers and Men Against Senseless Killings.

MASK is parents and just concerned citizens in this city

who want to rebuild communities,

who want to rebuild relationships within those communities,

who just want kids to not die.

Come on, Kendra, you know the drill.

Get a chair.

Cop a squat.

We occupy the corner of 75th and Stewart every single day,

from the first day of summer break for CPS students

until Labor Day and we provide a safe place to play.

We provide a safe place for the community to meet

and we also provide dinner.

I can't believe y'all bought snow cone stuff today.

I mean we normally love those things.

It just feel like it's gon' rain.

That was just rain. - Yeah, I felt it too,

Mike, he spit. - No, that was a raindrop.

Hey, you want to go back to Walmart and get a canopy?

Max is my son.

He's always concerned about what we're doing next,

how we engage with the community.

Max is my right hand.

Last time we had you to pray that the rain stop,

it start pourin' down. - No, I didn't pray this time.

- My left hand would probably be Kendra.

She is my girl Friday.

You ready?

You back for another summer?

Okay.

The idea behind it was you tell me the bad areas,

where there are gang beefs.

I'll take these women to this area and we'll set up,

and it'll stop everything from happening

because nobody wants to shoot anybody's mother.

People were like,

"Yeah, you need to go down there,

"where Nick Knack got killed."

So that's where we went.

Nick Knack was Lucille Barnes.

It wasn't a wrong place at the wrong time kind of thing.

She wasn't doing anything

that she shouldn't have been doing.

She was doing what any parent would do

if they saw kids fighting.

She was breaking it up and I was a mother just like her.

I break up fights all the time

and I couldn't imagine being murdered for it.

At first it was all about stopping killings,

but now it's so much bigger than that.

It's not about the bad guys.

It's about bad situations here, bad conditions.

Poverty and unemployment and the conditions that we live in,

it creates an environment ripe for gun violence.

I'm mean I'm well aware of the records of all of those kids

on Stewart

I don't care about that.

I let the rest of the world treat them bad

because of that.

I won't be one of those people though.

This is not the church.

I'm not a politician.

I'm really, honestly, just somebody's mother

and I'm thinking like somebody's mother.

- I heard you say that you won't be able to sleep

until September. - Oh, nah,

I ain't sleeping until September.

You know how I go from here to summer.

- Amen, you should be here to stay.

- Pretty much, I'm here.

I'm here.

I mean this is our third year on this corner doing this

and people around here want it to change,

so if the people want it to change...

- I've got the goods, baby. - You gots the goods.

(crowd chattering)

You graduated the other day?

Good job.

Kindergarten was hard work.

I almost didn't make it.

- So, this is yours?

Nice to meet you,

Officer McClain. - Nice to meet you too.

- I just walked around and talking to everybody.

I said, "I guess I should have talked to the head of the--"

- Oh, you know.

- [Officer] You've got a website or somethin'?

- I have all that. - Absolutely.

- No, I'm out here everyday.

Like everybody knows.

It's like... - Every day, every day.

- From four to eight o'clock I'm gonna be out here.

- Everyday, somewhere in the city?

- Every single day in the summer.

No, right here.

- This same spot? - Everyday.

Everyday.

- I didn't know that, I feel like a (indistinct).

- No, for the past two years,

we were havin' a hundred people every single day.

That's when we feed everybody from right there.

- [Reporter] They said you can't beat them, join' them.

And we joinin' them.

- We just want you to join us, just join us.

If it's even on your own front porch on your block,

on y'all corner, join us.

Just get a lawn chair, come sit outside,

get to know your neighbors.

That's all it take.

That's all it take.

- We really appreciate what you're doing.

Everybody see what's going on out here.

This sister's very powerful.

(calm piano music)

(news reporter chattering)

- Hey, what's goin' on? - Okay.

I think each one of these sandwiches

get cut into three, into thirds.

You don't think so?

Or you think just half?

- I was just gon' cut them in half.

- Okay.

I mean, it'll give us almost a hundred sandwiches.

- What, if you cut them in half?

- Yeah.

Let's go.

You know what, honestly,

I think today in order to get a sandwich,

I think we should make people talk about like healthcare

- No. - I'm gonna do that today.

I'm gonna say, "You're not going to get sandwich

"unless you tell me whether or not you get a Medicaid card

"and if you know if they about to cut it.

"And how do you feel about it?"

I need to know how you feel about that.

- I can't deal with you, Mom.

- You know, my grandmother,

she had all these little kids

and her friend had a lot of kids too.

And sometimes they wouldn't have enough food,

like you know, to feed all the kids.

So they would cook together.

In the end, they would feed all the kids at one time

as a community.

Come here.

Come here, let me tie your shoe.

I'm hoping that that's the kind of thing that we revive

a little bit when we're out here.

It's the collective.

Jermaine was one of the first kids who really let me in,

allowed me to see the neighborhood through his eyes.

So Jermaine is very involved.

- Tamar means hope and change for this community

and every community that's like ours.

How they say, "It takes a village to raise a child."

We formin' our village and our village is gettin' stronger.

And we're raising our kids to be productive.

She made me actually sit down and wonder what my goals are.

And when I actually figured them out, she was,

"Okay, how can we do them together?"

- Oh yeah, get a sandwich.

Now do you see?

Not an officer had stopped by and said,

"Hey, hello, how you doing guys?"

- She's my partner, she's my best friend,

she's my mom, she's my big sister.

That woman is everything to me, man.

- Hey, y'all.

Y'all want to sandwich and some chips?

Right here, grab a sandwich, grab a chip.

Sometimes I think there's some confusion

about what we're here to do.

We're not here to stop anybody

from selling anything that they sell.

We are dedicated to stopping shooting.

That's what we do.

That's it.

We're not here to make it perfect.

We're just here to make it safe for the kids

to play in the summer.

That's what we're here to do.

Why you ain't get nothing?

You ain't got no shirt?

- [Jermaine] You gotta put a shirt on.

Everyday, you gotta put a shirt on every time you come back.

- Y'all don't want no sandwich?

Hey, Marchey.

Naya, can my friend sit here please?

Thank you.

- Fill me in?

- Just cleanin' off the space for you, there you go.

- Thank you, thank you.

- So this is where all the magic is gonna happen.

And the kids are going to have plenty of green space

to run and play and you know, just play.

As much stuff as we can.

We get like the whole neighborhood kinda involved.

We really want the neighborhood to care about the playlot.

Because not even, the park ain't doing this,

the park district not doin' this.

Hey, how you doin'? - Hey, how you doin'?

- [Tamar] I'm good.

- Y'all give away some sandwich?

- Here, go ahead and take a sandwich.

It's okay, go ahead.

Grab a sandwich.

And for the Fourth of July, we're doin' a real big thing.

Like, yeah.

Just trying to keep it as safe as possible.

You know what I mean?

Hi, I need to speak with Catherine in the business office.

One of the boys on the block

needs to go back to school.

And he didn't have the money for the fees,

so I'm goin' to pay him because he needs to be in school.

He doesn't need to be on a block.

And I seen far too many of them go to jail

because they didn't help.

They weren't in school or they didn't have jobs.

So I'm gonna pay the $485 in fees

so he can get back in school.

If they ever answer the phone.

A lot of these kids haven't had people

who were really nice to them, who wanted to help them.

