These are the important statements for me from the book Our America written by LeAlan Jones and Lloyd Newman, originally published in 1997. I would like to use them as a starting point to my project.
What are some of the best memories of your son?
Where were you when you first heard of a little boy being thrown out of the window in the community that you and your kids live in?
Do you feel that your absence from seeing your son led to the alleged incident?
What do you think about the little kids that committed the crime?
It’s now 1996. You said in ’93 that only about five or six percent of our class would not make it. Right now where do you think that percentage is?
How does it make you feel when you see that the violence is increasing?
Who is my father?
Do you call yourself mother, raising us?
Do you think you’ve been a good father?
Would you want your kids growing up in these public houses?
Where we live is a second America, where the laws of the land don’t apply and the laws of the street do.
I’ve never felt American; I’ve only felt African- American. An American is supposed to have life, liberty, prosperity and happiness.
I’ve experienced beautiful things, but the majority of the things I’ve experienced are not beautiful.
As children, they know that there may not be a tomorrow…I wonder sometimes, “Why am I alive? What is my purpose?”
I know you don’t want to hear about “that” part of the city, about the kids getting shot in “that” part of the city. But little you know that “that” part of the city is your part of the city too.
“Streets of Heaven” and Our America are two complete and comprehensive
portraits of the poorest Chicago’s neighborhood. This is the place, where grew up the
authors of Our America.
From my point of view Our America is one of the most interesting book that I‘ve
ever read. It is a kind of the documentary book, which includes interviews and portraits
of people from the Chicago’s “ghetto.” These photographies, some of the questions and
also some of the statements became very important and considerable for me. Both of
them, the pictures and the text exemplify very reflective and emotional image of those
depressive and hopeless environment. This image I would like to explore in my projects.
I hope to explore these big ideas and thoughts of Le Alan and Lloyd, boys who
used to live in the “project.” They are the survivors who depicted that world of their
Childhood in a very objective and accurate way, whose work I appreciate and I would like
to treat as my stepping-stone for my new project. I would like to use some of their
question and statements as messages, which can be directed to a general public. I think all
of these informations, reflections and emotions brought up in Our America are more like
the insightful portrait, which gives us the complete descriptions of the problems and the
reality of life in the “projects” in south side of Chicago. I hope to explore the idea of the
“second America,” that part of the city, where kids get shot, that part of the city which is
a part of our world.
In my project poster/ illustrations I would like to focus especially on children
whose rights, I think, are the most disrespected by the society, who can not defend
themselves, because they are just children. I would like to use fragments of the pictures
from Our America, “ Streets of Heaven” and photographies of Jack Bridges. I would
like to use them as inspirators and starting point to my work. I would like to transform
and multiply some of the elements and architectural details from the images to intensify
the reality of brutal life in the south side of Chicago. To my proposal I include some of
the phrases from the Our America that I found very considerable and pure.
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