Stop saying they. Youre here now., Yeah, my closet, Tabitha chimes in. Potentially billions of dollars were lost because of a few bad weeks back in early 2004. She will tell them to shut up. She makes do with what she has and covers what she lacks. Each girl must write the word why on her card followed by the reason why she is at Hershey. She looks at the screen of her phone, seeing her daughters glowing face. records, the child begins to cry. The caseworkers stop talking to give Dasani a minute to release her feelings. The next thing Dasani remembers is saying, If anything if you split them up put the baby with one of them. About 90 minutes later, she returns to the movie and sits down as if nothing happened. To the Black people who think he is acting white and to the white people who say he is too urban he gives the same unapologetic message: This is who I am.. Thats not gonna be me, she says. But for Dasani, succeeding at Hershey would have required a different kind of death. Even absent this issue, any cash donations would have counted as income, causing the family to lose its food stamps and other public assistance. She looks at the two caseworkers as they break the news. WNYC is a media partner of the Brooklyn Historical Society, presenting a look back at what has, or hasn't, happened in the year since New York Times reporter Andrea Elliot's five-part series on 11 . For years, they shared the same dresser and mattress, even the same pillow. Their fleeting triumphs and deepest sorrows are, in Dasanis words, my heart. It is on the fourth floor of that shelter, at a window facing north, that Dasani now sits looking out. Donors to the trust had expressed concern about money going to parents with a drug history. Im starting to sound white! He and Chanel are proud of being self-taught. Supreme got his G.E.D. Cause we stronger than the average woman. Aviannas face bunched up as Dasani and Chanel rushed to hold her. There was no sign announcing the shelter, which rises over the neighbouring projects like an accidental fortress. A wooden stair rail reaches the second floor, where the words together we make a family adorn the wall. Here in the neighbourhood, the homeless are the lowest caste, the outliers, the shelter boogies. Nope.. The siblings let this slide at first. I think we seen that movie, Chanel says. The McQuiddys notice that Dasani cuts her food with a knife, then picks it up with her hand, placing it in her mouth. Thats a lot on my plate.. She will major in business, starting a family-run music-production company. They are primed for anything to go wrong at any moment, making them hypervigilant and distrustful of other people, including Hersheys staff. It was always Sani. This is a sign either that Lee-Lee has matured or that their bond has weakened. Dasanis pride and self-sufficiency, which have enabled her to come this far, could now be considered a detriment. Long answer. Do you know that Papa ran away yesterday? Chanel says, forgetting the schools advice against sharing bad news. Some girls look relieved to be back. As Dasani gets older, she confronts the dilemma of whether to keep her family together, or leave them for a free boarding school that "educate[s] children in need," and promises a better future. Thats the girl I was gonna punch, Dasani says loudly. Back then, from the ghettos isolated corners, a perfume ad seemed like the portal to a better place. She went from talking hood to talking with some class., A few days later, Dasani exaggerates her recent strides at Hershey, telling Nana, Im doing 12th-grade work!, So how smart are you now? Dasani says. It was also released under the name Ciel Dasani in Mexico in four flavours: lemon-cucumber, papaya-carrot, grapefruit and mandarin-green tea, but it was discontinued in 2006. Those who have kept up their grades and followed the schools strict rules are given a college scholarship of $95,000. According to Dasani's website, its goal is to make purified water accessible. She sees out to a world that rarely sees her. By 2005, Chanel had married Supreme, another Brooklyn native who had survived multiple traumas. I eat from this bus, right here, every day. Her siblings are now scattered across four addresses Papa, in a foster home on Staten Island; Hada, Maya and Lee-Lee, with their uncles girlfriend in Brooklyn; Avianna and Nana in a foster home in Brooklyn; and Khaliq, at a secure juvenile-detention facility in Westchester, where he was sent after being charged with assault. Cars pass along the highway. Whenever a student causes others to feel unsafe, that student must be mentally evaluated. After The New York Times published the series about Dasani with vivid photographs by Ruth Fremson readers deluged the newspaper with calls and emails, offering donations to the family. The first hint came as soon as she walked in the door, asking Lee-Lee, What are they feeding you?. When Kali got hit, I felt some type of way, Dasani says. Public assistance. Her skyline is filled with luxury towers, the beacons of a new gilded age. All students at Hershey eventually learn about code-switching: the ability to switch between one linguistic or behavioral code and another. They are a cross-section of poor America: 39 percent are white, 32 percent Black and 18 percent Latino. She did not know a world without them. They rarely figure among the panhandlers, bag