La Pompa: A Dream Deferred

A proud Bronx native, Lucki Islam is a student at New York University, where she is studying theatre that uses her art and activism to make her voice recognized. Photo courtesy of Lucki Islam

“Like the Pompa, our dreams can not be contained. We are formless, but our environment does not dictate our futures.”

By Lucki Islam

“La Pompa.” The pump is running. The water flows down the streets, it connects the different blocks, cars passing by, but even more- it connects the people of the Bronx. Water has no form. However, depending on our environment, we are contained in different shapes and characters.

No neighborhood is stagnant. The Bronx is changing. A society that was formed from the ruins, and continues to thrive in this ruin. Nevertheless, it is the nature and substance of the changes caused by those who are blind to the culture of the Bronx that causes friction.

Going to public school in the Bronx for 17 years, you quickly learn that what they teach you will rarely prepare you for what reality has in store. In school, we were just kids learning about the periodic table, or the philosophies of Aristotle. But outside of school, we dream of being something more.

Like the Pompa, our dreams can not be contained. We are formless, but our environment does not dictate our futures. Water can flow or it can crash, but it is up to us to decide and take up those spaces that we often fear we can’t be in.

The system of public schooling is fragmented and imperfect so it is up to us to make the best out of what we have. The Pompa is beautiful when it's broken and uncapped. That is the rawness of the people in the Bronx. Those who want change will create it, just like those who want education will seek it.

I often feel overwhelmed and unprepared for the future, and as I walk down the familiar streets, I think about lost souls on summer nights- fire hydrants, broken and running, but the water droplets feel like home. I think about where I would be if I decided to be the high school dropout that plagues the back of my mind. I have seen many who were sucked into that black hole, but even I felt helpless in trying to give them a reason to stay. I saw friends drop out of school as much as I saw bodies drop down on the streets. I wanted to escape from this reality so I found myself falling asleep in all my classes in my sophomore year of high school. What did that mean? That it was all over? That there was no way I could go back to being the perfect straight-A student? Junior year rolled around and I started to believe that I was just another statistic, forgot my dreams in trying to prove I was different. If you were to ask me where I see myself in ten years, I would tell you, hopefully, alive and less lost than I am now. The Public School system is a passionless fruit but I’ll take what I can get, and without hesitation, I will run with it.

Do not ask me why he never graduated. Because he’ll tell the story better. They told him he couldn’t reach for the stars so he reached for the drugs and guns. Do not ask me why he never graduated. Because I’ll tell you he was the smartest kid I knew. He wanted to work for NASA, but the irony still stands. He wouldn’t make it out alive. His dreams were too big for a boy in the Bronx. Before you ask them why they never graduated, ask them what they anticipated. We’re alienated, but we hope that they see us as humans and our futures are exonerated.

La Pompa ensures that we are free to know and accept peace no matter the uncertainty. That the Bronx can not contain us.

I think about how important it is to get an education when I think about the world today. Yet the fact remains that students of color have been failed by the Public Education system, and it will continue to do so before we understand the barriers beyond academia. Education is not just about getting through the day but being driven to learn more. 

The pump is running. I pass my hand through the cool water droplets and know that my future is not set. That I have the power to break free from my containment. That I have the power to tell my truth.

La Pompa reminds us that there is no perfect storyline for us, there is only a feeling.