2010 Awards Assembly at ASPIRA Early College
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2010 Student Voices Contest winners
Julio Tellez:
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Troubling Images of Gun Violence
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Student art work by Julio Tellez
There may be nothing surprising about it when a mother praises an artwork or other creation made by her child. In the case of Julio Tellez’ mother Esmeralda though, her son’s drawing for ICHV’s “Student Voices” contest carries an extra poignancy. That’s because it reflects her own upbringing amidst violence in a Chicago community.
Julio, who will be a freshman this fall at Tilden Tech, created a powerful drawing that fuses stories he has
been told about his family’s (and, in particular, his mother’s) past with his own imagination and the troubling world of gun violence. In the drawing, a pregnant woman is pregnant with a baby that has a gun attached to it. She is standing on top of a gun that points directly at a terrified teenager. The image also includes a machine that, Julio says, play violent games for kids. And, in the background, two children are watching a TV that is broadcasting some kind of gun violence.
Meanwhile, in the distance, atop a hill, is a stark image of a graveyard.
The drawing is partly based on what Julio knows about his mom’s life. “My mom moved away from a violent neighborhood, where people in her family were joining gangs and doing drugs,” he says. (Neither Julio nor his mother wanted to identify the neighborhood, except to say that it is located in the city). “She decided that she didn’t want her kids to grow up in that environment.” Today, Julio, his mom, his stepfather and eight siblings (three brothers and five sisters) live together in a house in Chicago’s Back of the Yards community.
“When people are raised in the wrong environment, it’s going to lead to someone having a gun,” says Julio, who created his artwork while he was a student at Daley Academy on the south side. His art teacher, Ms. Puentes, encouraged him to participate in the “Student Voices” contest.
Julio says he has not been able to completely avoid violence in his community. He was robbed earlier this summer, and does not know if the robbers had a gun. “I was with my little brother and two friends. I was kind of scared. Still,” he says, “I believe it’s not where you live – it’s how you live.”
Though one reason his mother moved to the Back of the Yards community was to avoid violence, Julio says matter-of-factly that gangs have “shot in front of our house a few times.”
“Gun violence is something I worry about a lot,” he says. “I think that one of the only things that can help kids face it is parents. If parents don’t know where their kids are at 2 in the morning, I’m pretty sure there’s a problem.”
At night, Julio says, we definitely “stay in the house.”
Over the years, Julio’s mother says her guidance to Julio and her other children has, at times, been direct and practical. “I taught my kids early how to duck to the ground,” she says. “I’ve had two-year-olds who know how to drop to the ground. She says the family “hears gunshots at night five times a week.”
Though she moved away from home when she was 18 and still faces the reality of gun violence, Ms. Tellez retains faith in young people, including her son. She says “Julio has always drawn powerful things with a lot of meaning, so his drawings are not a surprise to me.”
She does, however, hope that more people listen to what kids are saying. “More good things about what kids do and say need to come to the public’s attention,” she says. “I see kids who are aware, but they don’t have people backing them up.”
Rian Knox:
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“I had a friend who got shot and killed last year”
Rian Knox remembers, and she is not likely to forget. Amidst national debates over gun violence, Rion is one of those people who speaks from real experience.
“I had a friend who got shot and killed last year,” says Rian, who graduated in June from Corliss High School in the Roseland community on the city’s south side. “His name was Dequarrius Cannon. He was sitting in a car, I think he was getting robbed at the time. He was 17. I had known him since grammar school.”
“We had lost touch,” she says. “We just started seeing each other again last year.”
Newspaper reports of the young man’s death said that the morning after he was shot, his grandmother was “still wearing a shirt stained with her grandson’s blood.”
How has Rian responded to her friend’s death, and to the issue of gun violence? One way is by expressing her feelings in an artwork for Student Voices, the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence’s annual art, poetry and essay contest for area students. For Rian and many other students, the contest provides a forum through which they can express their views on the subject.
Student art work by Rian Knox
Rian, who learned about the Student Voices contest from her graphic design teacher at Corliss High School, created an image of the state of Illinois. Take one look inside, and you see numerous images of guns. “It’s the State of Mind,” the artwork says in bold letters across the top. “State of Illinois,” it says on the bottom.
“What I did was kept it as simple and powerful as I could. I came across an image of the United States, configured so that it looks like it is made of guns. I thought, why not just make an image of Illinois like that.”
