Episode 1 - Host, Rachel Morton with featured guest Kiesha Haney

Rachel discusses with Kiesha the reality of re-entry from incarceration, personal identity, systems, support, and a vision forward. 

Kiesha Haney is a published author, speaker, and mentor.

Recording and post-production by Carlos Casarez / KZFR 90.1 FM, Chico, California. www.kzfr.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hey, I'm Rachel Morton. Welcome to the Black Forward, a multi-part series about resilience, leadership, and building strong futures in our community. Produced by KZFR 90.1 FM and the Black Resiliency Project. On this week's episode, we'll be exploring faith, healing, re-entry, advocacy, and creating pathways for people returning to society. I'll be talking with Keisha Haney, author, minister, and community advocate about how purpose can emerge from adversity and what it means to move Black forward. Welcome to our program. Welcome, Keisha. Thank you. I feel welcome. Good. That's what we want. So let's jump right into it. My first question: your journey has taken you from incarceration to authorship, advocacy, and ministry. How did your faith help transform one of the most difficult chapters of your life into a calling and service of others?

SPEAKER_01 1:08

That's a very uh impactful, powerful question. One of the things is that my faith is all that I had besides my experience growing up. And I had no choice but to uh rely on my faith in the situation that I found myself in. And there were two scriptures that I stood on because the one thing that I knew when I found myself being incarcerated was that I knew my identity. And my identity had a big role in how was I going to react or respond to the situation I found myself in. So the two scriptures that I stood on was Roman 8, Romans 8, 28, which says that all things work together for the good for those who love the Lord and those that are called according to his purpose. And I knew, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that all things will work together for my good. And the other one was Joshua 1, where he says that the land that everywhere the sole of my feet treads upon, it has been given to me. And I was to take domain, no matter where I was at, I was to take dominion over that area. And I did just that. I operated in that, in that boldness.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

That is amazing. Uh having that identity is key, attached with the purpose. And I love that scripture you shared with every place. So often we don't think about places we don't want to be. Um, so many people leave incarceration carrying shame, barriers, and uncertainty. What have you learned about the healing, the restoration, and God's purpose through your work and supporting individuals?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

The one thing that I learned is that healing is it has to be intentional. And it's a choice that you make because I could have been damaged, I could have been shamed, but again, I knew my identity and I knew that that what had happened to me didn't define who I was, and I knew who I was. So I couldn't allow that to keep me from being who I am and moving forward in the life that I know that has been set up for me. And so it was a choice that I had to make. And the restoration came in because I trusted in God, He restored everything that the enemy thought he took from me. And it was better.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

Beautiful. Um, just to drop a little nugget, uh, this identity piece is essential. And I know for myself, without Keisha's influence, I wouldn't have pursued knowing who I am in Christ the way that I have. And so I can tell you firsthand uh the impact um her life has had on me and so many others. That's a great leadway into uh my question, Keisha. Uh, if someone wants to learn more about your story or get information on your books, you just share a little bit more how we find you and all those details. And then I don't know if there was anything that I didn't ask that you'd like to share about, but this would be a great time for that.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Well, you can find my book on Amazon. Um, it's called What the Enemy Meant for Evil. Um, I also have books on hand still in this community, so you could uh go to my website at I'll just say keishahaney.com, but you know the ww, all of that extra. But keishahaney.com, uh you can find my books on my website. And uh you can reach out to me as well. As well, you could reach out to me uh through my email. It's kdhaney at gmail.com and that's kdhaney at gmail.com but yeah, you could purchase my book. I have published a couple of books, Living in Her Abundance on Purpose. You can find those on Amazon as well. And or you can email me for those books. But actually, uh when you go to my website, it everything is there on my website at Keisha Haney.com.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Awesome, thank you. So leaning into someone with lived experience with the justice systems, what changes do you believe are needed? Wow, there's a lot of changes that need to happen.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

So one, when you talk about rehabilitation, rehabilitation has to come there's a lot of ways. There's education, there's housing, there's employment, there is also that identity piece, especially for people that have uh spent, you know, more than I mean, I've spent it was three and a half years, but people that spend a long time, you become conditioned to where you are and that culture. And so rehabilitation should look like the mindset needs to change, you know, in order to um receive the rehabilitation that's available when you come home. You and you so you need housing needs to be set up for them, employment needs to be set up for them, you know, a food needs to be set up for them, um, you know, employment again needs to be set up for them, and just the community support, their family support. And I'm gonna say that whoever it is that don't support you, you don't worry about those ones. You worry about the love and support that you have around you that does support you, not those that don't.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Wow. Uh is there one that stands out to you as a starting point for um, because you mentioned education, workforce development, uh those natural needs of like housing and food, uh, which so many of our community understands those insecurities.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

