Son of a Female Hustler
Michael
The ConTextos Authors Circle was developed in collaboration with young people at-risk of, victims of, or perpetrators of violence in El Salvador. In 2017 this innovative program expanded into Chicago to create tangible, high quality opportunities that nourish the minds,,expand the voices and share the personal truths of individuals who have long been underserved and underestimated. Through the process of drafting, revising and publishing memoirs, participants develop self-reflection, critical thinking, camaraderie and positive selfprojection to author new life narratives.
Since January 2017 ConTextos has partnered with Cook County Sheriff's Office to implement Authors Circle in Cook County Department of Corrections as part of a vision for reform that recognizes the value of mental health, rehabilitation and reflection. These powerful memoirs complicate the narratives of violence and peace building, and help author a hopeful future for human beings behind walls, their families and our collective communities.
While each author’s text is solely the work of the Author, the image used to create this book’s illustrations have been sourced by various print publications. Authors curate these images and then, using only their hands, manipulate the images through tearing, folding, layering and careful positioning. By applying these collage techniques, Authors transform their written memoirs into illustrated books.
This project is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number ALN 21.027 awarded to Cook County by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Son of a Female Hustler
by Michael
This is my story. In 1983 I was born to Vanessa and Big Mike on the west side of Chicago in the Austin area on the 700 block of Central Avenue. I was born into a family of hustlers. They loved us, their children, and took good care of us. When I was young, that was all I knew. Selling drugs was their way of making money to pay rent, put food on the table, buy us clothes. We lived in a family house, a two flat known as the Black and White House. My grandma stayed on her first floor and my Mama stayed on the second floor. My aunt stayed in the basement and my uncle was in the attic.
At the time I was the oldest boy, my mom had five kids. I was the second oldest. I had an older sister named Chiann, a little sister named Savannah and two little brothers Van and Var.
My grandma owned that house since the 1970s, so we were well known in the area by almost everybody. When I was 8 years old my pops got locked up. He was found guilty of first-degree murder. They gave him 40 years at 50%. He came back when I was 28 and also came back a new person. If you don’t think big change is possible in someone ’ s life, keep reading. Positive change is possible even still!
My parents were separated when my pops got arrested. I was sad cuz my pops used to pick me up on the weekends and take me out with him. We used to go shopping and he would take me to see my brothers.
Pops had other kids with other women. I was the youngest and Raymon was the oldest. Corn was next, then Chiann and Jasper. Corn and Jasper had the same mom and they lived out of state, so I didn't see them a lot.
After Pops got locked up, my grandma on my dad's side used to take me to the Joint to see him from time to time. I was always excited to see him. I would talk to him on the phone a lot and he would always tell me, son you ' re the man of the house now you have to take care of them girls by any means necessary. So that's what I did.
You couldn't say shit crazy to the women of my family. Cuz then I was on your ass. As I got older I started to pay attention to my mom and what she had going on. Now my OG was well respected by everybody, so I'm seeing traffic that was coming to the house. I knew a lot of them got high off something.
At the time I was around 12 years of age and I had friends that used to come over to the house. I was the youngest but probably the smartest out of the crew. It was me, PeeWee, Nitty, Ten, Boosie, Lil Bob, Robbie and I can't forget Dirty and Mut. They were like family. All my friends was already in the streets, hustling and gangbanging. I was not hustling, not yet.
One day I was sitting on the porch and my OG called me. Son, come here. So I go upstairs and see what she wants. She was sitting in her chair and she said, look son I know your little friends be out there selling drugs. I don't want you out there working for none of them, risking your safety and life. If you are going to hustle, do it for yourself. So she started to show me how it went.
She told me to put my friends down and see what they do. It's on now, let's get money, bro. That was my thinking then. So I asked 10 how you know about OG. He was like man everybody knows your OG a hustler. So all this time my homies knew cuz all the hypes were talking. So now I'm like damn all this time, I knew something but I didn’t really realize.
On my 14th birthday my homies were like one of the older guys is selling a car, a black Cutlass with rims and music. So we go over there and buy it. It was clean and banging hard. So now I got my first car at 14. My mom saw my car and she said boy why you buy that damn car? You ain't even old enough to get a license!
I'm like Ma, it's cool I ain't going to drive it like that. (my lying ass) I was out there riding. That car was clean and running good.
At the time I was staying downstairs with Granny, yeah I was Granny's baby. I couldn't do anything wrong in her eyes. Granny used to get up at 4:30 a.m. every morning for work and sit in the kitchen and drink her coffee.
