E.14 (2020) - full transcript

As a sex worker (Liberty) desperately searches for housing after recently discovering she is pregnant, her ex-boyfriend/pimp (King) battles with supporting his family. Meanwhile, an ...

The free birds leaps, on the

back of the wind

and floats downstream, till

the current ends,

and dips her wings in the

orange sunrays, and dares to

claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks down

her narrow cage can seldom

see through her bars of

rage.

Her wings are clipped, and

her feet are tied. So she

opens her throat to sing,

The caged bird sings with

fearful trill of the things

unknown, but longed for,

still

And her tune is heard on a

distant hill

for the caged bird sings of

freedom.

The free bird thinks of

another breeze, and the

trade winds soft through the

sighing trees.

And the fat worms waiting on

a dawn- bright lawn

and she names the sky her

own.

But a caged bird stands on

the grave of dreams

Her shadow shouts on a

nightmare scream

so she opens her throat to

sing

with the fearful trill of

things unknown, but longed

for still, and her tune is

heard on the distant hill

for the caged bird sings of

freedom.

Angelou

What's wrong? Okay.

You're leaving?

Is it something I said?

If I did something wrong I'm

sorry.

You okay?

I wasn't prepared for this.

I didn't think I would find

out like this.

My life had changed forever.

I just want us to make sure

that I could never

disappoint her.

Hey ain't that King's bitch

right there?

Walk around me it's a

choosen fee bitch. You

King's bitch right?!

Back turned around you

better see who you turn down

bitch!

Come on B. King cuz. She

don't understand, you feel

me? Trying to get this money

out here, this paper. This

ho want to come over and

apologize. For what?!

Where that money at bitch?

- Watch.

all right.

Hey...That ain't enough

What the fuck is this?

Where is the rest of the

dough?

See, here's the problem.

I'm riding all up and down

this motherfucking street

making sure you protected

you good.

Hustlin' myself, grinding

thinking you doing the same

thing. So I felt like man,

let me stop and get something to eat.

Let me get a burger

But you know what you worth?...

This how much you need to eat tonight.

shit like that.

You called me.

You wasting my motherfucking

time ...this was your idea!

This is yo motherfucking

idea and I want my

motherfucking money

two bands.

What you got to say for yourself?

What's wrong, you in your feelings now?

Hey. Straight up

I need two G's tonight

Tonight.

so get the fuck out, clean

yourself up,

and get my motherfucking money.

You feel me?

Get out!

Get out my motherfucking car Liberty

... Get the fuck out of my

way!

Crazy ass bitch. What's up

nigga?

Hey, you did that G. Come

on, hit that

Why did this bitch leave the money...

Hey

the bills not the only thing she left.

Televison - ...recognize that we have to fight against the rascist myth

that the Trump

administration is trying to

perpetuate.

Televison - ...recognize that we have to fight against the rascist myth

that the Trump

administration is trying to

perpetuate.

Television - Let's be clear

about political retaliation.

The Trump administration and

ICE have already stated that

they are targeting

California and targeting

sanctuary cities like

Oakland. Because of our

Political stance. Political

retaliation should not be

tolerated in a democratic

America. Go back to

wherever f@%$ you come from

lady

... we're honest people out

here. Yeah rapists.

wherever f@%$ you come from

lady

... we're honest people out

here. Yeah rapists.

How many people have I

raped?

... You're a f@%$ piece of

shit

and explain what I did to you one more time.

.... talking fucking stupid Spanish round here when

everybody else is an English

speaking American.

Okay what's happening here

is ICE is going out on known

information. They know where

these individuals are and

most over 90% of those that

are arrested are those that

have previous criminal

convictions or are already

under ICE proceedings, but

absconded from bail or bond.

Now, there are about 10%

that are collateral arrests

and when you go to a house

that have felons in there,

they arrested felons. There might be some other

undocumented aliens that they'll pick up in the

process, but 90% are

criminal aliens who attack

U.S. citizens...

Televison - So the mayor of

Oakland is saying that

basically these illegal

immigrants and illegal

aliens being rounded up,

she's portraying them as

innocent.

Innocent? They have criminal convictions

already. They're the ones that have been released from

these prisons instead of

being turned over to ICE or

returned out to the street.

So what does ICE have to do?

They have to go to the homes

or to the business to find

these aliens that could have

been picked up at the jail.

But that's not what's happening. Politicians like

this woman are allowing these aliens back on the

street and endangering our

citizens, just like the Kate

Steinly family. This is an

ongoing thing and it needs

to be stopped, and it is the sanctuary policies that are

doing this.

Can you help a brother get some breakfast today?

Please

Yo man, you got some change

bruh?