So yeah, I mean, I want to do that for them.

I want to be there for them, I wanna be that for them

and maybe they'll be nicer people.

Maybe they'll be kinder people going forward.

- [Catherine] Thank you for calling the business office.

May I help you?

- Hi, may I please meet with Catherine?

- [Catherine] This is she.

- Hi, Catherine, we spoke earlier.

My name is Tamar Manasseh, I'm calling from Chicago.

- Yes, yes.

- I was calling back. - I'm surprised

that you got me back.

- It's wonderful, it is so wonderful.

I was calling to pay that fee.

I'm out here tomorrow at 10 o'clock to kind of wrap it up,

but this is getting done with or without the city.

This is happening.

- How you doin'?

- So here's the thing.

I need to take from this corner down to...

- [Man] Right here.

- 'Bout right here.

I need a hard surface in two days.

- You can buy a ton of concrete for a hundred bucks.

A ton.

- Okay, so how much they gonna charge,

Come on,

come on, baby.

How much they gonna charge me?

- Let me talk to my little girl.

Do you think that the city care that much?

- Oh no, it's not the city that cares about this lot.

The city cares about what we do.

Exactly, it's personal.

- That I would agree on. - It's personal.

I cannot, I will not let them win.

Like why, why does the city have to fight me?

If I'm out here trying to save lives?

You gotta fight me on that?

- Tamar knew my son, Eric,

and Eric kept telling me about this lady.

"She be givin' us food."

And I was like,

"I gotta go see who this chick is."

And then when I came over here, I saw her like,

"I like what you're doing and all that good stuff."

And I just started comin' everyday.

- But you know what?

Like I said, the other night when I was talking,

like I feel like I can do anything.

This is a crack, it's not a problem.

It's a crack.

- I come because I was raised in this neighborhood.

I work in this neighborhood.

I would love to see people come outside.

People not worried about, you know,

if they go to certain neighborhoods, they going to be shot.

'Cause people scared.

People are actually scared to come out

in they own neighborhood.

- All you gotta do is clean it up.

- Okay, I get it.

- They're not gonna--

- I can get this all cleaned up.

- I promise I'll let you know in a minute.

- Do you promise?

- I promise.

- Like, do you pinky swear back, Dayron?

- I got you.

- This is why my life is reduced to, pinky swearing.

(car horn honks)

Who the fuck is that?

- [Citizen] All lives matter!

- Okay!

Did he just say all lives matter?

Did he say all lives matter? - He said all lives matter.

- I have 7,000 things to do.

That's that's what my life is like right now.

We need to get a generator.

We need to get food.

We need to get another tarp.

I need to make sure I'm on the books

with the concrete company.

- It really is a lot happening out here.

How are you, baby?

- Good. - You're good?

- Just went to the store for my grandma

'cause they didn't have a can of pop so I got this.

- That is so wonderful, thank you for doing that.

Come back and see me later.

How you doing, Max?

Can you do me a favor?

Grab that tarp so we can see how big it is

so we can get started working.

Okay?

And I can't get, I can't find,

I gotta get some t-shirts, man.

- Hey there.

- How's my rich man?

- Broke!

(all laugh)

- Hi, this is Corey, Tamar.

- [Tamar] Hello!

- Hey, how are you? - He's opening a business,

the t-shirts. - Oh, yeah!

T-shirts, just like this.

That's exactly what I need.

- That exact? - Yup.

- [Corey] You don't want anything on the back?

- [Tamar] I mean, can you put something on the back?

- Hello, how y'all doin?

This my first time come here, I come out to help.

I been always sayin' I wanted to go help

for a mother that lost her son to guns.

Yeah, 'bout twelve years ago.

- Marisha. - Marisha, nice meeting you.

Thank you for coming and helping.

Hi, and you're? - Demarius.

- Lamari? - Demarius.

- Demarius?

Nice meeting you, Demarius.

- Come on, we can find a little spot over here.

- Why you backin' way up?

Come on. - Watch out!

(all laughing)

- This year we have a pretty gnarly construction project

going on,

leveling out the ground and digging

and raking to try to smooth out the ground

because we're doing a big thing for the 4th of July.

Everybody was really trying hard to really get it done.

What's up, Jermaine?

Hey!

Little Jermaine, Little Big Jermaine.

You got me a present?

You got me a generator!

Thank you for having him, Crip.

Thank you for making him.

I need to go get another tarp to go back there.

'Cause I don't want people just sitting in dirt.

You see what I'm saying? - Hold on.

- Who was that?

- Somebody from out west.

Just some guy from out west that moved out here.

Yeah, I'm just tryna get a feel for him.

I just know of him, I don't know him.

So since I know of him, I like to watch him.

Nothing good.

I like keepin' my eyes on him.

At least know the cars that he get in and out of

on the regular.

Nice little surveillance.

- I'm not going to be able to even eat right there

if all of that garbage is right there.

You just, you can't feed people with--

Those garbage cans got to go.

Okay.

Let's see what we got here.

Oh, they're cute!

They're cute!

- [Woman] Yeah that's good, that looks good.

(loud music blaring)

- Hello. - Hey, Blondie.

- How are ya?

- I'm not in a good mood.

I'm not in a good place mentally. - Well meet my--

- Your brought me that chair? - Daughter-in-law, Chelsea.

- Hey, how you doin'? - And my son, Wilson.

This is Tamar. - Hey, Wilson, come over.

Your mom's my mom so technically your my--

- We hear about her and you so much.

- She's amazing, she's amazing.

- [Dagmar] They take care of me.

- I love her.

This woman's a treasure, she's a treasure.

- Absolutely. - She is all kinds of amazing.

- [Chelsea] She needed some place

to put that energy after retirement.

- And there's your throne. - And I'm so glad

that I am the recipient of that energy.

- And there's your throne.

- Yes!

I got to try my new chair out.

♪ Now or never, now or never, we'll never settle ♪

♪ The trouble waters we juggle hard to double the pressure ♪

♪ Three in a room, a persona on a melanie ♪

- I don't know if this is more proper to wear today.

- Yes!

Do you see this?

- And then from the back...

- I love this shirt.

I love it, I love it, I love it, come here.

♪ Check one ♪

♪ For the chances never dealt ♪

♪ Two ♪

♪ For everything that we lost ♪

♪ Three ♪

♪ For the times we should've knelt ♪

♪ Four ♪

♪ Now we regret and pay the cost ♪

♪ So it's now or never ♪

♪ 'Cause now it's never forever ♪

♪ And I refuse to play the odds ♪

♪ Eliminating what was breakin' me ♪

♪ Elevatin' the faith in me ♪

♪ I'm faithfully the future of it all ♪

♪ Never fall ♪

♪ Check one ♪

♪ For the chances never dealt ♪

♪ Two ♪

♪ For everything that we lost ♪

- Gonna get that lady a shirt?

- Get her one and get me an extra large.

♪ My rolly don't tick tock, it just glide ♪

♪ Keep starin' at it and you might go blind ♪

♪ I be movin' clean, I don't even try ♪

♪ Tuesday, yeah, that way ♪

♪ I lowkey feel like Feng Shui ♪

- You know what I found?

I found some girls doing hip hop ballet.

In New York.

She might like that.

That might be good for her.

When it's time to register, let me know

so I can give you money so you can go do what you gotta do.