The border of Rian’s prize-winning picture features images of the city’s skyline. Scattered throughout the drawing are airbrushed red splotches that stand for blood – blood that inevitably results from gun violence.
Like many participants in the Student Voices contest, Rian has seen the effects of violence up close in her neighborhood – even before her friend was shot. “I’ve seen people get jumped on, seen mob action in front of my eyes.”
“Kids don’t have anyone to look up to,” she says. “When they don’t have that support, all they have to do is turn to the street.”
“I was robbed at gunpoint one year, the day after Christmas,” adds Rian, who has a younger brother and older brother. “That really took a toll on me. I was flabbergasted, very scared. I prayed about it. The police found the guys who did it eventually, and they got what they deserved.”
“There’s so much peer pressure, and people trying to get you into the same position they’re in,” she says.
This summer, Rian is working with youth as a counselor at the South Side Help Center, which runs an after-school program and summer camp. The programs offered by the Center include workshops that cover topics like drugs, gun prevention and peer pressure and are presented to kids between the ages of 10 and 15.
Rian came to the program when she was in seventh grade and she was “in trouble. I was really hardheaded and stubborn. If something didn’t go my way, I wouldn’t do it.” “I had a tough time in junior high school, but by when I got to high school, I was on the honor roll.” Now, she is helping young people just as the organization helped her.
Meanwhile, college is the next step for Rian. Later this year, she will enroll at Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama, where she will major in mass communications and business marketing.
Her thoughts, however, are never too far from the city where she grew up. “We’ve got to prevent gun violence from happening in the first place,” she says. “It’s really deadly out here – especially for young kids.”
Luis Angel Contreras:
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“My cousin was shot and killed”
“My cousin was shot and killed,” says Luis.
“He was only 21 or 22 years old. I think somebody mistook him for a gang member from another neighborhood.” “We were real close, and he wasn’t the kind of guy who was always in trouble.
Student art work by Luis Angel Contreras
He was a positive person,” adds Luis, who is a senior at North Grand High School and lives north of the city’s Humboldt Park neighborhood Memories of that tragedy have haunted Luis for years, and this year he says an image of his cousin inspired him when he created a powerful drawing that was one of the winners at ICHV’s 14th Annual Student Voices Contest.
The fiery drawing shows how a scroll – representing the Constitution and the 2nd Amendment – envelops a city scene in which buildings are covered with blood and the American flag is being burned and ripped apart. Two giant guns, one on each side of the drawing, appear to be shooting flames. Under the flames, instead of ashes, is a tragic result of gunfire: tears.
“These are tears,” says Luis, “from grandmothers, brothers, sisters, fathers, friends – everyone who can be affected by gun violence.”
Luis was very deliberate about constructing this image. “This drawing was originally going to be an extra credit project for my art class, but I had to take it a step further,” he says. “My main motivation was the image of my cousin, which
kept coming up.”
He looked over different pictures of downtown Chicago for his artwork, including those of the Hancock building and Willis (formerly Sears) Tower. He also had a picture he took when he was downtown. “Every time I draw something, I do it from the heart,” says Luis, who is interested in a career in mechanical engineering.
2009 Student Voices Contest winners
Alex Franklin:
“Children Deserve Right to be Heard”
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Alex Franklin often tries to avoid walking down the street a couple of blocks from his home. “In my neighborhood, we know there are people a couple of blocks away who shoot people. I know some people who have been shot.”
Alex, who was 10 when he wrote an essay that was awarded at ICHV’s “Student Voices” contest last June, will be a fifth grader this fall at St. Angela School in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.
The contest provides a platform for students to express their views on gun violence. “Everyone has the right to speak, and children deserve to be heard,” says Alex, who is the youngest of four children (all have attended Catholic schools in the neighborhood).
“Taking guns off my street will make a big impact on our chances at staying alive,” writes Alex in “Handgun Violence,” his essay for the contest.
Alex says that when he gets upset, he “writes about it. That helps me. When I am sad, I write or draw pictures. I don’t play a lot of violent video games,” says Alex. “My mom says it’s inappropriate.”
“When I hear about a person in a hospital who is diagnosed with an illness or was a victim of gun violence, it really bothers me,” he adds.
