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Chapter 04: The Nuns

By The Architect of NextBlock City February 27, 2026

Sent Away

At age seven, Julian was removed from school, baptized Catholic in Purdys, New York, and sent to St. Michael’s Orphanage at 1380 Arthur Kill Road, Staten Island.1

His social worker was Ms. Suffern. He was raised by nuns with strict discipline. He learned handball, roller skating, stickball. He became a good Catholic, an altar boy, made confession every week.

  • Julian Reis, memoir. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

    • Angels on High

    He studied Latin and served in large ceremonies. The all-boys choir sang from the rear balcony, high above the mass.1

    Voices like angels on high — you couldn’t see them.

  • Julian Reis, memoir. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

    • Don’t Sing

    For a holiday play, Julian was cast as one of the three wise men — because he was Black. During a song at the manger, a nun came to him and asked that he not sing, just move his lips. He was drowning out the other children.1

    After that, he thought he was not supposed to sing at all.

  • Julian Reis, memoir. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

    • The Priest

    “I can say they instilled in me that fear of God and fear of the Church but not the priest. The priest was always your friend — I guess we now know why.”1

    After three years, unable to place him in foster care, they returned him to Goldens Bridge. The same house, the same conditions, the same school, the same boys.

    1. Julian Reis, memoir. ↩ ↩ ↩ ↩

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