Nah

...Nah man

Come on I know you got some money man.

I said no nigga!

Get your bitch ass out of here!

Fake ass Rolex.

What Nigga?!

We carry tears in our eyes.

Goodbye, Father, Goodbye

Mother.

We carry soil in small bags.

We carry carnage of mining,

droughts, floods, genocides,

we carry dust of our

families and neighbors

incinerated in mushroom

clouds.

We carry our islands sinking

under the sea. We carry

diplomas, medicine,

nurse, education, math,

poetry, even if they mean

nothing to the other shore.

We carry railroads,

plantations, laundry mats,

bodegas, taco trucks, farms,

factories,

nursing homes, hospitals,

schools, temples.

We carry old homes along the

spine.

New dreams in our chests

We carry yesterday, today

and tomorrow.

Were orphans of the wars

forced upon us.

Were refugees of the sea

rising from industrial

wastes.

And we carry our mother

tongues.

Hubb, Libe, Amor, Love

Ping'an, salaam, shalom,

paz, peace

Amal, Esperanza, hope,

hope

hope

as we drift in our rubber

boats, from shore,

to shore,

to shore

- Wang Ping

My family's been in Oakland

for over a century. My

grandfather used to deal

cards in the back alley

Chinese casinos up and down

the California coast. My

father owned Eagle pharmacy,

and it was located on the

corner of 47th Ave, and East

14th Street.

He first started working there fresh out of high

school in 1954 after he

graduated from Oakland tech.

In those days, East Oakland

was a white community. In

his lifetime it transitioned

to become a primarily Black

and Latino neighborhood.

Sometimes when people look

at my face, they assume that

I'm not from here.

One of the stereotypes that Asian Americans have to

confront is the stereotype

of being a perpetual

foreigner.

Regardless of how long our

families have been here.

I have four generations in

this city. I'm super proud

to have grown up in Oakland.

I feel like Oakland is the

place where I have the most

roots out of anywhere in the world.

Okay.

How much is the co-pay?

When do you need it by?

Yes, I can do that too.

Sounds good mam. I send that

to you right away. Thank

you.

Who is that?

Nobody important. Where have

you been?

Working

That's good.

Listen Dad,

I'm not gonna take off for a while.

What's wrong?

Nothing.

Listen, honey.

I never meant for it to be

like this.

Ever since you mother left.

I tried my best to support

you kids.

Hi, um, I'm here to get the

keys, I'm sorry to bother

you guys, but I need to get

the keys.

Is there any way he can have some extra time to pack?

I suppose so. But..

you know that the new owners are moving in this Friday

so I definitely need to get

them before then.

Sorry, I gotta take this.

Hello..

But everything's gonna be okay Mom.

E14. It is going to be on

the map. Check it out. For

real.

Young brothers trying to

come up. Then gon' come up

and they gon' stay up.

All their dreams will turn

to reality. For real.

Let us remember the wasps

that hibernated in the walls

of this house.

Its walls bulged. 20 pounds

of wasps

And nest.

20 pounds of black knots and

buzzing fists.

We slept unaware that the

wasps slept so near to us.

We slept in black comfort,

wrapped in our cocoons

While death's familiar

swarmed unto themselves,

but could have swarmed onto

us

Do not trust cocoons.

That's the lesson of this

poem.

Or this.

Luck is beautiful.

So let us praise our

beautiful white neighbor.

Let us write poems for she

who found that wasp nest

while remodeling the wreck.

But let us remember that

reck

was for five decades, the

nest.

For a black man and his

father.

Both men were sick and

neglected so they knew how

to neglect.

But kind death stopped for

the father and cruelty left

behind the son,

who siblings quickly sold

the house because it was

only a house.

For months, that drunken

displaced son appeared on

our street like a ghost.

Distraught.

He sat in his car and wept,

because nobody else had wept

enough for his father,

whose ghost took the form of 10,000 wasps.

That's the lesson of this poem.

Grief is as dangerous and unpredictable as a 20 pound

nest of wasps.

- Alexie

Can I get a bed tonight?

What time is it man?

Come on. You don't know what

I've been through today.

Man rules are rules.

Stop being a bitch!

I know you got a fucking

bed!

For one, I'm gonna need you

to calm your tone.

Like for real dude, you come

in here every week

disrespecting somebody

and I'm tired of that shit

man.

You got to start holding yourself more accountable

man.

Like for real. Like where

you been out all day?!

I've been up and down E.14

all day trying to get a job.

Some Bitch Ass Niggas jumped

me and took all my money.

Look...I'm trying out here

man.

Look, I know you tryin' man.

Like for real,

but from brother to brother,

I'm gonna need you to try

harder.

Like for real.

