PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 0:00

A sheriff came knocking at our door. Friday the 13. We for two years believed that my brother committed suicide, but how he passed where he was murdered. The math didn't math up.

Erin Currin: 0:19

Hello and welcome to the secret of My Success, the podcast where we explore what it means to live a fulfilling life. I am your host, Erin Currin. On today's episode, I will be speaking with Poetic, the street prophet. Now, Poetic is a South Florida-based spoken word artist, songwriter, and a media entrepreneur focused on using culture to inspire reflection and community growth. He is the founder of Hip Hop National Media, a platform dedicated to amplifying voices and connecting creativity with purpose. Poetic is currently preparing to launch the Roar and Release podcast, a roundtable-style platform centered on real conversations about culture, family, and youth development. He is also developing his upcoming book, Monkey Jungle Syndrome, exploring mental and societal conditioning, guided by the philosophy, impact humanity one mind at a time. His work continues to build bridges between culture, conversation, and community. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's conversation. If you haven't already subscribed to the channel, and if you enjoy today's conversation, please give us a like. Enjoy the show, poetic. Thank you so much for joining us today.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 1:48

Glad to be here. It's a pleasure to join

Erin Currin: 1:52

you. You know, you and I, we connected in a Starbucks what 12 years ago.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 1:58

Yeah, amazingly, and then that story just lined up like amazingly.

Erin Currin: 2:05

We went to the same elementary school at the same time and don't remember knowing each other.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:12

Correct.

Erin Currin: 2:13

And then maybe went to the same middle school

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:16

and high school.

Erin Currin: 2:17

Definitely. Well, I went to that high school for like a semester,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:21

okay.

Erin Currin: 2:22

But it's like

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:23

what was that, Piper?

Erin Currin: 2:24

No, I went to Boyd Anderson.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:26

Oh, you went to Boyd Anderson too.

Erin Currin: 2:27

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:27

I did. Yeah, I went

Erin Currin: 2:28

to BA.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:29

Yeah, I went only went to Boyd Anderson for probably three months.

Erin Currin: 2:33

Ah, I went for like four or five months because it was like the the semester starts in what August or September.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:39

Okay,

Erin Currin: 2:40

and then over the Christmas break, my family moved up to Gainesville.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:45

Wow!

Erin Currin: 2:46

So like here I am halfway through my freshman year, and my folks are like, "I think it's a good idea. What

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:51

year was that? It

Erin Currin: 2:53

was in 82, January of 82. Ooh,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 2:59

that lines up with my story.

Erin Currin: 3:02

Okay, cool. So you know, poetic. You and I have been meeting for coffee off and on for the last 12 years, and like it's been amazing as we've had these conversations. One of the things that I've often said with the people that I that I really enjoy talking to is like, we should record this. Like other people should hear this. Agreed. And when you and I connected like six months ago, you were sharing a story that I hadn't heard before. So why don't you go ahead and get us started with like you know that that period, 1982.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 3:37

Actually, you just brought brought it right right into the year transformation started with me. Prior to 1982, I believe life was not real, and I saw life like a cartoon. I literally was a television addict watching Tom and Jerry and the Flintstones, and you know all the TV series of cartoons back in the day when we were looking at TV. So I looked at life as not real, and everything I heard on the news, I heard from other people. I just thought, I don't know. Have you ever left? Go into a room, right, and you feel when you left that room, everything stopped.

Erin Currin: 4:29

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 4:30

that's how I used to think life. I used to think

Erin Currin: 4:33

everything in that space is sort of on pause, and whenever you get that, it's going to be just the way it works. Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 4:39

yeah, yeah. And I kind of saw life like that, you know. I didn't see it as real. 1982. Let's go back to that.

Erin Currin: 4:48

Okay.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 4:49

August 13, which was Friday the 13th, a sheriff came knocking at our door. What he had to say it wasn't pleasant. He asked. For my mother, but he was speaking of my brother, and my mom wasn't home, so he couldn't put the news on us. I was only 16 at the time. My brother had passed away, but how he passed away, he was murdered. The story came to us that he committed suicide. So we, for two years believed that my brother committed suicide from a family that had pure love in it. I mean, it's like, why would you commit suicide? It just didn't. The math didn't math up. Yeah, my parents discipline us, but it's not one of us feel. I mean, up to this day, feel that the discipline was a deal breaker of wanting to be in my family. In fact, everybody feel that we came from a family of royalty. So, for my and even my community, in fact, really respected our family because they saw the Titan niche, and it was seven boys, one girl. It was really nine because my mom' first child lived only one day, so I have to include Chris in the mix, even though I've never met him personally. That was my mother' mom's child. She carried them for nine months. So you can only respect a woman who having to carry a child only to find out that her kid did didn't make it. Well, I just didn't want to forget that because I mentioned I had seven brothers, one sister, but actually I had eight brothers, one sister. So,

Erin Currin: 6:42

no, I, I totally. In fact, I had a conversation with somebody, and the conversation that we had was: she actually carried a child to term, and he was stillborn, and it still counts as a birth. And for someone who's never had children like me, or for someone who's never experienced a stillbirth, for us it's kind of like, well, you don't have a child in the house; that doesn't count. But the truth of the matter is, for the parents, that child was born.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 7:15

Absolutely.

