 Good evening. I am Haline Murtha, Fairfield Town Librarian. Fairfield Public Library, Pequot Library, Fairfield University Bookstore, and Fairfield University welcome you to One Book One Town 2021 and evening with the authors of Punching the Air, E.B. Zaboi, and Dr. Yusef Salam. Thank you to Fairfield University for hosting this virtual event. This endeavor would not be possible without the generosity of the Friends of the Fairfield Public Library and all the One Book One Town donors. Thank you. The One Book One Town program, OBOT, strives to build a sense of community and promote literacy. Thank you to the entire One Book One Town committee for all your hard work. The 2021 One Book One Town selection, Punching the Air is a novel and verse. This book is based on the experiences from Yusef Salam's life. It tells the story of a teen poet and artist who was incarcerated for a crime he did not commit. The book aims to shed more light on the disparities in the criminal justice system. In 1989, at the age of 15, Yusef Salam was tried and convicted in the Central Park jogger case. In 2002, the convictions were overturned. By that time, the exonerated five had spent between seven to 13 years in prison for crimes they did not commit. Dr. Salam is the recipient of the 2016 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award and is a poet, activist and inspirational speaker. Yves Savoy is a New York Times bestselling author. Her young adult novel, American Street, was a National Book Award finalist. Her other works include My Life as an Ice Cream Sandwich and Pride. Punching the Air is Fairfield's 13th One Book One Town title. I now turn it over to the authors. Thank you all for being part of this event. Thank you to Fairfield University for having us and we are honored that Punching the Air is part of your One Book One Town read. Yusef, your head is cut off a little bit. Maybe we should bring it back. I'll fix that right now. So while we wait for Yusef to fix his camera, I'd just like to set the tone with a short video. Well, not so short. It's about seven minutes long. And before we get into our conversation, I want to just allow this video to give you some background info into Yusef's story and our collaboration. And then we could get started with talking about why we wrote this book, how we came together, and a little bit more about your story and your perspectives, Yusef. So please as more participants join this conversation, I'm going to share my screen so that you can watch this video. It's about seven minutes long. And please enjoy. This has brutally raped a white woman in Central Park. It didn't matter that there was no evidence. It didn't matter that the DNA was not linked to anyone who they saw as a suspect. There was a lot of confusion at that time because you kind of knew that those boys were innocent. We all knew it was false, but we were the ones that went to prison for those crimes. I'm Yusef Salam, and I'm one of the Exonerated Five. My name is Ibiza Boy, and I am the co-author of Punching the Air. Punching the Air is a book based on my life story, a journey that we as young men of color have gone through in America since we came to these shores, slavery continuing by another name. In 1989, it was one of the five young men known as the Central Park Five. We were railroaded by a system that saw the color of our skin as opposed to the facts of the case. And oftentimes that's what these stories are about. That case left an indelible mark on me because it framed how I viewed other black boys in my neighborhood, in my community, and in my classroom. And it took a long time for me to understand what the criminal justice system is and the historical relevance of injustice and seeing black children as criminal. It wasn't until 13 years later that the truth actually came out because the system got it wrong, and it continues oftentimes to stand on the side of wrong. Ibiza and I reconnected with each other years after we were in Hunter College together. When he told me that he wanted to work more closely with young people, we decided that we should tell his story. Punching the Air is the story of 16 year old Amal Shahid, who is an artist and poet. After one heated moment, one fateful night, he is accused of a violent crime and sent to prison. From there we learned how he ends up coping, how he uses his art to find his voice and to just deal with what's happening on the inside. You know it's the exploration of the two Americas, separate and unequal. We wanted to explore that a bit in Amal's character, because like me, he now is a young man fighting the system, becoming unfortunately awakened to what I call the American Nightmare. I am ink. He is paper. I am pencil. He is notebook. I am text. He is screen. I am paint. He is canvas. I am man. He is boy. I am criminal. He is victim. I am alive. He is almost dead. I am black. He is white. One of the things that I wanted to bring into this story in a very real way was the connection that family has to these individuals. Oftentimes you may see a person going through a trial and don't realize that they are part of community. They are part of family. I didn't go through prison myself. My family was there. My brother, my sister, my aunts and uncles. My mother was there all the time. And oftentimes she went through a worse prison than I went through. I am a mother of teens. I am a mother of a black boy. So I understand the vulnerability of children when they make the wrong choice. This is not necessarily a story about a crime. And it's not necessarily just about race. It is about a boy contending with himself and finding hope in healing through his heart. You know, when I was in prison, one of the things that really helped me was art. It was that medium that I had always loved that allowed me to really become a master of art and get lost in a page. You know, with Amal, I wanted him to also speak to what we're experiencing in this country, that the arts have been taken out of schools. His artistic expression is not given the value that is needed. When children are told that they are worthless, they begin to think that they were born a mistake. While black people are only about 13% of the U.S. population, black men are 34% of incarcerated individuals in the United States. And that's a huge disparity. When you explore the school of prison pipeline in the book, and it's one of those things where you start saying to yourself, how is that possible? Then you realize through the data that they actually plan how many prisons to build based on the fourth grade. And so if the test scores in the fourth grade is a precursor as to how many prisons need to be built, that's a scary space to be in. But that is an actual fact. There was no in-between time to say goodbye. I went from kid to criminal to felon to prisoner to inmate. We're moved from the county jail and on to a bus. And from the bus we're going to the juvenile detention facility. There are two guards on the bus, one in front, one in the back. And this almost feels like a