ladies, war vets and untreated schizophrenics who have long been stock characters in this city of contrasts. But to Dasani, the shelter is far more than a random assignment. Nana spots a plastic box containing what might be dollar bills. She looks around the room, seeing only silhouettes the faint trace of a chin or brow, lit from the street below. This is the type of fact that nobody can know. Born only 11 months apart, she and Dasani consider themselves twins. Only they have names like their mother Chanel evoking fancy liquids that are bottled and sold. We meet Dasani in 2012, when she is eleven years old and living with her parents, Chanel and Supreme, and seven siblings in one of New York City . I am alone at a crossroadsIm not at home in my own home I followed the voice you gave to meBut now Ive gotta find my own. Then he watched her step away, his eyes wet. However, Coca-Cola has expanded the Dasani product line to capture the market, adding sparkling water, flavored water, and Dasani Drops, flavor drops that you can add to water to infuse it with different flavors. Avianna and Dasani in New York this year. The new phrasing would be fine with Avianna if her sister left it at that. No! Kali says. Golf he picked up in Hershey, whereas bowling he learned in Brooklyn. Dasani returns home, wearing a yellow polo stained with the girls blood. Their sons ages 8 and 11 will soon be home from school, along with a gaggle of Hershey girls. I was trying to do it for you, Dasani says. Dasani is anxious, a feeling that's especially bad for poor kids who have long lived with the chronic stress brought on by exposure to violence, hunger, sleep deprivation and illness. It also helped that I was not, in her words, all white because I am Latin my mother is an immigrant from Chile, a fact that delighted Dasani, whose biological father is half Dominican. The2009 financial crisis taught us hard lessons. They interfere with what Jonathan Akers calls that healing part of her life. He wants to see Dasani allowing herself to become vulnerable and be able to really face some of those things that hurt her so much.. And that means having the freedom to speak like her sisters without hearing the voice of correction, nudging her from aint to isnt., It just makes me feel like I cant really be myself. Dasani Coates is the main focus and protagonist of the story. Dasani's ingredients aren't so different from other bottled waters like Aquafina,. Whenever this happens, Dasani starts to count. They are what they call graduates of poverty., Akers has a trim gray mustache, a military crew cut and soft brown eyes that crease at the corners. A look of marvel crosses Aviannas face. I played around on that track a lot, so I didnt focus, Dasani tells me by phone. Born at the turn of a new century, Dasani is named for the bottled water that comes to symbolize Brooklyn's gentrification and the shared aspirations of a divided city. They showed me how to organize my drawers, she says of the McQuiddys. Why you sound like a grown man, Khaliq?, Just remember, Khaliq, Im always older than you.. There's nearly 1.38. Dasani Coates. There is no Wu-Tang bursting from the speakers at midnight, no dance battles in the living room. To avoid saying goodbye, she distracted Lee-Lee with the cartoon show Peg + Cat, slipping away before the toddler noticed. She is unafraid of strangers or crowds. Im mad jealous, he said softly. Shes just more blunt about it than I am.. Earlier, they greeted Dasani warmly at dinner, bowing their heads for grace. What she knows is that she has been blessed with perfect teeth. Are you OK if we pray before you go? Melissa asks. She, too, is a city girl. click here. will be investigating her parents on the suspicion that they are neglecting their children. In 2011, Chanel temporarily lost custody of the children after leaving them at Auburn unattended. The city shrinks from view. Dasani catapulted to notoriety after the New York Times published a harrowing year-long account of her family's struggle in a city homeless shelter. In 2012, journalist Andrea Elliott began to report on the life of Dasani Coates, a precocious 11-year-old Black girl living with her parents and seven siblings in a homeless shelter in New York City. If you show your feelings, its like youre showing youre weak, she tells me. Almost half of New Yorks 8.3 million residents are living near or below the poverty line. Dasani is still banned in the UK market since 2004. Dasani ticks through their faces, the girls from the projects who know where she lives. Sometimes she doesnt have to blink. They close their eyes. Most nights, Tabitha McQuiddy sits in the corner, knitting a scarf for each girl. Have Democrats learned them? It sounds more like editing, which she is learning in film class. The taste was similar, the price much cheaper, and the bottle more convenient. Who paid for water in a bottle? And by doing so, she not only left her siblings. Hershey alerts the police that a minor has been injured. I do, though.. Use them wisely. Every inch of the room is claimed. For a blinding moment, Dasani felt like the citys most celebrated child. Therealdasaniwaterz on Tik TokBack up ig @therealdasaniwaterz Dasaniwaterz on O F. Posts. While the G.I. What Happened To Laura Coates CNN has recently become the headline on the social media platform and in the news. They