Hold You Down

by Tracy Brown

‘LENOX! Get yo’ butt up and LIVE! You’re

a fighter. You don’t need no man to save you. Don’t need no man to rescue you and your baby. God gave you everything you need to survive. It’s in you! All you gotta do is dig down deep and find your strength. Then you get up and you do what you gotta do for that baby and for yourself.’”

Dick-matized by some no-good, trifling bastard.”

Selling crack is one thing. But the worst thing you could ever do is smoke that shit. Makes people turn into zombies. I never seen nothing like it.”

‘A fool has to get burned before he believes that fire is hot.’ I was that fool back then.”

eviscerated.

complicit

Nuyorican

“You can’t fight for somebody that won’t fight for themselves.

if you do what you’re passionate about the money will chase you.”

You gotta start imagining the impossible.”

“You ever had somebody say something to you … and until that moment you didn’t realize how much you needed to hear that?”

Me and Judah were dreamers together. We had a game where we would add things we wanted in

life to a list we kept in our heads.

was taught that men are supposed to be strong all the time. Men don’t get weak or tired. We’re not supposed to cry. A little girl falls down and the adults pick her up, comfort her. A little boy falls down and

what happens? Everybody says, ‘Don’t cry’; ‘Be a big boy.’ Men never unlearn that shit. We suck it up and keep pushing. But that shit ain’t healthy. Crying doesn’t make you weak. It’s a natural response to all the things you two have been dealing with for years. Grief, guilt, fear, frustration, loneliness, and anger.”