Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: A Stone of Hope
WORK NOTES: with Jon Sternfeld
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Brooklyn
STATE: NY
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.plotforyouth.org/directors/ * https://www.harpercollins.com/cr-125060/jim-st-germain * http://www.harpercollinsspeakersbureau.com/speaker/jim-st-germain/ * https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/by-a-miracle-of-chance-he-rose-from-a-blighted-place-to-make-something-of-himself/2017/07/21/d83aaf8e-55f2-11e7-b38e-35fd8e0c288f_story.html
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born in Haiti; children: Caleb.
EDUCATION:Borough of Manhattan Community College, associate’s degree; John Jay College of Criminal Justice, bachelor’s degree.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Youth advocate. Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, cofounder; National Juvenile Defender Center, board member; City of New York, residential care advocate; Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, member.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Youth advocate Jim St. Germain writes about his rise from poverty in his native Haiti and stint in a juvenile facility in the United States in his memoir, A Stone of Hope. St. Germain works as an advisor and counselor with local, state, and federal officials in juvenile justice, mentoring, mental health, substance abuse, and educational issues. He was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Coordinator Council on Juvenile and Justice Delinquency Prevention. He is also cofounder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT), a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring to at-risk youth. Holding a bachelor’s degree in political science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice, St. Germain is also a board member with the National Juvenile Defender Center, and he works as a residential care advocate for the City of New York.
In 2017, St. Germain published with journalist Jon Sternfeld A Stone of Hope, a memoir and clarion call to save at-risk black youth. Born into poverty in Haiti, St. Germain moved to Brooklyn with his family at age eleven. He soon got into street life, drug dealing, theft, and violence. At the age of fifteen, he was arrested and placed in a youth detention facility where he was fortunate to have received positive male role models and mentors, rather than intimidation and punishment. St. Germain turned his life around, earned his GED, and attended college. His passion to help other young black men overcome the same obstacles he did led him to dedicate his life to public service and helping his community. “Like Wes Moore’s The Other Wes Moore, St. Germain’s gritty and self-reflective memoir is an excellent and informative cautionary tale,” noted a Publishers Weekly contributor.
The book is “An affecting and earnest testimonial to the power of a humane criminal system built on rehabilitation more than punishment,” according to a writer in Kirkus Reviews, who added that St. Germain offers a “memoir of a life of crime redirected.” In a review in Booklist, Michael Cart said: “Though sometimes reiterative, Jim’s story is visceral and unsparingly honest” filled with transformation and hope.
On NPR’s StoryCorps series in which people reconnect and speak with an influential figure in their lives, St. Germain met up with Carlos Walton, his middle-school dean who helped the wayward teenager whose parents kicked him out of the house at age fourteen. St. Germain told Walton: “You were the first man ever who told me that you loved me. And I remember telling you that back. And I remember feeling awkward. Where I’m from, we don’t tell other men that we love them. That was big. You go hard for those of us who no one else really wants to deal with.” St. Germain noted that in the absence of any family members attending his graduation, Walton was there to cheer him on.
Explaining that he did not write his memoir so he could be called a symbol, St. Germain explained to Leonard Pitts, Jr. in the Denver Post: “I resist any attempts to treat me as a symbol, which strikes me as so far beside the point. Symbols are rarities, by definition, and I have no interest in being one. I’m working toward a world where my story is no longer a story.” Reviewing the book in the Washington Post, Leonard Pitts, Jr. commented: “St. Germain sketches out the passages of his life in a brisk, clean style, recounting even the most wrenching episodes in clear-eyed, unsentimental prose.” Pitts added his reflection on the book’s ultimate message: “There is a subtle point in that. Namely, that there are no magic bullets or instant fixes for troubled kids. There is only hard work and the dedication it takes to do.”
BIOCRIT
BOOKS
St. Germain, Jim, A Stone of Hope, Harper (New York, NY), 2017
PERIODICALS
Booklist, May 1, 2017, Michael Cart, review of A Stone of Hope, p. 51.
Kirkus Reviews, May 15, 2017, review of A Stone of Hope.
Publishers Weekly, May 29, 2017, review of A Stone of Hope, p. 59.
Washington Post, July 21, 2017, Leonard Pitts, Jr., review of A Stone of Hope.
ONLINE
Denver Post Online, https://www.denverpost.com/ (July 27, 2017 ), Leonard Pitts, Jr., review of A Stone of Hope.
