Riches Will Come, the Wealth is Already Here.
It was another bone-chilling winter morning. The sun seemed more distant than usual as the cloud concealed rays of sunlight from slipping through. It was Monday and the streets were mostly silent, except the occasional familiar groan of the SEPTA bus and cars buzzing past. People trickled down the sidewalk here and there. For the most part, it seemed that Philadelphians unanimously decided this was a day to stay inside— at work, at school or at home.
I stood outside Uncle Bobbie’s Coffee and Books, located on the corner of Germantown Avenue and East Church Lane, trying to get the attention of the few passerbys walking down the frigid and gray concrete.
Walking past me was a chocolate skinned woman of medium build. She was bundled in her black leather jacket and a deep eye-catching purple lipstick, although, her blonde and lime green mini mohawk at the crown of her head was the pièce de résistance.
She took her headphones out to hear what I was saying as I flagged her down. I told her my classmate and I, Temple University graduate students, were working on a project in partnership with WHYY, Resolve Philly and the Listening Post. I explained that the Listening Post “is a community media initiative that partners with media and community groups.” And a journalist named Jesse Hardman started the first listening post in New Orleans.
She could not speak to us at the moment because she was hurrying to run an errand. She said she would be back. I thanked her for her time and continued my attempt to flag down pedestrians to speak with us.
It was as Rashuan Williams (pictured above), a local DJ and community organizer, graciously accepted to be our first speaker, that Ongachi Simuli, the leather-jacket-sporting future Philly fashion icon, walked in.
I was thrilled, not only to see her, that she kept her word to return and share her story with us. She did not have much to say, she said, but she had a couple of thoughts to share about poverty in Philadelphia.
A food pantry director at a local church in Philadelphia, Ongachi dropped some knowledge about her experience with money in Philadelphia as well as her thoughts on poverty in the city.
“A time I worried about money, every day for the most part…I still live paycheck to paycheck and it’s been five years after graduation. It is what it is…worrying about money is a very familiar feeling,” Ongachi shared earnestly.
Ongachi’s presence was captivating to say the least. She spoke with much wisdom and power in a smooth and clear voice. I held on to her every word, sometimes adding a deep “hmmmm” because her words were like salve being rubbed on my soul.
“I react to it [money] differently now than I used to in the past. And what I had to do was change my relationship to money…change how I think about money. I had to ask myself questions of whether I believed I deserved more, that I could even attain more,” Ongachi said. “I had to talk with myself and let myself know ‘hey that is accessible to you. That sometimes you may have to fight a little more. Sometimes you may have to struggle a little more, but you can get that.’”
Ongachi left us with her ‘two-liner,’ as she called it, pertaining to poverty in Philadelphia:
“…poverty is real, the people are struggling, worrying, they don’t have. They’re poor material-wise but they are not poor spiritually. And it’s the spirit that’s connected to the source. The riches will come, the wealth is already there.”
Ongachi gave me a new perspective on poverty in the city. She delved beneath the surface of stories of suffering faces and violence that is often used to depict the “plight of poverty” in any city, especially Philadelphia. Ongachi showed me the soul beneath the surface of poverty in the city, and it was beautiful.