I used to get up with her and drink coffee too. Granny then had to leave for work. I would get ready for school. Even though I was hustling I still had to go to school. I would pull up to school playing music loud and smoking weed. I was fly as hell everyday, I would buy the pretty girls lunch. I would get out of school and then go home.
I would get up with my boys and chill in the back of the house until OG called me to help her one day. My mom said Son, are you saving your money? I'm like OG I got like 6,000 put up. I was 15. Meanwhile my uncle used to do construction and he had started teaching me how to build things and work with my hands.
He used to take me to work with him and I would clean up, carry drywall and 2x4s. I got paid like $400 a week to do that so I was always making money. Little did I know that my uncle showing me how to do construction would be part of my creating a positive new life chapter. Just like my mother soon did, put energy into a new POSITIVE way to hustle for solutions.
At 15 I got my first real girlfriend, a fine little Redbone named Felisha. Everybody calls her FeFe for short, my mom and grandma was crazy about her. One day she got into it with her dad while her mom was out of town for work. He put her out and my mom let her stay with us so I had a live-in girlfriend at 16 years old.
One day I was sitting on the porch chilling and the police was chasing this dude. He ran through our yard and the police ran close behind him but he got away. So the officer came back to our yard and asked me and my homie what the man who was running threw.
I said he didn't throw shit over here. The officer started walking to the porch so I stood up and called my mom to come downstairs. My mom came down but the officer had handcuffed us and started walking in the house already.
My OG said what is y 'all doing? Y'all just can't walk up in here without a warrant! But the officer lied and said that the dude had thrown something in the house. At the time granny was at work so they searched and found a gun and a pound of weed. I was sick. I told OG what was going on? So they came out and one of the officers said jackpot! Who shit is this, looking directly at my mom. I said it's mine, but the officer said you ' re just a kid. This is not your shit. I said yes it is. He said, okay then you ' re going to jail. They ended up taking me to jail. I went to juvie and I was mad.
So now I'm in juvie, waiting for court. I had court a couple days later and my mom was there with the lawyer. The lawyer ended up beating the case cuz they didn't have a search warrant. I was happy as hell and ended up going home that day. I called my homies and we got high. They was like foe, that shit was crazy. I'm like hell yeah.
So about a year go by and I'm 17 years old. I bought a new car, a clean Regal, GS sunroof, leather seats and music. Shit was still moving so we was sitting in OG house playing a game, me and 10, and my big sister was in her room. My little sis was in her room and my little brother was in the back now. Me and Ten were in the living room and heard a knock at the door.
Ten went to open the door. He opened it and slammed it back really fast. He was like “the police at the door deep as hell.” I wake my OG up, but she is knocked out. I'm blue because my mom was slipping like that.
The police finally came in and immediately started beating the shit out of 10 for not opening up the door. They go and wake my mom up and ask her where everything is. They're yelling out that we want the drugs and all the money. We are taking your kids to DCFS. OG gets up and gives them the little bit that was in the house and they take her to jail. I was mad as hell. I didn't know what to do at the time. My big sister's 22 so she was grown. The police left my little sister and brothers with her.
My grandma was at work, she came home snapping about us selling drugs and to not bring that back into her house no more. Grandma didn't like that in her house. The next day my mom went to bond court and got a bond so we ended up getting her out that day. When she came home she said somebody put them on to us and that there would no longer be any hustling out of the house or by the house. So things were shut down.
In the year 2000, me and FeFe found out that she was pregnant. She was always eating and tired so she went and took a test and found out that it was positive. I'm like somebody got to tell our mothers and she said she would tell mine and I could tell hers. I was cool with that because her mom loved me.
We told our parents and they were cool with it. We were 17 and 18 at the time and I thought I had to open the alley back up because I needed to stack some money because now I had a little one on the way.
Things were smooth for a while then on April 25th, 2001 FeFe had the baby. It was a beautiful little girl, we named her Milesha. It was both of our names together. she was so cute and so light I was like damn I'm a father now. This means things had to be different. I had a baby to look after.
Me and FeFe broke up and she moved back up north with her mom. I was sad cuz she took my baby, but we were still cool. So I would go up North and spend the night with them and bring the baby to see my mom and grandma, because they loved her little butt.
In 2001, around my birthday I went to Walgreens to get my baby some pampers…and Crystal. She was the cashier and we started talking. She was a pretty little brown skin girl. We ended up getting together and started dating for about a year. She ended up moving in with me. My granny liked Crystal so she let her move in. She worked and went to school so she wasn't there that much anyway. In 2002 my mom had her last child, my lil spoiled sister Chivannah. She is something else, but I love her though.
