Poet used his prose as weapon to survive on streets
Nixon shared his story at storytelling event
Triumph, like adversity, comes in many forms.
Kwabena Antoine Nixon was 11 when his father was shot to death, leaving a hole in his life that filled with an anger, pain and frustration, which boiled over into violent classroom disruptions.
“I did everything I could to show that I needed my father,” said Nixon, who, with the help of a teacher, went on to wield poetry like a weapon tosurvivethe streets that claimed his dad.
Nixon was among a group of storytellers Wednesday evening who shared experiences of challenge and perseverance with an audience at Anodyne Coffee Roasting Co. in Walker’s Point.
The event was part of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s 50-Year-Ache series, which examines where the city stands 50 years after the open-housing marches of 1967 and 1968.
Their stories displayed a resilience not unlike that of the civil rights pioneers who literally marched their way through the bigotry and oppression of a half century ago.
“If I turn 50, where I come from that is luck,” said Nixon, 48, describing life in the 1980s on Chicago’s west side.
“Many of my friends didn’t even get to 21.”
Nixon could have met a similar fate were it not for a teacher who forced him
to write a poem as a form of punishment for his disruptive behavior.
Soon the poem was posted in the hallway, then in the school’s front office, then Nixon was allowed to read it on the public address system and soon at a school assembly.
“For the first time in my life, I got acknowledged,” said Nixon, who, through an uncle, learned of the intellectual, artistic and poetic side his father had not fully revealed.
He said that caused him to reflect more on his father.
“The first time I ever saw Maya Angelou was (on video) at my father’s house. The first time I ever saw Gil Scott-Heron, the poet, was at my father’s house.
“I learned about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire at my father’s house. I learned about the great kings of Africa at my father’s house,” he continued.
“And even though he was a hustler, he was one of the most educated men I knew.”
Nixon went on to actualize his father’s hidden side as an author, poet, motivational speaker and co-founder of the “I Will Not Die Young” campaign.
“The greatest thing I got to do,” Nixon said. “I’ve outlived my father.”
“So if I die tomorrow, I did pretty well.”
Other speakers at the event were: Tandra Jordan, a unit supervisor manager at Grateful Girls Inc., talked about her journey from life as a teenage sex worker to her work today keeping young girls off the street.
Reggie Jackson, head griot at America’s Black Holocaust Museum, spoke of his work as a Milwaukee Public Schools special education teacher and how the testing that took precedence over teaching led him to leave MPS.
Esmeralda Nungaray, president of the Dreamer’s Scholarship Initiative and a senior at Marquette University, spoke of her family’s journey to the U.S. from Mexico, how she will be the first from her family to graduate from college and her work in helping undocumented students.
Sherrie Tussler, executive director of the Hunger Task Force, discussed losing
Nixon could have met a similar fate were it not for a teacher who forced him to write a poem as a form of punishment for his disruptive behavior. Soon the poem was posted in the hallway, then in the school’s front office, then Nixon was allowed to read it on the public address system and soon at a school assembly.
her mother to a homicide and being raised by her father who didn’t want to be a single parent.
Wanona “Nona Nunu” Thomas, an advocate for people with HIV and founder of “Live in Ur Truth,” who told of how she learned she was HIV positive while she was pregnant and used forgiveness to survive betrayal by a lover.
Read the series