Jim St. Germain Website, https://www.jimstgermain.com/ (April 1, 2018), author profile.
NPR, Morning Edition, NPR https://www.npr.org/ (July 22, 2016), Renee Montagne, “StoryCorps: To Save A Failing Student, This Dean Offered Not Just Help—But ‘Family’.”
Jim St. Germain is the cofounder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT), a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring to at-risk youth; and a board member with the National Juvenile Defender Center. He works as a residential care advocate for the City of New York, and was appointed by President Obama to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Jim lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his son, Caleb.
Jim SaintGermain
Chairperson
www.jimstgermain.com
Jim SaintGermain is the driving force behind PLOT. Jim’s memoir, A Stone of Hope, was published by HarperCollins in 2017. Jim works with juvenile justice involved youth and their families in New York City. He is on the Board of the National Juvenile Defender Center and the Vera’s Institute of Justice Juvenile Justice Board. In 2016, he was appointed to the White House Task Force on Twenty-First Century Policing by President Obama. Previously, Jim was a youth care worker at a juvenile facility where he was once a resident. Additionally, Jim was a member of New York State’s Division of Criminal Justice Services Youth Advisory Council. He has acted as an adviser to several governmental and non-governmental entities working with at-risk youth, including the DOJ OJJDP, SAMSHA and the Children’s Defense Fund–NY. Jim interned with New York State Assemblyman Karim Camara and has worked with Assemblyman Camara on important community matters, including reducing gun violence. Jim has worked with countless local, state and federal officials advising on matters related to juvenile justice, mentoring, mental health, substance abuse, and educational issues. In addition to those mentioned above, some notables Jim has worked with include Governor Cuomo, former New York City Mayor/Billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg, Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia, and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, to name a few. Jim overcame many obstacles in his young life, emigrating from Haiti to come to the United States. His passion for public service comes from his life experiences and his sense of personal responsibility to his community. Jim has an Associate degree in Human Services from the Borough of Manhattan Community College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. He speaks three languages, English, French and his native language, Creole. Most importantly, Jim is a dedicated father to his young son. Learn more about Jim’s passions and accomplishments at https://www.jimstgermain.com/.
Jim St. Germain is the co-founder of PLOT. Jim has an associate degree in human services from the Borough of Manhattan Community College and a bachelor of arts degree in political science from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Jim works with juvenile justice-involved youth and their families in New York City. He is on the Board of the National Juvenile Defender Center and was recently appointed by President Barack Obama to the Coordinator Council on Juvenile and Justice Delinquency Prevention (CCJJ).
Previously, Jim was a youth care worker at a juvenile facility, where he was once a resident. Additionally, Jim was a youth advocate for young people living with mental illness at the Mental Health Association, Inc. and a member of New York State’s Division of Criminal Justice Services Youth Advisory Council.
Jim has worked with countless local, state and federal officials advising on matters related to juvenile justice, mentoring, mental health, substance abuse, and educational issues.
In addition to those mentioned above, some notables Jim has worked with include former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia, and Junior Senator from Connecticut Chris Murphy, to name a few.
Jim has overcome many obstacles in his young life. His passion for public service comes from his life experiences and his sense of personal responsibility to his community. He speaks three languages: English, French and his native Creole. Most importantly, Jim is a dedicated father to his young son, Caleb.