field trip, almost. Except the quiet is choking my ears. The absence of voices is like cold hands wrapping their icy fingers around the sound. And maybe there was never this much room on slave ships. The thing about Amal that we wanted to bring out and expose is how he is aware. He's able to give speech and idea and thought to these things that are showing up in the world today. That black is seen as ugly, whereas white is seen as good. He had this awful experience, but he had been having awful experiences. One on top of the other that were constantly trying to tell him to keep in a box. But one of the biggest things that I want young leaders to know beyond a shadow of doubt is that they matter. Is that we need you. We need you to step up to the plate. We need you to participate. We need you to realize your greatness. You are the hope of the future. And once you realize that the future is bright, the future becomes alive and well. One of the greatest feelings of being able to share my story through this character of Amal. It's like a brilliant way to be a gift that keeps on giving, to be able to add to the struggle in a manner that isn't my story, but is the story of others that gives life to their stories, that gives value to their stories. But also I think one of the best things about this story is that the front cover of this book is a teenager, a young person, a child. But then you hear that is being told through the mind and eyes and the heart of a person who actually survived this tragedy to lift up and to pull up and to pull through others who may be going through a struggle and to give them hope. Hi everyone. Thank you for watching. Absolutely, absolutely. You know, watching that video never gets old. It's such a powerful introduction to the story, you know, punching the air. And it's an introduction to your story as well. Are you always surprised how many people don't know your story? Yeah, you know, it's weird because it speaks to the truth that we don't own history. We don't own our narratives, right? This story that happened 32, almost 32 years ago was swept under the rug. And young people only got an opportunity to become acquainted with it, to really, you know, realize what this story was about through when they see us, you know. And of course, all of the platforms that we've been using to really talk about this issue, not necessarily the issue of what happened to us, but the issue of the criminal justice system, the criminal system, the system that legally sends people to modern-day cotton fields and what that's all about. Now, what do you mean by modern-day cotton field? So, it's interesting. In our book, we share the 13th Amendment. And, you know, African-American, too, is where it's at. And one of the really, really more powerful things is that the language that we find in the Constitution as it relates to the 13th Amendment, section one, it says neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as a punishment for a crime where of the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States. So, slavery is abolished except for people who have been convicted of a crime, right? And then it says Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. You know, historically, when you look at, you know, activities that cause people to fall into being accused of crime, I don't even want to say fall into crime, being accused of being criminal, whenever the system arrests us, we're automatically seen as guilty, first of all, in having to prove ourselves innocent. And then the second thing is that oftentimes we don't have the money to fight the system. And so when you look at the prison industrial complex, the place that black and brown bodies have been disappeared to is this new Jim Crow system. It's the modern-day cotton fields of America called the prison industrial complex. So at 15, you were hanging out in the park like most 15-year-old boys do, like most teenagers in New York City do. And it wasn't just a matter of wrong place, wrong time, right? No. This is a park and it's a public space. And considering New York City, we both grew up in New York City. And usually we, there are no backyards to play in there. It's not even safe to play on the streets. Like, you know, I'm in the suburbs now, like most kids do, they ride their bikes freely up and down the streets. So you lived right across the street from Central Park, the famous New York City Central Park. And back then, Central Park, it was like the tracks, so to speak, the proverbial tracks. There was the wrong side of the tracks. You have the Upper East Side. Is it the Upper East Side? No, the Upper East Side and West Side of Central Park. Yeah. And tell me about that neighborhood in particular. 110th Street. And I know that neighborhood very well. Yeah, 110th Street. It's funny because if you go to 110th Street and Fifth Avenue right now, it's the, they've changed a few things, right? They have, it's called Duke Ellington Circle now. And so it's the, even the name of the place that we grew up in, Schoenberg Plaza, the name has been changed, right? And I think a lot of it is to kind of whitewash and put a bandaid over the fact that it was a place that had been vilified because of the fact that that's where I came from. That's where Kevin came from and Corey came from. And, you know, that northern corner of the park is stripped of the same opportunity and beauty that you would find on the southern corner of the park, on the east side or the west side. It's stripped of that same beauty that you would find in the middle of the park on the east side and the west side. The north is like, oh, that's where black people and brown people have been pushed to the margins of society. And so it was a long time, my whole youth, we experienced, you know, the worst of experiences when it comes to an icon in Central Park. Like Central Park is iconic, you know, whereas our part of the park, it was run down, it had dirty water, it had dead fish in the water. That stuff changed, you know. And cosmetically, it looks a little bit better before people who remember the old neighborhood, they know it's just cosmetics. You know, they know that, you know, there's a huge divide in that space was where extreme poverty was. And of course, as we know anything about New York, in New York was like, it had, it was polarized, right? One side of New York was extremely poverty, extreme poverty. And the other side was extreme wealth. And it literally could be like right across the street from each other in some cases. And that was like the park too. So the reason why I asked you that is because punching the air is not your story, but it is inspired by your story. It features a boy named Amal who finds himself. Well, I can't say that because I don't like that saying wrong place wrong time. I can't quite articulate why I don't like that when that supply to especially boys of color black boys when they find themselves and you know, gave it criminality. What is it in your opinion? What's what's wrong with that statement wrong place