The Alimond Show
Welcome to The Alimond Show --join us as we share our entrepreneurial guests' stories, uncover their secrets to success, and explore the unique paths they've taken to build thriving businesses in our community.
In each episode, our host, Aliyah Dastour, sits down with a diverse group of local business owners, from the corner cafe to the boutique shop, from tech startups to family-run enterprises. We peel back the curtain to reveal the trials, triumphs, and transformational moments that have shaped their entrepreneurial journey.
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The Alimond Show
Abraham Ali Owner and founder of Frontline State of Mind
Have you ever witnessed the transformative power of art and poetry firsthand? Our guest, Abraham Ali, takes us through his extraordinary life's journey from a turbulent youth to becoming a beacon of healing within the community. Through his T-shirt brand Wiseware 360, born at the Million Man March, to his dedicated service in Frontline Art for Life, Abraham's tale is one of redemption, showcasing the undeniable force of creativity in fostering personal and communal growth.
The path of life is unpredictable, with twists that challenge our very existence. I found this out myself following a catastrophic car accident that served not just as a brush with death but as a catalyst for spiritual awakening. This episode shares both Abraham's and my own experiences with near-death that rerouted us onto paths of deeper meaning and the sharing of our narratives, illustrating the profound effect such events can have on our worldviews and life purposes.
As we wrap this episode, we're enveloped in the grace and strength of poetry. Abraham's words in "Make a Decision" are a resounding echo of the human spirit's resilience. His journey from shadow to light, despair to hope, serves as a poignant reminder that liberation comes through courageous choices. Join us in celebrating the stories, the healing, and the creative works that remind us, no matter the darkness we face, there is always a glimmer of hope guiding us to a united tomorrow.
My name is Abraham Ali and I've been in business for 28 years. Okay, I started my business in 1995. At the Million man March I started T-shirt Vindi and that's how my business developed. I started my first print of T-shirts and it was the year I had my daughter. I was excited. It was a big year for my life, a transition. I was like 18, 19 years old Wow. I started a T-shirt brand called Wiseware 360 and from there it just developed into Wiseware.
Speaker 1:360 represented a change and our goal was to put wisdom into fashion. And 360 represented a complete circle and a turnaround in your life. And I had lived a real dark life as a youth and I made a change in that time when I had my first child and it was an awakening for me. And as an artist, I was always an artist but I lost my creativity in the darkness and I was just blessed to find my creativity in around 1995 from the Million man March and from there it started. I started the outreach program, giving back, because it was like, okay, if I can make this transition, anybody can make it. So the clothing line is the basis, it was the basis for my therapy and from there I developed a program called Frontline Art for Life and that is where I I'm initially. Right now I'm focused on Frontline Art for Life and we go into juvenile prisons and we teach art therapy and we go into the high schools and we work with at-risk kids and adults teaching art therapy and just creative expression through art.
Speaker 2:What made you want to give back to the community and help the youth and some adults with art therapy?
Speaker 1:I've seen the desire, the dire need for it, and I wish someone would have reached out and intervened in my life as a young kid and took the time and showed me that I could be other than what I was. And that's our biggest thing is just being an example, and when I realized this was my calling, it was just like I just stay focused on it.
Speaker 2:That's beautiful. I love that you do that for the community. How long have you started going into the juvenile centers?
Speaker 1:The juvenile centers, it's been over the last 10 years.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, so this isn't something new for me.
Speaker 1:I was doing it before. It was like a big social media thing. I actually got my first job in Leesburg working at Piedmont Behavioral Health Center. It's a juvenile mental health center in Leesburg and that's where my experience really started at. I was probably in my early 20s and from there it was like I seen that I had, I was making an impact, but I realized I was restricted because of the system and the structure of the facility and I could only do but so much. So I had decided, when the time was right, I would leave there and I would start my own program. So we started in Alexandria. Alexandria is a landmark juvenile detention center in Alexandria where it started. And then we went to Manassas and then we eventually came.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, you went all over here in the Virginia and we eventually came to Leesburg.
Speaker 1:So I actually kind of wrapped up the program in Leesburg at Leesburg Juvenile Detention Center. And I say wrapped it up, I just was for that season because I went through life, I went through a divorce, all these things started happening in my life and I wasn't able to be consistent. And that was the biggest thing with this type of work its consistency, and it was volunteer based.
Speaker 2:So thank you for doing that, appreciate it. Can you tell me about the art therapy? What does that entail?
