Angalia Bianca
Benefitting the Acclivus Inc. Chicago
Angalia Bianca has been arrested more times than she can count. By the age of 17 she was a full-blown heroin addict. She had five kids while in and out of prison for 12 years. Those were the headlines over decades of Bianca’s life. But at the age of 50, Bianca changed the narrative, when a chance encounter would lead her to a new career as a violence interrupter working with at-risk youth. She is saving lives everyday serving the invisible population to which she once belonged.
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In this episode, we talk about:
Becoming addicted to heroin by age 17.
Being initiated into the Latin Kings gang.
Her experience of being in and out of prison.
Entering a halfway house, second chances and becoming a violence interrupter.
Wise Words
I hate needles but I did it. I felt sick initially and threw up but then it gave me a feeling of euphoria. Really almost like a dream state but you're awake. And I instantly loved it and I then struggled with it for 36 years.
So as much as I loved him, I just... I always say when a woman starts getting high continuously from nine years old, motherhood's not going to look too good for that person. Do you know what I mean?
And I remember my day-to-day towards the last say 20 years were hour by hour. And I don't know how many people know what it's like to live hour by hour, but I do
I was badly addicted to heroin and then you stay up 2, 3, 4 days hustling, ripping, running, stealing. All types of different crimes are going on because you need money. I don't consider myself a prostitute, or that I was a prostitute, but if that was the last resort of how I had to get money if I was sick, then it didn't matter. I was okay with that.
I had to spend 30 days in the county sobering up a little bit and then remembering my family and then remembering my children. What a horrible mother that I am that I gave my children up. I remember my grandmother and how much she loved me and how much I loved her and it was just too much for me to bear the guilt. And I would try to stay as high as I possibly could.
You have to survive. And it was a survival mode and probably traumatizing survival mode for 20 years that I lived.
I felt like I made a life there in prison. I'm going to school, I'm getting educated, I've got my paints, I have friends. You have to make it your life because if you are in prison and all you think about are the streets, your time will go by like a day will feel like a week. So I made that my family.
She grabbed my hand and she held it real tight and she said, "Look at me." And I looked at her with tears in my eyes and she said, "Bianca, I want you to take comfort that your father died peacefully with all his loved ones around him. Please take comfort in that." And I said, "Okay." I went back to my cell and I replayed that over and over again in my head because it was traumatizing. And I kept hearing her say that and it occurred to me that I won't have that privilege.
If I don't change my life, I won't have that privilege. I'm going to die in an alley alone from a gunshot wound or a drug overdose and I'm going to be alone.
I know that I've saved lives and I know that I will continue to do this until I die.
The most important thing that keeps me sober and productive is that I filled that void with helping others. And I really like doing that.
I want people to know that there's always hope. Never give up on anyone because you never know the potential that someone has.
LINKS
Website: www.angaliabianca.com
Facebook: Angalia Bianca
Instagram: @angaliabianca
Book: In Deep: How I Survived Gangs, Heroin, and Prison to Become a Chicago Violence Interrupter
Charity Donation: Acclivus Inc.