< To Save A Failing Student, This Dean Offered Not Just Help — But 'Family' July 22, 20164:46 AM ET 3:04 Download RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST: Time now for StoryCorps. Jim Saint Germain came to the U.S. from Haiti as a kid. He now runs a mentoring program in Brooklyn. But as a teen, he was often in trouble. At 14, he got kicked out of the house. And his middle-school dean, Carlos Walton, stepped in, even letting Jim stay with him for a short time. JIM GERMAIN: Your house was organized and clean. And you had pictures of black leaders... CAROLS WALTON: Yeah. GERMAIN: And you were the first man ever who told me that you loved me. And I remember telling you that back. And I remember feeling awkward. Where I'm from, we don't tell other men that we love them. That was big. You go hard for those of us who no one else really wants to deal with. Where does that love come from? WALTON: For one, I am that group, you know? And I remember being told that I couldn't get a recommendation for college. I remember hearing that people like me don't belong here. GERMAIN: Same for me. WALTON: But I knew better, thank God. You remember when you started to see some hope, you were talking about doing football and then your hand was hurt? And... GERMAIN: I broke my wrist. WALTON: ...You were asking the doctor, well, what about football? And he kind of, like, laughed. Oh, no, that won't happen. I remember you looking crushed after that. GERMAIN: Yeah. WALTON: That's when I started to lose you. You weren't about school. You weren't about trying anymore. When you started getting into the whole drug game, I remember trying to talk to you, but you weren't hearing me at all. GERMAIN: Right. I think it was one time where it really kind of hit me. I was on the corner, and you happened to stop at the red light, and I was right there. WALTON: I just wanted to pull over. I want to grab you. I want to talk to you. But I couldn't let you feel that you could live that life and still have me on your team. GERMAIN: You kind of just wave at me, and I was like, [expletive]. WALTON: And I remember driving away. I remember that [expletive] hurt like hell. Like, they say you're supposed to let a bird fly away and if it come back to you, then it's yours. GERMAIN: Right. WALTON: But leaving that bird, and knowing how much you love that bird, bro, you've got to understand now, that was not easy. But now to see you go from where you were makes the whole full-circle part just that much more beautiful. I remember when you had your son. GERMAIN: You had him in your hand, and you were holding him. I think the best thing I have in my life is knowing that if anything happens to me today, he's going to have you. You can't buy that. WALTON: When were you most proud of yourself? GERMAIN: I would have to say graduation. I remember I got dressed in my button-ups. I bought some shoes. And these are all the things I learned from you, you know? I put my cap and gowns on, and people were seeing me. And you know where I came from. WALTON: I know. GERMAIN: So you can imagine what the look was like in that neighborhood where you don't see too many of that. WALTON: Not at all. GERMAIN: And I remember, I felt like a superhero. But I was by myself, no family members, just me. And I remember feeling hurtful about that, too. But I knew that you were going to be there. And to me, that's family. (SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) MONTAGNE: Jim Saint Germain with Carlos Walton in New York City. Carlos was married last weekend, and Jim was a groomsman. Their conversation will be archived at the Library of Congress.
Jim St. Germain
Author, Social Entrepreneur, & Presidential Appointee
SPEAKING TOPICS
Juvenile Justice
Criminal Justice
Race/Politics
Mentoring
Education/Policy
Non-Profit/Mental Health
TRAVELS FROM
New York
St. Germain, Jim: A STONE OF HOPE
Kirkus Reviews. (May 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
St. Germain, Jim A STONE OF HOPE Harper/HarperCollins (Adult Nonfiction) $27.99 7, 4 ISBN: 978-0-06-245879-7
A young African-American man's memoir of a life of crime redirected.Born poor in Haiti, St. Germain came to America with his family as a youth and, in the streets of Brooklyn, lost himself in the illegal economy that thrived on the streets. He fought and stole, "trying to process this new world and answer my own questions, all the while wearing a tight mask that showed none of this." As a self-styled "street pharmacist," he earned the nickname Buffett, because, as a helpful older friend explained, "Warren Buffett is gangsta," a model money machine among the Scarface crowd. Rather than becoming filthy rich, as that name portended, St. Germain fell into the system, winding up in Spofford Juvenile Center in the Bronx, "a notorious intake place for troubled teens" whose alumni included Mike Tyson and rapper Fat Joe. But there, St. Germain was given an opportunity: rather than the normal machine of turning broken youth into broken men, he was placed in the Boys Town boot camp system, which teaches values of responsibility and respect. Said a staff member, "the purpose here is to retrain your behavior," and retrain St. Germain's behavior it did. "It went against everything I'd ever known," he writes. At first, he went along with it to game the system and gain the merit points that earned privileges, but eventually he became a committed advocate of the system--and, moreover, a devotee of reading and education, guided by books of African-American history and in particular a memoir called Dreams of My Father, affording St. Germain "a kinship with this mixed-race senator with a foreign background, a funny name, and the gall to think he could change the world." An affecting and earnest testimonial to the power of a humane criminal system built on rehabilitation more than punishment.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"St. Germain, Jim: A STONE OF HOPE." Kirkus Reviews, 15 May 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A491934153/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8ecddd2e. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A491934153
