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Dan Kennedy (1:09)

Welcome to the Moth Podcast. I'm Dan Kennedy. Before we get started, we wanted to mention one more time a project that we're very excited about. The Moth is partnering with the Help, a movie in which a group of women risk everything to tell their stories. In the spirit of the film's bold characters. The Help Social Action campaign wants you to share your stories. To participate, visit takepart.com thehelp the story you're about to hear by Sherman O.T. powell was recorded live at the Moth at Central Park Summer Stage in June. The theme that evening was big night.

Sherman O.T. Powell (1:49)

In 1975. I weighed 120 pounds. I was 28 years old and I found myself on a bus chained to a West Indian brother, heading upstate to Green Haven Prison. I had been busted for the sale of narcotics in the first, second, and third degree. I had been given four to life under the Rockefeller Plan. During this time, whether you sold a bag of dope, a bag of coke, methadone, or even your own medication pills, you were going to get a life. There was going to be a life tagged onto the back of it, you know, and you might get one to life, you might get two to life, three to life, depending on the quantity. So I'm on my way to Green Haven, and when I get to Green Haven, which was orientation, we were to stay there at least two weeks. So you get your physical and you get your pills and you basically get all the Things that you're going to need, your clothes and so forth and so on, and. And you get your rule book, the do's and the don'ts. So after two weeks, I'm put on the bus again, shackled down, and I'm heading for the second worst prison in New York State, Attica. I knew that I was going to get some time one day because of the way I live, but never in my wildest dream did I think life was going to be on the end of it. So I get to Attica and three days later, I go to the yard. And I'm walking in the yard and I'm just scared to death because I've never been in prison before. This is my first time ever being in prison. I did a couple of stints in Rockers island and various county jails, but I've made the big time now. I mean, I'm looking at the walls. I'm an attic or penitentiary. I mean, I'm walking around and I'm seeing bullet holes still in the wall where National Guard had shot inmates during the 1971 riot there. And so I'm just totally scared to death. I'd heard about guys getting raped and guys getting stabbed, and so I'm just petrified. So if faith would have it, two or three of my old customers from the street that I used to sell dope to, they happened to be there. And so they told me, say, sherman, oh man, don't worry about. Because they must have seen the fear in my face. So they said, don't worry about a thing. We going to look out for you, man. Cause you looked out for us when we was in the street. I said, thank you, Lord, you know, so. So you had all these guys coming up to me. Everybody wants to. Wants you to join their. Their church thing. You had the Pentecostals wanting me to join in, the Baptists and the Catholics and the Buddhas and the this and everything but Odin. So I said, well, I really don't want to join anything right now. I'm trying to get myself together. And so one of the guys told Mr. Sherman, when you go to the. When you go to the assignment board, tell them that you want to get your GED and that you want to get in some type of vocational program. You don't want no work assignment, you want to go to school, he said, because that's the only thing they understand. That's what they call rehabilitation. Anything else, your ass to be hit at the board. So sure enough, when I went to the board There I told him that I wanted to go to school. So that's where they put me in school and put me in typing. And so my friend was getting ready to leave. He was going home on parole. So he told the guards up front to make me the water man. So as me being the water boy, what I would do is get up early in the morning and I would pass out the water to each and everybody, because you had to have hot water to get to start your day. So in the meantime, I'm thinking to myself, I got a pack a day habit of cigarettes. I got a candy Jones. I love Snickers and M and Ms, but I'm only getting $20 a goddamn month from the state. So I got to come up with some type of fucking hustle to get me some cigarettes and some candy, right? So I remember when I was in Rikers Island, I worked at the bakery. And I remember this guy showed me how to make hooch. We would get a big bucket, right, and put the black plastic bag in the bucket, and we would put the yeast in there and buy several cans of concentrated grapefruit juice or orange juice. And we would either put potatoes in there, or we would put either grapes in there. I like the grapefruits myself. It was much stronger. I like to put the grapefruits and grapefruit juice in there and put a little sugar with it. Tie the baby up and let it sit, sit for about six or seven days and voila, you'll be in heaven, you know. So anyway, so I said, well, this is what I got to do, right? So I had to make