I'm gonna say employment. Uh, because without employment, you can't take care of the other needs. And I know for me, when I came home, like I had three jobs knocking at my door. I didn't have to go fill out applications. The people that loved me and supported me, they made sure they that was their waiting for me. It was, oh, can you come over here? I need you to come over here and be the admin at our school. I need you to teach this Bible class over here. Oh, okay. Oh, hey, I need you to uh run for this union rep position, you know, and people are gonna vote, right? I got that position. And then from there it went. I started working in the union, I became the organizer. It was just an increase from there. And with that, it was all social justice, right? And economic justice. And um, so I found myself doing the work, right? That as soon as I came home. And so employment was a big one. And I I believe that that should be number one.

SPEAKER_00 8:26

Thank you for sharing that. Um, as we think about moving black forward, uh, what does that mean for you and in regards to our community uh as well as spiritually?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

I say that me just I'm only one person, but I say as a community, even as a black community, there has to be some unity in the body that has to take place to move black forward. We can't always be crabs in a bucket thinking that there's not enough for each of us. And I know that that is something in a black community that is very, very present that black people think that there's not ever going to be enough, but there is more than enough for all of us, whether you're black, white, green, or indifferent. There is enough. But so when you have a mindset of being a crab in the bucket, you're not gonna get very far. And my mindset is reach one, teach one, each one, have one, because we all can have it. And if I have it and can give it, I'm gonna give it.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Beautiful. I agree 100%. Uh there's room for everyone at the table. Yeah. Uh there's no fighting to be the token. Um, you don't want that prize. Also in the studio with me this afternoon is Ife Saint, who is the outreach coordinator for the Black Resiliency Project. Ife, do you want to share a bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Hello. Um thank you for introducing me. Uh, my name is Ife Saint. I work with Rachel Morton. Uh, she's my boss. I work at the Black Resiliency Program. Um, and I help with outreach uh coordination. I help with harm reduction. We you will see me tabling at events. Um, you'll see me out delivering food to families in need and even to the unhoused in the Oroville and Chico area.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

I'm hoping that he'll weigh in or ask some questions of our guest, uh, maybe around system support or the reality of re-entry.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

And and just to give a little bit more context to what I'm doing here, um I work with Rachel. Um, I I work for her. I'm the outreach coordinator of uh the BRP, the Black Resiliency Program. And I am uh a young, you know, African-American male in the United States. And I just feel like it's good to have uh weigh in on the young people's experience in a lot of these situations. And so um one question I have for you, Keisha.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 11:09

Um, what interested me was um your your your faith, actually, because growing up, especially as a young African American, um, do you f you feel faith in in being in the church strongly growing up? But there isn't always, I would say, the the personal push for the younger folks. Like you've gone through a lot and you've kept faith and you kept hope and and and you've gone through trials and tribulations. And so as someone who hasn't gone through as much, it's hard to understand the strength in your faith, but also to to carry that same um conviction for it when it's kind of been taught opposed to something that saved you. And so I just wanted to say, like, how would you how how how would you feel like you could best connect with uh younger folks, younger um adults, with um understanding how the benefits of what's benefited you in in your faith and where you first found it where it meant the most to you?

SPEAKER_01 12:10

So I connect very well with young people, actually. I've been doing that a lot of my life. Yeah. Rachel was one of those young people when she was young. That's amazing. Um, but I say that to say that I I don't know, from a young girl, I was probably about nine years old, and I live I'm from the Bay Area. And so I lived in these projects where there was a church um like right through the fence. And so there was a hole in our fence, and my mom at the time was addicted. Um, and so she paid attention but didn't pay attention. But I would sneak through that hole all the time when I saw something was going on over there because I was curious and I wanted to know what is going on. So they would have little things like vacation Bible school. I'd sneak over there, right over there to that little church. Still to this day, I could never tell you what the name of that church was. I I I know where it is, but I think it I believe that it was a Catholic church. It was just a big church, and it was just vacation Bible school going. And I don't know. I mean, all I remember, it was a big, like greenish color building.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Like, and I just And when you say big, are you saying like it's like the biggest thing in the neighborhood?

SPEAKER_01 13:39

It was like the big it was like the big thing in the neighborhood that caught the eye.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

What's going on here?