You need to do hip hop ballet.

I think you would be so dope at that.

And I think the ballet world

needs more pretty black girls like you.

(hip hop beat playing)

(police siren wailing)

Hey look, come here.

Come here, Ryan.

You gotta stop beating people up and shit, okay?

Like you can't do that.

That's not how life works.

You gotta learn to play with other people, okay?

You can't beat people up.

You just have to ask for what you want,

but you can't use your hands to get it.

Got it?

Okay?

You can't though.

Like if you ever want anything, come to me.

My name is Ms. Tamar, I get it for you, okay?

But don't like try to take it from people though.

Okay?

Like I'll hook you up, I look out.

Just make sure you just keep your hands to yourself.

'Cause people don't like that

and they feel like you're being a bully

and I don't think you're a bully

'cause you're too cute to be a bully.

Okay?

Wanna pop some fireworks?

Okay, I got, look,

I got a whole backseat full of fireworks.

Like, full of them!

(remixed hip hop beat)

♪ Check one ♪

♪ For the chances never dealt ♪

♪ Two ♪

♪ For everything that we lost ♪

♪ Three ♪

♪ For the times we should've knelt ♪

♪ Four ♪

♪ Now we regret and pay the cost ♪

♪ So it's now or never ♪

♪ 'Cause now is never forever ♪

♪ And I refuse to play the odds ♪

♪ Eliminatin' what was breakin' me ♪

♪ Elevatin' the faith in me ♪

♪ I'm faithfully the future of it all ♪

- Get back, babe.

(firecrack popping)

- I got somethin' for you. - Let's go!

- Tamar.

Bat,

Menashe

(both speaking foreign language)

- How does this book, this what, 5,000 year old book?

What does this do for my life in 2018?

(singing in foreign language)

Every day I sit on a corner

because it does apply to my life.

This is the guide book for living because it's the rules.

It's hard being a Jew.

It's hard,

but you have a whole lifetime to figure it out.

That is the prismatic effect of Torah.

Every year it means something different.

Every year, it magnifies something that it didn't last year.

(speaking in foreign language)

The name of the portion is Lech-Lecha.

Get thee out.

When you are told to leave your father's house,

are you going to take your Judaism with you or not?

So what do you actually have to do to stay a Jew?

And how many of us stay Jews past Lech-Lecha.

This is probably my favorite portion.

Get thee out of a place.

Get thee out of old ideas and old tradition and old ways

and start new ones.

- Judaism is a way of life.

It is how the Jew lives his or her life every day.

So it is simply not about where one is from,

but it's more about what one does.

- Good morning. - Hey, how are you doing?

- Fine.

- I think that her program has been a model

and I wish that it was modeled more

in other neighborhoods in Chicago.

- What ya'll gonna do?

- Just doin' a little bit of work

before it's time to start work.

- Bodacious, rambunctious, inquisitive.

That's why I thought she would be a good candidate

for rabbinical training.

The big issue this year is the acceptance of women

and ordaining women into our community to serve our community

throughout this country

and eventually my hope is around the world.

- Hey!

How you doin', sugar?

- This is the bottom line.

Our politicians, they're either old or ineffective.

You know? - I do know.

I know, I been sayin this.

- They're old, once you get old,

you do have a tendency become less effective, so to speak.

You know? - I mean, it's rough.

D, it's rough.

- You can't knock them

if you won't step up and take over for them.

- You know what?

I gotta pay my dues a little bit more though.

That's all.

- Well, that's what I want you to do.

- That's all.

That's what I'm doing. - I like your commitment here.

You know,

I just don't like the fact that for you young kids--

- I love that you call me a young kid.

I love that. - Well, you are.

You're building right now.

You got a lot going on here.

So I'm gonna be patient

and just discuss some ideas with you

so that when you complete this project here,

then we could do an exploratory.

- I'm not the mayor.

I'm not the president.

I'm just somebody's mother.

I don't try to create this idea that 75th and Stewart

is somehow this utopic society.

'cause it's not.

It's just how do you bring about some sort of order

within the chaos?

That's all I've been able to manage to do.

(thunder roaring)

(laughs)

I didn't even hear anything about thunder.

I didn't even hear anything about a storm today.

What?

I'm okay.

I'm okay.

(soft piano music)

Hi!

- Hi, are you Tamara? - I am.

- Nice to meet you. - I'd shake your hand,

but my hands are full.

- Can we help you carry one of those?

- Oh no, it's okay, I got it.

Come on, you can come sit.

So you guys got here before everybody else did...

The one question that pisses me off the most

for my entire life that has always pissed me off

is how are you a Jew?

It's too much construction.

My story of how I became Jewish is just about as interesting

as the story of how you became Jewish.

My mother pushed, I came out and I was Jewish.

That's how that happened.

Have a seat.

My Judaism was in a Jewish day school.

My Judaism is an Afro sitting on a corner.

It is a tent that's open on all four sides.

I don't know what everybody else's Judaism

motivates them to do,

but this is what it motivates me to do.

That's what I don't like about Facebook

because it's made a lot of people

feel like they're actually doing something.

These say, "Hey, congratulations", or, "Way to go!"

That is not what this is about.

This is about me showing you how to do something.

And now I need you to do this thing

because I showed you how to do it.

The people here we feed every night aren't homeless.

It's about building community.

It's about sitting down and having dinner with your family.

You don't shoot people that you know.

Not people you eat dinner with,

not people that you have relationships,

a actual relationship with.

And I think that any neighborhood can benefit from that.

There are allowances that were never, ever made

for Jews that look like me.

There's no such thing as cultural Judaism

in the black community.

- One of the best eye-openers that I had

was when the Ethiopian Jews landed in Israel

among other surprises was,

are they really Jewish because they're white?

- Yeah. - They don't look like me.

- I experienced that in kindergarten.

And it was so confusing for me because there were, I'm like,

"Clearly you all are white."

And they were like, "No, we're not, we're Jewish."

And I'm like, "No, really you're white."

- Right. - Like seriously,

because you can say I'm black because I'm black.

But if I say you're white,

you're going to say no, you're not, you're Jewish.

But if I'm Jewish too,

then why am I still black?

- Thank you. - I will see you guys.

Thank you, thank you so much.

- They told us this to speak to you

because we wanted to volunteer with you guys.

- Okay.

Maybe what days work for you guys?

- We don't know, we just-- - Are you gonna be out here

recruiting or something like that?

'Cause we don't do that over here.

- No, we really want to help.

Part of our mission is definitely recruiting,

but also it's service.

We want to help people the best way we can.

- Okay, yeah that's cool.

I'll find somewhere to put you.

I'll put you guys to work.

- Okay. - Okay.

- So, are you from Chicago?

- We live in Chicago, yeah.

We're not from here, though.

- I can hear it.

- Yeah, I'm from Russia.

- Oh, okay.

Okay, okay.

- And I'm from Utah.

- Of course you're from Utah, of course you are, yes.

- At least one will be from Utah.

- Yes, at lest one is from Utah.

Right, right, okay.

- Just show up-- - Just show up and be regular.

Loosey goosey, just we came to hang out.

That works, okay?

Okay, yeah, that's cool.

- No, you actin' fool in front of the kids.

- No, I don't smoke drugs!

No! - Sit down.

Sit down.

You heard what I said.

