Where you are from speaks volumes about your character, mentality, perspective, and ambition.
Being a product of your environment brings genuine responsibility, organic obligation, and necessary opportunities for change once one finds success outside of their upbringing. Mottos like, “Never forget where you came from,” “If you win, we all win,” “Represent,” and so many others are drilled into the minds of adolescents to not only establish community improvement but a civic duty to bring change to an area that can only fend for themselves as they face obliteration in gentrification.
For accomplished reality star/recording artist/philanthropist Tammy Rivera, 36, Baltimore is home.
She returns often for community outreach engagements. From Food to toys to information, Rivera is an essential role model in her community who shows the importance of returning home and helping your people when you can like you and your neighbors would help one another back in the day. Her selfless actions are the much-needed inspired representation in the community that maintains hope in an area often perceived as chaotic.
Baltimore, Maryland is 60% Black or African American residents. The best city for health care, arguably the best shopping city, and the creator of the “Star-Spangled Banner” written by Francis Scott Key. A beautiful place that is overshadowed by notorious drug, crime, and corruption stories in the media, which deter others from enjoying the city’s unique attractions – affecting economics substantially.
Via Zoom, Rivera spoke candidly about her love for Baltimore. In this interview, she shares stories of growing up in B-More, its beauty behind the headlines, giving back, and so much more. You may read the full interview below.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: All right. First things first, for just clarity. Just tell us, talk about some of the projects and community service work you’ve been doing in the community in Baltimore.
Tammy Rivera: Well, every year where I start my annual Turkey event and I go back every year to where I grew up at. Can you hear me? Hello? Oh yeah. Every year where I grew up in my hometown, I go back and I do an annual, I don’t like to call it a Turkey giveaway because it’s more than just a giveaway. We have DJ, we give away prizes, and we give away TVs, and toys. It’s hot plates of food. So we have a DJ and we give out hot plates and desserts where we sit there and they can eat with us. They dance with us, they play games with us, and then when they leave, they leave with a Turkey.
So I do that. It’s my fifth annual one that just passed. I used to do it in Baltimore and Virginia. My main focus is Baltimore because that’s where I’m from, I mean, I grew up in Virginia as well, but I left when I was like five. Baltimore is where most of my influences are from. I remember standing in those Turkey lines when I was younger and receiving help. So now it’s like I’m on the giving end of it.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: Describe your Baltimore. What’s different between what people see on the news and what they see on television?
Tammy Rivera: Well, for me, Baltimore is a culture. A lot of people see, of course, the homicide rate, they see the drugs. It’s definitely a heroin capital. And a lot of what people don’t understand is the culture of Baltimore. My mom is a victim of drug abuse, as well as a lot of my friends in Baltimore. And a lot of us bond, you can call it trauma bonding or we just bond in those ways because we understand the struggle of growing up in that environment and people think that it can always be so, not only is it just rough, but it is, it’s also, it’s humbling. It’s grounding. I wouldn’t change my struggles for anything, but a lot of things that people don’t see are the culture, the seafood, and the crab. You can walk into a crab shop on any corner in Baltimore, and you can’t get those in Atlanta.
You can’t get those anywhere else around the world but in Baltimore. Where we have crab shops on every corner, but you can walk into a restaurant, in a crab restaurant and you’ll see black, white, Asian, and Indian, everyone is enjoying blue crabs together. Those are the things that people don’t understand, it’s like a culture that people don’t get to see in Baltimore. We have our own music. Baltimore has a lot of real and authentic people. I’ve been all around the world from LA to New York to Atlanta, and I think Baltimore has some of the most authentic people in the world.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: No doubt. Now, definitely cool that you highlight the culture. So I want to ask you, what’s your fondest memory of living in Baltimore?
Tammy Rivera: My fondest memory of Baltimore…there are so many. I would probably say just my upbringing, what people probably call trauma or struggle. My struggle is my fondest memory because growing up you don’t know that you’re poor, you don’t know that you’re struggling. And even through that, you still feel like you have, I can’t explain. It’s like you still have fun, you still enjoy. Even though it was a struggle, it was still fun. It was like now I look back and I think about my childhood growing up.