A Stone of Hope: A Memoir
Publishers Weekly. 264.22 (May 29, 2017): p59.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
* A Stone of Hope: A Memoir
Jim St. Germain, with Jon Sternfeld. Harper, $27.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-0624-5879-7
In his first book, St. Germain, cofounder of the nonprofit group Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, describes growing up in Brooklyn's violent Crown Heights neighborhood. St. Germain was born in Haiti but moved to the U.S. with his siblings in 2000. Writing with journalist Sternfeld (Crisis Point), he vividly describes the fear and loneliness of life in Brooklyn without his parents, the adjustment to his grandmother's cramped apartment, and, as he got older, how he negotiated the violent gangster world of the Crips and Bloods. St. Germain longed for a male role model, and concedes that his grandmother, as hard as she tried, couldn't keep him honest amid the "tight-jeaned girls and hustling corner dudes." He describes himself as follows: "From a young age, I'd been a social chameleon with a survival mentality." He began stealing, robbing, dealing drugs, and allowing "the game to suck him in like a vacuum." At age 15 he was arrested for dealing crack cocaine, but instead of going to prison he was sent to a detention and rehabilitation facility, where he was mentored, educated, and learned to embrace a sense of self-worth. He soon became an advocate for at-risk children. Like Wes Moore's The Other Wes Moore, St. Germain's gritty and self-reflective memoir is an excellent and informative cautionary tale. (July)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"A Stone of Hope: A Memoir." Publishers Weekly, 29 May 2017, p. 59. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A494500759/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=466e9ef4. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A494500759
A Stone of Hope
Michael Cart
Booklist. 113.17 (May 1, 2017): p51+.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
A Stone of Hope. By Jim St. Germain and Jon Sternfeld. July 2017. 304p. Harper, $27.99 (9780062458797). 818.
When 11-year-old Jim immigrates to the U.S. from Haiti, he expects to find a world like that in the movie Home Alone. Instead, he winds up in his grandmother's claustrophobic rat- and roach-infested apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. School isn't much better, a nightmare world of violence, but Jim is a survivor who struggles to adapt to his new environment. Nevertheless, by age 13, he's stealing and using and dealing drugs. By 15, he's incarcerated in the juvenile justice system, but, as luck would have it, he's sent to a non-secure detention facility called "Boys Town," where--though it's a struggle--he learns self-respect. Although the system is often castigated as failing those involved in it, Jim's case is a salutary exception, as he emerges from detention rehabilitated and determined to reenter the community, where he becomes an outspoken activist, founding Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow (PLOT), a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring at-risk youth. Though sometimes reiterative, Jim's story is visceral and unsparingly honest. Ultimately it is one of transformation and--most important--hope.--Michael Cart
YA: A natural for curious and compassionate teens, this compelling crossover memoir could have been published as YA. MC.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Cart, Michael. "A Stone of Hope." Booklist, 1 May 2017, p. 51+. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A495035032/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=8c6678c9. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A495035032
Book World: Escaping a troubled life, through determination and luck
Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Washington Post. (July 21, 2017): News:
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Full Text:
Byline: Leonard Pitts Jr.
A Stone of Hope: A Memioir
By Jim St. Germain with Jon Sternfeld
Harper. 292 pp. $27.99
---
Jim St. Germain does not want to be called a symbol. He knows that the temptation to do so will be overpowering for many of those who read this memoir of how he rose from dead-end streets to become a respected advocate for at-risk kids. Still, he would rather they didn't.
He writes: "I resist any attempts to treat me as a symbol, which strikes me as so far beside the point. Symbols are rarities, by definition, and I have no interest in being one. I'm working toward a world where my story is no longer a story."
If he is unhappy being called a symbol, one imagines St. Germain will also wince at being called a miracle. That is, however, undeniably what he is. As recounted in his book, too many "ifs" went his way over the course of growing up wild and angry in Brooklyn's Crown Heights neighborhood for the reader to believe anything else.
If the man who put that Glock to his forehead that day on the elevator had pulled the trigger ...
If that janitor hadn't seen him collapse from alcohol poisoning on that abandoned subway platform ...
If that guy who produced a handgun and started shooting up the street that day had had better aim ...
If the guy who stabbed him in the chest with a broken bottle had pushed an inch deeper ...
Every life, of course, is a built on bricks of ifs. But the ifs in St. Germain's life are the kind that make you ponder questions about destiny and grand design, the kind that make you realize how thin is the veil separating what is from what easily might have been.