Now, stop, there's too many kids out here.

Stop.

- Hey! - Hi.

- Have a seat somewhere.

- This is Tamar. - I'm Tamar.

I've been doing this now for three years

and in three years just sitting on this corner,

there have been no shootings on this block.

All of this came about because I am Jewish

because the way that Jews see problems in the world,

we see them more as cracks

because we all know about tikkun olam

and you have to repair the world.

And so when you see cracks and you go to work,

that's what you do.

It is not our work to finish it,

but we must start it.

So that's what I'm doing.

This is me starting the work of repairing the crack

that's called gun violence.

So that's what I'm doing here.

So I guess I want to know more about you guys

because that's pretty much my story.

How do you,

what cracks do you personally see in the world

that you'd like to change?

- One of the things that I'm really passionate about

because I see it as something

like everybody should have equal access to very healthy food

and be able to be healthy.

- And do you know why

that's very important to a neighborhood like this?

Because this is a food desert.

There is no healthy food.

There is no good food.

And a lot of the violence is contributed to malnutrition.

So it's not always about you being out here

and sitting on a corner and stopping violence.

Sometimes it's about you fighting

to feed people healthy meals and that stops violence too.

So don't lose your passion because the world needs you.

- Do you have any ideas or other ways that you think

this program can be spread further

kind of reach outside of this one mile radius?

- You know what,

it has 'cause we're in five different cities now.

And we'll be in a few more before the end of the year.

But the thing about this is people have to stop seeing it

just as something that's needed

in poor or violent communities, because it's not.

It's actually something, it's a community building tool.

And when neighbors know their neighbors,

when people know their neighbors,

they're not killing each other.

That's how that works.

- Well said, thank you. - Thank you so much!

(crowd clapping)

- Thank you for coming.

Enjoy the garden, guys.

- Thank you, I really appreciate it.

- Thank you so much.

It's like my fangirl moment.

Social justice style.

- You gotta friend me on Facebook

and you're going to make it possible for me to retire early.

So, thank you.

- [Girl] Thank you, it was nice to meet you.

- So what happened yesterday?

You don't know what happened yesterday?

- What? - Over here,

when you were over here yesterday, what happened?

- Nothing.

Nothing happened when you were over here?

Are you telling me the truth?

Are you sure, honestly, you should tell me the truth.

It's always, here, come on,

sit down and talk to me, don't be scared.

Come on, sit down.

It's always safe to assume I know everything, right?

So I'm asking you, truthfully,

did something happen over here yesterday?

It didn't?

So you didn't almost get into it with nobody?

You didn't, you weren't arguing with nobody?

You didn't want to fight with nobody?

So you're not telling me the truth, right?

You really want to not tell me the truth?

- Who'd I get in a fight with?

I don't know.

Were are you trying to start a fight

with somebody yesterday? - No.

- Did you want to fight

somebody yesterday? - No.

- Did somebody

want to fight you yesterday? - No.

- She says you lied.

You and Kim was lying then.

So you and Kim were lying?

So were you and Kim lying? - No.

Because she pushed Carian yesterday.

They pushed Carian yesterday and I watched it.

Both me and Kim watched it.

And then they ran off.

- That's what happened? - No.

- Okay, let me call Kim.

I'm gonna call Kim just to make sure.

Carian?

Did somebody push you yesterday?

Who pushed you?

- Tania.

- Who is Tania?

Her sister pushed you.

Was she with her?

- I can go get her.

- Okay, go get them.

Boy, get up, you know kids don't sit down over here.

Hey, Isabelle.

Hey, Kim, are they still out here?

Come on, come on.

Come on, if I'm out here in the rain,

y'all gonna be out here in the rain with me.

I don't know what happened yesterday,

but Kim told me and so did Kendra.

Both of them told me that y'all were out here yesterday.

You and her were out here yesterday starting stuff

and y'all can't come back over here.

That's what I just got told.

And if the people out here who feed people every day

and they see everything, they told me this,

I don't think both of them will lie on y'all.

So y'all can come back tomorrow,

but for today y'all can't get nothing.

Okay?

- I wanna know what happened, 'cause that's what I heard.

- You know what?

It was two other mothers who saw it yesterday.

And like, we try to, we try to make sure there no drama.

It ain't no fighting,

it ain't nothing but love out here.

I don't mind them coming back tomorrow,

but just, you gotta sit a day out.

That's how we do it.

You know what I'm saying?

So everybody else can eat-- - I appreciate it,

let's get a break from her.

- That's all.

(soft hip hop music)

I didn't seek you out, you found me.

I didn't find you.

It's supposed to be somebody here right now

leveling this ground with a Bobcat and everything.

That's what's supposed to be happening right now,

but it's not.

I'm so upset right now.

You need to turn this way and get pissed off with me.

I mean, I'm just upset

because if you say you're gonna do something, do it.

I'm just mad.

We should go to get tacos for lunch.

Why, why are you just going looking down my page

and then you put this up.

- She did that to me

the other day. - For what?

Why would, why?

Like, don't do that.

First of all, we don't feed primarily children.

We feed primarily-- - Everybody.

- Crackheads.

(both laugh)

- I remember Kendra when she first came to the block,

she told me, she said,

"I don't want to be involved with this shit."

(laughs)

She's been out there every day since.

And she said, "I hate you, you sucked me into this."

No I didn't, you're having too much fun.

- We instantly formed a bond like out of this world.

I don't know why but we did instantly

because of how she came at me and that, you know,

that's kind of like the person I am.

So it was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Put the shirt on

and it was just like, I guess, two peas in a pod.

And I've never really met anybody

that really stuck to what they said.

And I'm not a talker.

Like if I say I'm gonna do something I do it

and I'm not a quitter.

Listen to you,

this how you chew a nugget and listen to people.

Let me show you.

- She has a really big heart and she really does.

She knows all the kids in the neighborhood

because she works at the school.

So she knows everybody.

And I mean, some of them are afraid of her,

but they all like really respect her.

And I think that that's what our kids need more of.

People that they can listen to and they can respect

and they may even be a little bit afraid of.

- See, I'm nice to some people.

To kids.

You not supposed at somewhere

where somebody could shoot you.

I don't care what you say.

I don't give a shit, it could sound crazy.

- You ain't know what happened, Ma.

- Tell me what happened.

The thing with MASK to me is the whole mothering thing.

And if we could get these kids to understand

right from wrong, even in teenage years, then we can,

we can make a difference.

So that's why I come because I think it makes a difference

because you have to do it every day.

- Did you get some paint for that?

No, I was talkin' to somebody else out here.

We buildin' benches.

Oh wait, I gotta call you back.

I got to talk to somebody,

I gotta talk to somebody in jail.

I'll call you right back.

All right, bye.

- He can hear you, he's like on the freeway--

- Hello?

Hey, don't make me cry.

You okay?

So Jermaine was arrested for

driving with a fake driver's license.

What'd you say?

And then he was done with probation,

but he didn't pay the restitution.

He did the community service,

but because he didn't pay the money because he's poor,

then he's probably going to go back to jail.

So that's how they get you.

Like whatever I can do, Jermaine,

you got money on your books and you can make phone calls,

you can do stuff.

I mean like, you know, I'm doing everything I can here.

Jermaine is a special, special kid.

He cares about more than just himself.

