Book Review: Leaving Breezy Street

Debra Kram-Fernandez, PhD, LCSW, RYT-200

Leaving Breezy Street by Brenda Meyers-Powell and April Reynolds is a memoir depicting Meyers-Powell’s foray into and out of the world of sex work. This narrative is graphic, raw, and unyielding as it invites the reader into a world of relentless danger—a world that this author endured and overcame.

Meyers-Powell begins with an introduction: Every Road Has to End Somewhere.

The first face I looked at was a little girl’s; … Looking at me, she shook her head, then took off and came right back with some toilet paper…. When I was in the hospital, I thought about that little girl, about what I made her see. … Every time I think of that little girl, I pray to God to help me make it right with the universe.”

The introduction describes a vile and brutal event that lands Breezy (Brenda Meyers-Powell) in the hospital after being punched and then dragged by a car driven by a john evidently intent on her demise. Upon arriving at the hospital, she looks in a mirror and sees “a monster without a face.” This gripping and detailed account describes the tragedy that was the turning point for her leaving a terrifying, demeaning, thrilling, and emotionally charged existence that she lived until the age of thirty-nine.

The familial events that fostered Meyers-Powell’s vulnerability to this life will not surprise anyone. However, her ability to integrate her good and bad memories is noteworthy. Memories of sexual abuse are tempered with those of warm smells, laughter, and family Christmases. Meyers-Powell integrates the positive and negative influences in her life that led her to become the woman she is today: an activist, mother, and partner in what appears to be a loving relationship. She expresses compassion, understanding, and forgiveness, recognizing the humanity of Ma’Dea, the woman who raised her. She sees Ma’Dea through the lens of history and culture, and while this took extensive emotional work, she can see the strengths in herself that hark back to the love and lessons learned from the erratic, abusive, and rageful grandmother, who was no-less her loving caregiver.

This memoir explores “connection” and “love” in a unique manner that provides a caricature-like depiction of Jessica Benjamin’s theoretical writings on “doer-done to” / “kill or be-killed” relational dynamics. The connection between trauma and substance dependence is portrayed as both an unstable foundation upon which to build a sense of power, as well as the downward-spiraling vortex that it is.  Trauma theory concepts such as “fight, flight, and freeze” and “appease and attach” are so vividly exemplified throughout this memoir as to make it a powerful assigned reading in trauma and trauma-related courses.

This is an education about a world that many would rather not know exists. It is well-written and logically organized. The story is genuinely tough to bear, yet it is desperately important that those who can read this and raise and awareness about this world do so. This trauma and inevitable life narrative of so many other young girls and women, particularly Black and Brown, can only continue while most of us look the other way.

I recommend this book to feminist psychoanalysts, social workers, clinicians of every ilk, teachers, activists, policymakers, and anyone willing to try to walk a mile in the shoes of someone who lived and thrived in a world of unthinkable terror and channeled her strength to make a meaningful, purposeful life on the other side. 

Dr. Debra Kram-Fernandez obtained her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the City University of New York Graduate Center/Hunter College School of Social Work in 2011, her LCSW-R in 2004, and her MSW and MS in Dance-Movement Therapy from Hunter College in 1991. She is a graduate of WTCI’s postgraduate training program. Areas of expertise include understanding serious mental illness, group work facilitation,  and diversity in human services. She is currently an Associate Professor at the State University of New York- Empire State College, and has a small private practice.

Reference

Meyers-Powell, B. & Reynolds, A. (2021). Leaving Breezy Street: A Memoir. New York: Henry Holt & Co.