wrong time. In my opinion, I mean, I look at things from a very spiritual perspective. So I know that everything like if something is going to miss you, you can never get hit by it. Like you can literally have it in between the teeth in your mouth and you will literally miss it. It will never hit you. But if something is going to hit you, you will never be able to avoid it. And so as we look back, we can see the beauty in the story called the Central Park jogger case. But when you're going through it, you can't see it, right? It seems like you're being cursed by God. When the truth of the matter is that you're being shaped and molded. We're still a piece of clay being shaped and molded in order to do something. And the great thing about it as a survivor, being able to still have your mind and your faculties and to be able to speak to the issue, you no longer become a victim, you become a victor. You can talk about what happens on the inside to the people on the outside so that they can truly understand what it is. And so wrong place, wrong time for me also is problematic because I know that everything that happens to you happens for you. Even if you may not realize it, life is shaping and chiseling you and causing you to become one of the survivors. They call it the survival of the fittest, right? We become one of the fittest as we survive and as Cardi B would say, knock me down nine times I'll get up 10. We keep getting up because we know that that is causing us to live life and be better at it. Letting us know that next time we can know when to duck, know how to fall, know that we can get back up. Now, I was an elementary school kid when the Central Park Dover case was placed in 1989. I was a East New York Brooklyn as a sixth grader and I found out about this case like many New Yorkers did. But as a kid, I was engaging with it in a certain way. My teacher had us new current events projects where he would bring in newspapers and we would cut out the articles, paste it onto a loose leaf and do the 5Ws to who, what, when, where and why. And I remember that article, I don't remember taking it and doing the 5W somebody grabbed it before I did. But that was a huge news story and I do remember that word wilding being on top of a newspaper headline. And it was just so pervasive. And I know that anyone who watched it can birds documentary got a sense of what New York City's atmosphere was like. Yeah, we talked about this before but I like to revisit this idea that in 1989 was 32 years ago. And two young people that seems like a lifetime ago, I mean this is their time, right, this is born. And two people who are older they may remember it, you know, as elementary school kids or high school kids like yourself. And you are still here to tell tell this story. And in 1989 32 years ago prior to that it was 1957. Yeah, right. Wow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So everything that we are we learned about the 1950s. The Civil Rights Movement and Selma and Dr. Martin Luther King. That was 30 years before the Center for Part 5 gyrate has happened. So when I think about that I realize of course, you know it sounds so shocking, thinking about it now in hindsight, but in 1989. We as a country were 30 years away from 30 years past the Civil Rights Movement and only 20 years past the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. Wow. When we think about 20 years ago now it was only 2000. Yeah, yeah. So, as shocking as it sounds for your case to have had happened. It wasn't so we weren't so far removed from all the racial incidences that had happened in that country in our country. And when that happened to you. So, once we think about time like that, it makes sense that progress still has not happened. And even when we're seeing racial injustices now. You think well why is still still happening is 2020. Well, you know, how long does it take for people to change in a for a society to change. Right. Now, I've never and I like each time that we do these events that I throw in something. I throw in something new that we haven't discussed, we keep it fresh right. Yeah, it's unfortunate that we can't see the audience right now there's over 300 people watching. And I guess this would be a packed auditorium. If we were in Fairfield, Connecticut right now. So we can't see the audience so we are having a conversation amongst ourselves so we like to keep it fresh because I'm, you know, it's so where do you think we will be 30 years from now. 2050. So what we know, and this is just from film, right films that are trying to continue to speak truth to power. What we know is that we've been trying to make progress. We know that we have been playing the tango two steps forward, perhaps five steps back. And the worst part about it, I think is that systemically, we have to address the issue. And what by we I'm talking about white folks. And when I say white folks, I'm talking about the establishment in particular, we have to address the issue which founded this country with the words. We the people, because we weren't considered black and brown folks were considered full human beings. Right. We were considered three fifths of a person. And the laws that have been created, a lot of them, a lot of the laws were created after slavery was abolished. And so you had the new Jim Crow laws and so forth and so on Jim Crow era laws. You know, vagrancy laws, things that would lock people up and send them back to chattel slavery at that particular point in time. And I bring that up because when we look at what we are, we are a new people, I think. And as a new people, we represent the kaleidoscope of the human family. And this new kaleidoscope of the human family wants true freedom justice and equality on all sides. Every single person, whether you have the complexion as they say for protection or the complexion for acceptance or you have the complexion for rejection as they say. All of those people want equality for all because they know that it's far better to live in peace than to not live in peace. But the problem that we have is that the same laws that have been created by the system that was originally designed to keep white supremacy, white male dominance and oppression, the law of the day, is the same law that was carried out and has been carried out by the oppressor. And so to serve and protect on the side of cop cars throughout the nation, black and brown bodies wonder who are they serving and protecting if we are always being murdered, if we are not being given a fair chance and opportunity. Who are like on the side of cop cars in New York, you go, you have an addition to serve and protect. You say you have the words courtesy, professionalism and respect. You know, if we were treated with courtesy with professionalism and respect, we would be everything would be great and noble. I mean, literally people respond with Newton's third law of motion for every action is an equal and opposite reaction. And so we find ourselves trying to figure out can we change when the real