I’m like, yo, I had a dope childhood. No matter how many bad things happened, I definitely had a great childhood. My twenties, my early twenties after I had my daughter and got out of an abusive relationship. I kind of was able to experience my twenties, my early twenties in a good way. So that was one of my most fun times in Baltimore. I have so many memories of Baltimore.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: Now, how does it feel going back to your community in Baltimore and being a part of the change in the community, as you said with the giveaways and whatnot?
Tammy Rivera: It feels great. It’s like I go back and the LOVE. The thing that I like the most is the love that I get when I go home. I feel like I’m there… Just they protect me. Baltimore is very rough, but they protect their own. And I feel like when I go back home, I can walk around. I don’t have to have security, I don’t need to. I see the corner boys on the corner and they watch out for me just like your family would because they’re like you come from us, you are part of us. You know what I’m saying? So we going to make sure you are straight when you’re home. So that’s one thing I love about Baltimore is the love that I get when I go home.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: Yeah. And then, what are some of the changes you see still needed in Baltimore?
Tammy Rivera: One of the things I think Baltimore still needs is I think we need a lot of therapy. I think we need community centers. Growing up, we had the Boys and Girls Clubs, and the YMCAs, and not only just in Baltimore, I feel like that’s needed everywhere. We had somewhere to go to when we didn’t have any food in the refrigerator. You could go to the YMCA and they give out lunches during the summertime and they give you breakfast in the morning. Or if you wanted to get away from some trauma or some drama that’s going on in your household, you can go to the Boys and Girls Club and play basketball, play hopscotch, play baseball, and volleyball. They had those community centers you can go and just have, they had counseling where you can go in and talk to the community counselors that work inside the YMCAs and the Boys and Girls Clubs.
And I feel like we don’t have that anymore. They took that away from the communities where it’s most needed. So if you don’t have an outlet to go to or nowhere where to just chill or just go and greet your friends and hang out, you resort to the streets or advice of other kids who go through the same struggles that you’re going through. But growing up I had Boys and Girls Clubs. I had things that we could go to. I remember waking up and if my grandmother ain’t have no food, she would wake us up early, tell us, get dressed, and go down to the community center. Go ahead and get breakfast because they’re given our free lunches. And that’s just what it was.
They fed the communities, they looked out for the community and that’s why it’s important for me to go back because I’m not afraid to talk about it, I’m never going to act like I was born with a silver spoon and that I had this and I had that. I came from them very, very, very humble beginnings where we went. And if you didn’t have food, you went to your neighbor’s house. If my neighbors ain’t have food, my grandmother fed their kids and you know what I’m saying? So I feel like if it’s anything that’s really needed in the community, it will be those centers that have the counseling and has community advocates there.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: From the time that you were raised in Baltimore to now, has it changed a lot, or has it changed fairly little?
Tammy Rivera: I don’t think it’s changed a lot at all besides, I remember sitting on my front porches in the summertime and listening to what we had. We would listen to 92 Q Jams, the nine o’clock mix where they play club music and we come up with our dance routines on the front porches. It was a little bit safer because like I said when we were growing up, the corner boys, even though they might’ve been the corner boys or drug dealers or whatever, they watched out for their own on their blocks. Everybody has a story and everybody has a struggle. But we felt safe in our communities, on our corners, on our blocks. I feel like nowadays children are getting younger and younger with drug abuse. I feel like the Percocets are what’s driving them crazy. I feel like the thing that’s different now is that the generation it affects is getting younger and younger.
The new generation cares less and less. They don’t respect. There’s no give a fuck. They don’t care. I remember when I was living on my block, if it was some corner boys sitting on our stoop, my mom would be like, “Hey could y’all not stand right here? I got the kids.” They’d be like, “Oh I’m sorry, ma’am. I apologize.” And they would move to another area. Nowadays, they don’t work like that. They are liable to come back, shoot your house up, say F you, suck your dick, and all that. It’s terrible. So there is no respect for the older generation nowadays and that’s where I feel like is becoming worse and worse.