He cares about the community.

There's not a lot of people his age

who think about the collective

and who think about the us and not just the me.

He's different like that.

Okay, so send me the number,

send me that phone number and I'm working on it.

Jermaine, I love you, hold it together, okay?

You'll be home soon, all right?

So keep being the man that you are.

You're great, you got this, you got this.

You got this, okay?

All right, bye-bye.

I really need a drink now.

Like...

His lawyer got his court date

pushed up from the 31st to the 26th.

So let me get all the pink shirts there.

That should be quite a scene in the courtroom.

This was the block

before the block was the block, this was the block.

And this seat right here,

this was my seat.

So when it was time to come up,

I didn't have to disturb everybody

and I had to be able to get up and make a quick exit.

When rabbi's sermons would get too long,

I would have to get out of here.

This is rabbi's chair where he sits.

And he does like this.

- One of the things that she did was write many of the songs

that the congregation still sings today.

- Yeah, I did that.

It was a long time ago though.

This used to be my favorite place in the world.

My favorite.

This one right here is probably my favorite one

because this one is the light one

and this is the one that I read from the most.

Whenever I talked to God, these were the words that I said.

Yeah, these are kind of special to me.

We all have a favorite place.

This used to be my favorite place.

Now my favorite place is probably on a corner.

(laughs)

You know, I learned my faith here,

but the thing about it is as much as I miss being here,

I don't feel like God is with me any less when I'm not here.

Maybe this is a place where we met, but we hang out often.

You know, I still get a level of connection with God

when I'm sitting on the block.

But, it's loud and it's fast

and it's a lot of stuff going on.

But when I'm here, it's not that.

It's nothing like that.

It's something sitting here

everywhere in this room is some sort of memory.

Everywhere.

- The vote didn't happen.

But the vote is going to happen.

Just that, that's all I can tell you.

That's a good shirt, "block hugger".

That's a real nice shirt.

- The vote didn't happen.

- The vote didn't happen.

But the vote's going to happen.

- Why didn't they vote?

Can you tell me why it didn't happen?

- I couldn't tell you.

There was a lot of extenuating circumstances.

That, you know, that got in the way.

- I'm very disappointed.

I'm just very disappointed.

I'm gonna try to be as good of a sport about this

as I possibly can.

- But the future of women

in this community is so unimportant,

you wouldn't even vote on it.

I see one day actually having a title of rabbi,

but I've been teaching for a long time

and I've been doing everything a rabbi is supposed to do

for a long time.

What, you're gonna,

you're gonna call me a rabbi,

but I'm kind of already doing the job.

So, do I really need that?

I need some quiet reflection.

I just feel like if Judaism is matrilineal,

why is it that you won't ordain women?

I don't get it.

You ever heard of saying about how there's fire in a woman

and she can either warm your home with it

or burn it to the ground?

I don't know, man.

- [Woman on Phone] Which one you want?

- I think today it's taking everything in me

to not burn it to the ground.

What does that say to generations of girls?

What these little girls doin'?

The best they can hope for us is to marry well,

that they can never hold leadership, growth.

(police siren wailing)

What were they doing?

- They broke into this guy's truck.

And stole some shit.

They just tryin' to take some water.

- They broke into a truck and stole what?

- Yeah, water.

They not in trouble.

We just take them home.

- Can we just all walk them home?

I don't want them--

I think they're sufficiently terrified.

Come on.

Wait a minute, where do y'all live at?

Hey, come here.

Come here.

What's your name?

What's your name?

Get this out of your head.

What's your name?

- Put your shirt on. - Look at me.

Look at me!

What's your name? - James.

What's your name? - James.

- No, what's your name?

(mumbles) What?

(mumbles) What?

JoJo. - Jojo?

What's your name? - Terrell.

- Terrell?

What's your name?

- Josiah. - Josiah?

What were y'all doing?

(indistinct)

No.

No, no, no.

You tell me what you were doing.

- He was stealin' water.

- Who was stealin' water?

- He was stealin' water out of a truck.

Look how tall he is and he can reach a truck

and steal water out of it?

So you didn't help?

Are you telling me the truth?

Who got a belt?

- I got one.

Give me a belt. - Y'all brothers?

- Give me a belt. - Y'all brothers?

All y'all?

Where y'all stay?

(indistinct)

Okay, right, he gon' tell what happened.

You tell what happened?

What happened?

- Me and Jojo were stealin' water

'cause they was gettin' hot.

- Who is Jojo?

- That's Jojo.

The little one right here is JoJo.

- So why was y'all stealin' water?

- 'Cause we be (mumbles) hot.

- We here everyday right here with water.

- Why ya'll didn't come over here?

- So why y'all didn't come over here and get water?

- [Man] They called the police on them.

- I don't care!

Come on, let's go.

Show me where you live.

Go ahead, come on.

Come on, take me to your house.

- Is these your little brothers?

Huh? - And you let them do this?

- So you let them do,

you encouragin' them to do this?

Wait a minute, who you hollerin' at?

Who you hollerin' at?

- Because if y'all don't take me to your house,

the police gon' take y'all to jail.

So I'm trying to take y'all home, okay?

A four year old broke into somebody's car.

Four.

He can barely talk, but he can break in into a car.

- He said, "'Cause I was thirsty."

- I can't even imagine that.

You got criminal tendencies

and you don't even know your ABCs.

- That mama probably have no clue

because people ain't watchin' their kids.

But then again...

- Maybe she ain't at work at all!

- Right, that's what I say, then again.

- And they had them in a cage.

Did you see the lawn cage they had them in?

- [Man] There's only six in there.

They have two.

- It was too much.

This was too much.

They were like, "Do you know these kids?"

I'm like, "No, I don't."

I don't know all the kids.

(ambulance siren wailing)

- Hi, I'm Kristen.

- Good morning, Kristen.

I'm Tamar, how are you?

Thank you for coming!

Before we go in, I just want to make sure everybody's clear.

No one's going to jail today.

Okay?

I need you to get with me on this, Kim.

- They can see that through the glasses,

you got to see me.

- Kim, Kim, freeze right there.

- The team rally for him because he rallies for the team.

So as we're all thinking about, you know,

how we're gonna figure out

how we're going to get Jermaine out,

one bright, shiny blonde unicorn says,

"You know what, I have it.

"And I'm not going to starve if I pay it.

"And I want Jermaine out."

And she and her husband are in there right now,

bonding him out.

I gotta go get some fireworks

so we'll have them on the block when he gets there.

That's what we got to get, right?

We're going to go get fireworks.

- Can you believe that?

- Thank you, thank you, thank you.

All right, we'll be back at 4:30.

(all laughing)

- How can a party not be epic

when you have balloons this big?

Like seriously, who has balloons this big?

Today, we're gonna celebrate three years.

Nobody's got shot on the block in three years,

we're going to celebrate that.

We're going to celebrate our kids' schools getting better

that our kids are performing better in school,

that it's less violent.

We're going to celebrate those things.

That's what we're going to celebrate today.

Hey, Mike!

One need to go on that side

and one need to go over here.

It is the absolute best thing that I do with my life.

- [Man] Throw these rocks in the garbage can.

- When you help people

and then on the days when you need help and they help you,

you know that you've done something to make a difference.

They cleaned up the block, they cooked food,

they did all sorts of stuff.