Erin Currin: 7:15

Even though the rest of the world forgets about it, it was a living being with those people for nine months, nine months of excitement, nine months of planning, nine months of picking out the name and furniture and clothing, especially since it was the first child.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 7:35

And I have to add to what you just said because a lot of times men were insensitive there because of the fact that we didn't carry that child. We witnessed you carrying the child, but I don't think enough men are sensitive enough to say I understand what you're going through. I can't say that was my case of my father because I wasn't there, but I'm just saying, I just know that it's the case of men. We we don't emotionally or physically have the same bond with the child that is not here yet. Whereas the mom talking to that child, rubbing that child, massaging her belly, but and feeding that child through her body. So, you got to know it's deep.

Erin Currin: 8:27

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 8:28

it's an eternal, you know, internal love that emptiness. Once a person is gone, that you just can't forget about.

Erin Currin: 8:37

That kind of shifts the window for the when does life begin conversation, a little bit.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 8:44

Go ahead, talk to me about that. Well, you know,

Erin Currin: 8:47

I don't like to get into politics, and everybody's got a different opinion on, especially conversations about birth and abortion, and like when a child is a child, but I think the only people who are truly qualified to know that is, you know, a mother.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 9:09

I truly believe so.

Erin Currin: 9:10

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 9:11

I won't lie. So,

Erin Currin: 9:12

like, I won't even step into that arena personally, because like, there might be some philosophical or some religious reasons why you believe a particular way, but at the end of the day, I would defer to especially someone who has had that kind of an experience with a stillborn because, like you say, it's devastating. When when I was talking with my friend Zaina, she she and her partner had a second child, and he's 16 months now. And she still talks to her son about his older brother.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 9:52

I'll tell you, I'll fast forward to my current life with my wife.

Erin Currin: 9:58

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 9:58

we've had two miscarriages.

Erin Currin: 10:00

Okay.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:01

So, with my wife, there's times when we we've been in the car and she's thinking, "Who's missing?

Erin Currin: 10:10

Oh wow.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:11

Which then she, I think it's she feels, and she's even said to herself, maybe because it's because I lost those those babies. I feel that there's somebody's not there.

Erin Currin: 10:24

Yeah.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:24

So

Erin Currin: 10:25

it's to try to relate

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:27

to that. I can relate to it conceptually.

Erin Currin: 10:31

Yeah.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:32

But I cannot relate to it in reality.

Erin Currin: 10:36

Right. Right.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:37

So

Erin Currin: 10:37

that's really deep.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:38

Yeah.

Erin Currin: 10:39

Well, hopefully we haven't stepped on any toes with that conversation because you know I like this podcast to be a space for people to really explore ideas.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 10:51

I think you hit the nail on the head because let me tell you something. It's a it's this is definitely a conversation that needs to be addressed. I agree. I can't say this is the platform to just dissect it.

Erin Currin: 11:06

A child, a woman with no children, and a man.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 11:08

I'm talking about to dissect it, but because we may not have enough information on it,

Erin Currin: 11:13

right?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 11:13

But it's definitely something that I think we we can sit down with,

Erin Currin: 11:19

yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 11:19

an expert and ask many questions about that situation,

Erin Currin: 11:24

and I also think that that's why the conversation that we had about your life experience with you know your brother that we were starting to get into that story, and then where that has led in recent years. These are all topics of conversation that would really be good. They're they're subjects that we really need to be able to dialog about, and the fact that you and I can sit in a coffee shop together and talk through this stuff, whether we see eye to eye on political or spiritual or philosophical planes, like one of the things I value about our friendship is, we're always able to talk through stuff, and I always find your point of view fascinating. And I always feel respected when I share mine.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 12:14

I can tell you like this: you are a great listener. You pay attention to people, and you know how to, I say, drive the course of a conversation, and you're real about it. And what I like about our relationship is we talk about our differences, even in color. It doesn't matter. We can be honest with each other and have fun in our conversation, and realize that we're just human, and we have differences. That's just life. That's what I. That's what I like about you.

Erin Currin: 12:49

Thank you. I appreciate that trust because it's you know even though we did go to elementary school together, we didn't know each.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 12:56

We never met, and I

Erin Currin: 12:58

think in the last 12 years we've seen each other maybe seven times.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:01

Wow, wow! I didn't pay attention to that. See, well, if we you you pay attention to detail like that.

Erin Currin: 13:08

Well, you know, for a little bit of that time, I was up in Jacksonville. We probably had a few more phone conversations.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:14

Yeah,

Erin Currin: 13:14

but it's not like we've been best friends hanging out at the the coffee shop every day together.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:20

That's true.

Erin Currin: 13:21

So for the depth...

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:22

of the connection we made,

Erin Currin: 13:24

exactly.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:25

is phenomenal,

Erin Currin: 13:26

and that's that's exactly what I'm pointing to. It doesn't have to be frequency for it to be quality.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:33

Great, by all means,

Erin Currin: 13:34

it it can be a soul

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:35

connection. Like we've been

Erin Currin: 13:38

vibing for our whole lives, apparently. Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:41

we were supposed to meet.

Erin Currin: 13:42

Yeah. Oh, for sure, I believe we were

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:44

supposed to meet. It was the day that we. Do you remember where was that?

