By Desirae Lee + Priscilla Ward
Edited for Femme Fatale DC by Briget Heidmous

Please note that this project mentions death. The last 75 seconds of the video “Get Your Hands Out of My Pockets (GYHOMP): Message from Grassroots Media” shows the assassination by gunfire of Malcolm X from the Spike Lee film "Malcolm X”, 1992.

Right before Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965, he was giving a speech at the Audubon Ballroom. Two men began to argue, and one yelled “GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY POCKET,” creating a commotion. This distraction allowed an accomplice to run to the stage and shoot X 21 times. The harrowing scene is depicted in Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X.”  

Desirae Lee is a multimedia artist pursuing her MFA in film at Howard University. Priscilla Ward is a D.C.-based writer, who covers arts, entertainment, and lifestyle content for a wide variety of publications and brands. Together we are the documentary artists capturing the legacy of the phrase “GET YOUR HANDS OUT OF MY POCKET” by interviewing, photographing and filming people in Washington D.C. 

Get Your Hands Out of My Pocket (GYHOMP) pays homage to X, while also discussing the ‘distractions’ we experience consciously and subconsciously. We interrogate the ways they inform our value system as a culture. 

Our project begins on Election Day at the African American Veteran Memorial near the U Street Corridor. D.C. 's phase two Covid-19 precautions shifted the morning buzz of subway commuters to the quiet of those opting to take private transportation. A lone biker stepped into the frame and became our first subject. Michael Black was a messenger on a mission. 

Black smoked a cigarette while unveiling the story of how he rode his bright-red TREK bike from Florida to D.C. to spread love and positivity. “A little bit of heart, and a whole lot of God,” he said, kept him going for nearly 1,000 miles. After a week of riding and two days of train hopping, Black arrived in D.C. on the morning of Election Day. 

"Anybody can drive somewhere and start screaming, but what about if you just hop on a bike and help people the whole way. [I was] just trying to help somebody and not be so focused on what I need,” said Black. He used revenue from his online business to buy food for the homeless and essential supplies for anyone that asked. He was born into poverty and is a recovering alcoholic now sober for 10 years, he recounts. However, his background only propels him forward as he performs acts of kindness, “The fact is we all need each other,” he continued.  

The presidential election of 2020, proved that we do need one another. Voters across the country turned out in record-breaking numbers. Three historically republican states were baptized blue. People everywhere rose to restore a sense of dignity and democracy to our country.

Our subjects are just as diverse as the voter turnout: they are Howard University students and alumni, including two of Kamala Harris’ sorority line sisters. They are people of color who work at voting sites as well as photographers we met at Malcolm X Park. 

A week after election day, making our way up to Georgia Avenue, we spoke with Black business owners at the storied Blue Nile Botanicals Herbal shop and Sankofa restaurant and bookstore. General sentiments ranged from relief to rebellion to fear with an uptick in hope. 

In real-time we were hearing the truth from our nation’s capital: DC was once a neat blanket of Black residents. It is now a shifting patch-work design of temporary residents. 

We speak with renown journalist and writer Peter Bailey, who calls D.C. home. On a cloudy December morning, we took a walk with Bailey who asked us to call him Professor, but never a doctor. While he never finished his degree at Howard University, his legacy as a storyteller was never hindered. 

Bailey says Howard is where his education about Black history began. However, his time in Harlem is where his education took shape. Here, Bailey became a founding member of his Organization of Afro-American Unity, where he served as editor of the group's newsletter, titled Blacklash.

In this role he learned from the teachings of X. Bailey even recalls the first time he ever heard X speak in Harlem. “He spoke for three hours. By the time he finished I was a ‘Malcomite’. I had never heard anyone speak with such clarity, such passion and knowledge. He gave the real deal about race in this country. One of the things he did that I had never heard in my life was talking about attacks on the mind in a public arena.”

Now, Bailey is a vessel of living history for the Shaw neighborhood, where he currently resides. As we walked slowly he pointed out schools, statues, and houses where acquaintances once lived, his memory vivid as ever. “When I was at Howard in 1959 this was all Black. The only white people you saw were the white people who owned stores. But now 48% of Shaw is white people,” Bailey said. 

Colonization, in the form of gentrification, has swept into D.C. like other major cities across the U.S. There are a myriad of emotions and a deep-set political distrust that often leaves Black people skeptical. 

Our nation has seen white privilege rear an ugly head especially hard over the last four years. Now a change in power continues to make visible white supremacists. It is no longer a battle waged by solely Black people, but rather America finally undoing it’s Gucci belt and handling its problems.

This project is helping us cut through distractions and elevate the voices of Black people throughout this political shift. 

Desirae Lee is an MFA Film candidate at Howard University. Originally from Florida, she has become a first-hand witness  to the evolution of Washington, D.C. and the political history it claims with a hushed roar. 

Priscilla Ward is a D.C.-based writer, who covers arts and entertainment culture in her native D.C. and beyond. She lived in New York for several years where she worked at ESSENCE, BET, and Health Magazine. 

© Femme Fatale DC 2020