change that has to happen is systemic. It is literally ingrained in the very nature of the country that we reside in where racism is the law of the day, right? Racism has been practiced since these shores were invaded. It was practiced when they stole the land from the natives who were here. It was practiced when they brought stolen bodies from Africa to work from can't see sun up to can't see sun down. And it's still being practiced when people still are walking around echoing the words states rights and echoing the words blood and soil and shooting us down and getting a slap on the wrist, murdering or murdering us with impunity, you know, I think historically, there's been a big push to try to never allow us to truly be free. And that truth has to be met with abolition and that abolition has to be explained in a way so people understand that we're not talking about lawlessness. But we are talking about bringing about a system, true systemic changes that will allow for all of us to coexist, you know, in a land that we are all coexisting on in the first place. You mentioned abolition and, you know, many readers, or anybody, in fact, will be a little afraid of that word, you know, or associated to slavery time, you know, or the Civil War. And I'd like to remind people that abolition was a radical idea, even during slavery. You know, we had slave, you know, not we but the country, you know, a huge population of the country 1315% of the country nation was in place and to think what if people are free, it's just an incredibly radical idea that people were terribly afraid of. And when we apply it to the prison industrial complex, well, what are we going to do with these criminals, and all of that we just requires a lot of innovation and creative thinking about how we want our society to look. Right. And it takes people, you know, artists, poets, free thinkers and public intellectuals like yourself. And part of that movement and part of that process and work is creating something like punching the air. And I want to talk about this book. Now this is a young adult book that's aimed at young people. The other day we spoke to an audience of fifth graders, and we were able to make this idea accessible to young people who were as young as 10 years old. And while we may not have mentioned rape, you did say assault or hurt a woman and they understood that. Yeah, and I reminded the audience that I knew about your case in the sixth grade. I was 11 years old, and understood a little bit what was happening with the Central Park jogger case. And, and people tend to, you know, shy away from sharing these books with younger people and middle school kids. We did talk to middle schoolers. But I want to remind people that one of the Central Park five now the exonerated five and you can name them so the audience knows who they are. One of them was in eighth grade. Right. Yeah, was 14 years old. Can you name them for the audience is you you Seth and yeah. So the youngest one, I believe was Kevin Richardson who lived in my building. I really know him in terms of like hanging out with him like that. But, you know, I had seen him in the in the neighborhood, but he lived in my building. The next youngest was Raymond Santana who was 14 as well. You know, Raymond Santana did not live in our building but he lived in the community at large. And of course then you had, you had myself, you had Antron McCray, you had Cory wise, he and I were were really really good friends really tight really almost like the other friends back then, you know, and that was the group that the exonerated five makes up, you know, Kevin, Cory, Raymond, Antron and you self. All these boys were rounded up. Yeah, that night in Central Park. And the question for hours and hours until they were exhausted. Until all of them, except you made a videotape force written confession, your mother came to your rescue. But ultimately, all five of you were tried and convicted and serve your full sentence, right, except for Cory, who served almost Cory served his full sentence as well. Cory served almost all of his sentence Cory often describes his sentence as not just a five to 15 year sentence, because the laws were beginning to change then, and he knew that if he stayed there, it was literally going to be a life sentence. If the true assailant had not confessed. Yes, forward to him. The story is amazing and I always like to repeat it. The two assailant came forward to Cory wise and Cory wise was the one who was not listed as one of the possible perpetrators in the Central Park jogger case. And ultimately, it was proven that someone else, unfortunately, did that committed that heinous crime someone years older than all of you, right, a man, an actual man and not a boy and a man who acted alone. And after years of paperwork and suing suing the city, you all were exonerated. It's an incredible story and I, I understand why you're not tired of talking about it for 20 years. And we met in college, we met in college in 1999. It was after you were released from prison. And it's the kind of person or young man that you were to have been convicted of falsely convicted of a crime serve your time. You were on probation and falsely registered as a sex offender and you still went to take you went to take classes at a rep college at a reputable university system which is City University of New York. And looking for that professor I wanted to take that that professor's class, Professor Marimba I need. Oh yes, you came looking for her I came looking for her and that's when we met. And eventually 20 years later we decided to work on this book together which is a fictionalized version of your story while Amal did not commit the same not. He was accused of the same crime but it is a racial incident where a boy white boy ends up in a coma after a fight with a black boy but Amal who is the black boy in the story of course claims that he did not throw the last punch. And this is a situation where boys are being boys but they, the results are not the same. And before we take questions from the audience. Why don't you read clone and I know you'd like to read that because it says a lot about perceptions and you talk about how the media. The public perception of you all. Yes, indeed it's on page 56. Clone. Every since that day in the fifth grade, my teachers watched me so hard so close that I felt like I was trying to break out of prison, even though it was just school. Every dumb thing I did they thought it was because of trouble at home and absent father, a tired mother, not enough books, not enough vegetables, not enough sleep. They believed those lies about me and made themselves a whole other boy in their minds and replaced me with him. Punch in the air is a novel in verse poetic form poetry form, and there are illustrations in here. And this is for a very specific reason it's because you said was or is himself a poet and an artist. And I, when I ran into him a few years ago and we decided to work together, I was inspired by his book of poetry, and one