Filling the Hole
It was 2004. I was incarcerated in Wisconsin’s Dane County Jail. I had forged checks on the account of my seventy-year-old friend, Miss Milele Chikasa Anana, one of the most prominent, renowned, highly respected members of the African American community, Madison,...
We Will Let Our Light Shine Wherever We Are
As I sit here again, being the only person of color in the room, I tell myself WE are allowed here. WE are going to let our light shine wherever WE are. My critical parent showed up to tell us our lines aren't straight. And WE say... of course they aren't; we are...
Mother Earth
I love listening to her heart beat,"Beat, beat""Beat", "beat"In my mother's wombFirst split,Second split,Ingesting her painFourth split,Eighth split A world full of possibilitiesI was chosen for herShe for ISixteenth split, thirty second split In my mother's womb, I...
I Will Not
I will not self-abandon.I will not lend my worth.I will not dance for you, but for me.I know peace is the answer. I will not succumb to oppression. I will not bow down to the white male. I will not forget my purpose on Earth. I will not be defined...
Palace of Mirrors
This song represents a time of darkness just before the dawn of my ACA recovery journey. Its meaning and feel have changed and grown from when I first wrote and recorded it. Over the nearly four years of my time in ACA, I have come back to it and listened with greater...
Hair
Monique J.
ACA Works on Internalized Racism
I’m a Filipina-American, with nine years in ACA. I did not grow up with alcoholism, drug addiction, or mental illness. I did grow up with immigrant trauma, intergenerational colonialist trauma, internalized racism, and a resulting set of stressed out hard-working...
Gas Plant Community
Carlos L. Gas Plant Community Carlos L.
Reflections on Crosstalk
For me, this sacred element has been the single most important tenet of this program. Crosstalk absolutely hinders my recovery no matter how benign. I had my feelings, thoughts co-opted in childhood and in my closest relationships as an adult, in the name of...
My Story
My story begins in 1975 in an old told of Louisiana when I was three years old. I was a child of the consummation of Ralph retired US Navy, unattended military PTSD captain, and Pam vietnamese refugee Codependent mother of 5 children foreigner to US, naturalized...