“We know our son grows up in a community where gun violence happens,” adds Alex’s dad, Timothy. “When he brings the issue home, sometimes we will sit down and talk about it.”
Timothy reflects back on when he was a young man. “Back it my day, people would fight but later it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Gun violence has changed that picture. Maybe in some ways we have learned to adjust to it, but my wife says we shouldn’t have to ‘adjust’ to gun violence.”
He recalls one exchange with a young man in his neighborhood that serves as an example of how gun violence can threaten communities. “There was a basketball rim on the ground, and a kid of 12 or 13 said to me that the next time he catches me throwing the rim out, he is going to shoot me. That young man knew he couldn’t challenge me physically, but with a handgun, he was equal to the task. He couldn’t have said that without a gun. What I want to know is, ‘Why should it escalate to that point?”
He says that gun violence must be a major issue for public officials and schools – but that it’s especially important for parents to communicate with children and their teachers. “What are we teaching children besides the ABC’s? We need to teach kids about how to treat various situations and learn what roads to go down. At the same time, officials need to have more interaction with parents and teachers.”
The Franklins have lived in the Austin community for 21 years. Lately, they have considered moving out of the community, and safety is a main reason.
While living in Austin, Timothy says, he and his wife have routinely driven their kids to school. “You have to be conscious of what is happening in the neighborhood,” he says. “We drive our kids to school and pick them up. Not all people can do that, but as much as we can, we’re involved in the travel and get to know our kids’ teachers. The school is four or five blocks away, and to get there many kids have to travel through a gang-infested area.”
Meanwhile, Timothy says he was hopeful when he saw what his son and other students created for the “Student Voices” contest. “Some of the ideas from these students just amazed me – that students can express themselves like this at a young age. I thought I was listening to a seasoned poet or artist. These children have a voice. Are we listening to them?”
Gabrielle Onyema:
Student’s Poem Shares Personal Impact of Gun Violence
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Two friends — young women, maybe 14 or 15 years old — are walking down Catalpa Street in Chicago. We learn that one of their brothers has been using, and selling drugs.
Suddenly gunshots are fired from a car.
One of the girls, Ciara, is shot and killed. The other, who is unnamed, tries to come to terms with the shocking reality of what has just happened.
The scene could be something out of any number of shootings that have taken the lives of young people in the last year. It is, however, a scene that is part of “Guns are Grim,” a poem that won its young author an award at the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence’s 14th Annual Student Voices contest earlier this year.
The poem’s author, Gabrielle Onyema, will be an eighth grader this fall at Farnsworth Elementary School on Chicago’s Northwest Side.
The vision of gun violence expressed in the poem is not about gun laws or statistics. It is about the raw emotion felt by someone in the middle of a gun-related tragedy.
The poem’s narrator says at one point:
My friendship, shattered.
My mind, scarred.
My friend gone.
I had been hit hard.
“I felt maybe people could see inside of the tragedy,” says Gabrielle. “I tried to do that by showing two people who were close to each other.”
Gabrielle says she has not run into any problems related to violence in the Edgebrook community where she lives. When she was younger and lived in the Gresham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, though, she did come across violence.
Gabrielle’s mother, Crystal Carter — who is a Chicago police officer — says that when the family lived in the city’s Auburn-Gresham community there was a triple homicide in front of a neighbor’s house. “The message I took from that tragedy was the same that Gabrielle expressed in her poem,” she says. “Guns affect everybody, the entire community — whether you are talking about a relative, a neighbor, or someone in law enforcement.”
Telling the Story
Gabrielle is a student who likes writing stories and says her writing “edges toward fantasy or science fiction.” In this case, however, she penned a more realistic story that begins with a simple scene of friends hanging out — and ends with the author wondering how, and why, an innocent person can lose their life to gun violence.
She writes in the poem:
How can we stand here and let innocent blood be shed?
How long can we let this happen to those who did nothing to receive it?
Would you do that for drugs?
For revenge?
Out of anger?
Gabrielle adds that writing a poem was a different experience for her than writing a story. “A poem is kind of like a magnifying glass,” she says. “The smaller you make the ray of light, the more intense the heat is.”
“I just pretty much wanted to show the mental shock of this experience, and question a world in which this could happen,” adds Gabrielle. “I also don’t think it’s all about the blood and guts when someone you are close to is hurt.”