some connections. So I. I found a friend of mine who knew a friend who knew a friend who got in touch with a guy in the kitchen so I could get the yeast. Now they sold the. They sold the juice in the commissary, they sold sugar in the commissary. And every third day we had grapefruits for morning breakfast. So I would get all the guys grapefruit. So I started wheeling and dealing. So I started putting stuff together, you know, and everybody in the joint basically smoke, drinks, coffee. Everybody has the whole 10 hour scolder joy. So I was at first trying to figure out how I was going to distribute the goddamn wine when I figured out that I could put it in the coffee jars, right? And so once I made it, I put it on, it started bubbling and stuff, but it started stinking. So I had to figure out a way to stop this smell. So in the commissary, they had what they call magic shave. Now, magic shave is a paste that you hoop up and you put on your face, right? And not only would it take the hair off your face, it'll take the skin off your face if you leave it on too long, right? But. But really, it smells like 70 rotten eggs. It stinks like hell. So whenever the guards would come past my cell, they was. Shorty, I don't know how you put that shit on your goddamn face. That shit stink. But he didn't know. I'm. I'm. I'm whipping this shit up to keep them from smelling the goddamn wine, right? So because I got the wine wrapped up in the blanket under my fucking bed, I'm nursing this wine like I'm a nurse in infirmary. I'm taking care of this wine, right? And so this is my livelihood. And so, so when. So when the first batch finally came, I collect. You know, being said, I'm the water man. My cell stays open, so I go collect everybody's coffee jar, come fill them up, pass out the coffee jar. And I'm getting five packs of coffee jar for every ten hours. Coffee jar, I got five packs. So my. My cigarettes are stacking up. My candy is stacking up. I'm eating Snickers like a. Eating M M's. Like, I'm doing good, right? And so, so I'm. So I found out that ronnie work and Mr. Frank Yakiman, who was. The guards, they had. They liked me because I was the smallest guy in the. In the joint, right? So they kind of took a liking to me because I was always in somebody's face who was always three, four times taller than me, talking shit, you know? So they, they said, shorty, you got set of balls on you, you know? Yeah, we're glad we chose you to be the water man. So I could go outside and Frank, Ms. Frank Yachtman, he had the skull on his face, which reminded me of Al Capone. So I'd always tell him, I would always go out and say, Mr. Capone. I mean, mister, mister. Mr. Frank. He go to laugh. Shorty, you full of. Why you want to go? I said, I just want to go next door to Mr. I want to see friend. A friend of mine's next door. Go ahead on, Shorty. Now, if anybody else asked me to tell her, no lock in. But you let Shorty go. Quit snitching. Lock the in, you know. But I was all right with them. And so I take my wine, put in, put it in my coat pocket, put some in my Back pocket and go across the hall there and sell my wares, right? And so one guy told me, said, well, I ain't got no five packs, but I give you a joint, and the joint cost five packs. So I said, that's cool. So I gave him the wine and got the joint. Now I'm really kicking. I got joints, reefer candy. I mean, I got reefer candy, cigarettes, I mean, cookies. I'm really willing to deal it, right? So as time goes on, Big Frank Jockerman and them, they take a vacation and some new guards come on. But they ain't cool with me like Frank and Mr. Ronnie Worth is. So I'm laying there one night, my wine is cooking and I'm reading the book. So I had a couple of guys in the back of the back of the chair, couple of guys in the front of the tier. So whenever the police would come, they would say past the pan, anybody got a paper? That was the code, that the police was coming. And I would hook up the magic shave, right? And so. But this particular night, they scared the. Out of. Out of them and told them they better not say nothing. And next thing I know, my. My cell door was being cracked and the captain was there about four guards. So he said, shorty, you want to step out? I said, man, it's 11:30 in the morning. I said, what is this all about? He said, shorty, you want to step out or would you like for us to help you out? Well. Well, I know what he talking about, Help me. I don't need no help. I mean, I'll come around if you just, you know, if it's like that, you know. So he comes on in the cell, it goes under the bed and it gets. Gets the bucket, pulls it from under the bed. So. So the. The rule in the rule book, you can't mess with a guy's religious artifacts. So I had about several of Christian pamphlets on top of my wine with a big Bible. So I said, man, you can't be touching my. My. My religious artifacts and stuff. He said, don't worry, Shorty. We ain't gonna. We ain't gonna mess up your Bible and stuff. So he picked it all up, put it on the bed and pulled the wine out. So he opens up the. Opens up the bag, and the fumes jump up. He said, oh, my God, how