Speaker 1:Art therapy entails really helping people unlock their imagination and, through their imagination and through their creativity, begin to address their trauma and begin to express it. It starts we usually start with writing, and then we draw, we paint, we sketch. When I noticed you guys had the rocks going up the steps. Oh, yes, we do, that's a part of it. We draw the rocks and then we take it to close, and it's just a different avenues to express our creativity and our pain. A lot of times that I find that we don't have an avenue to express our trauma and our pain. So I found art to be the perfect outlet. It is really the perfect outlet to express it, I agree.
Speaker 2:I mean, art can be so many things for people. Some people it's music, some people it's painting, some people it's making little rocks. I think that's a great option, that the kids over at the juvenile centers have that option and that they're not forgotten about because they got into some tough situations. But that's nice, that you go over there and help them express their inner turmoil with art. So that's amazing. And then I see you've got this book over here. Tell me a little bit about that. What is it?
Speaker 1:This is my latest project. This is the latest art therapy project. When I left my consistency in the facilities I have an older brother who is currently have been incarcerated for the last 28 years Communicating with him in the facility we decided to revisit the program, but it was a lot of work that we had to do on ourselves. I had to really close some doors and close some of my past and really embrace the idea that I have an opportunity to really make a difference, and that's when I started. I have been writing for about 20 years. I have been working on a manuscript. My manuscript is called the Crackin' my Cross my story of redemption. I have about a couple more chapters to finish it, but in the meantime I decided that I would visit poetry in spoken word.
Speaker 1:I am a student of dyslexia. I have dyslexia and I was diagnosed with dyslexia in the fourth grade and I had a really hard time in school learning how to read and write. I graduated functionally illiterate, so for me writing a book was almost impossible and I was always looking for somebody that would write it for me or to help me write it, and it was like I had so much that I wanted to say, I just didn't know how to say it. So I went through, like I said, closing the doors and I went through a divorce and it was the time in my downtime if my divorce, I began to discover poetry as therapy for me and I began to write poetry and it began to help me to see that I could write my pain and it was a beautiful thing, because modern technology is everything.
Speaker 1:I did a lot of voice text writing and that's how I was able to really get my thoughts on paper and then began to edit it from there. But, yeah, I started doing spoken word poetry and I've always been around it. I've had music studios, I've always had artists and I always worked with artists, whether they were musicians or rappers or singers and even poets, but I never. I found that I was literally running from my gift by helping everybody with theirs Can't forget about you.
Speaker 2:You know Can't do that, and so I wrote my first poem.
Speaker 1:and when I wrote my first poem, I was just like wow, I couldn't believe it. And it was like I did that and it was like, okay, now the journey is to stand up before people and share it.
Speaker 1:So I started my spoken word journey and it went on for about a year of just going out in the DMV whether it was DC, merlin or Virginia and just sharing my poetry and going through my healing. And once I wrote about three poems I was like you know what? I'm gonna keep going. Yeah, as you should, yeah, I kept going and before I knew it I had a book and I had no intentions to write a book.
Speaker 2:So I said what is it about?
Speaker 1:So the book is called the Foddler's Child. You Are Never Alone and it is an expression of therapeutic poems dealing with my childhood, dealing with my overcoming darkness, overcoming obstacles, healing from abuse, just love, life and really just therapy. I say it's just a therapeutic package for me and when it was all done it was like, wow, it's done and it was time to publish it. So I went in for publishing on my birthday. I published on my birthday, december the 8th last year. Okay, and the day I published, in December the 8th, the book was finished in November. Right, the beginning of November, we finished the book and we finished editing. Everything was done and it was time to go forward.
Speaker 1:I got a phone call from my mother. My mom was like, hey, we gotta take grandma to the doctor. She fell and I was like, okay. So I went and picked my mom up and took my grandmother to the doctors to get a checkup and the doctor said I think she had a stroke. And they were like, well, maybe we think you need to take her to get an MRI. So we took her to get an MRI and little did we know she was diagnosed with brain cancer. That day.
Speaker 2:Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1:So thank you. And it was the beginning of November and we brought her home diagnosed with a level four or five brain cancer and there was nothing they could do.
Speaker 1:And me and my mom, we were so blessed, and my little brother, we were so blessed to be able to just be there for her her transition and she lived for 27 days before she transitioned and then it was just an amazing experience just to be there with her and comfort her and take care of her. But after that it just took the wind out of me, it took the breath out of me literally, and December came. My birthday is December the eighth. My son's birthday is December the ninth.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, my mom's is December the 11th and my brother is December 10th.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. So and then we released the book. So it was a lot of celebration going on in December, but there was a lot of mourning going on and going into the new year and I was just telling my partner that I haven't spoken. I haven't really spoken all year at all. This is literally probably the first time I've spoken.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you for speaking with us Since the transition since the celebration and since the starting the healing process, because we all lose loved ones and we are gonna lose loved ones and I really think and believe that we as a community need to learn how to let go and heal and to view the transition of life in a positive way, and it's death is viewed in such a negative perception and in this experience helped me and it taught me how to unconditionally view the transition of life.
