"I have been fighting to get my friend Benny out of ICE concentration camps for exactly 270 days"
cheerupcharlye
https://www.threads.com/share/_wK6Mh7RY/
Fundraiser by CheerUp Charlye : Free Benny, Reunite A Family
https://www.gofundme.com/f/free-benny-reunite-a-family-rebuild-our-farm-restaurant
"About Benny: Benny was brought from Guinea, Africa to the United States in 2011 by a dance and acrobatics troupe from New York City. At the time, he was only 17 years old and arrived on a H2B visa to be a dance/acrobatics instructor in NYC.
Benny worked for the dance troupe for over 2 years without receiving a single payment for his labor. After his visa expired, Benny was turned out onto the streets of NYC to figure things out for himself. Barely an adult, he was able to find a job + room and board at a hotel restaurant in Manhattan.
Looking out from the sky-rise windows of his room over Lexington Avenue, Benny began to build a life in the city he had always dreamed of.
In 2018, Benny booked me as an audio engineer to record his music.
On Benny’s first day in the studio, he had an interpreter with him because he didn’t feel confident in his English. Halfway through the session, the interpreter told me that there was no point for him to be there because Benny and I understood each other even if we didn't communicate with the same language.
After that first session, we became fast friends and Benny started to come back to record every single week. Through 10 years working with me in the studio, Benny became fluent in English, and we recorded over 100 songs together. Over time, I witnessed Benny speak, sing, and freestyle in 9 different languages. Thanks to Benny, I became so much more aware of the effort it takes to learn English, but also the lack of credit polyglots in the United States receive. I was even able to learn a little SouSou and Patwah along the way.
During that time, it was us against the world!
Two young adults, barely drinking age, from small towns oceans apart. Me, a homeless disabled transgender audio engineer, and him, an African-Jamaican singer, trafficked to the US to dance.
We found each other fighting for the same dreams in the streets of NYC. Together we learned to sing our way through COVID, through societal collapse, through joy and suffering. In the day time, we both worked our asses off in restaurants; at night time, we would meet in the studio to record our stories
Our dream was, and will always be, our freedom.
For the past 12 years, Benny has worked to build a life here in the US.
Benny got married, he renovated a house in Queens, NY and used it to buy a farm in NJ to raise goats, and start a business. He has a beautiful 1yr old daughter and he loves his life here.
Last December, Benny was harassed on the street of Vineland, NJ.
Fearing for his life, he went into a police station to file a police report. While in the police station, an ICE agent heard his African accent, gave Benny a deportation form, and lied claiming it was a harassment report. Benny did not understand the legal jargon on the paperwork, so he trusted the ICE agent and signed on the dotted line for his own incarceration."