SPEAKER_01 13:43

In that hole in the fence.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

You were the neighbor, you know. I was the neighbor.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

I was in the project right across the way.

SPEAKER_02 13:50

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

But I found out that it was uh just the Catholic Church. But they would have vacation Bible school. I go over there and then I come home. So all throughout my life, I just knew the whole time your mom didn't even know you were going over there? No. Wow. She didn't, she had no idea. And I thought that I just knew that there was a God. I didn't really understand it all. I just knew that there was some somebody, someone.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And I'll just have to say real quick that one of the reasons that I was so interested in intriguing your story is because like, you know, going to church as a as a young person is interesting. Um you meet you see a lot of the same faces, um, and you really only see them on the church grounds, you know, like the you know, growing up, maybe we had a few uh um family friends that we would see, you know, during the week, but it's really such a powerful area to be in, and everyone's there for you know their own, their own journey. Um, like I I want to shout out uh Bethesda. That's the church I went to in Albuquerque, New Mexico growing up. I was baptized twice there. Uh my parents got married there. Um, all of my siblings have touched that church. Um, and then we've we've moved to California since. Like I've been out in California since for like 11 years now. Um and I just wanted to, you know, like maybe get a little nugget of like what it was like for you. Because I know when I was in church, for instance, I didn't go of my own volition, I was falling asleep, I was drawing. Sometimes it was a little bit interesting what I decided to draw, but I feel like my mom told me, you know, growing up that was the devil, you know, he's trying to make you sleepy, he's trying to make you think of the wrong thoughts, you know, when you're there. And so it it being of your own volition and your idea and your your calling is just proof that you already had something that you felt strongly about as a as a child, even because I wasn't taking any of that seriously. Like I had to re-study that growing up, and that's kind of where my faith comes from. Um, it's from my family, it's from my mom, and it's from Bethesda in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Um, and and and that's kind of where my heart is in some ways. And so it's interesting, you know, because your first church, I don't think anyone forgets their first church, you know, as when they were conscious of it. Um and so, you know.

SPEAKER_00 16:10

Have you thought about going back to the church? You know, I have not.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

That would be good.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

You know, it really was uh a spark for you. That's how it, I think that's what it served as, which is very interesting. Um, and and and maybe worth the nostalgia of of looking at it again, you know, with fresh eyes.

SPEAKER_00 16:29

Um I like what you said there, Ife, about a spark. And it makes me think about Keisha in my life, uh being adopted in an all-white family, living in a rural community. Uh, I didn't see black leadership. I didn't see people moving initiatives concerning my life forward. And for me, you were one of those first voices and faces that said, you have value. I see you. Uh and that lit a spark in me to keep pursuing and digging deeper, not just only in my faith, but also in what I wanted to be. Yeah. It taught me to dream in color because everything was very black and white, not for you, for you, not for you. Uh and so I want to just take the moment just to say thank you. Uh, it's not a big enough word in my mind because I don't, I know I wouldn't be sitting here today having this conversation with you if you hadn't have lit that spark. And just thinking about all those various sparks that we experience in our lives. Uh, you seeing that little spark through the fence and what it sparked in your life and and how it carried you through and how you lit a spark in me. And now together, lighting spark, lighting sparks. Yes. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 17:59

You're so welcome. And so then as I started getting older, I mean, and I don't want to get too much into it, but a little bit of my history is I pretty much raised my siblings from the time I was nine years old. Wow. And so I didn't have anyone to rely on but that person.

SPEAKER_02 18:19

Yourself, God and some stronger power.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

And some stronger power than myself. Right. Um, that pulled me through. So my faith, though, did not really happen. I really didn't start understanding that until I got in my 20s. And so then I started learning about faith and how, because faith is a substance that is something hoped for, but it's the evidence of things not seen. So you can't really see it. It's just something that you gotta believe and you gotta gravitate towards. And faith is just believing, receiving, and speaking it, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I've heard people say that faith is just hope for a better world and understanding that there's something more powerful than ourselves controlling everything that's going on.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Absolutely. So it wasn't something that I really knew. I just did what I needed to do. And so in my 20s, I start gravitating more towards like learning about faith. You know, and but my faith, it can't be anyone else's. It has to be mine. I have to believe it, I have to receive it, I gotta speak it, and I gotta know that all things are possible for me and that I can do anything and that I can achieve every everything. And then I had kids. Right. So, you know, I wanted to make sure that I was different from my parents.