Speaker 1:So it was just a real, it was just an extreme level of gratitude. So since then it's like all right, let's get back out here and it's just like I. There's one aspect of the story that I missed that kind of ties it all in. Yeah, tell us so Right before my grandmother transition, I was hitting the head on collision oh Car car accident and I was.
Speaker 1:I had been planning a big event for mental health at Lake Fairfax and we had about two weeks before the event was going to take place and I was at a Gonkian Park Doing some therapy and meditation and I do yoga and I was over there practicing and just really Doing my best to prepare myself for what we were getting ready to do, but I was still holding on to a lot of the regret. I was holding on to a lot of trauma.
Speaker 1:I was holding on to not feeling worthy and had just lost a real close friend from suicide. So I was really battling myself with Just unhappiness. You know, I just wasn't happy. And that day I left the park and I was driving home and I was talking to my mother and Before I know it, I didn't see the car, I didn't hear the car and I didn't feel it. All I knew was one moment. I was Conscious, I was talking to my mom, just like I'm talking to you. In the very next moment I realized that I wasn't in my body and it was the. It was literally. It has been the Most wonderful experience that I've experienced, because wonderful, wonderful, and I called my accident an Experience, not an accident.
Speaker 2:So can you tell me why it's wonderful?
Speaker 1:All right so, upon contact, I Realized that something happened. I was going about 50 miles or hour on Fairfax County Parkway and I realized Something happened. I didn't know it happened, though. At that moment I had been doing a lot of studying and like out-of-body experiences and I Realized I was out of my body and I was in the process of an.
Speaker 1:I was in the midst of an out-of-body experience and I called on God and, before I knew, I can hear my voice calling God and I couldn't see anything. I couldn't Feel anything. I could just hear my voice calling God and, before I knew it, it was real light. I seen lights. Well, and this is it and you know we hear about stories like this, right, yeah, and I could see lights and I realized that I wasn't seeing the light, that I was literally actually the light, and I realized at that moment that I Was stuck like it was like literally. So before I knew it, it got dark, it started to get dark and when it started to get dark, I heard my voice again and it said Abraham, wake up, get out of the car. It's get ready to blow up.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh and literally I Open my eyes and I woke up and I'm sitting in my truck and I'm like what happened and and I Remember what I heard and I got out and when I got out I realized what happened. I was about 20 feet away from the accident. The car that hit me was Turned this way in the street and it was just destroyed. And then I looked at my truck. It was destroyed the whole front of it and I Couldn't believe what happened. And I went to the car and I realized I went to look for my phone and I picked my phone up. My mom was still on the phone.
Speaker 1:And I was like mom, I just was in an accident. I got hit and she was like what do you mean? Like what happened? And I was like, call my brother and tell him to come to where I am, because it happened Like right around the corner from his house and I knew he could get there before the ambulance could get there.
Speaker 1:And at that point I Went into shock again and I passed out and the next thing I remember was being awakened by the person who hit me and and I got up and I realized like my Right show, my right arm, was dislocated, so it was just hanging in. The shop didn't allow me to realize it at first, but when she woke me back up and I got up, I realized I couldn't stand up. I was so dizzy that I couldn't stand up and my right arm was just hanging and the bone In my right wrist was hanging out and it was just blood everywhere. And the ambulance ever come. So the ambulance came.
Speaker 1:I went back in the shock again and before I knew it I was in ambulance and they rushed me to the hospital. I spent five days in the hospital and I had to have a Nine-inch rod in my arm, from my elbow to my wrist with 28 screws. They restructured my elk, they restructured my wrists with hardware. So I can't really, I can only close my hand about like right here, I can only move my wrist about right here, like that. My elbow was fractured, my rotating cuff was tore, my collar bone was fractured and I had a extreme concussion.
Speaker 2:What about the other driver that hit you? Nothing happened to her.
Speaker 1:Oh she was young, she was 18 years old. I'm grateful, I'm glad nothing happened to her she. She had her 16 year old sister in the car with her and they were on a road. People are so angry with her and I told the people and everybody you know it was her fault but it was an accident and it was a mistake and she went down the. She went down a lane where she wasn't supposed to go down, but it was when I revisited. It's very tricky because it's a stop sign, excuse me, it's a stoplight. Then it's another stoplight and at the second stop light you turn. She didn't realize it and she turned at the first stop light and she turned right into me.