In 2003, Crystal ended up telling me that she's pregnant. I'm like stop playing but she was serious. She took two tests and they were both positive. She thought I was mad but I wasn't. It was 2004 February 7th when Crystal had the baby, a little girl named Michaiah, my little chocolate baby. So now I have two girls and me and Crystal started to look for our own place. We had a baby and we made enough with her working and me still working with Unc and hustling everyday to get a place.
One day we were chilling and I heard the door open. It was my sister coming to tell me the police were raiding the house upstairs. I'm like damn OG up there by herself but it wasn't anything we can do anyway.
They had a search warrant in her name. There wasn't anything we could do but wait for them to come out and hope they didn't find anything. A couple of minutes later they came out with my mom in handcuffs. She told us to call the lawyer and tell him what was happening. We called him and OG got a bond. She ended up getting 4 years at 50% and had to do 18 months. I was sad, devastated. Mom was gone. I used to visit and talk with her. She told me this is it! It was time for real change. She kept telling me that. Selling drugs was over and we had to be the solution now.
It took me time to change, but eventually I did.
My mom did her time and came out as a new woman. She gave her life to the Lord, she got a job and never looked back. Prison didn’t do that, she did that with her faith and new vision. We moved off Central, my mom and grandma got a house in Maywood. I’m so proud of my mother and how she chased her new life. She never looked back and helps the community, children and family in need every day. Now she hustles in a positive way. She is big on helping other people.
That’s when I knew I had to become the solution, not the problem.
Me and Crystal ended up moving and getting our own place. Crystal and I got married in 2011. We had a big wedding and got divorced 3 years later. But we are still cool, that's my girl.
On November 10th 2015, my grandma passed away and that messed me and my family up. I don't think none of us have healed from that loss yet. Granny kept us together and I miss her everyday.
In 2016 Unk died in May right before his bday. This broke my heart. After my Dad was locked up, my Uncle became like my Dad. He taught me construction and I got to go to work with him all the time. I started to change my life working with him. My uncle never got involved in drug hustling, he always had a positive hustle of his construction business. Uncle was an amazing influence in my life. He helped my whole family.
Then my best friend PeeWee got killed in May as well. So that was a very sad time for me. I was all messed up. I lost so many people I became numb to death. I had to do something because I was in a bad place.
But then me and the love of my life got together. Her name is Georgia. My little sexy chocolate wife-to-be. We have been messing around on and off since 2010. In 2016 we became a couple and on Thanksgiving we found out she was pregnant. I told her she was pregnant but she didn't think she could have kids. So she took not one but three pregnancy tests and all of them said positive.
She was shocked for a whole 7 months because the baby came early, May 31st 2017. We had baby Mia, my little baby. God bless me with all girls. Me and Georgia got a crib in the west suburbs, a nice little spot and a couple of nice cars. We were good. My sister Savannah got a six-figure job and she and my nephew ended up staying in a very nice area. My sister Cheyenne got married. She and her husband and their kids are doing well.
My dad came home. Him and my mom ' s got back together, they both work good jobs and have a nice house. My little brothers stay with my moms and pops. They work and help Mom out around the house. I thought it was cool my parents got back together after all them years.
My oldest daughter Milesha is doing well, she has been working since she was 16. She is a positive hustler like her dad. She's about to be 23 and she's doing good. Michaiah the middle girl is in college to be a doctor and working a job. I’m really proud of her. Mia, my little baby, she's doing great. She is 6 years old, going on 16. She is something else but smart as ever.
Everybody that is left in the family is doing really well, just waiting on me to get back home. The message from this is that it's never too late to change. Push your hustle in a positive direction. Be the solution, it’s not too late. If you give your life to God everything is possible.
Michael
I Am From
I am from 734 North Central
From gunshots and Drug deals
I am from Grandma house
I am from fresh cut grass
And raking leaves
I am from Vanessa and Big Mike
From shopping at the mall, getting whatever I wanted
And from treat people how you want to be treated
I'm from I brung you in this world, I'll take your ass out
And from speak when you spoken to
I'm from Jesus Christ
I'm from the west side of Chicago
From BBQ ribs, hot links, dirty rice and baked beans
From Elmyra Robinson
I am from You aren't going to make it to see 18
But now I'm 40
Vanessa's son
Until the lion learns to write their own story, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter - African Proverb