There are no OGs, there is no, no, no, no should I say, Uncle Ts, no Stokelys. Uncle T is a huge community activist in Baltimore. So is Stokely Carmichael. He’s a huge community activist that people respect and look up to. But the younger ones, they’re very far and in between. They’re a dying breed. And there are no more OGs. There are no more of those men in our communities anymore.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: But you’ve also become one of those community leaders with your efforts and your giveaways and whatnot. But I want to ask you, to share with us the gift and curse between fame and influence.
Tammy Rivera: The gift and curse I think between fame and influence. I don’t like to say I could care less about fame because people look at you like you’re not human. People just think that, and I think today’s generation is just so much more sensitive. Everybody takes things. I tell my daughter all the time, I don’t know this generation. This new generation is just so sensitive about everything. But it’s like you’re not human when you’re famous, you’re not looked at as a human being. You don’t have feelings. You’re an object, you are an image, and you’re not human in the eyes of the public. As an influencer, people look up to you, they follow you, and they see what you’re doing. It’s inspired and people aspire to be like you. So it’s like that’s the difference between being an influencer and what you would say being famous.
The gift and the curse would be like I just said, people just don’t realize that you are human. But the gift of it is that you are able to reach out and help so many other people with your influence. And for me, going back to Baltimore, I’m not trying to be a community advocate. I’m not trying to be the voice of Baltimore or that person. That’s not what I aspire to be. I just go back because I just want the little girls who grew up on the same blocks that I grew up on, who came from the same type of household that I came from to just know it’s something more than this shit. You can get outside of this. I’m human. I’m just like you. That’s the reason why I have the DJs and we have the music and we make it an event and not just a giveaway.
I always tell people, I remember going to churches and my mother making me go stand in line and go get some of the baskets they give out. You be embarrassed because you like, oh shit, I don’t want my friends to see me standing in this line getting free bread and shit. But I make it to whereas it’s an event. So if the kids are in line, their other friends are there because they got music, and they’re dancing. So it’s not like you’re looking like, oh look at them getting some free food, some free turkeys. No, this is the place to be. Everybody up in here. Everybody just happened to leave with a turkey. I just go back just to let them know, listen, I am y’all. I ain’t no different from y’all. You can see social media, you can see the TV, the music, all that. I’m just me, I’m Tammy from around the way just like y’all.
Bryson “Boom” Paul: No doubt. Now you mentioned that the city just needs more therapy, and I want to ask you to explain the importance of therapy in the black community and why we need it.
Tammy Rivera: Because I feel like a lot of us, first of all, I’ll say in our community, especially in the black and the brown community, we don’t believe in mental illness. We don’t believe in therapy. It’s like, oh girl, just what goes on in this house stays in this house. That’s the worst thing that you ever could fucking say to a child or a person. What goes on in this house stays in this house. Oh girl, pray about it. Yeah, you could pray about it and God is real and God does answer prayers, but at the end of the day, people need someone to talk to. You need somebody to reach out to. I’m just now realizing I’m 36, I’ll be 37 this year. I just realized at the age of 32 that I was molested. It didn’t dawn on me until I was 30 that like, oh my God, if somebody did what they did to me at the age of seven to my daughter who is 13, I would kill someone.
But it took me to become a grown woman to realize that was not right. That is not something you should have kept quiet about. That is not something that is acceptable. And maybe if I had some counseling or outlet, then I would’ve realized that way sooner than I did now. But, because we’re told what goes on in this house, stays in this house and let go and let God, you just sit there and you suppress these things and you don’t realize it’s following you into your relationships. It’s following you into your life and you don’t understand where the anger or the frustration coming from because you’ve never gotten it out. And I think that’s what a lot that happens in the black community is that we trauma bond with people thinking that we have a connection, but really we just got pain that we identify with. You know what I’m saying? And we don’t know that because we’re not educated on it.
