Table Of ContentSTREET TEACHING
IN THE TENDERLOIN
Jumpin’ Down the Rabbit Hole
DON STANNARD-FRIEL
Street Teaching in the Tenderloin
Don Stannard-Friel
Street Teaching in the
Tenderloin
Jumpin’ Down the Rabbit Hole
Don Stannard-Friel
Notre Dame de Namur University
Belmont, CA , USA
ISBN 978-1-137-56436-8 ISBN 978-1-137-56437-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-56437-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016947042
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To the Tenderloin community: the secret garden
“Hi, my name is Moon.” The man, dressed entirely in blue denim,
sweeps his hands through the air, taking in the big, cavernous, concrete
room. “This is my home.” He seems like a nice guy. Moon reminds me a
lot of the late, great folksinger, John Denver, with his neat, straight, long-
ish, light-colored hair combed over his forehead. He even wears round
wire- rimmed glasses, a silly hat on his head that he crocheted himself, has
an easy smile, and is a natural-born storyteller, just like John Denver.
“Why are you here?” Chris, one of my students, asks.
“I killed two people. I take responsibility for my actions. I did it. I
snapped one day. They didn’t deserve it, and I accept full responsibility.”
Moon nods his head, affi rming his commitment to the truth. He seems
very sincere, just like John Denver, except for the murders.
As we walk out of Death Row, heading over to the death chamber—
where Moon is sentenced to be strapped to a gurney, have a needle stuck
in his arm, and die—our tour guide calls over his shoulder, “He beat his
ex-girlfriend and her mother to death, with a fi re log and a hammer.”
What lessons are to be learned inside the walls of San Quentin State
Prison? What new knowledge will we glean from our street teachers today,
the men behind bars and those who keep them here? What do I say to
Rebecca, a bright-eyed, enthusiastic sociology student and campus leader,
when she whispers to me—in the noisy, chaotic South Block, where new
prisoners in orange jumpsuits are being processed—“Right there!” She
points to a shadow, moving behind bars on the second tier, “That’s my
brother’s cell.” Or Bianca, whose brother, now in Monterey County Jail
in Salinas, is headed to the state prison in Solano? Or Crystal, whose little
sister did time in Chowchilla? What can I say to these three young women,
walking with their classmates and me through California’s oldest prison? I
say to them what I say to those who challenge me with, “What’s the point
of bringing p rivileged college students into prisons and the inner city?”
“The lessons we learn here will make our own lives more meaningful
and purposeful, and the world a better place to be.”
vii
C
ONTENTS
Introduction: What Waits Below x vii
1 Wild Awakenings 1
2 Jumpin’ Down the Rabbit Hole 1 5
3 Höküao’s Tears 2 7
4 It Was a Terrible Time 3 9
5 Stories of Survival 4 9
6 RIP Josh Mann 6 1
7 One Sadness After Another and Another 73
8 The Drug Store 1 03
9 Tender Loin 1 39
ix
x CONTENTS
10 The Mental Hospital Without Walls 1 67
11 I’ve a Feeling We’re Not in Kansas (City) Anymore 2 01
12 Don’t Count Me! 2 27
13 The Secret Garden 255
14 Trendy Loin 2 95
15 The Soul of the City 3 19
16 Compassion as Pedagogy 3 33
Appendix I: Exploring the History and Culture
of the Tenderloin 373
Appendix II: List of Street Teachers 377
Appendix III: Recommended Readings In Community
Engagement 381
Acknowledgements 383
Bibliography 387
Index 395
“I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it’ll seem
to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The
antipathies, I think – ” (she was rather glad there was no one listening, this
time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) – “but I shall have to ask them
what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New
Zealand? Or Australia?”
Alice, in Lewis Carroll’s
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland6
“I remember sittin’ n aked on the back of a bull in a fuckin’ rice paddy.
Next thing, I’m dealin’ dope in The TL. Fuckin’ c razy , man.”
Rey, Cambodian refugee
xi
A A
BOUT THE UTHOR
Since 1978, Don Stannard-Friel has been Professor of Sociology and
Anthropology at Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU) in Belmont,
California. From 1984 to 1993, he served as the university’s Dean of
Faculty, before leaving the administrative position to do “street sociol-
ogy.” Over the years, he has also been a lecturer or visiting professor at
San Francisco State University, The Presidio (US Army) of San Francisco,
University of San Francisco, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa
Rita Jail in Alameda County, and the Federal Correctional Institution for
Women in Dublin, California. Before teaching, he worked as a waiter in
Malibu, a cabdriver in San Francisco, and, for fi ve years, a mental health
worker on psychiatric wards that served the Haight-Ashbury and Fillmore
Districts in San Francisco, during the cultural revolution of the late 1960s
and early 1970s.
He has also served as California Site Director, Notre Dame-AmeriCorps;
Founding Director of the Dorothy Stang Center for Social Justice and
Community Engagement at NDNU; and was a Board Member, including
Chair, of Indochinese Housing Development Corporation (IHDC) in the
Tenderloin.
His recognitions include being selected as a California Campus
Compact-Carnegie Foundation Faculty Fellow for Service Learning and
Political Engagement, and on campus, The Living Torch Award, for
carrying on the social justice mission and values of the Sisters of Notre
Dame; the NDNU Mission Values in Action Award for Exemplifying and
Promoting Social Justice and Global Peace; the Inner Fire Award, granted
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