And it's so funny that we're the ones

with the pink t-shirts.

And we're supposed to be the ones that do that, man.

We're the ones making this huge difference.

It wasn't our goodness that prevailed, it was theirs.

- Here, come on,

you don't want her hug. - Yeah, I'm tryna get a hug.

- Her hugs ain't worth nothin'.

I dropped a couple of bags of book bags.

They're already packed and all that stuff.

- Okay, thank you so much.

- How you doin'?

- I'm tired. - This is great.

- It's getting there, it's getting there.

If there's anything I can do, let me know.

You must be Big Reese.

- (laughs) How you don't remember me?

Yeah, look, I drink a lot.

Where the barbers, I met...

Hey, man!

- Okay, look the bouncy house man needs some power.

- I got you.

- You got him? - Yes, ma'am.

- Okay, yay,

I love it when a plan comes together.

- I'm on it right now. - Thank you.

- I'm ready. - You ready, okay.

- Where putting the bull?

- You gon' put the bull down here.

- Where?

- Further down here.

- Down here, okay. - Okay.

- Thank you, what do I owe you for the shirt?

Come on.

- No, I need some water, though.

Thank you!

You know I love y'all.

What you got in that cup?

I don't even wanna know.

I can't know, I can't know.

- [DJ] Go harder, let's go!

(fast rap music)

- It looks fabulous.

- You know, I'm happy about all of this.

It looks good.

- The people look more comfortable than they did last year,

- [Tamar] And the year before.

- [Woman] Right, everybody's more relaxed.

- And I don't think anybody's worried about getting shot.

(hip hop music)

It is gettin' caught!

(fast hip hop music)

(Tamar yelling)

Wait, I was givin' you a lap dance.

I was givin' you a lap dance for free!

- I'll pay you to stop!

How 'bout that.

(soft hip hop music)

- Outside of them book bags,

we still shouldn't be out of book bags.

I mean, it is what it is at this point,

but this is, did you know this is the part I hate the most.

- How many book bags we short?

- Like 50. - How many?

Tell them to come back tomorrow,

I'll buy 50 more book bags.

(fast hip hop music)

(slow romantic music)

(fast hip hop music)

- You gotta throw it in a circle.

- I'm not doin' none of that twerk mix.

Girl, I hate you.

We do what we can to create the safest environment

that we can and we've done a good job at that.

And we've seen it change,

but there are no victory laps here.

People are still poor.

There's still no jobs.

There are still very few resources.

There still so much work that needs to be done.

Go get me a RC and that's what I want, thank you.

Got a big problem over here with the fucking police.

- Of course.

- All day yesterday,

I didn't have a permit for that block party.

Not a police come nowhere near here.

It would have looked terrible for them

to trash a party for kids

and we're giving away book bags and uniforms.

That would have looked terrible.

- I had just told you that,

I said they sitting right here just waiting on us to leave.

Feel like they just waitin' for us to leave.

- Can't find the police when they need to be found

- They just pulled up and was like,

"Hey, you got a ID?

"You get to this car, you come to the car."

"You too, come here!"

- I mean like, how often do that happen?

Do the police do that?

- They've been doing that often.

They've been pullin' up two cars deep, three cars deep,

like every other day, just checking our ways.

And sometimes they-- - So they search you?

- Yeah, sometimes they don't even get out,

they just be like, "Lift your shirt up,"

and we'll be like this

and they'll pull off if they don't see nothing.

- I just gotta, I just gonna need to figure this.

I understand perfectly what's happening.

You know what, honestly, for real for real,

I really honestly appreciate

y'all not being on no dumb shit out here, I really do.

Like, I recognize that what y'all trying to do,

and I really do appreciate it because it's not as easy

for them over here as it used to be.

It's not as easy for them to make the kind of arrest

that they used to make over here.

And if I go away,

then it can go back--

- That's why they do us the way they do us

when you ain't around.

- When I'm not here.

But as long as I'm here, I don't even think I can go away.

I don't even think I can go away for the winter no more

because, no I'm serious.

There gotta be a box missing.

I'm missing a table garner.

- It's probably buried, you have so much shit in there.

What are you talkin' about?

- And I had to remember to get the lulav and etrog.

And what is Sukkot without a lulav and an etrog?

Oh, here they go.

There you go!

- The legislator's gonna lose like 15...

Then there's going to be a sea change in politics

in Illinois.

- It definitely is comin'.

- You all have got me get ready to step up.

- Nah, you still get about three years from now

'til I'm ready.

- I think you're ready for a state job now.

- I don't know if I'm ready.

You got a lot more faith in me than I have in myself.

- Only because you haven't studied it.

- No, I've kinda done the research.

- There's my brother, Jim.

Hey Jim, where are you?

- What's goin' on? - We're having dinner tonight.

You should come down.

We're havin' a party.

That's Jimmy? - Yeah.

- Tell him he can come up here too.

- It's not for just adults, right?

Oh, for kids too?

What time?

- We gettin' started at like five.

- Okay.

- We gonna talk about it, I want you in the politics.

I think you is ready. - Me and politics don't mix.

- And then you just keep making it

and you make a really long chain

and then we decorate the little house with it.

- I want you to be the next state Senator.

- I got these community centers that I'm building.

I kind of wanted to get that under my belt first.

- But a political position will expand your influence.

- You might sell me on it.

I might, I might.

I might become candidate Manasseh, we don't know.

- This next flow of young female politicians

and legislators is gonna be historic.

You're young enough to be the darling of the state house.

Huh, the darling of the legislature.

- I'm not so darling!

- I'm gonna keep bugging you about it.

- Have you a seat.

- You can keep bugging me about it.

I mean, I'm eventually going to break down and do it.

I'm going to run before,

while my mama is still on top of the dirt to see it,

I'm going to do it,

she would be so happy if I did that for her.

Being out here created a really convenient excuse

for me to never make it to temple.

And then service just kind of start happening here.

I gotta go get some cheap wine.

I need some Manischewitz.

(slow jazz music)

We're celebrating Sukkot.

It's a harvest festival, but more than anything,

we're commemorating when the children of Israel

were in the land of Egypt when they came out

and they wandered in the desert for 40 years.

And they dwelled in these booths

and the booths were called sukkahs.

And so every year we commemorate that

by dwelling in the sukkah for a week.

So we can remember where we came from

so we can get a better view of where we're going.

We have to be going somewhere as a community, as a people.

Personally, where are we going?

I look like a cute little boy.

(Tamar yells)

Good evening, everybody.

I'd like to welcome you all out

to our sukkah here on 75th street.

I wanted to do a little bit of explaining

because it's one group of people here

who doesn't understand something

and another group who doesn't understand something.

So I think I'm about to bridge the gap for everybody.

So I want to call my fifth grade teacher up.

Carol.

She was also my kids' teacher.

(speaking foreign language)

- I can still teach her. - You can.

- And you shake it in all directions because HaShem,

God, is everywhere.

- So I didn't have to turn around?

I could've just stayed in one direction.

I didn't have to do all that turnin'?

(speaking in foreign language)

- Blessed are you, oh Lord, our God, King of the universe.

Creator of the fruit of the vine.

(speaking in foreign language)

Blessed are you oh Lord, our God,

King of the universe who sanctified us

with your commandments and commanded us

to sit in the sukkah.