Erin Currin: 13:48

It was at the. It was the Starbucks in Meisner Plaza. Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 13:53

Boca. Okay, there you go.

Erin Currin: 13:55

Yeah, I was waiting for somebody because I was meeting a networking connection for coffee, and I got there early, and I was working on my laptop.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:02

Do you know who that person was? Because I don't remember.

Erin Currin: 14:05

I don't remember.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:06

Wow, that is so interesting.

Erin Currin: 14:08

She wasn't important. I mean, I'm not saying whoever you are.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:15

Don't do that.

Erin Currin: 14:17

I believe that people... Like there's reason season lifetime.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:21

I agree, 100%

Erin Currin: 14:23

And that person was a reason.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:25

Yeah, the reason for you to be there that day,

Erin Currin: 14:27

right? And apparently, without us even knowing it, and now starting to recognize it, like this may be a lifetime kind of a thing.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:36

Absolutely. Which is yeah, literally

Erin Currin: 14:39

awesome. Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:39

yeah.

Erin Currin: 14:40

There was one guy who was on the podcast, and like he did not expect to cry and started crying. He's like, "What magic is this?" I just start asking questions about what I get curious about, and then the next thing you know, it's like,"Oh my God, how did we get here?"

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 14:57

I like it though so far. I mean, I'm not. I am very comfortable.

Erin Currin: 15:02

Good.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:02

Yeah, I thought I would be more camera shy.

Erin Currin: 15:06

It's a conversation. That's part of the reason why I don't like it being scripted.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:10

Agreed, 100% Because when you when you're unscript, you start messing up because you're trying to remember.

Erin Currin: 15:18

Exactly. Yeah. When you're performing for the cameras,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:22

yeah, yeah. When you perform for the cameras, I mean, reality. I think that's why reality TV shows are upcoming, you know, doing well because of the fact that it's a lot of times it's not scripted, but sometimes it is.

Erin Currin: 15:36

I think it's probably scripted more often than not,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:38

yeah, probably now more.

Erin Currin: 15:40

Give it credit for. Why don't we circle back, if you don't mind, to like you're standing there at the door

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:49

in 1982.

Erin Currin: 15:50

1982. The police are there. They won't talk to you because your mom's not home.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 15:55

Yeah, it was. It was for me. That was a very odd experience because that was like really my first encounter with the police, and I had never had a encounter that close to a police. And what he came to say, I could see it in his eyes at the time. It wasn't good, and it only made me nervous. I didn't think I didn't think death. I did think somebody probably got locked up, were in trouble, but I didn't think somebody died. So I end up when later on my mom came home, and I have to say it in this way because it came out as a rap for me. My raps are what eases my grief.

Erin Currin: 16:44

Okay.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 16:45

So, one day afternoon, the sheriff knocked at our door. I looked him in his eyes and said, "What you here for? He asked for my mother, but was speaking of my brother, and his eyes was filled with a bunch of horror. Later on that afternoon, my mother came home. Then I was sure that something was wrong. I said,"Mom, could you tell me what happened, please? Then she said enough to knock me down to my knees. She had told me that my brother had died. I was hoping and praying that she had lied, but I remember. Yeah, I remember what she told me a long time ago that death brought life, and that she wanted me to know. Let me get my composure. Then I realized that we all have to die, but even though it's true, I couldn't help but cry. But now you can imagine just how I feel. But I can only say to you that life is real. So, like I was saying prior to that moment in life, I didn't see life as being a a real thing. I I literally didn't understand my whole purpose of really being here. All I knew is I was part of family, and every day was fun and entertainment for me. When I fought somebody, I literally thought they're gonna flex back. I was in games because I was a follower at age. I'm say at sixth grade, when I start going to sixth grade, the guys in the neighborhood, every everybody started to. I guess we were transitioning into a new age era, and we knew of the high schoolers that were in the gangs, and that's what we idolized. So I idolized the gangs too. I got into it thinking I didn't think nothing of it. Tell you truth, I just thought it was a part of activity. It was the part of growth. Even though your parents didn't want you to do it, because parents said, "Y'all stay with this, that, these people, that. Man, I understood that language from my parents because my parents were great parents, but I was a hard-headed kid that did things that behind my parents' back, probably like most kids do, I ventured into. I said little crime, but I can't say it was real crime. I was selling BC powder at one time, thinking that that was. I didn't know what it was. This is the thing. I didn't know what it was, but that's how it was introduced to me, as though it was a drug. I started making money off of it. I was green in many parts of my life. You're gonna hear that I was green there too. Then I realized that the projectors in school-they started showing. They started telling us what. Drugs look like what to watch out for, what the approach that people may come, and they start giving us that. I don't know if Dare was a part of this at the time.

Erin Currin: 20:12

I think it might have just been getting started around that time.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 20:15

Yeah, I'm not sure, but I know they were they were encouraging us to turn away from it. Meanwhile, I'm looking at this projector and I'm saying to myself, "Am I supposed to be selling cocaine? I wasn't sure what was going on, but I know it was BC powder because I bought it from the store.

Erin Currin: 20:39

Oh,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 20:40

you remember the BC powder packet in the goodie in the goodie packets?