St. Germain came to the United States from Haiti when he was 10. He arrived expecting to live on an upscale American street like he'd seen in "Home Alone." He ended up on a street like something out of "The Wire," huddling in a two-bedroom apartment with 10 other people. The furniture was ratty, the paint was peeling, the ceiling leaked, and when you turned the light out, the darkness filled with the soft click of roaches scurrying about the kitchen.
The new kid was treated as new kids are always treated. His unfamiliarity with English and his ignorance of local customs didn't make matters any better.
But the new kid adapted as new kids often do. He armored himself, shoved his fears into a closet out of view, and medicated his pain with pot and alcohol. He stole. He dealt drugs. And he fought. Indeed, something in him, some seething rage, seemed to seek out fights. Fighting seemed to feed some primal need.
Inevitably, it all brought the boy to the attention of the authorities, and as it had done with so many others before him, the "justice" system opened its maw to swallow his life. But someone within that system saw something worth saving in the angry boy. He was sent to a diversionary program instead. There, people reached out to him and kept reaching even when he snapped and cursed at them, even when he disappointed then. They reached until he finally had sense enough to reach back.
If they had not done that, St. Germain would not have a college degree, would not have been appointed by President Barack Obama to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, would not be co-founder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring at-risk kids. If they had not done that, he might now be doing time. Or dead.
If.
You have read this story before, of course. "A Stone of Hope" joins that shelf of literature by and about African-American men who started from the bottom and succeeded against all odds. Nathan McCall's "Makes Me Wanna Holler" is on that shelf. As is Claude Brown's "Manchild in the Promised Land" and even Booker T. Washington's "Up From Slavery."
"A Stone of Hope" will not make you forget any of those towering achievements. But neither is it an embarrassment to the shelf. Aided by writer Jon Sternfeld, St. Germain sketches out the passages of his life in a brisk, clean style, recounting even the most wrenching episodes in clear-eyed, unsentimental prose.
For all the street stories he weaves, though, arguably the most compelling part of St. Germain's narrative comes when he takes his first tentative steps beyond the streets. Admirably, in telling this part of his life, he leaves intact all the false starts and setbacks.
So instead of a nicely linear "Movie of the Week" story of the one special caseworker or counselor who inspired him to fix his life, we get the story of a series of people and a number of years, and how they worked at him, how they tested his patience and he tested theirs, of how he failed, and then succeeded.
Which, on reflection, feels true. Life is not a training montage from a "Rocky" movie. It is trial and error, setback and achievement. So if you graphed St. Germain's progress from what he was to what he is, the resulting line might resemble the stock exchange during a bull market - jagged but rising.
There is a subtle point in that. Namely, that there are no magic bullets or instant fixes for troubled kids. There is only hard work and the dedication it takes to do.
And that our children - skin color, culture or socioeconomic standing notwithstanding - are worth it. Indeed, that they deserve it. A child enters the world through no volition or decision of his own and adapts to what he finds.
What if he found, from the beginning, a society that prioritized his well-being and decided that there was a basic level of compassion and subsistence to which he was entitled? "It's not a noble fight in my mind," St. Germain writes, "it's a blatantly obvious one. There is something wrong if fighting for disenfranchised youth isn't a collective effort that emits from the very moral center of our country."
St. Germain's life makes the point more effectively than his words. Think about it. He rose from a blighted place and managed to make something good of himself. To do so, he needed to be a miracle.
It should have been enough just to be a child.
---
Pitts Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and the author of the novels "Freeman" and "Grant Park."
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Pitts, Leonard, Jr. "Book World: Escaping a troubled life, through determination and luck." Washington Post, 21 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498979625/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=7da44118. Accessed 21 Mar. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498979625
Book review: Escaping a troubled life, through determination and luck
By LEONARD PITTS JR. | Special to The Washington Post
July 27, 2017 at 2:27 pm
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A Stone of Hope: A Memioir
By Jim St. Germain with Jon Sternfeld
A Stone of Hope: A Memioir ...HarperA Stone of Hope: A Memioir
Jim St. Germain does not want to be called a symbol. He knows that the temptation to do so will be overpowering for many of those who read this memoir of how he rose from dead-end streets to become a respected advocate for at-risk kids. Still, he would rather they didn’t.
He writes: “I resist any attempts to treat me as a symbol, which strikes me as so far beside the point. Symbols are rarities, by definition, and I have no interest in being one. I’m working toward a world where my story is no longer a story.”