- [Group] Amen.

(speaking in foreign language)

Hearty appetite to everyone!

Okay, come on.

It's so good. - Thank you, Oh my God.

- Whoops, I need two more.

- I'll bake for any occasion.

- What is this, raisin bread?

- It's challah.

- It nasty? - I'm not Jewish,

can I still have some? - Yeah!

You're my (speaking in foreign language).

- What's that? - You're my guest!

(slow jazz music)

- Thank you.

- I need some more.

- This what Jews do.

- This is how you eat?

- Yeah, this is how you...

Abraham did this, he served his guests bread.

- This shit fire.

- Okay, are we ready?

♪ I wish you bluebirds in the spring ♪

♪ To give your heart a song to sing ♪

♪ And then a kiss ♪

♪ But more than this ♪

♪ I wish you love ♪

♪ And in July a lemonade ♪

♪ To cool you in some leafy glade ♪

♪ I wish you health and more than wealth ♪

♪ I wish you love ♪

(crowd cheers)

What are we doing here right now?

We're in Charlotte, North Carolina.

- [Faye] Continue straight for 3.6 miles.

- I think we're on a journey of self-discovery.

You know, when we did my,

my grandfather. - To communicate

with the ancestors.

- To commune with the ancestors, as my mother said.

This is where my grandmother came from.

I think she was one of the last connections

that we had to slavery.

She had aunts and great aunts

that actually was born in slavery.

I mean, for me, history has never forgotten.

We live where we came from.

- Somebody 200 years ago, who was some kin to you,

one day stood in that same spot

and looked at the same piece of land,

like how with Cain and Abel,

how God said your brother's blood cries out from the earth.

Yeah, it does.

Their blood cries out from the earth

that you can hear it if you listen to it.

You can hear it.

- When my mother's people was here,

they couldn't walk on the sidewalk.

They had to, well, they had to step off the sidewalk

if a white person was coming.

- Wow.

Another Confederate soldier.

Yeah, that's not bad for morale.

- Robeson County, North Carolina.

They probably had to use the back door.

I know they couldn't go through the front entrance.

If my mother could only see me now.

(sighs)

I didn't think I would feel sad,

but it really makes me feel a little sad here.

I guess it's just kind of bittersweet knowing that,

that they made it possible for me to just be able to walk,

walk on a sidewalk.

My great great grandparents died

so that I could walk on a sidewalk.

- Oh my God.

Who have glorified a fallen

cause by the simple manhood of their lives.

What the hell?

Fallen cause, they called it a fallen cause.

What the hell?

How do black kids survive and thrive in a place like this?

How do you ever be,

how are you ever really free here?

- I'm a student at the University of South Carolina

and I'm working on a story for my journalism class.

So I'm wondering should Confederate monuments

stay in public places?

- No.

No, they should not.

No, they should not.

They're hurtful to the future.

I've never seen a place where the past hurts the future

so much as it does here.

Parents in Chicago can tell their kids

they can be anything they want to be.

Hell, they can be the president.

Literally they can be the president of the United States.

You can tell you're a black kid,

I told my son that when Barack Obama became the president,

he was 10 years old.

I said, "One day, that can be you."

And I meant that, 'cause it really could.

It's no way no black parent in this city will ever be able

in this state, will ever be able to tell their kid that

because it's not true.

- Students would tell me that they look at those monuments,

they feel more empowered to do more,

to become that president.

So you know about that respect.

- Think about how many students there are here

who feel like that

versus how many more it could be

if their spirits weren't crushed in a cradle by that.

If they weren't crushed in fifth grade,

by a field trip where they saw that.

If they weren't crushed by everywhere you go,

there's a monument to some confederate something.

That can kill a kid's spirit.

I'm so grateful that my people got out of here.

Like I'm so grateful.

I couldn't imagine being who I am and being able

to do the things that I get to do in the world

if I grew up here, I can't imagine.

I can't imagine it.

I mean, I just hate to sound so critical

and so, but I was just blown away today.

- But I think if you weren't who you are,

if you were a different tourist,

you would've seen it differently.

- Yeah.

Man, I like you.

Are you on Facebook?

What's your name, I'm gonna friend you.

- Kaylen.

- Okay wait, Kaylen.

K-A-Y-L-E-N?

This is the seat of the rebellion.

Our history in stone, but not really our history.

It's someone's history just don't get carried away.

What does CSA mean?

- [Man] Confederate States of America.

- It does mean Confederate States of America.

He owned people and then he fought for his right

and continue to enslave people and beat people.

In every gesture, dignity and love.

I don't know how I'm supposed to feel about these people.

What am I supposed to think about this?

This is an honor to be buried like this.

It's an honor to be memorialized like this.

What happened to my people?

We are now turning into Beauty Spot Methodist Church

into the cemetery.

This is where everybody in my grandmother's family

is buried, this is where the slaves are buried,

this is where the freed men are buried.

Right there.

I think that's Charity McNair right there.

Here go to Charity and Sam Cobb right here.

Wow, I just found the grave of my grandmother's grandmother.

Oh, wow.

Wow.

This is right, this is where they handed mama off at.

At least one day, all of them were here.

All of them were in this spot that day,

the day that they buried grandma Charity,

all of them were here.

So you get to stand in,

actually standing there, actually stand where they stood.

It's an amazing feeling.

(sighs)

This is what we came here for.

♪ Come let us go ♪

♪ Back to the old ♪

♪ Let us go ♪

♪ Back to the old ♪

♪ Come, let us go ♪

♪ Back to the old ♪

♪ And we'll stay in the service of the Lord ♪

♪ Now let us preach ♪

♪ In the old ♪

♪ Preachers preach ♪

♪ In the old ♪

♪ Preachers preach ♪

♪ In the old ♪

♪ And we'll stay in the service of the Lord ♪

I'm at a loss.

And when they say the soul looks back in wonder,

the soul is looking back and wondering right now.

That's what's happening.

How did they come from this to me in Chicago?

How?

I might as well be on another planet right now.

Ah, you know, my grandmother died when I was 10 years old.

And I've told you before,

my grandmother used to tell me all this stuff

and I used to be like, "What are you telling me this for?"

Like I'm 10, you know what I mean?

And it all makes sense now.

She wanted me to go back one day.

She wanted me to,

she wanted me to understand what was happening here.

She wanted me to understand, even though she never got it,

I got it.

I got it.

I got it.

Everything that she ever wanted me to get

I'm getting right now.

(laughs) I'm not cryin' 'cause I'm sad,

I'm so happy, like, I'm so happy.

I'm so happy, I'm just so happy right now.

Oh my God.

Oh, I could be a tree with no roots, but I'm not,

but I'm not.

I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.

I could be a tree with no roots, but I'm not.

But I'm not, I'm not.

I looked at a record and I read off these names of people

who my grandmother talked about.

And those people were sold, like auctioned off in the very

courthouse that I was reading the record in.

To become a person who, I got in my car.

and I drove to the airport and I got on an airplane

to come to a place where,

I mean was the land of all of our sorrows.

I get to come back and I get to look in a book

and I get to imagine what it was like

because I don't have to live what it was like

and when I'm done with that book, I can get back in our car,

drive back to the airport and get back on an airplane

and fly back.

And no one's asking me who owns me or who has my papers

or I can't imagine that.