SPEAKER_02 19:33

And kids is a whole other beast, right? Yeah. Because you, like you said, you raised your siblings yourself since you were nine. Um, and I'm sure having kids is a little different, but similar to just making sure you're you're you're con your your what's the word I'm looking for? That you're you're putting good morals or like good learning into the young ones you younger than yourself that that are just gonna be navigating this world. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Um Hey, if you're just tuning in, my name is Rachel Morton and I represent the Black Resiliency Project. I'm here with Keisha Haney discussing re-entry and faith.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

I actually had a question uh going back a little bit. The the main age difference between you and your your closest sibling to you and age.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

So my um brother, my middle brother, he's almost he's about a year and a half. Yeah, about a year and a half younger than me. And um he knew. Yeah. And then we had our baby brother.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

So you shared that with with your siblings. Yes. That's exactly that's very incredible, actually, because I'm not sure I've ever heard of many uh uh family structures where it's the kids that want to go to church. And and and and that's that was that was a journey that you started at a young age, and that has helped you through your life. Things these days in this world, they're so jumbled and there's so much distraction that it's hard to focus in on anything like that and even feel safe. Like, who were those people, right? They're strangers, thank goodness they had good intentions, you know. That that's that's really what what you were going to and you were doing. Yeah, and you spent your time doing. So that's that's impactful and powerful, I'd say. Um, because it's hard to even find kids that are focused on any one thing, you know.

SPEAKER_00 21:19

Uh what would you like to see um our young people take away from what was shared here today?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Know who they are, gain your identity, and whatever your identity looks like to you, embrace it. Do not let anyone tell you who you are, not and who you are, because no one can define you but you. God has created you for a purpose and you are here for such a time as this. Embrace all that you desire to embrace, and you can be anything that you desire to be, and all things are possible if you. believe it you can achieve it.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

Amen. And for our listeners, is there anything that you want them to walk away with when it comes to supporting uh people who are experiencing or will experience reentry, especially those first 90 days. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

I would say that if you are a person that has someone in your family or you some friends or anyone you may know, even if you desire to be a mentor to someone that is, you know, uh coming back into the community from being incarcerated, I would say that wrap your arms around them because you don't know the mental health, the state of their mental health that they're in and you don't know that culture, especially if you not have not been in that culture, you don't know what that culture is like and what they may have been through. And so some people have been through um you know tougher times than others while being incarcerated. And so surround them with love, surround them with care, give them some grace because they have not been into the community like you have. And so they don't know. So look at them as a clean slate and if you have anything that you can help them with, help them a job. And employment is so important. I'm gonna say for men, what I found out mainly for them, if they come home and they don't have a job, it is so hard and they go back to doing the same thing that they were doing that maybe have gotten them there in the first place. But them they really need the guidance. You know of course we need to get IDs we need to get resumes built we need to get you know maybe they just need to they're discombobulated.

SPEAKER_00 23:56

And so yeah I would say just support you know wrap your arms around them and give them some grace I love that yes we can all use grace so give yourself grace also as you're supporting others. Thank you Keisha Haney yes all things are possible moving black forward is simply taking the lessons learned and carrying them forward so at the Black Resiliency project you can connect with a case manager um and what they can provide is support um or accompaniment as you're navigating different systems. If it's learning about the school system, updating your resume, other technological skills uh like using Excel and things like that, uh we have people that are available that um offer that support for free. And so again you can reach us at blackrp.org or email us at support at blackrp.org and we look forward to connecting with you. Our phone number is 530 9077882 and we are located on the Esplanade. So thank you for joining us for Black Forward to learn more about the Black Resiliency project visit blackblacrp.org until next time keep building keep believing and keep moving black forward one of the things is that my faith is all that I had besides my experience growing up and I had no choice but to rely on my faith in the situation that I found myself in.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

And there were two scriptures that I stood on because the one thing that I knew when I found myself being incarcerated was that I knew my identity and my identity had a big role in how was I going to react or respond to the situation I found myself in. So the two scriptures that I stood on was Romans 828 which says that all things work together for the good for those who love the Lord and those that are called according to his purpose. And I knew I knew without a shadow of a doubt that all things will work together for my good. And the other one was Joshua 1 where he says that the land that everywhere the sole of my feet treads upon it has been given to me. And I was to take domain no matter where I was at I was to take dominion over that area.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

And I did just that I operated in that in that boldness to learn more about the Black Resiliency project visit black B L A C K R P dot organs