Erin Currin: 20:44

Yeah, it was aspirin.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 20:46

So, so yeah, so the goodie packet or the BC packet, and we would take it and put it in these envelopes, and then we sell them for

Erin Currin: 20:54

people to.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 20:55

And sadly, I'm about to say it to the white kids. It's the truth, and they they took it like it was cocaine, and I was laughing. I'm I'm a person that I just thought it was funny, and that's again, like I said, I didn't think life was real. So when I saw you do something, I would hysterically laugh off of it, but then I started realizing what they want me to sell here. What I'm thinking I'm selling is a drug.

Erin Currin: 21:30

It's like they're grooming you.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 21:31

Yeah, but I didn't know it.

Erin Currin: 21:33

Well, and how old were you at that time?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 21:35

I was in sixth grade, so I probably was 1212, years old.

Erin Currin: 21:38

For people to get a sense of the neighborhood, when my folks moved into that neighborhood where we lived, it was all a retirement community, and by the time

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 21:50

my aunt used to live in that area,

Erin Currin: 21:52

going to Boyd Anderson came around. You know, however many years later, like it went from being all little white ladies to a very black neighborhood. I was the only white girl on the bus.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 22:06

Oh

Erin Currin: 22:07

wow! There was me, and then there was a white guy who was on the football team. And

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 22:11

wow!

Erin Currin: 22:11

I mean,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 22:12

and you would be a bus to Boyd Anderson. Oh wow!

Erin Currin: 22:15

My folks wanted to move because my stepfather had a construction company in Miami, and that was when the Mariel boatlift and all that stuff was happening. And so he wanted to get out of South Florida because of all the the political upheaval, and there were race riots at Boyd Anderson in '80.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 22:35

Oh yeah, it was. Remember that we were just coming off of Roots.

Erin Currin: 22:39

Yeah.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 22:40

So every time Roots was on the TV, there were riots.

Erin Currin: 22:44

Right. So my mom wasn't comfortable with. Yeah, and so like there were a lot of racial tensions. Oh yeah. And it's like I never had any kind of problems with the like nobody messed with me on the bus. Some people I hung out with. Some people I didn't like the people who didn't want to hang out with me, I'm like, yeah, whatever, I don't care.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 23:05

Yeah.

Erin Currin: 23:06

So it was it was a completely different time.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 23:10

Agree. Well, I do. You know, a part of that time was I was in those gangs and I was protecting the white kids who I knew. I said, just chill with me. You'll be cool, you know. Because the roots really did created turmoil. Oh wow! To the you know to the general public, we just it was a shocker to everybody. And then it's like for the blacks, we were we were just so shocked and then angry and upset because it just wasn't taught to us. So when Roots aired on the TV, it just only sparked turmoil everywhere.

Erin Currin: 23:51

Sounds a lot like what's going been going on in the last five - ten years.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 23:55

Yeah, it's really been. Yeah, it's always been going on. Realistically,

Erin Currin: 24:00

it ebbs and it flows, and I think that there's a certain responsibility for honestly looking at a history, and I also think that there's a certain responsibility for how we respond to that new information. Yeah, because I agree. You know, like having race riots and taking advantage of other people, and like the whole oppressor oppressed conversation. Like I can get it. Let's fix the situation. But that, in in my humble opinion, flipping the tables and letting the other people be on top for a little while doesn't do anything to even it out. It just basically turns the animosity the other way around. It's that idea of an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 24:51

Yeah.

Erin Currin: 24:52

Okay. Cool. So.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 24:53

Well, I'll say this because you said something. I was caught up in that turmoil. Of that race thing, now that was prior. I'm talking about the root thing. It's prior to my brother getting murdered. I I didn't have a prejudice in me because the truth is I'm mixed race. My grandfather is Mexican Indian and white as well, and my my grandmother was black Indian, so I have Indian mix. I'm talking about my mother's side.

Erin Currin: 25:31

Okay.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 25:31

So you see, my mom, even when I was younger, they used to call me Coolie because in Jamaica, the Cooley is the one people hair like yours.