What are you supposed to feel when you go back to that?

Are you angry, are you sad?

I mean, are you grateful,

are you thinking just a bit of everything

because you understand that it could have been you

and at one point in time, it was you and now it's not.

And you owe that to somebody.

How do you show them gratitude?

You live a good life.

You do what they never could do.

You live the way they never could live.

That's what you do.

So if I was average, if I was normal,

if I was like everybody else,

these people didn't die for me to be that.

(slow hip hop music)

♪ If you ever doubted me ♪

♪ If you ever doubted me ♪

(police sirens wailing)

We are having a Passover Seder.

I can't wait to see what this is gonna be like,

I'm pretty excited about it.

This is something that brings generations

of Jewish families together.

This is what brings us together,

this is the Thanksgiving of Judaism.

So why not share this with my family?

It commemorates the children of Israel

leaving Egypt in the Book of Exodus.

And we're going to see,

you know, what the community thinks about that.

But yeah, I've never been to a Seder outdoors.

I think it has a really,

kind of like a biblical feel to it.

A Seder in a tent.

How much more Old Testament do you get than that, right?

(laughs)

I think Channel Five is going to broadcast

live from here too.

I told them I needed to be able to seat 75 people.

This tent clearly...

- It won't seat 75 people. - Don't say it won't,

just say it won't comfortably.

Okay, not comfortably.

You know I don't like,

"You can't do this, that won't work."

I hate that.

- [Girl] Where we're not gonna make it,

we're gonna make it--

- It's gon' work.

- We're gonna make it work. - This gon' work.

- [Girl] We're gonna make it work.

- I gotta run to the post office to get the plague masks.

- Tamar, I know you're busy.

Can we get several of the moms

in their shirt? - Come on, let's come outside.

- Is it any way possible?

Even if they're sittin' on that bench out there,

can we get them-- - Okay, let's go.

Hey , baby.

How you doin', sweetheart?

- Good.

- You didn't call me, you didn't call me.

- We think that this is something that we want people to see

how easy it is.

We want people to see that this it's as easy

as putting on a couple of t-shirts,

some pink t-shirts and coming to sit on a corner.

We're not, we're not driving for miles.

We're not spending a ton of money,

we're just out here caring

and that's what we want people to know.

It's that easy.

Anybody can do it.

- You talk to the kids,

you know the kids. - We know all the kids.

- We know all of the kids.

All them, everybody. - Absolutely.

Yeah, it's a blessing and a curse to know all the kids.

(laughs)

Hey, how you doin'?

'Cause those are gon' go on every table.

Where are the seder plates?

I got 'em.

Carpas.

That's haroset and it's a lot of it.

It's apples and nuts and wine.

Matzah balls.

Chicken broth.

And it's still hot.

- [Woman] We don't have a lot of room, why don't we...

- You wanna pour some out?

Ooh, I like those.

Yeah, yeah, I like those.

- Are you Tamar? - I am.

- I'm Bleu. - Hello!

- You went to Akiba-Schechter?

So what years were you there?

- Yeah, yeah.

Let's do this.

Okay.

People, our guests are starting to sit.

Okay, everybody get a seat who's gonna sit down?

Tonight is Passover.

It's the second night of Passover.

This year in the telling of the story,

the story starts off,

we were slaves in Egypt and then we came out.

But here's the thing.

This is what I came up with.

And I have a question for all of you here.

Imagine this.

What if we never came out?

What if we were slaves in Egypt and we never came out.

We got our freedom, but we never left Egypt.

Who would we be right now?

Would we be free really?

Two peoples, African Americans and Jews,

whose collective histories are marked by journey

and struggle have at times been compared

and other times intertwined

and others even in opposition,

but on Passover,

on the feast of freedom,

we should think about the similarities and differences

and how this night can become clal Chicago.

That's what we're building here.

So I asked that tonight, when we leave here,

we don't leave here as African Americans and as Jews,

when you leave here, you consider who are we going to be?

Who are we gonna be?

Who are we gonna be?

That's it.

(crowd claps)

(speaking in foreign language)

- This is one of the most important parts of the Seder.

Okay?

This is called the afikoman,

this is the last thing we're gonna eat.

Got it?

Tamar, wrap it.

Tamar's gonna hide half this matzah

and you're gonna have to find it.

So all of you watch Tamar.

- Don't watch me, don't watch me.

- She's hiding and you're gonna have to try and find it.

Okay, guys, here we go.

You get two pieces of matzah.

You take some of the brown stuff,

it's the haroset onto your matzah.

You then take some the ground up horseradish.

- And they're bottled, they're jars around

of the white broth too.

(singing in foreign language)

- It's not about what people call the work.

It's about doing the work.

You can call it whatever you want to call it.

You can say it's whatever it is.

But at the end of the day,

I'm going to sit on that corner,

I'm going to sure nobody gets hurt,

I'm going to feed some kids,

I might give a couple of them some hugs,

but I'm going to make sure

everybody knows that they're loved and they're important.

And they are valuable.

(singing in foreign language)

(crowd cheers)

♪ I made it to the top and I'm never coming down. ♪

♪ They wanted me to flop but instead I run the town ♪

- I don't think you can get them on camera.

They aren't really,

this is not a camera-friendly bunch of people.

Hey, I need you to do me a favor.

Why don't y'all just go and sit over there until I come back

'cause I don't feel like taking the table

and chairs with me.

No selling crack.

You not sellin' crack over here, okay?

Got it?

All right, saddle up, let's go.

♪ But see I get it, it's my biology ♪

♪ Prophecy over probably ♪

♪ Quality over quantity ♪

♪ Harmony when I'm zoning ♪

♪ Philosophy, logically ♪

♪ Consciously I'm defying the lines ♪

♪ From the orderlies, audibly I'm controlling the flow ♪

♪ So obviously and best believe ♪

♪ That I'm predetermined to win ♪

♪ And I'm back at it again ♪

♪ In the final second, I elevate in my direction ♪

♪ Leave them to wonder why they ever second guess ♪

- I'm a Jew and I'm black.

Don't forget I'm really, really pretty.

That's also a strike.

♪ And my survival is more than what it leans on ♪

♪ And they wonder if I lose ♪

♪ See, I'm watching as I watch it ♪

♪ Like I have a choice to choose ♪

♪ And I was born to win, born to be amused ♪

♪ So when the dust settles ♪

♪ Rose petals feather when they bloom ♪

♪ Now, riddle me who ♪

♪ Intelligenz on the move ♪

♪ I know you sleepin', believin' is what I do ♪

♪ And I leave them with a fuel ♪

♪ For iller thoughts for you to some ♪

♪ I'm the realer, my inner killer will mirror none ♪

♪ We've been overdue and now I'm running over you ♪

♪ The lack of women in the game ♪

♪ Is something that I'm over too ♪

♪ Ghetto for you if you refuse to see the news ♪

♪ 'Cause I'm over being defied and blindsighted over truth ♪

♪ Feeding the young, understand I will ever do ♪

♪ Thirty to life for being gifted, I supply the truth ♪

♪ Look in a light I know you blinded by the truth ♪

♪ But I'm hoping that you soakin' in the coat ♪

♪ It's all eyes on me ♪

♪ And best believe that I'm predetermined to win ♪

♪ And I'm back at it again ♪

♪ In the final second, I elevate ♪