Speaker 1:So when I say it was a beautiful experience and it was, it was, it was, it was just, it Taught me, it prepared me for my mother, my grandmother's transition and it taught me Something that I believed I didn't know yet, but I believed and that was that when we transitioned out of the body, we still continue the journey of life. And so you all, my studies, all of my learning could not have taught me that experience. So when I look back I'm like I'm still in the process of healing. There's a lot I can't do. But before this happened, I had a home improvement business, so I'm in the art, so everything I shared with you was my passion and there was things I was doing outside of being a father and I have a home improvement business.
Speaker 1:So I did home improvement and painting, interior decorating. I couldn't do that work anymore and I had to make a decision of what I was gonna do and I realized that everything happened for a reason and it all happened around the time when the book was published. So it was like, okay, now it's time for you to step out on faith and share your story and hopefully everything comes full circle from there. And they mean like right now. It's just like I have no expectations. I just know I'm here for a reason. I'm grateful and my job is just to be a reflection and to be an inspiration to someone else who may be struggling through their darkness, because I don't believe. I know there is light on the other side.
Speaker 2:And where can people buy this book or find it?
Speaker 1:So the book, you can find it on all outlets Amazon, baro, Noble, just about any book. So we have global distribution. All you have to do is look it up. Fatherless Child, you Were Never Alone.
Speaker 2:By Abraham Ali.
Speaker 1:Yes, by Abraham Ali, and you'll find it.
Speaker 2:Awesome, and tell me a little bit about the clothing line you said it used to be called.
Speaker 1:So the clothing line is called why Is Wear?
Speaker 2:Why Is Wear okay?
Speaker 1:And the goal was to put wisdom into fashion. And 360 degrees is our logo. So that's our logo and there's wise wear. I don't know if you guys can see that right there.
Speaker 1:And so that has always been my outlet Creating and designing and then taking what I've created and designed and applying it to fashion. That has always been my outlet and that's what. And I realized that, like in life, sometimes you know you gotta like things will happen to force you to actually do what it is you're called to do, and that's what happened. I was running, you know, and I had to be sat down and really shown it like this is it, this is the way, and just trust and believe and just move forward.
Speaker 1:So yeah the book is full of poetry and the clothing line is my physical. It's my physical poetry. Yes, you know so yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, and where can people find the clothing brand?
Speaker 1:So the clothing brand is a little more exclusive than the book. Ah, how can?
Speaker 2:people get it, you gotta reach out to me directly. And how do we do that?
Speaker 1:Instagram, Facebook. Our website is under construction, but you can reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook.
Speaker 2:What's the handle, Abraham Ali?
Speaker 1:frontline state of mind, but either one. But if you follow me on Instagram and send me a message, every piece of clothes that I create is handmade and done. I print and I put a lot of energy into everything that I make. So I'm actually getting ready to let it go a little bit, but I've been holding on. What do you mean? But I really so Everyone who wears my clothes. I've met them and there's no one. If someone has some of my clothes, it's been bootlegged and it has been already. We've already discovered that the clothes have been bootlegged and someone was printing. Someone reached out to me and said are they seeing some guy at their job with one of my hoodies on? And I was like who? And they didn't know the person. And they asked the person where did you get that from? And he said my wife bought it on Amazon. And I said I don't sell my clothes on Amazon.
Speaker 1:So I was like no, they didn't buy it on Amazon. So we did a little research but I let it go. I didn't. I was like that's actually a good thing, you know. But yeah, you gotta reach out to me directly and to close our custom to your preference. So, if you like, the sweatsuit, for example, comes in all different colors, but you might want your 360 logo in purple and the sweatsuit might be purple or yellow or green, so you can kind of mitch match and customize your brand to the way you like it. And then I also customize other people's brands for them. So, like I say, for you guys, for example, if you don't have a brand or if you don't have clothing, for you guys I do small businesses and I take their brands and I help brand them through fashion also, that's awesome For your business?
Speaker 2:have you for the clothing business? Have you had any challenges that you've learned from along the way that you'd like to share?
Speaker 1:I mean, there are so many challenges. The biggest thing that I would say to anyone that is looking to start a clothing line is just or even to write a book you know, don't quit. You know, don't quit. That's actually our slope. So let me read.
Speaker 2:Don't quit, oh snap Okay.
Speaker 1:So to don't quit is one of our T-shirts that we push and one of our hoodies that we push under the collection, and that's our message. You know, life is full of obstacles and these obstacles will make you want to quit, whether it's committing suicide, whether it's just giving up, you know, not having desire, just giving up on yourself and not believing in yourself. So I mean we get straight to the point Like don't quit, don't give up. I think our biggest message through the book is don't quit, you're never alone.
