Kempton Street Mural
from chapter #41
This chapter is dedicated to Parkie Grace
How we wound up living together on Kempton Street was beyond me. Apartments were cheap and easy to come by at that time, and we had managed to find one easily after abandoning the cottage on the beach. It was a heck of a time to move back into the city, but we didn’t have much choice. Being a bonafide vagabond was difficult indeed. Gigs were hard to come by and if you did get one through an agent you had to make sure you got your money somehow. It’s not that we didn’t try hard to get work because we did. The work just wasn’t there. In spite it all we still managed to get by. The apartment on Kempton was big. It had four full size bedrooms a big living room and a kitchen and bath. We didn’t squawk much about our situation. We were dedicated musicians and just being together on the same page was good enough. We were still getting money from the accident and we were still waiting for the case to be settled.
The neighborhood we live was pretty much considered the heart of the ghetto, yet it struggled to maintain its identity as a community of Cape Verdean descendants. But a new day was dawning and for many of the locals it was a bit too soon. The community had its own factions wrought from the mixture of military personal and the local natives this sociological mix of cultures created a phenomenon that was politically ignored for years. The wide range of skin colors did nothing to influence the mental attitudes of some of the hardcore elders. Many of them struggled to hang on to their ancestry while the younger generation sought out their place in the present time. The Black Panthers were coming into power in the community and some of the folks were just not ready for that. Time was up and now it was time to decide which side you would be on. The Panthers had a way of getting the people to decide. When they came into a community you knew it wouldn’t be long before the shit hit the fan. Eventually they would set up home base in an abandoned drug store. Everything seemed cool in the beginning because they would provide community services that were previously not available. They also had a food distribution program, books, and day care for the people in the community………..
The roof on the building in background is destroyed as a result of the fires
that took place on Kempton Street during the riot. The building with the mural
was spared as a sign of solidarity between the owner and the community.