particular poem called I stand accused. And he told me that this was a poem that wrote at 16 right. Yes. And you decided it in the courtroom can you tell us about that. And so it was it was crazy because on the heels of this case. And on the heels of us being introduced to the world in such a really harsh way. I often equated to being awakened to the American nightmare. And, you know, all along we were going through this trial and of course we thought that the system was going to see that this was lies that have been heaped upon us. In his false confessions, we were hoping that the system would see that they were false that there was no consistency in any of the stories that were being told here you had a 14 year old Raymond Santana reading his false confession, saying something to the effect at 1700 hours mean a group of my colleagues began to walk south. And the beautiful thing about that is that through the documentary to Central Park five he looks up after he's reading that and says what 14 year old boy talks like that. And then back in 1989 and 1990 they believed it right. And so once we were convicted, we didn't have the opportunity to prepare. It was like, we were being re arrested all over again handcuffs were placed on us we didn't have the chance to hug our loved ones for the last time as free people if we were free. And they took us to the back. And, you know, we cried and we held on to each other. And at that moment that we were told that we would be coming back to be sentenced. And when we were returning back to the courthouse, I was trying to figure out how to say anything in my defense, you know, here it was we were being railroaded by the system. We have been seen as guilty, having to prove ourselves innocent. And instead of throwing myself on the mercy of the court, I stood up and I stated the words I stand accused which began with a quote. And an adaptation quote from my hero Malcolm X. So at 16 I stood up and I said I'm not going to sit here at your table and watch you eat and call myself dinner. Sitting here at your table doesn't make me dinner. Just like being here in America doesn't make me an American and maybe I'll do the first verse or first part. Just like being in America doesn't make me an American. Let us begin. Stress is the anger that is built up inside. Rage is the anger that is no longer built. Taking on the sucker that soon you have killed, American free will doesn't mean you can kill. And take another person's life you live your life trife. I'm a skill builder so on skills I do build. Created giving knowledge to this wise black man. Soon to enhance, my words across the land. I'm a smooth type of fellow, cool, calm and mellow. I'm kinda laid back but now I'm speaking so that you know. I used and abused and even was put on the news without clues. Some gave clues selling out like fools. Now check it. Who did what and who did who in? Put in a situation that you don't know what to do and some brothers go wilding. We're not down with them. Who would have thought I'd have to lock in? I stand accused. And you know after I stated the rest of the verse and sat down, the judge's anger was so pronounced. It looked like he wanted to take the law into his own hands and just allow anybody to say anything because what happened and I didn't realize this at the time but it became part of the court record. It became part of, you know, a statement that found its way into other movies, you know. And for me it was, I felt like it was my last chance I would ever be able to say anything. And those were my words. Thank you, sir. We're going to. Oh, we have a three more minutes before we open up to questions. I do want to read another poem and then I, I'm going to read African American Euro. Why don't you read coming to America on page 62 just to give people who haven't read it. A little sense of the words here. When I turned 13 grandma told me she take me to Africa. I told her Africa is not a country and she slapped my shoulder and said I'm too smart for my own good. Umi said I should go to connect with my Muslim brothers and sisters on the continent and grandma looked at her sideways. She said her church was organizing a trip to Senegal and we'd go to a sub to someplace called Gary Island and there'd be something called the door of no return. It's where slaves had to go through to get on a ship sailing to America, where African people lost everything and stepped out into a future they didn't know. So when the officers hold that door open, leaving out of the courtroom. I think of that trip that never happened and the door of no return. My whole damn life before the courtroom before that trial before that night was like Africa and this door leads to a slave ship and maybe jail, maybe jail is is America. Coming to America. The officer holding my arm digs his nails into my skin, squeezing so tight. It feels as if he's got a hold of a blood vessel or something because my heart, my heart is suffocating. I clench my jaw and tighten every muscle in my body. I want to be like steel, like iron. I am hoping that I am super human. You ever feel that way, you son? Did you feel like you ever want to be superhuman in that whole process? You know, absolutely. I think the beautiful thing about it is that I was able to dive into some of what people might call superhuman abilities. You know, I often talk about meditation and the fact that we have to meditate with our eyes open because wherever your mind goes, your body follows. It's really ramping that thought process up to a higher level than just theory. You know, it becomes the saving grace. It is the same idea when a child is being told, stop staring out of the window, stop daydreaming, right? But the more that you can daydream, but really almost magically move objects in your mind to spaces that you want them to be in order to produce and create a truth and a reality for yourself to live and thrive in is where it's all at. You know, ah man, being superhuman in these spaces is being able to withstand the onslaught of assault and abuse that comes because of these kinds of accusations and the system believing it. You know, I often think about my good friend Corey Wise and, you know, the story that his story that is being told in part four when they see us and how he experienced tremendous abuse, tremendous assaults. You know, all of us didn't go through that same thing, but the things that we did have to grow through were similar in a different way. You know, we didn't want to be able to be superhuman, be able to jump over the walls and be free. You know, and we could only do that by using our minds to make sure that we could go where our minds followed. Beautiful. Thank you, you Seth. I'm going to go ahead and answer the questions. I mean, not answer, but I'll just read the questions out to you and I'll answer some and you can answer some. But someone wanted to know how did we write the book together? Like you always say, you're the rapper and I'm the DJ. Absolutely. Absolutely. You kept the beat and mixed it up when