Episode 47 - Akbar Pray Homecoming (pt 1)

Dr. Vanessa Tyler shares a conversation with convicted drug kingpin - turned writer and mentor Akbar Pray. In 1990, Akbar was sentenced to life in prison for non-violent drug offenses, only to receive a compassionate release in 2024 partially due to his conflict resolution and counseling work with inmates while incarcerated. Akbar Pray, along with his non-profit The Akbar Pray Foundation for Change offers initiatives for re-entry programs for the formerly incarcerated, social justice reform and mentorship to at-risk urban youth. The story of Akbar Pray is one of redemption, perseverance and advocacy. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ach bar Prey is home. He wants to say something again.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Everyone.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
If it sounds chaotic, that's because it is. Hundreds are
here at Newark's Penn Station for this hero's welcome back
from a thirty six year bid to the city where
ach bar Prey ruled his drug empire, Newark, New Jersey
aka Brick City that was then once notorious. Ach bar
Prey is a man on a different mission.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
Now. At that time I was part of the problem.
I said that I was returning back to my city
to become a part of the solution.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
His reincarnation from incarceration, turning around the life he was
born into.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
People were selling drugs out of my house when I
came into the world. They kept the drugs in my pajamas.
When I was four or five, and the people came
to buy drugs all night. They woke me up all
night to get two or three bags.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
The past, present, and future of akbar Prey in bl
black Land and now as a brown person, you just
feel so invisible where we're from, brothers and sisters. I
welcome you to this joint from day.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
And we celebrate freedom. Where we are.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
I know someone's heard something.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
And where we're going.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
We the people means all the people.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
The black information that work presents Blackland with your host
Vanessa Tyler.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
In many inner cities, there was always one who conducted
drug dealing as bigger than a small business, but a corporation,
an empire. In Newark, New Jersey, the title of kingpin
went to Akbar Prey. He paid for that title with
more than thirty years of his life. He's out now
and on a different path. Akbar Pray, welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Nice meeting of Vanessa, and yes here I am.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
How long have you been out?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
I have been out a little over eight weeks. I
left October the first of this year, so a little
almost nine weeks now, about two months.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
How are you doing.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
I'm doing. I'm doing amazingly well. A long time ago
people would say, if I was doing any better, I
think it was a setup, you know. But I'm doing
amazingly well. The reintegration back into the streets for me,
back into society has been sort of seamless. In some regards.
It seems as though I've never left.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
He did leave for decades, served time, but didn't let
the time serve him. He started something on the inside.
He's now bringing on the outside.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
I was bringing to bring back and bring into my city,
re entry, the reintegration, back to society, and also the
Prey Multimedia and publishing company. So I've had a lot
of support from friends and family. I got welcome moms
from my city, from the Mayor's throughout essras coont Me,

(03:01):
and I've got a team of people working with me
to see my vision. Things have been going well. I've
advanced a few nonprofits and one for profit, the Achwa
Pray Foundation.

Speaker 1 (03:11):
For Chain Embraced like a hero from War.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Well, if you saw my reception at Penn Station in Newark,
I guess it was Tannermount to a welcome home as
a hometime hero. It was about six or seven hundred
people there. For me, it was a surreal experience. I
expected to have a crowd. I never expected to have
a crowd quite that large, and to feel the love

(03:36):
that was emanating from the crowd was, like I said, surreal.
It was a surreal experience. People were walking up to me.
Some women were walking up to me crying. Yeah. I
asked somebody, what the hell is going on and he
told me said, oh, they love you man.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
The reception was stunning, almost suffocating.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I mean not figuratively literally I could barely beeve, I
could barely walk. They had bodyguards for me everywhere, some
former gang members, some I guess new Black Panthers, some
old friends, and they had a tight security for me
from the time that I stopped off the platform until
the time that I got to the streets. Thirty six

(04:18):
or thirty seven years ago. I was on the wrong side.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
Of his history. He vows that won't repeat. He is
collaborating with those at the top.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
And that I was going to work with our Maya
Rasparaka to ensure that Newark became that shining city on
the hill.

Speaker 1 (04:36):
During the time inside, when did you decide, when an
if you got out of there, that you would make
a difference.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Well, it wasn't a decision. It wasn't an Aha moment moment.
You know, things like that are incremental. And in my case,
it was sitting in the jail and I had a
life sentence plus fifty years and not just an ordinary
life sentence, life with no parole. Some of the people
that were in jail when I was in there, they

(05:04):
had paroleable life sentences. And although I had no history
of violence, and some of them had maybe two or
three homicides before they came in. They always went up
for parole and I never did.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
So how did he get out? Stay tuned