THE OBSERVATION BOOTH
OP-ED BY ANDREA DIALECT
You show people that you matter by behaving like you matter and doing things that matter… Andrea Dialect Said That!
It was pretty late in the evening when my young mentee called. I picked up just because thinking that perhaps he was going through something at the time. He was I gather, but he danced around it as usual. It saddens me that the whole song and dance thing go on most times when conversing with guys and they are not at liberty they feel for whatever reason to express themselves.
The good, bad, or the ugly need be or to cry damn it; especially when in this safe space or any other one. Most seem to reach out they often tell me because of my no-nonsense approach. Let’s just say he got what he came for.
“Seemingly everyone has become such cry babies to a point that it’s criminal in a world where your enemy is the size of a microscopic flea and big guns when it comes to true warfare are obsolete. Step into your big boy boots and string up those Timbs. You have little girls in third-world countries whose parents have been killed and after getting raped almost every other night give or take, in the morning they continue in their role as a parent to their sibling or another two or three… Facts.
“So I think that you my good fellow can make it despite it all living here in the states. That’s not even the tip of the iceberg.
It’s been war since you took your first gulp. Everybody doesn’t have to love you or like ya. Cain killed Abel at the beginning of time and that was his brother, so you’ll have enemies. You didn’t come down here to stay; you’re on a visa. Meaning it is all about finding your purpose and doing it. So, wrap your head around death and live!”
If you think that’s harsh for him at twenty-eight, you’d cringe if I told ya the age of my children and granny’s children when they got that verbal memo lol! I know it off the top of my head because I use it quite often. That’s in its entirety or as a sound bite for a mini script. But if I don’t utilize that; I go to my black book and introduce them to the life of my good friend Barry – in a condensed version that is and that’s what you’re getting here.
You’re going to hafta follow the breadcrumbs and this is your first drop. This is a short intro into the life of the man by the man…
EIGHT AND COUNTING
TRAVEL LOG ENTRY: Barry Alston Ray
(thavoicebar@gmail.com)
Demographic: Brooklyn, NY
Photo Credit: Andrea Dialect
My name is Barry Alston Ray and I live in Brooklyn. I am an actor with features and appearances in so much. Coming up, I have season two from Raising Kanan on August 14th, The Rise & Fall of Bernie Madoff (Netflix), the motion picture Black Flies (with Sean Penn, Mel Gibson, and Mike Tyson). That’s Forth Coming is another, and The Diary of a Changed Man the movie to name a few. I am a singer/songwriter, a published model, and an all-around entertainer.
July 17th of this month kicked off the 8th year celebration of my release from a 22 years and nine months prison sentence. The day that I stepped out of those gates was both very emotional and surreal. It was like being reborn. I was in upstate New York so the first thing that I did when I got out was voyaging. Most of my time was spent in transit. It was a crazy day because I had to travel back down which was about a four-hour commute.
My first stop was parole which was in Queens. I brought a phone that day, I brought myself two pairs of jeans and some underwear and I got myself a bite to eat, and then I had to get on the train because I had to be at the shelter at a certain time. Because I didn’t have a place to stay or nothing, for two weeks I lived in the shelter.
On my first day, I took in the sights and got my first phone number. I had a beef patty as far as eating goes and that’s it, nothing special. I was on the move and my money was very limited. I had to get that phone and I had no clothes so I had to buy those jeans, underwear and those tees. Going back to the first day that I went into prison oh my gosh, oh my God, same thing, very emotional and surreal. It was hard facing the reality of it, it was just rough.
What kept me going number one was having a relationship with the Lord. Knowing who God is in my life despite everything that I had been through; I knew I was cut from a different cloth. I had to dig deep. It was so much going on around me during my entire incarceration. Still standing firm and being an individual not being a byproduct and not becoming institutionalized. It was a lot; it was a lot every day.
I never have flashbacks about that time in my life but there are situations and similarities that I come across that are like triggers. I am grateful that I’ve come to a point where I changed. I have grown so much that those triggers no longer affect me, but it’s been a journey. My advice to anyone that is faced with difficulty or if like I had; you are awaiting booking and it’s your first day in, or you’re preparing to be shipped up North. Focus, focus, focus even though it may feel like forever; focus on your future.
I encourage you to read and learn as much as you can. Don’t become that by-product, don’t become institutionalized. It’s alright to be different, people actually respect it just focus. I lived in 16 different facilities during that 22 and eight. Most of my time was spent reading and I wrote a lot.
RELEASED
I wrote Choir Boy when I was incarcerated; I believe that I started writing it around 2003. However, because it touched on some things as writing the book and I put it down. It was just too close to home, and I just didn’t want to deal with it at the time. Then in 2005 at one of the facilities that I was in, Bare Hill – which was very close to Canada and was a sixty-man dorm – there were two writers in the dorm. Somehow while I was cleaning up the cue or whatever they came across the manuscript and they said, “Barry you have to finish this, you’re on to something.” So, September of 2005, I sat down and started writing again and basically every day I would write. Even if it was just a line and by January 2006, it was finished.
Choir Boy is a figment of my imagination with some real elements. I pulled from both experiences and allowed my imagination to amplify and magnify situations. So, it’s a combination. Every emotion is touched on in this book even though it’s fiction there are levels of reality in it that are going to open up people’s eyes. It will give you an understanding and an awareness to know what to watch out for. Choir Boy is a good read across the board.
I am grateful that it is doing well, and that people are still talking about it. It’s a cult following, they’re loving the characters. Someone just hit me up from Atlanta the other day and they were running down the characters. Who they loved in the book and who they hated, just loving the book. They made it personal and that’s what it does when you read Choir Boy; it becomes personal.
Choir Boy can be found everywhere that you order books. (Barnes & Noble, Walmart, Good Reads, Thrift books). Choir Boy is also coming to the screen. We are actually preparing to shoot a three episode pilot to shop. Choir Boy is exceeding what I expected.
Barry Alston Ray 22 & 9 (Prisons)
Sullivan
Shawangunk
Green Haven
Sing Sing
Comstock
Fishkill
Southport
Clinton
Bare Hill
Hudson
Mid Orange
DID YA KNOW THAT…
The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration. There are 2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails – a 500% increase over the last 40 years.