Erin Currin: 25:39

Okay.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 25:39

So I had real curly hair when I was young, and I lost it. Got a half a head of hair, you know, but I wasn't gonna do that. So, but my hair was really curly. Now we were talking about my brother. My brother was murdered by a white guy, or maybe two white guys. I don't know what the story is. Like I said we were told that my brother committed suicide for two years. We believed that story because of the fact that that's what the news gave us. The the people that was in the room they said it personally. I spoke to them. I was 16 years old. I called every last one of them up. My mom was just torn apart. She couldn't talk to nobody, and she asked me to talk to him. And I guess even back then, I didn't really have a problem talking to people, especially addressing an issue. So I had a chance to talk to seven of the people that was in the room. All seven of the people had seven different stories of what they perspective was of what really took place. It didn't line up. One say that my brother stuck knife in his chest and started chasing everybody around the room. Who has that kind of power? That didn't make sense to me as a young man. But that's the story that was given to us. And like I say, it was different stories, different accounts of where it took place inside of the hotel. So let me go back on the backstory a little bit. This was a church convention. My brother was one of nine men in the room, and there was nine white guys, and he was the only black guy. So what happened was early. Now this is the backstory. After investigation, we find out my brother made a pass at a white girl, or he asked her to marry him. Oh wow! Because I want you to be my wife. Evidently, it didn't go off well to other people in the room. Our altercation took place. Now I didn't discover this. Like I said, it was two years later. What happened was my mom had taken a picture of my brother in the casket, or someone did, but it was in the album of my mom' album. So I'm going through the pages and and I'm looking at my brother, looking going look at his childhood picture, and then I see him in the casket. I said,"Mom, why didn't you tell me that Daryl had a black eye? She said, "Baby, Daryl didn't have a black eye. I said, "Yes, he did, Mom. I said, "Mom, look, and she said, "He he does have a black eye. Now, my parents was really going through turmoil of life. The year prior to that, my oldest brother had got into a major accident. Him and his son, and honestly, my brother had never came out to be the same since then. So he had got in an accident the year prior, and he ended up being knocked unconscious, and he was he was in a coma for three months. After he came out of the coma, he had to learn how to walk and talk again. After he learned how to walk again, he ended up going. He was in college at the time, and he went back to school. But he was still unstable, but still learning how to walk. Curtis is the oldest one. Daryl actually was a year beneath him, and it was time for him to go to college. So he ended up staying in Tallahassee with my brother. So meanwhile, while he was waiting to get started in school, he was seeking religion at the time too. He went to the Muslims. He went to the Mormons, he went to the Christians, and end up going to a Christian church. Like I said, they had a church convention. They end up people from all around the world came to this convention.

Erin Currin: 29:33

So you're having conversations with the people that were staying with your brother, and you're hearing seven different stories.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 29:39

I heard seven different stories. None of it, none, none of it added up. But my brother Curtis, he ended up having a lawsuit, opened up the case again, and this is how we found in discovery of what really happened. Two of the guys got away. And never been questioned. I questioned seven of them. Fast forward a few years, I'll say probably 10 years later. Two guys show up at my mom's house wanting to interview her. Had lights, camera, show lights, and everything. A van, a black van, and they had all the stuff. They said they were from the newspaper. We didn't get an article. We didn't get any information. So it just made me say, "Mom, that could be guys were killed. Kill down. Tried to contact these people after they, and nobody picked up phones or anything. So it makes me wonder if those were the killers, you know. But I'll say the pivot, the transition for me. I end up going from one school to the next school. I was at Piper High School, which was 10% at the time black because we were being bused there.

Erin Currin: 30:51

Okay,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 30:52

and then I was having problems, still having those problems. End up going to Fort Anderson. I stayed there for about three months. I was having problems because it was me. It wasn't the people. It wasn't no one else. I wanted to kill somebody, and I wanted to kill somebody who was white

Erin Currin: 31:10

because of what happened.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 31:11

Because my brother, I was angry already. I was already aggressive in fighting. I used to love to fight, and I'm poking fights just to find somebody who was wanting to irritate me enough. I was angry. I didn't know. Like remember, I told you I didn't think life was real. Now I know that life is real. You can die, and I was on that level mentally to take you out.

Erin Currin: 31:38

So before it was, this is all a game. It's all a big joke. Let's go, Kiki, and have some fun. Yeah, and then like now, you get just slapped upside the head with.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 31:50

This is real.

Erin Currin: 31:51

Wow.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 31:52

Yeah, and and so I end up going to Dillard High School. Flop is a is a flip flop from Piper High School. It's about 10% white and 90% black. Dillard had a reputation of being a bad school because I guess it was all black, but really it was a great school. Loved it. When I got there, the counselor set me up with a guy who gave me a tour guide. His name was Steve, and I wish I knew Steve today because Steve was an incredible guy. You know, a white kid. He he said,"Man, you gonna love this school, man. Let me tell you, into girls, and I was into girls so much. You know, I'm like,"Yeah, you got me. But and I, the main same time, I'm looking at this guy in the face and saying, "You seem like a nice guy. Why why why do I want to kill him? You know, saying to myself, and then God, literally, I believe God put it on my heart at that time. All white people didn't kill you, kill your brother. Maybe two evil people did, and that was the pivoting point. That was the first lesson of what love was to me to love unconditionally.

Erin Currin: 33:03

Wow!

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 33:03

Because I can't hold you responsible for something somebody else did. I can only judge you on how you treat me, and I-I that was a real lesson in life for me that I don't have a prejudice because you're white. I may have a prejudice because we just don't like each other.

Erin Currin: 33:23

Chemistry.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 33:24

Yeah, we just don't. We're not a good fit. Yeah, and we don't line up. We don't align, but it's not a prejudice because of skin color or differences, because we're gonna have our differences. You're female. I'm a male, so we got a lot to talk about.

Erin Currin: 33:41

Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 33:41

because we don't understand each other 100%

Erin Currin: 33:43

This is true,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 33:45

mere fact,

Erin Currin: 33:45

yeah.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 33:46

And you're a white female, I'm a black male, so we got a lot more to talk about. It's more of a conversation.

Erin Currin: 33:55

Growing up in similar neighborhoods and in similar, well, probably different life circumstances, because you had how many brothers and sisters?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:05

I had seven brothers, including myself, that makes seven boys.

Erin Currin: 34:12

Seven boys

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:13

and one girl living, and the one who had deceased. So it was nine of us all together.

