Eager to show off their new job testing water quality, Prof.Ound takes their friends out on a boat for the first time.

Prof.Ound is a Bronx-born and raised spoken word artist, actor, writer, educator and environmentalist. Prof.Ound’s creative work is notable for its Afrocentric emphasis on audience participation and conveying moral/ethical lessons. Merging these aesthetic values into their ecological restoration work and background, Prof.Ound has been developing and workshopping a culturally responsive arts-based outdoor education pedagogy. Prof.Ound strives to ensure the full participation and autonomous leadership of marginalized communities in environmental movements.

This story originally aired on October 18, 2019 in an episode titled “Leadership.”

Story Transcript

When I was in high school, I got to do something that other young, poor, black and brown kids in New York City don't usually get to do, which is row on the Bronx River, of all places. This was the job of my dreams. I'd always kind of wanted to be an environmentalist, never really got the opportunity because, you know, I’m living in the inner city and they kind of exclude black and brown people from environmental fields. That's something we need to change.

Anyway, I became super excited about this opportunity, like I started talking about it to everyone. I was practically knocking on doors at this point. I wanted my friends to come with me to start rowing on the river and hang out on the water with me, see all the birds and the plants and the fish and stuff.

But everyone was just like, “No. We're not going on a boat. I'm not trying to drown. Sorry.”

Eventually, I have been there by two years and I kept begging and begging, begging. Finally, I got two of my friends, Jay and Nessa, to come with me. I kept letting them know no one's going to drown. We're going to be totally okay. I've been here for two years now. I got this.

So we're in the train. We finally get to this after-school program that I had been going to and was now an employee at called Rocking the Boat. Super excited, my friends are with me and I'm telling them about the river and the water and warning them about the mud, so we got to make sure we wear a boot so we won't ruin our sneakers.

And I see my employees and I see my boss there and I'm letting them know, “Hey, my friends are here. Can we take them out on water?”

He's like, “Sure. Okay. You could go out with them on your own. Just make sure you take a radio with you and call us if you need help.”

I'm like, “All right. Cool. Yes. Sure do.” But in my head I'm like, “Why would I need to call you? I got this,” like I had told my friends.

So we're gathering all the supplies that we need. We got our life jackets and everything. We're filling out the float plan, so that's what we use to make sure we designate what time we're going out, which direction the wind is going in.

I'm making sure I'm grabbing all of our water quality testing equipment because that was something that we were doing a lot at the time, was testing the quality of the Bronx River. There's a huge pollution issue that goes on there because sometimes sewer water ends up in the water, which is really unfortunate.

So we're always making sure we're testing that. I have the equipment. I get my friends and we go. We grab some of our really awesome boats and then now I'm pulling them with me and I'm telling my friends about everything.

And they're like, “Wooh, wooh, wooh. We're going out on the water.”

And I keep letting them know it's going to be great. We're having so much fun. We're pushing. We get to the bank and now we turn the boat around. We push it into the water.

Splash! And there's a lot of people in the park and they're watching us. We have our life vests on and I'm feeling so awesome, like I'm a superhero. I'm like, “Yes!”

I get my friends into the boat and then, after that, I push the boat into the water and I practically leap off of the bank over my friends into the boat. Yes, that actually did happen. Now, I am away at the back of the boat, the aft, which is, you know, the stern, and I'm holding our steering oar.

I'm telling my friends, “Look, we're here. We made it. Everybody is fine. All things are okay.”

My friends were like, “All right. I can do this.” Their breath is slowing down. We're out. We're floating. We're cruising. Everything is chill. Everything is going well.

So I'd begin to teach my friends how to row, slowly but surely, getting them into the flow of it. You grab the oars, you point to your toes, make a circle, roll back towards your chest like Superman and Fat Joe, lean back, you know. And I'm filling our sample bottles with the water and making sure I'm getting all the tests ready. I have the water quality data collection sheets. I'm paying attention to cloud cover and everything.