it needed to be mixed up. And I was right on time with the words that I would use in order to really capture the moment. I think that telling this story, especially in the way that I understand it, is not an easy way to tell it. You know, many times people want to hear, okay, this is what happened first, second, third, fourth, fifth. But for me, it's the insights that I think really bring light to the darkest places in these stories and in society. And it's that insight and that light that we're trying to utilize to make sure that we like the Central Park Jogger case is not really just a story or a case of five individuals. It is the story of what the criminal justice system is about and has been about. And it's also the story of how that same criminal justice system is being placed on trial in our times so that we can make change. Omar T. Pasha was the illustrator. Yeah, so he brought in an outside illustrator to do the beautiful illustrations because Yusef is an artist and he has his own illustrations. And on that fateful night, no one could deny that Yusef was an artist. And for people to associate that heinous crime to you as a 15-year-old boy, wearing what you were wearing is just mind-boggling. Can you share with the audience what you were wearing on that night you were accused of raping? Absolutely. You know, these are pants. These are the pants that I was wearing. They have not been washed. These were worn one time. And as you can see, instead of blood that would be on it, if I had in fact raped a victim, assaulted a victim, left them for dead, bludgeoned. In the matter that the system said I had, you would have seen blood and not artwork all over my pants. That's what you would have seen. You would have seen this lady lost three-fourths of her blood. You would have seen that. And instead of that, you see art. And instead of that, you get an opportunity to peer into a life that they try to extinguish, right? And I'm saying life, but really it's a light. It's the light that is inside of all of us that they try to extinguish. They want to replace your value and your worth with no value and no worth. And as I was saying in the video, if you begin to believe the lie that you're worthless, you begin to move throughout your life like you're a mistake. And part of victory happens when you remember who you are, when you remember that you were born on purpose and with the purpose. And it's interesting. Those parents are worthy of archive, to be part of an archive or museum or something because it's such a testament to 1989 New York City because you have the landscape right there. That illustration was of Bob Marley and you had 1989. 1989. Okay, Claudia is going to help us with some of the questions because there are quite a few questions here. Well, first I want to read what somebody wrote because I just think that the attendees can't see these questions and this is just so beautiful and I think it tells both of you how much the book has meant to our community. You are both a true gift to our world, the extent of which we probably don't even properly realize or acknowledge. Thank you for sharing your stories and speaking truth. Please know you are changing the world. You have changed me. Thank you. Wow, right. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You know, when I hear, when I see and hear questions or statements like that, it lets me know that we are on the right path that change is happening. And it looks like we're doing maybe inchworm change, but I think any movement forward is a movement beyond where we were. And that is real change. That's important. Really touching. Another question. I love the book. I so wish that we found out what happened when the white kid woke up. I was left wanting. Why was that part left out? That's the question inspired by your case, you Seth, because the victim could not speak for herself. Can you share anything about that? Well, you know, the beautiful thing I think in that question is the perhaps wanting for there to be a part two. But also, you know, when you think about my case in particular, you know, the Central Park jogger didn't have the opportunity to speak for herself. And even when she came to, you know, her survival was a miracle, right? The unfortunate thing about her survival is that the system came to her rescue and told her that they had the people who had done this to her. And that was a lie, right? The system then began to continue that same lie by explaining the now truth that came out, that it was a soul. It was a single assailant that did this to her. And they explained that truth with a lie saying that her injury was inconsistent with it being a single assailant, right? This guy confessed to this crime 13 years later and had his memory was super accurate as to what he did, how he followed her, where he hit her in the head. That initial incident where he hit her in the head was captured by the forensic scientists. They knew that she was hit in the head on the path. He then talked about how he drug her off into the woods. They had a photograph that they knew the victim was drug into the woods. And it was a drag mark that was inconsistent with it being a gang that could only have been the assailant and the one who was doing the violence to the assailant. I mean, the end the victim, the assailant and the victim. A single drag line. And then of course you look at the crime scene and the crime scene is bloody. The crime scene is horrific. The crime scene, you know, you look at those pictures that they showed in the courthouse and they were trying to, one, tug at the heartstrings of the people who were supposed to make a decision as it related to our case. But when you look at it from hindsight, you realize this woman, she should not have survived. And thank God she did. Because had she not survived, this would have been a murder charge, right? This would have been perhaps a manslaughter charge, but they probably would have sought murder and probably gotten it, you know? And, you know, the fact that she wasn't able to talk but the system talked for her. The fact that when she was able to finally talk, she had no memory of this incident at all, you know? But the truth of this case, the fact that DNA evidence was there, the fact that the same officers that were involved in the Central Park Jagger case were involved in the East Side Rapist case, who was the guy Matias Reyes who raped the Central Park Jagger. Similar incident that he tried to carry out a few days before in Central Park around the same area. Similar incidents that he carried out and succeeded with days after, weeks after, months after, because he was left to commit more crime. Yeah, and that, and it's the same way that Jeremy Mantis in Punching the Air, you don't get to hear from him because the system already spoke for him. It doesn't even matter what he says because the entire system has had found Amal to be guilty, regardless of this young man's voice in the same way that the victim in your case, her voice didn't matter. Yeah. We're