Student Art and Creative Writing
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A collectionTIME of Nancy B. Jefferson TO Alternative GO. School student art and creative writing. COVER ART BY KYLE W. MISSION STATEMENT The Thread of Development Literacy and Creative Media Program provides deeply personalized print literacy tutoring, as well as opportunities for creative expression through writing, visual art, and music production to youth incarcerated in the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center. We produce this annual anthology of student writings and a number of other publications throughout the year. We serve as a resource to the Nancy B. Jefferson Alternative School, housed in the C.C.J.T.D.C. Your support can help us provide this critical programming inside the jail. Please consider making a contribution. To support our work, you can make a donation to: Thread of Development Literacy and Creative Media Program c/o Chicago Lights 126 E. Chestnut Chicago, IL 60611 Or contact us at [email protected] Thanks! INTRODUCTION “They can turn the lights out/But it’ll still shine in you.” is set up to define the young people we work with as - Sanova D. “criminals,” “gangbangers,” and “thugs.” Often we see our students based entirely upon their deficits, the skills The Thread of Development Literacy and Creative Media they lack, rather than by their talents and gifts. Program at the Cook County Juvenile Detention Center serves Illinois’ most vulnerable children. Our students In fact, we rarely know anything of the histories of the are between the ages of 10 and 19 years and are awaiting students who come before us. Rather, their assets are trial, awaiting sentencing, or serving time in jail. buried under a history of trauma and violence, the stories of which are difficult to access. Each student has a unique and powerful story to tell. They can become the narrators of their own stories and We recently hosted a reading at Nancy B. Jefferson authors of their own futures. Literacy, self-expression, School, by the writer Luis J. Rodriguez. In his recent an understanding of themselves and their surroundings book, Hearts and Hands: Creating Communiity in are key to overcoming the weighty obstacles each of Violent Times, Rodriguez spoke of respect, and how these young people face. important that word is to everyone inside the criminal justice system. Young people want to be respected, Publishing our students’ work helps our students to take and so do the adults who work with them. Frequently, their own stories seriously. In our writing workshops, however, no one feels respected, and thus, we all feed student critique one another’s writing and analyze the into a cycle of degradation and violence. Rodriguez writing of famous poets and writers. Seeing their work in says “At its root this is what the word respect means, print changes the way these incarcerated students view from the Latin, respectus: ‘to look back at, to reconsider, themselves, and reading their work may alter the way to see again.’” they are regarded by their families and friends. Readers will see that some of our authors use the This is the fourth anthology our program has medium of poetry to reveal themselves, their secrets, published. The demand for the anthology among wounds, and dreams. youth incarcerated at the Detention Center has risen immensely in the past year. When we asked our girls’ poetry group what they want adults in the court system to know about them, they Students, staff and teachers ask us every day for came up with the following statement; “We want to copies of the anthology to read in their rooms and to be seen as more than the crime we are here for. Many use in their classrooms. By distributing this collection of us are good singers, great authors, and smart. We of writings by youth, we hope that we are creating have stories to tell. Many of us could be future artists, a dialogue within the Cook County Juvenile Court doctors and lawyers. We want a chance to become System, helping to build a sense of community among those things.” the youth and adults in their lives. We hope that in some small way this literacy program We hope that teachers will use this book in their can help our young people transform their identities classes, that it will become part of the curriculum at and lives. So please, read their stories and poems. See Nancy B. Jefferson, that staff members will encourage them as they are, as complex and growing, talented youth to read it and discuss it on their units, and that and sophisticated, brilliant and struggling for identity it will inform our views of the young people who have and meaning, our own children. Look again. been