My friends are rowing. It's all going well. We're heading south toward the CSO. The CSO, Combined Sewage Outflow is something I mentioned earlier. What that means, basically, is that when it rains, because New York City's sewer system is old, some of that sewage water will end up in the Bronx River. Not cool at all.

When I tell my friends about that they're like, “Eww. So you're trying to say there's… in the water there's…”

“Yes, there is. That's why we're going over there to the CSO to test it.”

And they're like, “Okay, though I don't know if I want to get too close.”

But I'm like, “We're going to be fine. I got this.”

We're headed to the CSO. Things are going well, rowing smoothly. I'm so happy. My friends are finally here and we're doing this important environmental work. We're testing about pollution-related issues. Yes.”

And as we're going, I begin to realize that we're headed toward the south part of the river, toward the CSO, and the tide is also going in the same direction with us. And the wind is also going in the same direction with us.

As I'm paying attention to that fact, I realize, hey, we need to get back up north. Which means, when we're ready to go home, we're going to be fighting the current. We're going to be fighting the wind. And that's not a pretty picture at all.

See, there's a reason why when we fill out our float plans we pay attention to which direction the wind is going in so that we can know that we go against it on the way toward the destination so that when we're returning home we could just flow with and we won't have to fight the elements on the way home. But for some reason, I let all my ‘I got this’ get to my head and now, now we're in a situation where we could potentially be stuck on the river and so I have to come up with what to do next.

The first thing I say is, “You know, it's going to be fine. Hey, guys, we got to go home. What we're going to need to do is just turn the boat around and, yes, we might have to row against the wind and against the current.

“Excuse me?” says Nessa. “What exactly are you telling me?”

And I'm just like, “It's going to be fine. We kind of have to row against the current and wind. It's going to be hard but we can do it. I believe we can. We got this. We made it this far, right?”

My friends are reluctantly beginning to get into the flow of rowing and they're trying to turn the boat around. We're doing this little maneuver called the helicopter. You kind of row towards you in one direction and then against you in the other direction. It's all wonky and my friends do not know what they're doing at all. They're inexperienced rowers after all.

But I keep trying to encourage them. We're trying to turn the boat. We keep trying. And as we're doing so, we're getting pushed further and further south. Now we’re beyond the CSO and we are headed toward the mouth of the Bronx River.

The mouth of the Bronx River connects to the East River. And the mouth of the Bronx River is where there's a lot more water, it's deeper, it's wider, the waves are choppier, which means now the boat is beginning to rock. Even though it's called Rocking the Boat, that's not something we actually like to do there. No.

And now my friends’ worst fears have been actualized. They start to get really scared and screaming like, “What's going on? I'm not trying to fall out of the boat.”

And I'm telling them, “Calm down. Calm down. All we need to do is just row. We need to get back. We'll be okay. We'll be okay.”

They're like, “No. Your boss told you to call if anything goes wrong. Call now. Call now.”

I'm like, “No, I got this. We don't need to call. You know what? Everybody, stop rowing. I'm just going to row us back because I've been here for several years. I got this.”

So I get on the oars. I'm rowing. I'm rowing. And it's against the wind and the current but I'm going. I'm rowing, I'm rowing, and rowing. Power Ten is what we call you just put as much strength as you can into the oars. We're back passing towards the CSO, so we're heading north. We're heading north. And now we've passed the CSO. We're heading north. We're heading north.

And I'm super happy and I'm telling my friends, “You know, there's a wall further north and the wall is next to the Hunts Point Industrial Market which is where a lot of New York City's produce is being transported in and out of the city. After we pass that wall then we'll see like a little area that has a lot of trees. That's across the river from Soundview Park. And then after that is our site with Rocking the Boat. We can just get back on the beach and we'll be home safely. I got this.”

They're like, “Okay. We believe you. Okay. We believe you.”

And I'm rowing, I'm rowing, I'm rowing. And as I'm rowing then I start to notice down the river, in the direction from which we came, is a huge barge. Barges come up and down the Bronx River all the time. And they are huge, they are wide and they are dangerous for small little Whitehall rowboats like our own. You must get out of the way. That is protocol.