Speaker 1:The fatherless child isn't just the child who doesn't have a father at home. It's the child whose father is home, who works 24-7. It's the kid whose father may be incarcerated they have a father but they're incarcerated. It's the kid whose father may be on drugs. It's the kid whose father who is just not present. So it's so many layers of the fatherless child.
Speaker 1:And then, ultimately, the message was speaking to the human family, saying that we all have a spiritual father. And now, wherever you want to label and title and call that spiritual father, that's perfectly fine, but we all have a father and it's all one. We only have one father. And through that he was sending a message to me saying we're not alone. As a human family we're not alone and, like right now, we're in a time of darkness throughout the world, everywhere it's so much darkness. So just sharing light is so important right now and just encouraging other people to just be the light and be positive. You know, because the darkness of negativity is like rising daily. So if the darkness of negativity is rising, then we have to raise the light of positivity.
Speaker 1:And that's my mission.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say, like to wrap it up, what is one message that you would like to share with the world, but it sounds like it's. Don't quit and let that light shine.
Speaker 1:Yes, I have. I would share a poem.
Speaker 2:Yes, please do.
Speaker 1:So there was something that I wanted to share, but there was two poems I wanted to share, but I'm just gonna share one.
Speaker 2:Share it and.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna wrap it up.
Speaker 2:You can share both.
Speaker 1:Okay, share both.
Speaker 2:I forgot to share both yes.
Speaker 1:So the first poem is called it's really I should have called it don't quit, but it's called Suicide Awareness, and right now I think that it is so important, regardless of your age. No, I'm just gonna go ahead and do the poem. So many people fear this, but this is suicide awareness. It's the darkest side of your mind where you feel blind and confined. See, this reality transcends your title, your age, race, religion and even the holy Bible. You cannot pray depression away. See, the ego wants you to believe that it is here to stay.
Speaker 1:See, this reality starts at a very young age. In some way, shape or form, we've all fell victim to this dark age, full of rage and regret, where we have lost our will and our intellect, but most of all our self-respect, blinded by the type of noise that you can't see, drowning in the endless tears of poverty, starving to be free. For only if you could see, for only if you could see the pain that dwells within me. So we self-medicate as we demonstrate a reflection of our own self-hate. We've been conditioned to manipulate, hiding behind the broken shadows of our past, staring into a cracked glass, the image that we see, who we appear to be, leaves us in a state of misery, haunted by the reflection. We feel lost, with no protection. Such a hopeless perception, see, I'd rather be taken by death. So this, this is my final breath. I have failed this test. I am beyond depressed. This anxiety at its best. I give up, I quit. I confess I'm tired of thinking.
Speaker 1:So, that poem is. That was Whew. You know that poem is literally my experience, but it's millions of people's experience and I wrote that with the intentions to, kind of like, help people to understand a little bit.
Speaker 1:That is not Very, very, very deep, oh my goodness, thank you, wow, but I want to wrap up with this one, so I'm going to take you through that experience. Yes and then. So today I made a decision I decided to live. Today, I decided to forgive. Today, I decided to live life free. Today, I liberate me.
Speaker 1:Today, I made a decision I declare war on this mental state of prison, for the chains that confine me will no longer define me, and the darkness of my solitude, it will only remind me that I have been a slave, asleep, buried in a shallow grave, for over 400 years. Forgive me, I've been weak, but today I find the strength to speak, the passion and the courage to fight for what I seek as I embrace the patience to endure, purified by the fire, in the midst of this revolution. I will not retire, for I am destined to conquer the devil's empire. So today I declare victory, because I bear witness that my God is no longer a mystery, for his unconditional love dwells within the midst of me, for he is who I am and I am you?
Speaker 2:Oh, little clap there, thank you, wow. I can't believe you wrote all of this. That's so powerful.
Speaker 1:Those are two pieces that are in a book, that are feature pieces that and what's the second one, called the?
Speaker 2:one you just read today.
Speaker 1:No, it's called Make a Decision. Make a decision, it's called Make a Decision. That's like one of my favorite pieces Make a Decision Because I have a lot of dark poetry and it's probably one of my lightest poems.
Speaker 2:Yes, it felt like a good note to end on.
Speaker 1:That's why I was like I always do my best to end on a good, positive note, because it has been a dark journey, but I'm grateful for the light.
Speaker 2:And thank you for sharing your wisdom, your story and about what you do with the youth and some of the adults as well. We really appreciate your time and for coming in and sharing your poetry.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you so much yeah.