If he is unhappy being called a symbol, one imagines St. Germain will also wince at being called a miracle. That is, however, undeniably what he is. As recounted in his book, too many “ifs” went his way over the course of growing up wild and angry in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood for the reader to believe anything else.
If the man who put that Glock to his forehead that day on the elevator had pulled the trigger …
If that janitor hadn’t seen him collapse from alcohol poisoning on that abandoned subway platform …
If that guy who produced a handgun and started shooting up the street that day had had better aim …
If the guy who stabbed him in the chest with a broken bottle had pushed an inch deeper …
Every life, of course, is a built on bricks of ifs. But the ifs in St. Germain’s life are the kind that make you ponder questions about destiny and grand design, the kind that make you realize how thin is the veil separating what is from what easily might have been.
St. Germain came to the United States from Haiti when he was 10. He arrived expecting to live on an upscale American street like he’d seen in “Home Alone.” He ended up on a street like something out of “The Wire,” huddling in a two-bedroom apartment with 10 other people. The furniture was ratty, the paint was peeling, the ceiling leaked, and when you turned the light out, the darkness filled with the soft click of roaches scurrying about the kitchen.
The new kid was treated as new kids are always treated. His unfamiliarity with English and his ignorance of local customs didn’t make matters any better.
But the new kid adapted as new kids often do. He armored himself, shoved his fears into a closet out of view, and medicated his pain with pot and alcohol. He stole. He dealt drugs. And he fought. Indeed, something in him, some seething rage, seemed to seek out fights. Fighting seemed to feed some primal need.
Inevitably, it all brought the boy to the attention of the authorities, and as it had done with so many others before him, the “justice” system opened its maw to swallow his life. But someone within that system saw something worth saving in the angry boy. He was sent to a diversionary program instead. There, people reached out to him and kept reaching even when he snapped and cursed at them, even when he disappointed then. They reached until he finally had sense enough to reach back.
If they had not done that, St. Germain would not have a college degree, would not have been appointed by President Barack Obama to the Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, would not be co-founder of Preparing Leaders of Tomorrow, a nonprofit organization dedicated to mentoring at-risk kids. If they had not done that, he might now be doing time. Or dead.
If.
You have read this story before, of course. “A Stone of Hope” joins that shelf of literature by and about African-American men who started from the bottom and succeeded against all odds. Nathan McCall’s “Makes Me Wanna Holler” is on that shelf. As is Claude Brown’s “Manchild in the Promised Land” and even Booker T. Washington’s “Up From Slavery.”
“A Stone of Hope” will not make you forget any of those towering achievements. But neither is it an embarrassment to the shelf. Aided by writer Jon Sternfeld, St. Germain sketches out the passages of his life in a brisk, clean style, recounting even the most wrenching episodes in clear-eyed, unsentimental prose.
For all the street stories he weaves, though, arguably the most compelling part of St. Germain’s narrative comes when he takes his first tentative steps beyond the streets. Admirably, in telling this part of his life, he leaves intact all the false starts and setbacks.
So instead of a nicely linear “Movie of the Week” story of the one special caseworker or counselor who inspired him to fix his life, we get the story of a series of people and a number of years, and how they worked at him, how they tested his patience and he tested theirs, of how he failed, and then succeeded.
Which, on reflection, feels true. Life is not a training montage from a “Rocky” movie. It is trial and error, setback and achievement. So if you graphed St. Germain’s progress from what he was to what he is, the resulting line might resemble the stock exchange during a bull market – jagged but rising.
There is a subtle point in that. Namely, that there are no magic bullets or instant fixes for troubled kids. There is only hard work and the dedication it takes to do.
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And that our children – skin color, culture or socioeconomic standing notwithstanding – are worth it. Indeed, that they deserve it. A child enters the world through no volition or decision of his own and adapts to what he finds.
What if he found, from the beginning, a society that prioritized his well-being and decided that there was a basic level of compassion and subsistence to which he was entitled? “It’s not a noble fight in my mind,” St. Germain writes, “it’s a blatantly obvious one. There is something wrong if fighting for disenfranchised youth isn’t a collective effort that emits from the very moral center of our country.”
St. Germain’s life makes the point more effectively than his words. Think about it. He rose from a blighted place and managed to make something good of himself. To do so, he needed to be a miracle.
It should have been enough just to be a child.
Leonard Pitts Jr. is a nationally syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and the author of the novels “Freeman” and “Grant Park.”