For assignment two I decided to check out a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. I chose NA because of the fact that I have had experiences with narcotics throughout my whole life with friends and family. I live in the Bronx so I thought it would be a good idea to go somewhere local as opposed to going an hour into Manhattan. I went a step further and looked for a meeting that was located in a run down part of town. The South Bronx would be the place to go for this purpose. The meeting was held on Third Avenue and 161st Street at the Bronx Betterment Center just north of the shopping district called The Hub. .
The neighborhood was pretty seedy, many of the buildings were empty, and the stores were few. Across the street stood the old Bronx Courthouse, which is a huge structure that has been closed and boarded up. I did not know what to expect but went in before the meeting started. The inside of the building was not unlike most public centers in city areas. It was one level and had classroom style rooms for different activities. The meeting was in one of these classrooms. The room was lit by fluorescents and had a sobering tone with green walls. Pictures on the wall were all for the center and not the meeting, that meant that the meeting is probably borrowing space. They did have two big cloth tapestries that listed the 12 steps and traditions of course. .
I chose once again to be incognito and not tell anyone that I was observing for a class. The meeting was run just like the one I went to for AA. A leader started the meeting by telling a qualifying story about her life then everyone else volunteered a story about his or her life and experiences. I believe it is what is called an open discussion meeting. There were only about 11 people in the room including myself. The makeup was mostly Latino with a few African-Americans. I was the only white person, which did not make me uncomfortable because I immediately felt that these people were concerned with more important things than skin color.