Now, I'm just like, “How could I forget to check, to make sure for barges coming up and down at this time? What is wrong with me?”, because all the ‘I got this’ got to my head. But I said that I'm not going to let anything stop me.

So I got my friends’ attention, slowly but surely and calmly telling them, “Okay, we need to row to the bank of the river, anchor there and stop.”

Now, they have been facing me the entire time I'm rowing so they don't understand why I'm telling them this until. So they turned around to look behind them and they noticed this huge barge going toward them. And not only is the barge coming towards us but, remember, we're still fighting the wind and the current. So we're kind of actually being pushed back south toward the barge.

This is when if my friends were screaming earlier because of the waves, no, now they were hyperventilating. It just became chaos in the boat. My friend Jay started just laughing uncontrollably out of sheer fright. Sheer fright. People were falling out of their seats. That's how bad it was now.

And I had to do as much as I could to just practically grab somebody by their shoulders at this point and just shake Nessa like, “All right, everybody. Breathe. We just need to row.”

No one is listening so I'm rowing the boat now at this point by myself and people are ready to just jump out the boat and just onto the grass and then just out of the river, which you can't do. That's illegal. “Stay in the boat, children.”

So we're close to the bank. We've anchored and we watch the barge go by. It’s huge and it brings a lot of waves. So it has the boat rocking again and my friends are just gripping the gunwhales, or the sides of the boat, for dear life, hoping they don't fall out. And they're looking at me like, “If we do not live this, I'm going to kill you.”

And I'm just like, “We're going to be okay. I got this.”

And they're like, “No, we're not. You need to call your boss. They told you to call if things go wrong.”

And I said, “No. Absolutely not. I've been here for two years. I wanted you guys to come here. I wanted to show you everything that I'm doing. I'm not going to give in and ask for help. We're going to be okay.”

Finally, the barge has passed. Waves have calmed down. I start to row us and we're trying to head back north again. We're still fighting the wind and the current. At this point, I'm exhausted physically. And no matter what I'm trying to do to get us further north, I just can't. My arms are just now putty at this point.

I keep trying to get us north and the wind and the wind and the and the current is pushing us back. Keep trying to get us north and the wind and the current is pushing us back. And the whole time I'm just saying and I'm singing to myself, “We're going to get it okay. We're going to get there.”

My friends are just like, “No, no, no. Call your boss. Call your boss. Call your boss. We need help. We need help now!”

Finally, I just decide, “Okay. I'm going to call them. I'm going to call them.”

Reluctantly, I reach up and I grab the radio, which is on the lapel of my vest. I click it and my arms are literally shaking and I'm just like, “No, I got this. No, I need to call them.”

So I click it, “Radio check. Radio check. This is Kavon.” I call my boss and just like, “Guys, I need your help.”

They're like, “Oh, what's going on?”

I told them, “We're really stuck. We went the wrong way and now the wind and the current is fighting us.”

And they're like, “Oh, wow. Okay. So we're going to come get you, guys.” And I let my friends know, “They're coming to get us.”

“Hurray! Yes! Finally, we're going to be rescued and we'll never come back here again,” is basically how they're acting at this point. “How could you do this to us?”

And the whole time, I'm just feeling like a heel. My heart is just dropping, dropping and I'm super sad and I'm hurt.

Then, to add insult to injury, one of my coworkers once they show up to rescue us and to tether our boat to theirs, he's like, “Hey, Kavon, what happened? I thought you got this?”

I felt so bad after that. Years passed and I began to realize, you know, I let a lot of my confidence and excitement about being there, being an environmentalist get to my head. I had to say to myself eventually no matter how much knowledge you have about what you're doing, how much excitement you have about why you're doing it, you do need to be honest to your limitations.

When it comes to something so important and so vital, like trying to restore the literal planet we live on, restore the environment, we do have to make sure that we remember that we cannot do all this on our own. We do need to lean on each other and ask for help. Thank you.