Courtney Luciana Photo
Starting fresh: Ex-offenders Robinson and Shabazz picking up litter.
Abdullah Shabazz woke up at 2 a.m. Wednesday, showered, said his prayers, read the Quran, then caught the bus from Bella Vista to Grand Avenue to start cleaning up the street — and keeping on a straight path.
The word on the street, he said, was “survival.”
Shabazz, 65, removes litter from the street as a paid gig offered through EMERGE, a Grand Avenue-based program that helps ex-offenders re-enter society with skills and support.
Shabazz was out doing the work by 7 a.m.
“This is my therapy,” he said during a break for a conversation on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. “I love my job.”
Shabazz was released from state prison two years ago after serving time for first-degree murder.
“It’s madness out here,” Shabazz said. “People are just trying to survive.”
“Survival, it comes in many forms,” Shabazz said during a discussion on WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program. “I clean Grand Avenue each day. Some of the things that I see are people ODing and the depression on people’s faces. I thank God for EMERGE and that they gave me a chance to do something different.”
He said he gets help maintaining discipline in his daily life through the Abdul-Majid Karim Hasan Islamic center on Dixwell Avenue in Hamden, where he attends Friday and Sunday prayer services.
EMERGE has served as Shabazz’s other lifeline of guidance. Besides putting him to work, the center offers a “real talk” group that’s helping him stay focused as he and other ex-offenders discuss their challenges and dreams.
“There was a time that I thought that I would never get out of prison and be sane,” Shabazz said. “You can’t be in a prison environment and not be affected by the prison environment. To EMERGE is to come out of something bad, into something good.”
“I was a criminal,” Shabazz said. “I did a lot of foul and filthy things. I wasn’t a productive member of society. But because of EMERGE, I was given a chance.”
When he isn’t working or attending service, Shabazz enjoys writing poetry. While incarcerated, he said, he wrote three poetry collections. He’s hoping to get his poems published.
Shabazz said there was a time that his family would make bets on how long he would stay out of prison between arrests. Now the work with EMERGE is helping stop him from being involved in the streets, he said. For that he is grateful.
“Prison is a dungeon of despair,” Shabazz said. “EMERGE is a house of hope. I did a lot of time behind them walls. A lot of time. Cleaning Grand Avenue is my therapy.”
Shabazz’ coworker Wednesday, Jimmy Robinson, 65, was released from a sentence in Louisiana, also for first-degree murder.
“It’s tough out here,” Robinson said. “But EMERGE is not just talking about helping people. They’re really showing themselves to be a place where people is just down and out — they can have somewhere to go and EMERGE will really help them with every aspect of life.”
“Even though we’re out here cleaning the streets, maybe just maybe, we can just say something to those who we see out here involved in the street life that might deter them from a life of crime,” Robinson said.
Neither Shabazz or Robinson thought they would end up where they are today
“Prison life molds you and prepares you to come back,” Robinson said. “There’s a lot of people who lack discipline in their life. I see people surviving through the negative: with drugs, fentanyl, and smoking. I’ve been through all of that. We really try to pass off what little wisdom or understanding that we have to others.”
Shabazz and Robinson finished their shift by continuing collecting trash along Grand Avenue. Their next stop would be to collect from The District innovation hub on James Street. Then back to EMERGE, located at 830 Grand, to meet back up with the rest of the crew before going home.
Click on the video to watch the full conversation with Shabazz and Robinson on the “Word on the Street” segment of WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz Love Talk.” Click here for links to some previous stories about people involved in EMERGE.