Erin Currin: 34:19

Right, and for me, it's I'm the oldest of two,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:24

okay,

Erin Currin: 34:24

and the middle of seven.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:26

Okay,

Erin Currin: 34:26

I have three older stepsisters and two younger half sisters, so our life situations are vastly. My parents were divorced when I was seven or eight years old. So much the same and so much different, all at the same time, and that's I think that's

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:44

yeah, and I think that's what we find interesting about each other,

Erin Currin: 34:45

mh-hmm

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:45

and then we can have a conversation about it and speak about it.

Erin Currin: 34:51

There are a lot of people who are a lot different, but they don't like I don't vibe with them the way you and I, right?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 34:59

I like that.

Erin Currin: 35:00

And I think that it's because probably you know this lesson that you learned in life so early on. First, you're going through life, and it's not real. It's like everything is a joke. Everything is like it's TV. Everything is

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 35:18

Yeah

Erin Currin: 35:18

you know, just like you're playing a game, and then you get hit with one of the most real situations that can happen to a person. Even being groomed to be a drug dealer when you were 12 years old, and like all the different things that you went through with your family, and it's like if you didn't have that anchor at home, God only knows what would have happened to you. Literally.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 35:46

Agree, agreed.

Erin Currin: 35:48

And for whatever reason, not only do you have a really strong anchor at that time, where you like, did you have a really strong faith? Was that? I had a

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 36:00

cousin named his name was Cousin Freddie. We call him. He was a pastor. Now, what led him to that life is his his lifestyle before that he had got shot in the head three times, and the bullets was still remaining in his head.

Erin Currin: 36:16

Wow!

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 36:16

Because they could if they they removed him, he'd have died.

Erin Currin: 36:20

Right.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 36:21

So he was paralyzed from one side of his whole body, and he dedicated his life to serving God. One pastor in life that I absolutely got respect for because I know he truly-it was a true relationship with the Almighty for him, the reason why I say that is because he dedicated everything to it. It wasn't about money for him, even though the church would dedicate. He was an evangelist just so he can go from place to place. They would give him money to do it, but this man served and he read and he taught me religious principles, a biblical principles, not religious, biblical principle, and because it's there is a difference. So I followed him as a child, and and I would like sit and read with him so I can get better understanding of it because he he just knew it, and he he knew where to go to. If you had a question, boom! You go to the Bible, get to the Scripture, see what it says about that. So I respected him for that. I'm not religious.

Erin Currin: 37:28

I think that's a fair distinction because there are a lot of people who are religious that are the church going, and then there are the people who actually cultivate that connection with the divine.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 37:43

Yeah.

Erin Currin: 37:43

Okay. So it sounds like you were kind of set up to have your experience with the divine, and here you get to high school. You're you switch over. All of a sudden, life is real, and you go into fight mode.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 37:57

Yeah. And then you meet. I just are angry.

Erin Currin: 37:59

And then you meet Steve.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 38:00

And I meet Steve. So Steve, like I say, that's I wish I could. I actually perused through a one

Erin Currin: 38:09

of the yearbooks. One

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 38:10

of the yearbooks, but everybody was like, because we I had went to the first reunion. I think it was my 39th year of

Erin Currin: 38:20

the reunion.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 38:20

Reunion, yeah, and that was the first one I went to.

Erin Currin: 38:23

Okay,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 38:23

and so I said when I saw the book, I was just went through it, scanning through it, see if I can see it. I couldn't identify, but in my head I can remember how he looked. He was it was it almost looked like remember Zach and Cody? It was these two twins that were on this ship. I think Hannah Montana was also on that ship with them, but he looked like those kids. He had a mop top head,

Erin Currin: 38:49

okay,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 38:50

and he had a kind of stout face, and he was kind of little big chubby kid. But he and I became like that that year, and throughout, I only was at Dillard for two years, and me and him, we were decent friends. Definitely a kid that I'd like to know again today, but I don't don't know him. Maybe somebody see this, maybe they'll get me in touch with me.

Erin Currin: 39:16

That would be really...

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 39:17

That'd be like awesome, right? Yeah,

Erin Currin: 39:20

For sure.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 39:20

But that that was an experience that made me say all whites didn't kill my brother. That was also an experience to say to love a person based on how they love on you. Do unto others as you want to be treated. So I try to do that all the time.

Erin Currin: 39:39

Mh-hmmm

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 39:39

Is to do unto others as people as I want to be treated. Now, have I made mistakes in life? And sometimes out of response, and you're quick to anger.

Erin Currin: 39:50

Right.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 39:50

But the Bible said, "Be slow to speak, slow to I would say slow to speak, slow to anger, and quick to listen. I'm trying to. Adopt that principle.

Erin Currin: 40:01

Yeah, it can be challenging sometimes. Yeah,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 40:03

I'm trying to adopt that.

Erin Currin: 40:04

Wow.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 40:05

Yeah,

Erin Currin: 40:05

really powerful and such a pivotal experience. What I found so captivating about that when we had that conversation a few months back was that's a lot of what's going on when there's injustice. We feel like we really want to do something to someone, and people can be painted with very broad brushstrokes, like what happened in Rwanda when the light skin are called one thing and the dark skin are called another. They're all brothers and sisters and husbands and wives, and like you can't. There is no separation between us. Like at some point, there's probably a little bit of color in me, and you have already said that there's a lot. I had a song

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 40:53

called"Miggety Might Checker. You need to hear that song.

