Oral history interview with Allen Palmer, 2015

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Name: Palmer, Allen, 1953- (Interviewee); Greenfield, Susan C (Interviewer)
Title: Oral history interview with Allen Palmer, 2015
Other Titles: Oral history interview with Black, 2015
Abstract: Allen Palmer begins his interview with a description of his youth in Harlem and Hunts Point in the Bronx. He describes his family's dynamics, his parents, and his siblings. He describes youthful insecurities, experiences with racism, and his introduction to marijuana. He discusses his positive experiences at DeWitt Clinton High School and at a work-study job at Equitable Life Insurance. He narrates how he lost these opportunities after being present when a friend robbed someone. He describes his experience at Morris High School, his decision to quit school, and his introduction to heroin and cocaine. He shares his incarceration history, with a detailed description of two stays at Rikers Island in the 1990s on drug charges. Specific topics addressed include his experience with legal aid, affiliating with Muslims in prison for protection, and his reconnection with Christianity at the urging of his sister. He describes various relationships, his children, meeting his wife Donna, and their wedding. After his thirteen month stay at Rikers, he resolved to change his life, and he details programs that he joined. He describes his experience in Narcotics Anonymous (NA), detox, the positive model of speakers from Hospitals and Institutions (H & I), trying methadone maintenance, his experience at Bronx Lebanon Hospital Rehab Center, and his stay at Greenpoint Shelter in Brooklyn. He recalls friends such as Robert MacIntosh and Forster. He discusses getting an SRO apartment in the Bronx, his referral to a life skills program while in the outpatient program at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, and his job in maintenance. He also examines his experiences with storytelling in a life skills program and his involvement with the Speakers Bureau of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing. In Susan Greenfield's book Sacred Shelter, Palmer uses the pseudonym "Black"
Collection Name: Homelessness and Healing oral history collection
Subjects: Homelessness; Heroin abuse--History--20th century.--United States; Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States; Drug dealers--United States; Imprisonment--United States; Methadone maintenance--History--20th century.--United States; Spiritual formation; Harlem (New York, N.Y.); Bronx (New York, N.Y.); Rikers Island (N.Y.); Palmer, Allen, 1953-; Narcotics Anonymous; Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing
Format: oral histories
Genre: Interviews
Date: 2015

Physical Description: 59 pages
Note (Biographical): Allen Palmer was born in Harlem, New York City in 1953. His parents had come from South Carolina. He grew up in Harlem and in Hunts Point in the Bronx. He attended DeWitt Clinton High School and participated in a work-study program. He was present whe n a friend robbed someone, though, and he was expelled. He briefly attended Morris High School, but asked his father to let him quit due to the school's low standards. He had started smoking marijuana in high school, but he then began doing heroin and cocaine and assisting drug dealers. When his father and youngest siblings moved to Rochdale Village, Queens, he began living with various sisters for short periods, not having an apartment of his own. He was incarcerated at various points on drug charges. Shortly after his father's death in 1994, he went to Rikers Island for eight months. After a short spell, he was back at Rikers on new charges. He was there thirteen months before being acquitted. Inspired by his brother, he started Narcotics Anonymous (NA). He went to detox, a holding shelter in Harlem, Bronx Lebanon Hospital Rehab Center, and Greenpoint Shelter in Brooklyn. Eventually, he was able to get an SRO apartment in the Bronx. He graduated from the Life-Skills Training and Empowerment Program (L-STEP), the life skills empowerment program at St. Francis Xavier Church, in the late 1990s. The program helped him get a job, where he worked in a variety of roles including as a messenger, in the mailroom, and in maintenance. He met his wife Donna through NA. He got his GED in 1999 and his bachelor's degree in business from Touro College
Note: Interviewed by Susan Greenfield on March 20, 2015
Note (Provenance): Susan Celia Greenfield, Gift, 2021
Language: English
Library Location: Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University
Browse Location’s Digital Content
Catalog Record: 16911949
Also In: Oral History Archives at Columbia
Persistent URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.7916/ej33-7317
Related URLs: Available digital content for this interview.