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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. We continue now to meet the four new members of the New York City Council who won their seats in the November election. Today's new council member is in a category of his own for being nationally known as one of the exonerated Central Park Five. From that wrongful conviction from way back 35 years ago, arrested when he was just 15 years old and sent to prison for a crime the justice system later concluded he did not commit when they found the real attacker of the woman known as the Central Park jogger.

Before being elected to City Council, Yusef Salaam had already become a renowned motivational speaker and author of the book, whose title reflects that, called Better, Not Bitter. Now he represents New York City Council District 9 centered in Harlem, going up to Hamilton Heights and down to Morningside Heights and the Manhattan Valley portion of the Upper West Side. On his city council bio page, he calls himself a family man, father, poet, activist, and inspirational speaker. I'll add to that with a bit of poetic justice of its own. Council member Salaam has now been appointed chair of the New York City Council Public Safety Committee. Councilman, an honor to have you on as part of the series. Welcome back to WNYC.

Yusef Salaam: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Brian Lehrer: Can I start by going back to when you were 12 years old? Your book tells those of us who didn't know that you were admitted at that young age to LaGuardia High School, the High School of Music and Art. Were you into the arts as a young kid?

Yusef Salaam: I was and I still am. [laughs] Yes, I was never trained in art, but it's somehow one of the gifts that God gave me. Interestingly enough, while I was in prison, I was able to really hone that skill to almost expert levels and create some really, really great things. Right now, some of the jewelry that I wear are actually pieces that I've actually created myself as well.

Brian Lehrer: Jewelry and poetry, I know. Anything else?

Yusef Salaam: Jewelry, poetry. My mother, she's from the fashion world, of course, graduating from FIT, and then also she was teaching at Parsons University, but it's interesting that I think I get my style from her, but I also get my style from my wife as well. [laughs]

Brian Lehrer: I noticed on that bio as I read, and this is why I read it, you start with family, man, and father. How come?

Yusef Salaam: I think it's important, especially in today's world, a lot of individualism has been pushed forward, but the reality is that when I came home from prison, some of the best advice I was given prior to leaving was to get married, to settle down, to have a family. These are things that anchor you in society and allow you to really produce the best that you can. For me, having children, having a wife that is constantly encouraging me, children that I support and that are looking to me and for me to make sure that the future is alive and well, it constantly reminds me of what's at stake.

Brian Lehrer: Part of your better, not bitter story to set your book title, Better, Not Bitter, is earning your high school diploma and starting college in prison. You wrote, "They have created cages in order to create animals, so they'll have an excuse to create more cages, but we all have the power to blossom behind those bars." How did you find that power to blossom behind bars, given the injustice that was perpetrated on you and the position you were in, it would've been so easy to wallow in bitterness?

Yusef Salaam: I think this is actually the real part of the story that is the most impactful. Having people in my life that gave me tools and keys that allowed me to succeed. One of those keys was learning meditation. Learning how to visualize, learning to envision as well. While I was in prison, the worst thing that I realized was, and this is after the process, this wasn't like, this came to me and I knew it. This was after me going through these deep meditations, walking around with my eyes wide open, dreaming that impossible dream. I realized that the system is actually betting on us to participate in our arrested development. To push back to really be a force of nature, if you will, is to realize that you were born on purpose and with a purpose.

When you move in that reality, you get the opportunity to take even those low points in life, those things that are the most challenging, and allow yourself to become an alchemist using that in order to strengthen you. I had to develop the mental muscle, the mental acuity, to be able to keep my focus. Then imagine, like I said, what would it be like to get out of here? The best thing, I think, that happened was that through that process, I was able to not really be mentally harmed, even though I was physically harmed for all of those years.

Brian Lehrer: In your career as an inspirational speaker, what kinds of audiences do you tend to address with that message?

Yusef Salaam: The biggest audiences that I love to speak to, and this is prior to books and film, has been junior high school and high school students. They are really, really an inspiration for me and to me as I share my story with them, but after film and after books, the biggest audiences have been universities and college campuses. I've traveled internationally and spoken in front of heads of state, rulers of nations. It's really been a wonderful journey so far.

Brian Lehrer: Now, you're 50 years old, you have this career. Why did you choose to turn to electoral politics at this time?

Yusef Salaam: It was interesting for me to realize, and this is back in 2002, and perhaps even prior to that. While I was in prison languishing there, I read the story of Joseph in the Bible, and I read that same story in the Quran, and I was so blown away by the fact that he's an individual who, my story really parallels his story. That story is one where he was accused of a crime he didn't commit. That crime was, in fact, rape, and he went to prison. When he was released from prison, he rose up the ladder of political success. I took that as a nod in the direction that I should go and could go, but it wasn't until 2002 when we were found innocent. We had already come out of prison.

I came home in 1997, and I felt my life was relegated to being a citizen that had this awful stain, this indelible scar, if you will. Then when we were found innocent, we started marching for justice. We thought that there was going to be a speedy method to make us whole, just like there was a speedy method to convict us, but it took 12 years. 12 years of us marching, of us organizing, of us becoming the brotherhood that we became as the Central Park Five, and ultimately, after the film becoming a sacred brotherhood in the Exonerated Five. As I marched, I kept saying to myself, "Who's in the halls of power that's going to hear our voices?" It's one thing to be seen trying to be heard. It's another thing to affect the heart of the matter and have policy change according to what's going on.

