GRADUATION
Brittney, age 18.
Rocky, age 18.
Dani, age 18.
Vanette, age 17.
Shelyse, age 16.
Ebiere, age 18.
Imani, age 13
Darrell, age 18
Terrance, age 18.
Antoriyo, age 19.
Decarri, 18. Charles, 18.
Taria, 17. Deonte, 17.
Carolina, age 19
Aramis, age 18.
Zan, age 18. Michael, age 19. Justin, age 19.
'M', age 19.
Nate, age 16. Johnny, age 15.
Angel, age 17. Lavell, age 16.
“To be honest, sometimes I be ready to cry. Like, in 2009, I was looking at the news, I think I was like 13 or 14, and they were just showing all the violence that was happening in Chicago, and all the violence that I saw I swear I cried.”
“CPS school system, they’re getting rid of these people that mean so much to these students.”
“My goal is to graduate…go to school for business and management…try to own my own bakery in the near future, try to come back to Englewood and just help out some kids. My goal while I’m still young is to start a cycle with one person, teach that person to teach the next person…”
"The city as a whole seems to think this is all the youths fault...people are products of their environments. When we don't help as much as we can for our youth, our next generation of leaders, to be the best they can be, then we end up with people taking the wrong path because they don't have enough guidance. It affects everybody, so everybody should in turn try to fix that, to really just try to help youth. If you help them then maybe all of this wouldn't be happening.”
“I plan on majoring in education, and I want to become a teacher. Teach for a couple of years and then move on and become a principal. But I just don’t want to just teach at any type of school, I want to teach at schools like Harper. Schools in need. I think I can offer more and give more to students who need it the most.”
“ I fear death, I’m young I have a whole life ahead of me, I don’t want to start gangbanging…It’s going to hurt the people I leave behind like my mom and dad. "
“When do you guys think things will change in Chicago?” – “When the youth decide to change it.”
“Without Build I wouldn’t be the person I am today… Build has made it possible for me to say I was accepted into Indiana State University… Build has turned a misogynistic wannabe rapper into an intelligent, loving poet.”
“Since I started high school I just knew that I wanted to do something big, and do something big for Englewood, as I make it, come back, give back.”
"Sometimes I just feel guilty seeing and hearing about all these kids that can’t even do arts and crafts, after school, because no one has the money to give to them... I think at least if you don’t want to intervene the gang violence out in Chicago at least start with the youth, because that’s where the cycle starts…show them that there’s other ways and people care.”
“I’m from a generation where we plan our death before our graduation.”
“The kids today, are our future of tomorrow. So if we don’t stop this now, there will be no future.”
“I was a senior mentor of 30 kids…I would tell them everyday they could be whatever they wanted to be… A lot of people tell me ‘how can you believe in the kids in your class, the kids in your class are getting into fights everyday, they’re in gangs, they’re bound to get pregnant, they’re bound to do something stupid.’ But it’s not about that, it’s about having faith, maybe through me they learn something.”
“...I wanted better for myself, so its like when you want better for yourself everybody else will want better for you, and then you can find yourself...doing something different."
“Chicago is kind of being demonized, every time you turn around nobody is speaking about the good things going on in Chicago, because we are oppressed and people are trying to do something about it. I feel like there are people doing good things in Chicago, but the media controls what’s put out there.”
“It feels a lot better having a plan, and actually seeing how I want my life to go.”