In Miami

I'm Nadege Green in Miami and these are the people I've interviewed while reporting in the 305 for public radio.

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“Some days I go, ‘Why am I doing all this? Get out of here...’ And I go, ‘I can’t.’ It’s too important to let this go to a high-rise. It’s an example for everyone to see.  Everybody loves it.”

--Ray Chasser, owner of the Earth N Us Farm in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood. 

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“These are eagle feathers. We’re blessing the children.”

--Catherine “Hummingbird” Ramirez, at a ceremony to remember Sherdavia Jenkins ten years later.  Sherdavia, 9,  was killed by a stray bullet in the Liberty Square housing project. She would have ben 19. 

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“When you drink your liquor, you must know how to keep your liquor.” 

--Clairemis Blan, the unofficial mayor of Little Farm trailer park in El Portal. She says she breaks up quite a few liquor-fueled fights among her neighbors.

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“You have to deal with other people saying you’re gay because you dance. You’re this. You’re that. I don’t care what people have to say about me because this is my dream.”

--Diaunte Jenkins, a junior at Miami Northwestern High School in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood, says he is inspired by the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

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“He needs to know there are dangers for him out there. He needs to be aware of it because he’s not aware of it. It makes me scared. It makes me very scared.”

-Dena Foman and her son attended “Rally for Answers” in front of the Palm Beach Gardens police station in memory of Corey Jones. Corey Jones,  a 31-year old drummer,  was killed by a Palm Beach Gardens officer after his car broke down on I-95.

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“ I don’t have to be sad as often for my white brothers and sisters as much as I have to be for my black. All lives do matter, but the ratio of white men and white women being slain by cops is a lot lower than it is for black.”

-Tameria Moore attended “Rally for Answers” in front of the Palm Beach Gardens police station in memory of Corey Jones. Corey Jones,  a 31-year old drummer,  was killed by a Palm Beach Gardens officer after his car broke down on I-95.

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“This my granddaughter. I’m out here for a reason, we got to stop this. She just wants to go to the park. She deserves a normal life.”

-Eddie Monsegue  attended “Rally for Answers” in front of the Palm Beach Gardens police station in memory of Corey Jones. Corey Jones,  a 31-year old drummer,  was killed by a Palm Beach Gardens officer after his car broke down on I-95.

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”I feel such despair for African-American women who have to worry about their sons being killed whether they’re wearing a hoodie in the wrong neighborhood or breaking down in the wee hours of the morning.”  

-Anne Marie Goodmark attended “Rally for Answers” in front of the Palm Beach Gardens police station in memory of Corey Jones. Corey Jones,  a 31-year old drummer,  was killed by a Palm Beach Gardens officer after his car broke down on I-95.

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Father Jean Mary who leads the congregation at Notre Dam D’Haiti said he knows that some people look at the Jericho revival and say, “This doesn’t look Catholic.”  The uninhibited prayers, the talking in tongues are more reminiscent of the Pentecostal church.

“The key to us is not what it looks like,” he said. “[It’s] what impact it’s having on the lives of the people.”

More than half of U.S. adults who grew up Catholic leave the church at some point in their lives. About 11 percent return, according to a Pew Research Center study.

Jean Mary said spiritual activities like this are also a way to invite back those who left and to show them a different side of the church.

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The Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement is alive at Notre Dame D’Haiti, a predominantly Haitian congregation in Miami where masses are exuberant.

Each year the church hosts the Jericho revival, now in its fourteenth year, where this fiery brand of worship is on display.

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Cerasee or asosi in Haitian-Creole is typically prepared as a tea: Wash the vine; throw it into a pot of water --leaves, stems and all. Boil and simmer until the water turns a murky greenish brown. It’s the go-to bush medicine for much of the Caribbean.

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“Growing up in Jamaica in the country area mainly, they never go to the doctor a lot. For every sickness there’s an herb or a bush that’s growing somewhere in the field that they depend on.”

-Audrey Rowe, picking cerasee vine in North Miami Beach for a bush bath

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“ If you said you have a belly ache and my mom go out there and prepare some strong bush tea, you can’t say you don’t want it.”

—Cacheta Francis, Jamaican bush medicine devotee 

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“Primarily we don’t see on the news where someone dies of HIV/AIDS. We see someone being gunned down, violence— let’s talk about the things that are really going on outside of that. It’s our jobs as adults. You don’t have to have a title to educate these kids.”

-Charles Williams, mentor and owner of nonprofit Generational Cure

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“I caught HIV back in 1988.  It don’t bother me, you know. I caught it from a woman. When Magic Johnson went public that gave me the courage cause I always loved him from being a basketball player and all the things he did in the community.”

-Jeffrey Edwards, Miami Gardens resident

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“I’ve gotten comments where people say, ‘Oh, this is beautiful, but it’s too African.’ It’s something that really makes me cringe because it says being African is not good enough. As if you have to water it down with something that is not African.”

-Paola Mathe, owner of Fanm Djanm, a head wrap line