entrusted to our care. We hope that Judges, Public Defenders and others who work within the court With respect, system will read this collection and reconsider the young people they have encountered: Did you know the youth in your care are capable writers and artists? Amanda Klonsky and Ryan Keesling Thread of Development Literacy and Creative Media Too often, our students have been defined by the worst Program thing they (may) have ever done. Our justice system Nancy B. Jefferson School 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS AM�I�BEAUTIFUL?: What Would Life Be? Hopelessness Sometimes These Walls Can Untitled WRITINGS�ON�� Sanova D. aka Kadafi......p. 11 Jennifer W...........p. 15 Close In On You Joseph B...........p. 24 Dear World Julius F...........p. 20 IDENTITY Circle My Head is Spinnin’ Keutea M...........p. 15 The Spirit of my Life John Lillig – NBJ Teacher...p. 11 Life Today Da Dre..........p. 24 Deneka L...........p. 20 Tyreece J...........p. 7 Family Circle Demarcus C...........p. 15 This Thug Philosophy One Month Parts of Me John Lillig – NBJ Teacher...p. 11 Expressions Da Dre..........p. 24 Jomar L...........p. 20 Kimberly M...........p. 7 For You, Loneliness Joseph B. ..........p. 16 All Alone Nobody Knows This Free Stuff Martha J...........p. 12 Future Maurice F...........p. 24 Anthony B...........p. 20 Tarius W...........p. 7 Life Goes On Orlando E...........p. 16 Time to Go Joseph B...........p. 12 Roxanne S...........p. 25 Beautiful The Black Panther Today Wasn’t My Day Deneka L...........p. 21 George R...........p. 7 Freezing Black P aka David B.....p. 16 Pain Levelle N...........p. 12 Guiliano B...........p. 25 There Was a Fool Soul Locked Up In a Place ..........p. 21 Corey W...........p. 8 The Future Shawn D...........p. 16 Tarius W. I Lost Sanova D. aka Kadafi......p. 12 The School Michael Q...........p. 25 I Am Illness Joseph B...........p. 21 Keith M. G..........p. 8 Joann M...........p. 16 Coward’s Way When I Get Out Danielle S...........p. 25 Who Am I? Sadness and Pain A Review of The Secret Life of Renika R...........p. 13 ....p. 22 (essence poem) Steven G...........p. 17 Bees from Danielle S. This Poem About Being Jasmine H...........p. 8 Doesn’t Matter Long Time No See Locked Up I Thought but I Didn’t Think Levelle N...........p. 14 Angelo S...........p. 22 Lavell B...........p. 26 Who I Am Guiliano B...........p. 17 Sunflower Grown Man’s Life How It Is In J.T.D.C. Orlando E...........p. 8 Eyes of the Dying Public Stephen O...........p. 14 Jomar L...........p. 22 Rudy C...........p. 26 MIXED�EMOTIONS Peter G...........p. 17 Greens and Strawberry Patch Reflection on Jail FIRE�IN�THE�COMMUNITY:� Change My Pain Tyrell P...........p. 14 Tiffany H...........p. 23 Sheri P...........p. 26 Jomar L...........p. 10 BEING�IN�JAIL Flower: An Acrostic Poem When It Comes Down To It 26th and Cal Burning On the Inside Young Black Boy Keutea M...........p. 14 Joseph B...........p. 23 D.O.Dillon –NBJ Teacher p. 26 Guiliano B. ..........p. 10 Nicholas S...........p. 19 To Unexplainable Joy How I’m Feeling JTDC DREAMING�AND� Why Patricia C...........p. 14 Tashera V...........p. 23 Keith M. G...........p. 10 Levelle N...........p. 19 REMEMBERING Mixed Emotions I F***ed Up My Imagination Five Minutes: How I Feel (ex- Nicholas S...........p. 15 Untitled Nicholas S...........p. 23 cerpt) Joseph B...........p. 19 Martha J...........p. 28 Jessica W...........p. 10 How I Feel Joseph B...........p. 15 Being Locked Up In My Room At Night Restaurant Window What’s Wrong With Me? Lashay H...........p. 19 Joseph B...........p. 24 Noel R...........p. 28 Tarius W...........p. 11 Untitled The Real Picture Emotions from the Heart! Days on the Block Dorian S...........p. 15 Guiliano B...........p. 19 Kenya P...........p. 24 Juan R...........p. 28 Hit With a Stick I Wonder REDEMPTION Blind as a Bat Edwin S...........p. 61 Charles F...........p. 28 Daphne S...........p. 32 Cordarryl S. ..........p. 42 Lights Out Confusion I’m Swimming A�DEDICATED�HEART:�� Sanova D. aka Kadafi.......p. 38 Young Ghetto Girl Samantha S...........p. 60 ..........p. 28 ..........p. 42 Corey W. WRITINGS�ON�LOVE Attiniv D. The Disturbance In My Life I Wish Not Giving Up She’s A Killer Anthony B...........p. 62 Barbara T...........p. 28 My Baby Clyde H...........p. 38 David Walker – County Staff Brandy D...........p. 34 ..........p. 43 Today I Wish Remember Me Tondalia D...........p. 62 ..........p. 28 So Seductive Encourage Each Other Michelle S. Tyreece J...........p. 38 Not Too Long Ago Sanova D. aka Kadafi..p. 34 Samantha S. ..........p. 43 I Wish The Last Day of School in JTDC Jose L...........p. 61 ..........p. 29 Like a Knot in a Rope In The Hood Marquitta P.