are in a hurry, the woman explains, because they are going to see a play at her church. Even as a little girl, Dasani brimmed with aspirations. She saw that her anger her violent outbursts were a response to feeling depressed. She had denied symptoms of depression while at Hershey, where 14 percent of her classmates were taking psychotropic medications. Tabitha holds Leo, the familys new puppy. Radiating out from them in all directions are the eight children they share: two boys and five girls whose beds zigzag around the baby, her crib warmed by a hairdryer perched on a milk crate. This article provides a FAQ to clarify why . Homeless services. Even if the school had prescribed antidepressants, Dasani said she would have refused them. Melissa follows behind, Dasani slams the door in her housemothers face. None of Dasanis seven siblings had ever left home. Dasani Coates has only known a society that has failed her and her family. In some ways, the McQuiddys remind Dasani of her own parents. The 7 million marketing campaign was all for naught, and, what's more, the Coca-Cola company lost out on whatever Dasani's market share of the UK's 2.5 billion per year bottled water sales might have been. How you feel?. She trots into the cafeteria, where more than a hundred families will soon stand in line to heat their prepackaged breakfast. This can bring a swell of emotions: sadness, guilt, confusion, rage. Her hair is pulled into a polished bun. In this sweeping narrative, Elliott weaves the story of Dasani's childhood with the history of her family . She knows nothing will ever be the same. A staff member notifies Dasanis housefather, Jason McQuiddy, who walks up the hill to where the bus is parked. Took a few minutes. Children like Dasani are always scanning the horizon for threats, in the word of one administrator, which can lead to behavior that others find aggressive or selfish. Its unclear whether appearing in The New York Times helped Dasani get into Hershey. Akers barges in. The phone passes from child to child, finally getting to Papa. In the sleepwear section, she finds pajamas with a candy motif. Come on, Dasani, cut it out, another girl says. The degradation of growing up homeless. I dont know how to sleep with nobody, she will later tell me. Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival, and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott (Random House) . Dasani returned to her seat as James began her address, getting a handshake on her way there from new Mayor Bill de Blasio, who made combating poverty a central part of his campaign. The UK public was paying 2 dollars for questionable water with potentially unsafe properties, a result of the extremely high levels of bromate. Instead, she feels disconnected. She is forever in motion, doing backflips at the bus stop, dancing at the welfare office. I wanna go home., For Dasani, home is more than a place. Dasani Coates is the focus of Elliott's book. Chanel watches this from afar. In English class, Dasani is learning about different types of language. But long after the attention waned, Dasanis family was still homeless, now living at a shelter in Harlem. Dasani will absorb it by sheer repetition, until she is sleeping properly and eating healthfully and feeling physically safe. Shes short-fused, Holmes told me. In a few more months, she will treat Dasanis sisters to Red Lobster to commemorate their first anniversary together, telling the girls that she wants to adopt them. On the afternoon of Jan. 27, 2015, Dasani matriculates and heads to her new home, accompanied by her mother and sisters. Last year, Dasani introduced a . Do you know what code-switching is? he asks. But their excitement wanes at mealtime when Dasani refuses to do all the dishes. The worst incident comes at the end of January when Dasani is cleaning up after dinner. The arc of that timeline traces Dasani's path from extreme conditions of poverty in a rodent-infested room that is home to her entire immediately . If Dasani says bout instead of about, she is corrected. Its a different force., Thats what all the boys say! Dasani says. Only when such needs are met can she be expected to thrive. It doesnt have to be a roof over my head. She pauses: At Hershey, I feel like a stranger. She is sure the place is haunted. The last we heard about. The literal events of Jan. 8 are as follows: Shortly after track practice, a girl named Innocence gets on Dasanis nerves. Thats why the street became our family. On June 12, Dasani graduates from Hersheys middle school. She will focus in class and mind her manners in the schoolyard. The people I grew up with. To see Dasani is to see all the places of her life, from the corridors of school to the emergency rooms of hospitals to the crowded vestibules of family court and welfare. And you need to know that we have strength like horses. But if you arent doing the right thing, she adds, then why am I letting you come home?, So, I can do the right thing, take a break? Dasani says in disbelief. She seems tired, smiling only with effort. The fracturing of Dasanis family follows her back to Hershey. Do good in school. The girl she fought is to blame: Dont disrespect me and you wont feel my fire. The Akerses are to blame: If they wanted to help me be successful, they should have done that by now. Her parents are to blame: They dont listen.