I thought, who better to be a champion for not only myself but for our people than someone who's been, in fact, close to the pain? Who's been in fact in pain? That was me. I had to start learning as much as I can, and I'm actually still learning on the job. It's really a great experience so far. Some of it has been trial by fire, but it's been really, really great.

Brian Lehrer: City Council Member Yusef Salaamm, my guest for another two minutes here on WNYC. The subtitle of your book is Living on Purpose in Pursuit of Racial Justice. How do you hope to pursue racial justice in the context of City Council? As you were just describing the purpose of you joining I heard, but where you're just 1 of 51 members, and the mayor can veto reforms he doesn't agree with as he did recently on the How Many Stops Act and the No Solitary Confinement Bill. How can you have an impact?

Yusef Salaam: I think the biggest impact is realizing what the law is there for. The law is really to make society safe. When I was reading the Constitution in prison and I came upon the amendment, the 13th Amendment, in fact, that stated that slavery and involuntary servitude except for the punishment of a crime shall exist in the United States and its territories, I was very, very concerned, but then I realized that I had been just reading Section 1 for many, many years without realizing how impactful Section 2 is, which states Congress shall have the power to enforce this article through appropriate legislation.

When I look back almost in a Sankofa moment, I realized that the ultimate makeup of the prison industrial complex are Black people, are Brown people. Even though we don't make up the majority of the citizens in the United States, we make up the majority of the citizens in the prison industrial complex. I think being a voice that really speaks to a different vantage point, a different lived experience.

Brian Lehrer: Whoops. Did we just lose the city council member's line, or did you go on mute by accident there, council member?

Yusef Salaam: I'm sorry.

Brian Lehrer: You're back.

Yusef Salaam: Let me know what you caught in. I'm not sure-- [crosstalk]

Brian Lehrer: We caught just about everything that you said, so pick it up, and if you want to end that answer, or I can just go on to another thing.

Yusef Salaam: Absolutely. Let's proceed forward. [chuckles]

Brian Lehrer: All right. Well, on what you were just describing about racial justice in the criminal justice system, there is a tension in the city these days between the urge for reform to fight mass incarceration and other things, and the crime that victimizes some people and freaks a lot of other people out, to hear the mayor tell it, for example, crime went down in the subways when they flooded the zone with police, and then it started to creep back up when they pulled back on that deployment recently, and now he's redeploying. How does society find a sweet spot?

Yusef Salaam: Well, I think true justice is really being able to, in many ways, provide jobs for people because the biggest crime that plagues societies is poverty. Poverty pushes people's backs against the walls, pushes them into corners that they don't want to be in, and unfortunately, people find themselves doing things that they would never do. I think that, just like that same encouragement, that same advice that I got from those brilliant minds that were in prison that would never come home. If you can get a job, if you can get an anchor that allows you to add value to society, then the psychosocial dynamic allows you to dig deep and to provide the very best of yourself.

If you're being made to believe that you're born a mistake and you internalize that, you, in fact, begin to move throughout your life like you're a mistake. The worst part about it is that by the time you realize that you're digging in the wrong hole or ditch, you might be 50 years or more older, or you might have expired already. That's really, really the biggest challenge. Looking at all of those things, trying to make sure that you can put more light in the world, be more of a positive change. I think it goes very, very far to stem the tide of crime, to add to the quality of life that we all want and need and deserve. All of that stuff matters.

Brian Lehrer: Well, councilman, I think you were told that we end each of these introductory city council interviews when newly elected council members come on for the first time with a show and tell item, which we invite you to prepare, and I'm told that you did. What would you like people who don't know your district, in Harlem, from up in Hamilton Heights, to down in Morningside Heights, to also the Manhattan Valley neighborhood of the Upper West Side, what would you like people who don't know your district to know about? It's hard to pick one thing, right?

Yusef Salaam: Oh my goodness, it's hard to pick one thing. [laughs] New York City in general is the kaleidoscope of the human family. It's really a melting pot of cultures and very, very beautiful. There's beautiful, tasty restaurants in my community. I would say that you can only find these kinds of restaurants in my community because of the rich culture that's there. Restaurants like Ponte's Bistro, that's always a go-to. Restaurants like African Kind. I always love to get dibi and rice from there.

The Schomburg Library is right in our community. We have so much culture right here. We are the crossroads of the world and people know it because when you talk about Harlem, you talk about 125th Street, people's eyes always light up and glow, "Wow, you're from there? The place that I've only dreamt about, and it's really, really great to be here."

Brian Lehrer: Newly elected city council member, now chair of the Public Safety Committee as well, in a bit of poetic justice, Yusef Salam. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciated it and look forward to having you on from time to time as your term in City Council progresses. Thank you very, very much.

Yusef Salaam: Thank you for having me. I definitely appreciate it. I look forward to it as well.

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