Erin Currin: 40:55

Oh, awesome!

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 40:56

Because what you're saying is absolutely what the lyrics is saying-it's no difference between

Erin Currin: 41:02

us. At the end of the day, like for real, yeah, for real, for real,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 41:06

absolutely.

Erin Currin: 41:08

It's-I have a friend, and we joke because I grew up in Lauderhill, and she grew up in Germany. She's black. Her family is from Georgia, and her father was in one of the branches of the military, and so she and her brother went to school for a year in Japan, and then went to school for another three years in Germany, and so we joke that she's more white than I am, and like I'm more black than she is, and you know it's it's funny, it's not, but like, like you say, the trust. Let me

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 41:43

say when a relationship is natural. There's a lot of times no rules in which we can have a conversation.

Erin Currin: 41:50

Right.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 41:51

It's always good to have respect within a conversation because you, even though you don't have rules, you still have that respect of one another. Agreed. Just being human to one another, and and being mindful of what could hurt someone.

Erin Currin: 42:07

Also, trusting that if something is said that does land a little off, to be able to say, you know what, that hurt, that's a no fly zone. That's

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 42:20

agree.

Erin Currin: 42:21

You know something that you said really got up under my skin, and then to be able to have the conversation and go, "Wow, okay. First of all, acknowledge, apologize. Whether you think it was right or wrong, if like you're my friend and I've hurt you somehow, the first thing I'm going to do is apologize.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 42:40

Agree,

Erin Currin: 42:40

and then I want to understand what that is because maybe there's some aspect of my thinking that I can shift. Maybe there's something that I'm not familiar with, something I don't know. Maybe I was coming from a different space, and we can create an even deeper relationship by having a conversation about it, because if you're going to tell me that it hurt and you're not going to tell me why, then how do I know I'm not going to step on a landmine again?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 43:11

I think that's why you and I get along because you said something having a conversation. Conversation is what creates understanding.

Erin Currin: 43:20

True.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 43:21

By not communicating, creates differences.

Erin Currin: 43:25

Exactly.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 43:27

That's unresolved. Of course, like I said, we have differences, but we can talk about. We can create magic together, and that's how relationships become bonds.

Erin Currin: 43:39

Yes.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 43:40

Because don't get me wrong, my and and people say, "Oh, my best friend is white. No, my best friend is a guy named Doug Crill, and he happens to be white.

Erin Currin: 43:51

That's beautiful.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 43:52

Yeah, I really respect this guy, and he respects me. But I I can tell you just like this, we can have any kind of conversation. I've been knowing him over probably 35 years now.

Erin Currin: 44:06

Wow!

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 44:06

We can have any type of conversation, and at the end of the day, we're cool.

Erin Currin: 44:12

Yeah.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 44:13

And when Doug was young, you would say, "Doug, I I used to call him the blue-eyed devil because I didn't have an understanding when I was a kid, but I was just a radical, so I used to call him that. And he would come back at me, and we would go back and forth. But we came to an understanding that we just totally understood each other, and we understand each other today. We're still friends today.

Erin Currin: 44:39

That's beautiful.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 44:40

We call each other, we call each other names and stuff like that. But we have fun, you know, just banter. It's been like that since we became younger.

Erin Currin: 44:49

There's a friend of mine who, one day, he and I were having a conversation, and he was saying that very often with people, as trust. Goes up, respect goes

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:03

down

Erin Currin: 45:03

because you start to get to know the faults and the flaws of the other person.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:08

But it's a it's a level of respect. Well,

Erin Currin: 45:10

but like,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:11

but if you disrespectful

Erin Currin: 45:13

to his point, it doesn't have to be that way.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:16

Yeah,

Erin Currin: 45:17

his point is why not keep both trust and respect. Hi.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:21

Well, I'll say the names that we call each other is never a racial slur.

Erin Currin: 45:27

Well, right. We

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 45:28

just we just play we we we play hard with each other. But I just say we enjoy all of us. I worked at the Sun Sentinel, but the Sun Sentinel. Just for those who don't know, it's a newspaper locally here in Broward County. So, but I worked at the Sun Sentinel, and that niche of people-it was like 30 people I I worked with for over 28 years, and those niche of people are still my friends today. Yeah, we kind of grew up with each other, so that was my department. But Doug and I, we made a connection. I made a connection with a lot of people there, but Doug and I, we made like a real, real connection. Like we can, I can see he's like a brother from another mother to me. Yeah, and his family, they treat me with all the same respect. Everybody.

Erin Currin: 46:20

Well, and I think that that's kind of the point that that's something that I'm pointing to because it's like naturally human beings are lazy. We we just are.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 46:32

What do you mean when you say that? Human beings

Erin Currin: 46:34

inherently look for the path of least resistance. It's why we don't like to exercise. It's why we prefer to eat pizza. It's like it's why what we're gonna do is not going to be the hardest path unless there's something that we see as a real reward for taking that more challenging path.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 46:57

And you say that to to imply to apply to what?

Erin Currin: 47:02

Well, that's why I'm circling back.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 47:04

Okay, yeah, I'm circling back. All right, all right.