Like I'm gonna let you go

ahead get a sleeping bag

from the back. You go ahead

and go in the office and lay

down on the floor because

we've got too many more

beds.

We don't have none at all.

Like I'm doing this out of

the kindness of my heart

knowing that I can get fired

for this man, for real. So

go ahead man. Hurry up and

go get you a sleeping bag

man. Come on.

Come on, man. Hurry up, man.

The shit I got to deal with

on a day-to-day basis

dealing with these youth

man.

I try my hardest to try to

take care and try to help

out but

like my grandpa always said,

you can't save everybody.

He comes in here every week

being disrespectful to

staff, or being

disrespectful to me, and I'm

just not having it

because I tell him all the

time, bruh I'm from the same

just not having it

because I tell him all the

time, bruh I'm from the same

place you from,

the streets,

but he had a different type

of pain in his eye.

It's like, I don't know if

it's ever gonna go away.

Hi, I need to check the

status on my housing

application.

How can I help you?

Hi, I need to check the

status on my housing

application.

Name and last four of your

social

Washington, Liberty Washington

Okay, it says here your

status is pending. So you'll

probably receive something

in mail in about three to

five weeks

I don't have...

Sorry, I...

I don't have three to five

weeks. I need to find

housing now.

Well, there's nothing I can do for you can sign up for a

shelter at 3pm in downtown

Oakland.

You need a late slip.

...Now

Adios Amigo. (Class laughs)

Very funny. Get back to work.

Bruh come on!

Hurry the fuck up!

You act like you don't hear

me knocking on the fucking

door.

What the fuck is your problem?!

Bring your punk ass out the

bathroom bruh!

What the fuck you gonna?

Nigga what's up?!

You sleepy?

Hey my Nigga. There go that bitch right there

What's up with it...what's happening?

Okay, you see me now, you still ignore me though.

All them times I called you, you didn't want to pick up

the motherfucking phone?

Huh?

You got my money?

Hey you got my money?

Hey where you going? Get off of me? Hey relax.

Who was that was that? Your client?

Or, was that your boyfriend?

Hey...

I can let you go...

But you gotta give me a

taste.

All right. All right.

I guess you want to want to

have it your way?

All right. All right.

I guess you want to want to

have it your way?

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.

Uh oh Mommy.

I'm not your father. And I'm not trying to sit up here

and tell you what to do.

The path that you're going down is going to lead you two places.

Dead or in jail.

And you'll know this! You know it.

You got to start having more empathy for people.

Nobody got fucking empathy for me man.

Don't nobody care about

whether or not I'll live or

die.

Terrell, you got a lot healing to do bruh.

Man, you ain't my bruh!

You don't know about shit that I'm going through, man.

I'm out here alone in the streets man

I was just a kid. I didn't deserve that shit.

Andria?

Andria send me.

Yeah, yeah, yeah...

Room number two, in the back

Neighborhood of my youth demolished,

erased forever from the universe.

You live on, captive, in the lonely cellblocks of my mind

erased forever from the universe.

You live on, captive, in the lonely cellblocks of my mind

Neighborhood of endless

hills, Muddied streets --

all pothole lined --

That never drank of asphalt.

Kids barefoot, snotty nose

Playing cee-lo, grubbing, grubbing on

Everett Jones BBQ, and bean

burritos from the East,

The ones you will never find

near the lake,

2 peaceful generations removed from our

granparents' revolution

Neighborhood of dilapidated

community hail,

Calling the police on us, waiting for us to go to jail

Neighborhood of sideshows

down to San Leandro, past

Fruitvale, beyond the Shady 80's

From John George to Santa Rita, it seems it would

drive anybody crazy

I guess this is what's left of broken families and

babies.

The turf.

friendly neighborhood

Cop's and robbers in the Deep East

In people's private nighttime bedrooms

Bearing sticks of Juicy Fruit for The Trap girls

chasing them in adolescent heat

Causing skinned knees and being run off for the night

Disenchanted walking home, affections spurned

Pullin' Stay-Out-Late girls,

In search of modern romance lovers, who always stood

Pullin' Stay-Out-Late girls,

In search of modern romance lovers, who always stood

them up

Unable to leave their world on LED screens.

This is our dream

What dream?

- Salinas

How old are you?

Run away?

I can help you.

Why are you just sitting

there shaking your head?

Baby you don't think you are

better better than this

Out here turning tricks.

Where's your family?

You got a place to stay?

You got Section 8?

The wait list was too long.

You gotta have someplace to

stay.

Look.

If you don't talk to me, I

can't help you.

They just gon' come and take

you back to the sell.

He is looking for us.

You try another county?

This is Contra Costa

housing.

You tell them you're

pregnant.

