Audio File
Transcript
My full name is Debra Hearn. I was born in 1971, and I was raised on Hill District. I moved here in 1973. I grew up at 2187 Bentley Dr. which is about 5 minutes away from here, and it was very community oriented neighborhood, filled with lots of children and adults and everyone was your family. And even if they weren’t your family, they became your family. So if someone stole your bike, somebody found it for you, like it wasn’t like today where people are quiet about everything. Like everybody’s business is their business. Your business was everybody else’s business back then. And if I was hungry and I was over neighbors’ house, they fed you. If you didn’t have clothes, they donated clothes to you. We borrowed things off our neighbors when we didn’t have it. If we didn’t have a cup of sugar, then we’d go and ask them for a cup of sugar and they gave it to you. I love that about it. Again, I had a lot of friends because there were a lot of children who lived in those projects on Bentley Dr. And so I had a lot of friends and we did a lot of things together. We swam up Soho. We just swam up Ammons. We had the K Boys Club and I mean we can go on and on and on. It just was fun. It was always something to do and always someone to play with. We didn’t have to have play dates. It just was always stuff to do. I couldn’t afford skates, so my girlfriend gave me one of hers, so we just would skate with one skate and with our lift our leg up. I mean, it just was very fun. They had the Hill House, which I loved and used to go to the Hill House all the time. They always had activities. I learned to play piano there, which I don’t know to play now. I learn ballet there, which I don’t do today. But it just was always something. They were always trying to inspire young people to be better and to do different things and to live outside of the box like you all are doing right now. A strong woman to me is someone who knows her self worth. A strong woman to me is someone who knows that God is real and does exist and is the captain of her life. A strong woman to me is someone who can respond to what happens to them without emotions being involved.A strong woman is someone who perseveres anyway, who walks through the valleys of the shadow of death, which is Bible, even though they may not know what’s going to happen on the other side, but they continue to walk through anyhow. A strong woman is someone who, no matter how many times they get knocked out, and they get back up again. A strong woman is someone who speaks up for themselves. My great grandmother was my role model. She was the strongest woman that I’ve-I know to this day. She exuded, but for the grace of God go I… she was kind and generous and compassion and loving and God fearing, and she was a woman of many talents. She was a cook and she did hair, and she could sing, and she was very forgiving no matter who trespassed against her, she always found forgiveness for them, which is something I’m still trying to. But she was my biggest inspiration and my biggest role model in growing up. She always was a safe space. Whenever I went and talked to her about anything, it remained between the two of us. And so for that reason, she was the strongest woman that I knew. I’m a reverend. I’m an ordained reverend. So I believe that God gives us power. I believe education gives us power, but not just through school, but life, education and gives us wisdom. And so you can just empower yourself, I believe, with education and with life experiences and the word of God, and how you can empower other women is by giving them the same things. I preach all over the city. I just preached here at Ebeneezer last two weeks, but I come out of Mount Ararat Baptist Church, where my pastor’s the Doctor William H. Curtis, where I was trained, licensed and ordained. I would like to say to all of you, know your worth. That’s it, know who you are and if you don’t know who you are, then find out fast and standing out and then be exactly who you are. That’s it. Be exactly who you are. Don’t let nobody tell you who you’re supposed to be. You do you and do it well. Amen.