Erin Currin: 47:10

So what I'm saying is, because we tend to do what's easy, as trust goes up, you start to know all these secrets about somebody, and it happened on a on a call. I'm inside of a coach's training leadership call, and we started joking and laughing back and forth, and somebody's toes got stepped on because trust is up, respect is down. Yeah, we stepped like three out of the four of us overstepped a line, and the fourth person was the one that got stepped on. It takes work to be aware of your surroundings. It takes work to notice when somebody stops talking. It takes work to step up and say, you know, that thing that you said it bothered me.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:02

Yeah,

Erin Currin: 48:02

because we put ourselves at risk when we do that. We put the relationship at risk because trust is high, respect is low. But when respect starts to get low enough, you overstep that boundary, then trust breaks down.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:17

Agreed.

Erin Currin: 48:17

And so, what it's about putting in the work, being willing to to have those conversations, because like when you and I met at the coffee shop a week ago, we started talking about something that was a little politically blurry, maybe a little purple.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:34

Yeah,

Erin Currin: 48:34

and and it's not like we sit and like I don't know what your views are, you don't know what my views are, but we went to an area where it was like it's

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:42

a little gray.

Erin Currin: 48:43

Okay, let's talk about this. And it took more work in that part of the conversation, but it was worth the payoff.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:52

Okay,

Erin Currin: 48:52

right?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 48:53

Yeah, absolutely. Wow. And that's that's what I like about us. We talk through it, talk through all of it.

Erin Currin: 49:00

It's true,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 49:01

and I encourage that for you. Talk through it.

Erin Currin: 49:06

All right, cool. We are actually an hour into a fantastic conversation. So, what I like to do at this point is ask you if there's something that you would like to say to let the audience know, summarizing a point that was made, what's a takeaway you'd like to leave people with? Where would you like us to wrap up?

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 49:28

Well, I go back to do unto others as you would like to be treated. I don't want anyone to treat me or my family in a derogatory way that's disrespectful. Period. So I've turned my life into trying to learn more about loving people. In fact, yesterday my son and I were on the phone, and we're on. We both are on our spiritual journey that we're looking to, you know, improve our spiritual life. So we're on the phone, and my son was telling me, my son Joshua, because I got five kids. He said, "You need to show up as the internal you. In other words, don't let the world shape you. You shape your world around you. In other words, I can be angry today, and if I project anger, the world around me will reflect back to what I'm putting out

Erin Currin: 50:38

very quickly,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 50:39

right? But if I put out love, then I should expect love back, and that's what's happening to him in his life right now. It's also happening to me now. What I did yesterday from the conversation he and I had, I have three people that I felt slighted me, but my son conversation is well. You can't affect them to come and apologize to me. Maybe I should go apologize to them. Wow, that wasn't a conversation he and I had. It was just from based on what the conversation we shared made me think. So I wrote messages yesterday, and I apologize for what I may have caused you to have a difference of opinion or think different about me. You might we have a difference of point of views from with each other. So the three people I sent out, I sent these texts to was one was a niece of mine, a nephew of mine and a friend that was becoming a friend. I just wanted to make sure that I emptied my cup. If I did something wrong, I have to apologize for my behalf.

Erin Currin: 51:52

Right.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 51:53

So that's what I did. And if I said or did anything to hurt you, please forgive

Erin Currin: 51:58

me. Wow.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 51:59

Because I might die tomorrow.

Erin Currin: 52:01

You never know.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:02

You never know what tomorrow brings. But at least I can empty my cup that I've asked for forgiveness because at the end of the day, I want to go to heaven or wherever that place is. I want to be in that kingdom of the divine God that I know. Period. So I've been working towards that. I'll say since january 3, I became a real man.

Erin Currin: 52:26

Oh,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:26

up to then, I can say I hadn't put away all the childish things that I have now. I stopped drinking that day.

Erin Currin: 52:34

Okay,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:35

I stopped doing a lot of other food stuff that day.

Erin Currin: 52:37

Congratulations!

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:38

Yeah, so

Erin Currin: 52:40

maybe a story for a different time.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:41

Yes.

Erin Currin: 52:42

Well, thank you, poetic, for joining me today.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:45

Okay.

Erin Currin: 52:45

I appreciate you. I appreciate our friendship.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 52:49

Oh, I appreciate our friendship too. I appreciate this interview.

Erin Currin: 52:53

I I really value the story that you're sharing. Like, wow, because when you shared it before, it just touched me so deeply because to really walk the talk of do unto others and to be the change that you want to see in the world, like you are a testament to that. So thank you,

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 53:13

thank you, thank you for I mean finding it interesting enough to be a part of your story.

Erin Currin: 53:19

I appreciate it

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 53:20

seriously because I didn't ever think it was that much of an interesting story, but you gave it some value.

Erin Currin: 53:28

My pleasure.

PoeEtiq The Street Prophet: 53:29

I appreciate you.

Erin Currin: 53:31

Thank you, and thank you for watching or listening to the podcast. We really appreciate you. Until next time. Thank you once again for tuning in to the secret of my success, where we explore what it means to live a fulfilling life. I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with Poetic, and we look forward to seeing you next time. If you enjoyed today's episode, please be sure to subscribe so you don't miss a beat. Until next time.