Role of Youth
Gabrielle says the ICHV contest gives kids a chance to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences on an important issue.
“Maybe adults can see things in a different way if they understand a young person’s point of view,” she says. “They can learn from what kids say about how disastrous gun violence can be, and how people should not use guns for the wrong reasons.”
Meanwhile, Crystal Carter says she was “amazed” by her daughter’s poem. “I think,” she says, “adults will be surprised at how well kids can articulate what they think and feel about this issue.”
Mike Perlongo:
Young artist says “Think before you shoot”
Student Artwork by Mike Perlongo
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The drawing appears to be so serene that one may not, at first glance, understand the full meaning or power of what it says.
Then, a closer look confirms it — there is a gravestone, with a flower next to it. A winding tree is nearby. In the lower left-hand corner is the drawing’s title: “Think before you shoot.”
Mike Perlongo, who created this drawing, was a Blue Ribbon winner for this work in ICHV’s 14th Annual Student Voices Contest. He drew the piece while he was an eighth grader at St. Emily School in Mount Prospect; this fall he will be a freshman at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights. He likes to act and play volleyball.
For his drawing, Mike says, he drew the piece in pencil; then he drew it in colored pencil.
Mike says he was not, for the most part, thinking about what leads up to an act of gun violence when he sat down and created his artwork. “I was thinking about what happens afterwards,” he says. “What are the results of handgun violence?”
“I just think gun violence is a terrible thing and a very big issue,” he adds. “I just wanted to speak out about it in my own way. “It’s a huge problem.”
Mike says he believes schools should spend a little more time discussing the issue of gun violence than they do. When he learned about the ICHV contest, he decided that expressing himself on this issue was worth it to him.
“I think it’s a great thing that all these kids are speaking their minds and trying to end gun violence,” he says. “It’s not just about adults saying they can stop it. Kids can speak out, too.”
Mike calls essays, poems and artworks created for the contest “amazing. I was surprised by what some of the smaller kids were able to do. All these kids are speaking out about gun violence. People protect their children about the world, but many times children know what’s going on.”
When asked what else he might do about the issue, Mike confirms the importance of getting involved in your community. “I think more people should give their opinion on this issue,” he says. “If they want to stop gun violence, they should send a letter to their senator and tell them what they want.” Meanwhile, he adds that if an opportunity presented itself at school on this issue, he would “definitely” get involved.
Mike’s mother, Terry Perlongo, says she was also amazed by what kids created for the contest. “The poems and essays and drawings all came from deep inside these kids, from the youngest to the oldest.”
“This is an issue that needs to be talked about,” she adds. “You see violence on TV, and the kids are exposed to it. They talk about it at school.”
She says Mike’s drawing “said a whole lot even though it didn’t look complicated. I think the artistic side of him came out.”
She, like Mike, says that gun violence is an issue that deserves attention in every community, even though the focus of attention is often on just a handful of neighborhoods. “There definitely needs to be greater awareness, no matter where you live.” “You can’t think nothing is going to happen to you because it might,” adds Mike. “The threat is there.”
Deja Coleman:
“We Were All Devastated”
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“We were all devastated,” writes Deja Coleman, who enters the 7th grade at St. Angela School on Chicago’s west side this fall.
Deja is referring to how she, her family and their neighbors felt one night in November of 2006 — and many days and nights after that after Deja’s uncle was shot and killed.
Deja writes about the tragedy, and the impact of violence, in an essay that was a Blue Ribbon winner this year at ICHV’s 14th Annual Student Voices Contest.
Tragic Night
“I remember him so well,” Deja says of her uncle, who she described as her mother’s “god-brother.” “He and my mom grew up together.”
Her uncle, she says, was very close to her family, and lived in the same neighborhood.
“We were close, and had a great relationship. He used to come over every other day or so to see my mom. We used to go to the store together.”
Then, one night, she says, “I remember hearing gunshots. We heard my aunt scream, and we ran outside. That’s when we saw him laying on the ground. My family called the ambulance, and my mom started crying. There was so much commotion. I found out that my uncle was on his porch, and someone shot him.”
In the Community
Deja lives in a home with a number of relatives – an aunt who lives on the third floor with two children, her grandmother and grandfather who live on the second floor, and her mother, sister and herself on the first floor. For Deja, even walking outside her family’s home on the west side can be a troubling experience.