getting a lot of questions on the process of how you wrote this book together. And one of you do the first draft or more the editor, did you both do the writing role. There's been a lot of questions about that. Well, I will say I am the writer the actual writer in this situation, but you set is the storyteller. I could not have created a character like Amal in his situation without you sets input in real life experiences. Working together it didn't matter about the details of what happened to him while he was incarcerated didn't matter. What happened what mattered most to me is his insight and his hindsight and his wisdom. And how he talked about how he made it through and that's why Amal is the character that he is Amal is different from the character in Walter Dean Myers monster. That book focused on the case. This book focused on the journey simply because you set has an incredible journey. And while this journey this Amal is not usef Amal faces some violence while incarcerated usef I asked usef did, did you get beat up, you know, like six years and he's like well I did get punched this one time. Right. And, and your, the way you describe it, it's as if you are protected by some higher power. And I wanted young people to see that, while his situation is terrible. There are ways that you can get through. There is spirituality there is art. There is having a different outlook, even when you are, you know, facing the worst circumstances. So yes, the words are from me but the ideas like DNA came from usef the idea that it starts with a birth comes from usef the love Amal's love for his mother comes from usef all these bits of insight and wisdom. All came from usef and I had the task of putting them into words and shaping them into poetry. Hello. Thank you so much for for being here tonight and sharing this wonderful book with us. The highlight of our one book one town programs is always the author event. We do a lot of discussing of the book that we choose about to hear the author speaking about it. Just bring so much meaning to it. One of the events we're having is actually a writing and mixed media contest, because the power of art was such a wonderful and hopeful message of this book. And I wanted to just ask you, the theme of the contest is what act of self expression brings you solace in tough times, and it can be a piece of writing or painting or a dance video or cooking. What advice would you give to aspiring writers and artists? How do you find the courage to really dig deep down and have give a personal expression of what it means to be you in the world. Wow. It's weird because for me, that expression has been able to be found through prayer. You know, I've been toying with this concept for the past few days, and it's about, it's called bound, right? How do you, how do you bind yourself, right? We are all trying to hold it together, and so therefore we bind ourselves in order for us to be able to make it through the days, through the weeks, the years that we have. And you know, I was thinking the other day and someone asked me a question, and I said, you know, we come from a faith that teaches us that we're supposed to be in the world but not of it. And so to be constantly in connection with the Creator is to constantly plug into the source of all energy, so to speak, so that you can understand spiritually what you're supposed to be doing. Continue to reinvigorate yourself with the high vibrations that you need to be able to show up on time and, you know, with the right thoughts and the correct vision insight. And so it seems like a little bit, I guess, weird for me to kind of put that part out there, but for me it's always been prayer. It's always being able to re-center yourself and refocus yourself, you know? And sometimes that prayer doesn't necessarily have to be physical where you're going through motions, but it could be that mental meditation that I often talk about, you know? Where you're encouraging yourself by sparking yourself positively as opposed to discouraging yourself by talking to yourself negatively. Sorry, I was muted. I want to share this with the teacher. A lot of teachers in our town use this book in their classrooms, which is a wish of ours, so we're so happy it happened. So let me read this from a teacher. I read this book out loud with my entire ninth grade class here in Fairfield. It was so very powerful and great discussions ensued. The book is so rich in terms of illusions and symbols. We had so many talks about Amal and his name meaning hope. Dr. Stolom, how do you maintain hope during such a dark time? I think you partially answered that in your prayer. How do you continue to have hope for our world without getting bitter? I know that everything that happens happens for a reason. It's happening on purpose. I got the opportunity to listen to Dr. Maya Angelou when she expressed how she was able to deal with different things happening. She talked about it from the perspective of being angry and bitter. She said you should be angry, but you must not be bitter. Bitterness is like a cancer. She said it eats upon the host. It doesn't do anything to the object of its displeasure. I'm saying this in terms of my answer because there's alchemy that happens. You can lose hope, but when you lose hope, what's really happening? You are becoming overwhelmed by circumstance. But if you do something with that anger, if you do something with being overwhelmed, there is the power. And so she says, use that anger. You dance it. You march it. You vote it. You do everything about it. You talk it. Never stop talking it. My deep faith is a testament. And my story I want to say is a testament to holding on to hope. To holding on to knowing that you're blessed and highly favored. To knowing that all praise is due to the Creator. Because anything that happens to you is because of that blessing, of that high favoring, of the hedge that is around all of us. And I say that from the perspective of constantly tapping into each of our spirituality. We think that we're fighting against racism, which is very black and white. But the truth of the matter is that we are not fighting against racism. We are fighting against spiritual wickedness in high and low places. Because once we see it as that, and now we can really see, now we understand because to just see it black and white causes black people to look at all white people as racist. And that's truly not the truth. That's not been the truth with me. That's not been the truth with my experience. That's definitely most certainly not been the truth even after I came out of prison. That's just like bad cops. Bad cops are not all cops. I know that as a truth. How do I know that? Because I had very, very interesting dealings with police officers being pulled over by the side of the road. Not realizing that I was going past the speed limit. Being almost arrested and going to the DMV at the urging of the cop who had to give me a ticket. And then finding out when I got to the DMV that they dismissed the ticket. And