They'll give you priority.

Why are you helping me?

...because everybody

deserves a second chance.

Shut the fuck up. Shut up.

Hey. Hey. Hey! What's goign

on man?!

I told you this was your

last warning!

Get the fuck out!

Swept away in the wind of

our breath.

Gravel side streets of

solitude.

The mobs from the tracks are

coming.

What are you doing on Friday

after work?

There are some open houses I want us to check out.

Kisha I told you that we are not leaving...

this is not a discussion Keandre

You need to be there for your daughter.

You right.

I know I am right.

Stop

You right.

Stop

Why you coming home late?

Traffic

Got down to one lane. Crazy

Traffic

Got down to one lane. Crazy

Came home with the bread though.

Daddy?

You're hot.

Sweaty huhn?

Daddy's been working.

Sweaty.

Look at Popeye.

Go to sleep

Can you get some milk tomorrow?

Go to sleep

Can you get some milk tomorrow?

Are you too busy?

I got you

Milk? I got you. That's

what you want? Some milk?

Can I get some sleep?

Yeah...But I want my kiss

Hello?

This is Jimmy.

When did this happen?

I'll tell them

Okay. Thank you

My self esteem took a huge

blow when people no longer

saw me as human. I needed a

place to sleep where no one

would take advantage of me

and I was vulnerable.

Liberating food became my

new priority. Sleep became a

luxury.

If I was able to rest my

body for a bit, it was a

good day.

Trust became hard after being on the streets

It gets real cold out here

at night.

Okay, were here baby.

Mama's gonna come pick you

up after school today, okay.

Love you.

Bye Daddy.

Bye baby. Here take your

bag.

Have a good day.

Where is he?

Oh no. School Bus?

School Bus buns?

School Bus bump. Slims? School bus slims?

Hello, this is Andria Miles calling from earlier.

His name is Ramirez, Augustin Ramirez.

What do you mean? Where is

he?

Which detention center?

You can't just do that.

No, this is bullshit.

He's just a kid.

When I first met Octavio

he was sleeping in the streets.

He got beat up all the time.

He was sexually abused at the border when he was

crossing.

I thought I could help him because I was the only one

in my job that could speak Spanish.

One day, I got a call from his school.

He went "5150" in his

classroom because he hadn't

slept in 10 days.

He got deported to a detention center

in Arizona.

I never saw him again.

Labor

2%? Who would have tought?

Look cutty. Beyond that alright.

I have a question. I need a favor.

A favor.

I got a thick bitch on 98. Probably got a friend for you

...who knows.

but gamed up, tossed up. You

know, next to your boy...

but...I need a ride over there thought.

(King laughs)

Come on man.

Are you listening to me dawg?

Hell no I ain't listening to your ass boy. Crazy as hell.

Look man ever since you

handled your Liberty

situation and what not...

right now man.... I'm trying

to get my bread up too dog.

You've been trippin ever

since then

Holler at me.

Ain't nobody trippin on that

broad..

I ain't thinking about that

shit like that..

Man it's about that money

thnough.

You can't let that bitch get

between you and that money.

Listen blood.

It dosn't always have to be

about motherfucking money.

Then what is it about if it

ain't about the

motherfucking money then?

Family Nigga.

Family?

Oh oh.

It's on family today?

I hear you. Good shit. Good

to know.

You going to take me over

there though? Is it good?

Hell no I ain't taking your

ass over there.

Man do you hear this guy

bruh?!

You can take your

motherfucking self. You got

a license.

Hey that 5 is fake, don't

let him fool you.

Don't listen to this cat

man.

After you King...Can I still

get a ride though?

Hey cutty I'm not holding

your milk!

Are you okay?

You allright dog.

You remember me?

Fucking bitch

Is it safe here?

Drive, please!

Just drive.

T!

T, get up Nigga!

T!

Get up blood!

Are you okay?

Yes

I know, I know, I know.

Let's go. Let's go. Let's

go, daddy. I'm

sorry. Daddy got two

minutes. Let's go okay.

I'm done ... Let's get out of here.

Yes, then I'll be ready. Thank you. Thank you for

coming.

Getting away was already on my mind

because I knew it was only a matter of time.

and here I am laid up, three month old boy

just born.

Either you going to get out on your terms,

Or they gonna get you out on there's.

Congratulations.

Thank you, Jimmy. It's been

such a rough week for me. So

this is

amazing.

Here you go.

Thank you.

We've been looking for so

long and we were outbid by

all cash offers the last two

times. So we are so happy

that we finally found something we could actually

afford.

Well, it's all yours now.

So take good care of it.

We will.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you.

Let's go!

Not here. Move along.

Hey daddy, I didn't realize that was you.