“I can’t really walk outside,” she says. “People are on the corner, selling drugs and things like that. I can sit on the porch. It gets so bad, and the police are everywhere. It’s just crazy.”
Sometimes she sees kids who are as young as 12, 13 or 14 holding guns. Many are about 15 years old to 17 years old. “Usually there are at least five to seven boys on the corner, holding guns and selling drugs. Why do they do it? They just want to be like others, they want to be cool.”
On the 4th of July this year, she says, people “weren’t popping firecrackers. They were shooting.”
Earlier this year, a bullet was shot at the second floor of her home, where Deja’s grandparents live. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the family brought the bullet to the police.
Deja has seen how gun violence affects her family, her neighbors and her community, but she has still been able to remain enthusiastic about school. “I love school – we get to go to recess, I love going to math class – it’s my favorite.”
Deja says she wants to “go to college in Atlanta, maybe at Spelman College. I’d like to be a forensic scientist.”
Now, Deja hopes that adults will pay attention to what kids are saying about gun violence. “During the day in our community, kids are at home after school, and they can see everything while adults are at work,” she says. “What I see is that the neighborhood has been getting worse. I can’t really walk outside.”
2008 Student Voices Contest winners
Verdell Taylor:
“I have heard and seen how gun violence has affected my family”
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Like many students who won awards in ICHV’s Essay, Poetry and Art Contest this year, Verdell Taylor has experienced the effects of violence in his own life.
“I wrote an essay for the ICHV essay contest because I have heard and seen how gun violence has affected my family,” said Verdell. “So I wanted to write about what I feel. I’ve also learned not to be afraid about speaking out.”
Verdell wrote an award-winning essay about gun for the 2008 ICHV Essay, Poetry & Art Contest while he was an eighth grader at St. Sabina Academy in Chicago. He will be a freshman at Morgan Park High School in Chicago this fall.
Verdell lives in the Beverly/Morgan Park area, down the street from a police station. He said “it’s a very quiet neighborhood. You rarely hear about any violence at all.”
The same, however, is not true of neighborhoods where many of his relatives live.
“I hear a lot about gun violence from relatives on my mother’s side of the family,” said Verdell. “I see them almost every day; some are in [Chicago communities of] Gresham and Englewood. No, they don’t feel safe. They talk about how they hear gunshots and then police drive by. They talk about how they have to be careful at night.”
In particular, Verdell is close with his older cousin, Ebonie Turner, who is 28. “I see her all the time — she’s the kind of “big cousin” everybody wants,” he said.
Last year, Ebonie was by herself, and a man wanted her car. He shot her three times for it.
“I was very afraid when I heard that, because I didn’t think it would happen to her, of all people,” said Verdell. “She’s very nice, and thoughtful to everyone. Now she’s afraid. My cousin is recovering, but one of her hands is paralyzed.”
Now, Verdell says he talks to younger cousins about guns “all the time. I tell them to always be aware and to always tell their parents if someone has a gun around them.”
“Why do people use guns?,” asked Verdell. “I think many use them because of drugs, or to get money or material items. Or because they’re in a gang. And some people will do it for no reason. I know it happens all over — I just hear about it in Chicago.
How can we stop it? It would help a lot if we had stricter gun laws. I also think parents play a big role in it, and can help make sure kids don’t have a chance to get a gun.”
Verdell points to the positive influence of his mother as well as teachers at his school in getting him to think about how to face this problem in his own life.
“My mom and I talk about this issue a lot, and about how I shouldn’t be influenced by other kids,” said Verdell. “I also have a curfew. Plus, it’s very important that I was always taught to be a leader, not a follower. I think just being a follower can cause destruction. I’ve learned that followers don’t know what they really want in life. My homeroom teacher in school was a pastor, and he witnessed gun violence. He’s seen so many friends get shot. He told us you should choose your friends wisely, know what is going on in their lives. And tell the closest authority about gun violence.”
Meanwhile, Verdell believes something can be done about gun violence – but that people have to hear a message about how it affects so many lives.
“I believe this problem can be solved, but it’s going to take a while,” he said. “I wish that people who make decisions, like politicians, could see what has happened in my family. In my essay, I wrote that being shot ‘felt like someone heated a fork over a fire and stuck it into their bodies.’”
That’s what Verdell’s cousin Ebonie said it felt like when she was shot.