do you drink this shit? He said, this shit will take the wax off the floor. I said, what shit? I said, it ain't nothing but punch. I said, I just put some grapefruit in There some juice and some sugar. I said, you know, the 4th of July is a couple of days away. I said I was going to give the fellows a little celebration. What's the punch? So the captain said, do I look like a goddamn fool to you? You forgot one ingredient. The yeast. Get. Get your ass back in the cell. You know, say, write him up. So they take my wine away. Write me up. The next day I go to the. To the adjustment committee. So the deputy boy come in, the deputy boy and say, you Sherman Powell? I said, yes, sir. He says, you stupid or something? I said, no, I'm not stupid. He said, what'd you say? I said, yes, sir, I'm stupid. So he said, well. He said, well, your name is Pals, not Gallo. The you doing selling wine in my prison? You in here for selling dope. And you gonna come to my prison to sell wine? What are you gonna. Out of your goddamn mind. Take his ass back downstairs and lock him up. 30 days, no wreck. 30 days, no commissary. 30 days, no visits. Take my. Took my ass back down, said, lock me up, right? So I told my friend, I said, look, go to my people and tell them to send me a block of yeast. I'm gonna hook up another batch. He said, is you crazy, man? You don't keep lock. I said, that's the best time to make it. That they don't think you got it right. So. So they told me, say, he said, look, man, say if they bust you again, say your ass to be shipped to Dana Moore. Now, Danner Moore, Clinton Penitentiary is the number one worst penitentiary in the state of New York. This is why they send all the bad from Attica to Clinton. They go to warden in Clinton called the Valley. As rumor had it, he didn't shot two in the head and cut two throat and bust another, bust another of them head with weight and buried them under the gym. So I had no intention of going. No goddamn dining war, you know. But still my greed overtook my common sense. And I still wanted to make me another batch because I was down. I mean, my supply of M and M's and Snickers was down. And I needed to re up, right? So my man, he went and got the yeast and I made me another batch of shit, right? By this time, Ronnie Worth and them had came back from the off off the day of vacation. And so I'm sitting there reading my book. I had got all the jars from the guys before they went to wreck. And I had filled all the jars up with the wine so when they came in, I was passing out the jars. Everybody was getting their wine, right? And we're collecting my cigarettes. And so I'm sitting there reading my book and stuff. And so all of a sudden my, my, my. My. My. My friend said, well, Mr. Worth say he wants you to come to the. Come to the front, right? So I came out front. So Mr. Worse said, Shorty, you done made some more of that goddamn wine, ain't you? And I looked at him, I said, who the fuck done snitched on me that quick? I didn't see nobody, you know. He said, you done made some more of that wine, right, Shorty? He said, don't lie. He said, you want to know how I know? He said, open the fucking door. So I pulled back, pulled the door open that led to the tear. And all you could hear was the black guys playing them boomboxes out loud. Oh, I heard it to the grapevine. How much longer would you be mine? And all the Spanish guys were beating on their lockers and death raking on the, on the, on the, on the bars, right? And all the white boys got their good toys. It's knowing that your door is over, you open, and your path is free to walk over. So everybody was in their own world, right? And he said, shorty, I know that you to passed out that cause of total chaos back there. He said, whenever you. Whenever you don't pass out, that as quiet as a church mouth. People be reading their Bible, they be studying, writing letters, it be quiet only when you pass out that do it be like that. He said, so you want to know who snitched on you? Your customers? Is the. The snitched on you? So he said, look, Charlie, you going to the board in a couple of months. I don't want to see you get in no trouble. He said, well, go back in there, empty that out, get some pine, clean your cell out, clean that thing up and retire from being a bootlegger. You get my drift? I said, yes, sir, I got your drip. So sure enough, two months later, I went to the board and they. And they let me go. Gave me a parole date, let me go. So it wasn't until I got back to my cell and I sit down and I realized that, you know, reefer, wine, all this shit that I had, and if it wasn't for Ronnie Wirf and Frank Yachtman being all right with me, had they turned it back and. And decided to bust me and I had a life sentence, I could have been getting hit on and on and on and on. I could have been there to the next eclipse or whatever, you understand what I'm saying? So it dawned on me how really stupid I had been and how childish I had been doing this shit. So I made up my mind right then. It's the time to be defiant and it's a time to be compliant. And whenever you're in the penitentiary, be compliant.