Week 9 Response – Anika Czander

Gil Fagiani was a pleasure to have in class. I loved how his poetry captured the vibe of the 1960s. While it was certainly morose to hear about his struggle with addiction, it is fitting due to the correlations between drug usages and poetry, especially with the beat poets of the 1960s. I also thought it was very interesting that he was a radical and fought for proper access to rehabilitation in low-income neighborhoods. As a current resident of East Harlem, I can see the impacts that his activism, and the activism from people like him, has had on the area. I live around the corner from a methadone clinic, and while there are a myriad of issues with the replacement of opioid addiction to that of legal methadone, the neighborhood has actually become safer, as less muggings take place by people who need money to buy drugs. Methadone clinics are an attempt at rehabilitation, but Fagiani was correct in saying that there was a lot more work to be done.