that same officer was waiting for me outside the courtroom and shook my hand and told me he didn't have anything to do with my case. But this was his opportunity to do something for me as a person who is to protect and serve community. And so it's those kinds of rich experiences that I think one has that they can say, wow, just like the poem, footprints. You know, God is carrying us all the time. That's the beauty of it all. Beautiful. Claudia and I have done a book discussion. And one of the questions that came up was the title. And punching the air, the imagery in the book. And that can be so many things. I mean, a punch could be out of frustration. It could be in victory. There's also the butterflies that are in the book that are moving the air. Can you talk a little bit about that beautiful phrase as a title choice? That I'll let you pause for a little bit. That that is a line from a couple of those poems. We decided on that title because it has double meaning. It can mean an act of frustration and it can mean an act of victory. It's trying to hit something that you feel, but you can't see. Like racism and discrimination. You want to punch it in the face, but it's just not there. It's not a human thing, but it is, you know, it's hurting you. It's harming you and it's keeping you back in so many ways. So, and it also speaks to Dr. Youssef and the rest of the exonerated fives victory in becoming exonerated. It is, you know, and I don't know. There's like a, what's that film when he goes at the end of the movie and he goes like this. I keep seeing that when I say punching the air, but it is victorious and it is an active. It is both an act of aggression, frustration and victory all rolled up in one. You know, what's, what's cool about the title as well. I remember when Evie was saying, I got it. We got to punch an air and I was like, wow, that's so deep. That's so powerful. I was thinking about the concept of shadow boxing and not necessarily shadow boxing. Like you're preparing for a fight or something like that, wanting to not like you're fighting against what your, your purpose is, what your journey is. Right. And then once you realize that your journey is happening for you, there's a victory in that and that victory punches like, man, here I was, you know, fighting, fighting the system so that I couldn't and wouldn't. But the system created me and caused me to be this, this powerful person. Right. That is in some ways seen as a celebrity. But in other ways, it gave me this platform where we can utilize not just our experience, but use the ability to talk truth to power and continue to shine our light in the darkest places in society. Evie, my sister just texted me. She said, the movie is the breakfast club. Right. It's so old, but I just see it. Thanks. And I forgot the name of the cat, but don't worry about it. It has nothing to do with punching. Okay. I think we're ready to wrap up. You tell me this has been a lot. I did see a question there. I do want you set to address it. When we're asking what that sign is that says bring back the death penalty. Oh, just let young people in the audience know what that is. That. So in 1989, two weeks after we were accused, there was an ad that was created and placed in New York City's newspapers for the whole of New York to see. And really, I think it was really for the whole world to see. It was such a powerful ad and it was created by an individual who actually became the president of the United States of America. This is a scaled down version of the ad by Donald Trump himself calling for the death penalty to be brought back. Specifically for our case, you know, this is this is, um, you know, in here, maybe three, three fourths of the way in. He says criminals must be told that their civil liberties end when an attack on our safety begins. And I think that when you think about, you know, the, the idea that is being discussed here, it is definitely the idea of some people being protected and other people not being protected. You know, it is the idea that, you know, when you have a suspect that has the skin color of either black or brown, they have to be guilty of something because the system is infallible. The system doesn't make mistakes. This is what the thought is. And this is what's pushed out there. And in this particular case, it is the absolute opposite of that. That is the most noble truth that we were innocent and that we were used almost figuratively and metaphorically to, to really push that truth out there because 13 is the number that is the most unlucky number in this country. 13 years later is when the actual truth came out and it didn't come out in the same way. It didn't meet the same fan fanfare that was met with 1989, you know, there were over 400 articles written about us within the first few weeks of this case. But we did have some victories in the media. You know, this is one of the jurors that said we got the wrong kids. Now imagine we had done someone else's time. We were there. The real criminal is actually in prison. He got 33 and a third years to life. But he unfortunately can never be charged with the assault and the rape of the Central Park jogger because of this thing called Statue of Limitations. And so one of the things that I think that maybe I'll talk to my colleagues about in terms of the changes, the laws that we are trying to change, especially in New York, that perhaps can have ripple effects around the nation is that we need to change the law of Statue of Limitation specifically as it relates to rape because that is the worst crime that you can do. And for there to be a limitation that after seven years somebody can come forth and say, oh, I did that and not be charged is the, it's a, it's a, it's a gross injustice. Well, promise us that you'll come back. We know you have, I think you have a memoir coming out and maybe I think you have a picture book coming out in September. Is that correct? We will be looking for everything that your future work and hopefully you can come and visit us in person. We'd like to thank everybody who participated and attended tonight. And Mary, I'll let you have the last word. Just to thank you. You know, doing a townwide bead in a year when we have not all been able to be in the same room was challenging. And when we were going through different selection choices, your book just absolutely came to the top. We knew that it was the book to bring us together. And the fact that you were both able to be here and take the time and do this with us. It just means the world. It really does. So I can't thank you enough. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for having us. It was our pleasure. We'd love to be back together or separately. It would be nice. But we need to have that party for you that we could have had if you were here in person. So have a rain check on all of that. Absolutely. Absolutely. We're coming. Make you stick to that. Good night, everybody. Thank you for coming tonight. Good night. Thank you so much. Good night. Good night.