My Worst Violent Experience!
As part of the XPRESSIONs project, students were asked to draw violent scenes they have experienced and can't forget. Below is a compilation of some of these drawings and explanations.
Andrew, 20 – Trenchtown
More than two guys beat up somebody in front of me… one of them had a gun … the other one had a button … it was my friend that get beaten … I cried … I was helpless … first they come to him and talked to him … they came and called him out of his house … and beat him up … then they said they would beat up his girlfriend now … but he said he would take the beatings for his girlfriend … she stood beside him and cried … it was about one year ago…
Anthony, 13 – New Haven
A man died right next to my gate and when the police came they drank beer and smoked and laughed over his dead body as if nothing happened…because he was a bad-man…at night when I go through my gate I feel afraid as if he is still there next to my gate…he had just come from prison and two men shot him…four times…I saw him…his chest opened through the shots…I don t want to die like that! I want to live until I get sick and die!
Atino, 9 – Trenchtown
I painted a four-way not far from here…it's a drive-by shooting…they shot my uncle…he was driving his car and they set him up…they told a lady to call after him and talk to him so he would stop the car…and then they came and shot him up….shot him up in his own car…then his car crashed into a next car that was parked at the roadside and they went and robbed his jewelry…they grabbed his chain…people came running from all over and the men started to fire a lot of gunshots so nobody would come close and they could gain time to rob the chain…then they run to their house that was close by…everybody call the police…everybody was crying in my uncles house were I was at that moment…my mummy was crying in the house and his wife too…mummy didn’t want to go out and see him…I was about to cry…I still dream of him…his daughter was crying too…I often dream of him…they just shot him up so…
Cavon, 15 – New Haven
I saw a man in a red shirt walking down the road and he get shot by a man riding a bicycle who took him for a thief that had robbed him shortly before. He got shot in the shoulder …. Every time I think about it I get afraid that on day someone might mistake me for someone else and want to hurt me. So I try to stay off the road.
Giovanni, 7 – Trenchtown
…the man in the picture burn up the house and shoot it up while people still are inside…a man and a woman were inside the house…there were some men and first they went into the house and raped the girl in front of her husband……then they set the house on fire and shot at the house from outside while the man and the woman still were inside…the police only came the next morning….I woke up with the gunshots of the men shooting at the house….when I saw it I felt sad…I remember it every day…and I feel sad…they were my neighbors...they burned in the house…I talked to my friends about it and feel very sad…
Jermaine, 16 – New Haven
When I come from church one evening a man come up to me and beat me with a wooden cane…he said I beat his son, but I didn’t do it!... I pushed him and he fell on the ground … then he get up and start lick me again … I run home to grab my batton and when I came back with it my friend had called my uncle … my uncle came with a machete and wanted to kill the man but the people around held him back…
Jerome, 13 – Trenchtown
One Saturday morning, some months ago, I was training Capoeira with my friends under the big tree. A fight broke out right beside us on the road between a man and a woman. The man was holding the woman and punching her … he didn’t let her go…even when she screamed and people came by…first I was laughing to forget my pain … I felt so bad … I felt terrible…
Kevin, 17 – New Haven
…my step-father broke my arm … I pushed my sister and she fell into the fan and the fan broke … then I went to Capoeira class … when I came home at night my step-father grabbed me and pushed me and I pushed back and shouted: “ You are not my father don’t push me!” … then he boxed me and I boxed him back … he hit me again and told me I must give him my knife and I said: “No, it's mine!” … and he come upon me and I cut his arm but he grabbed my arm and turned it around on my back and my arm broke and I screamed… I run to my mummy and tell her my arm broke and I go hospital … my step-father paid a lot of money for the hospital and the operation … he said sorry later … but I don’t believe him … because he made jokes about me later and I feel the pain and my arm broke! My daddy says he will do him something … it happened last year … I am very angry because I feel the pain and he laughs about it…. I have a lot of nightmares about this and I want revenge…
The next picture shows a man shooting a next man…I saw it when I was visiting my family in the country…somebody beat a woman and her boyfriend said he would come and shoot him…the same night the boyfriend came back and shot the other man in the side…I was afraid I could get shot too…I saw everything…
The last picture shows a bus…I was inside the bus and there were persons hanging on the outside of the bus hitching a ride… one man kick down a next man that was holding on beside him and he fell down right into a car that was passing the bus…I came out of the bus and saw the body…it was terrible…all the skin came off… the police came…and the man was not yet dead … but then he died … I felt very bad … I saw the hearse coming to pick up the body … the family of the man came and wanted to kill the other man who had pushed him…but the police took him away…I had a dream about this too…
Mario, 8 – Trenchtown
…one day I went over to my auntie and I saw how a man shot another man on the road…. I felt sad about it…
Mathew, 13 – New Haven
When I was five years old I spent summer holidays at my uncle's house in the country. One day I saw a man thieving my uncle's bicycle. When my uncle went to the man to get back his bicycle the man pushed a knife and chased my uncle down the road to his house. My auntie, cousin and my brother and me had to watch everything. We all were frightened inside the house and had to wait for hours until the man went away. My uncle shouted:” Leave us alone! Take the bike, I don’t want it anymore!”
Until today I have nightmares and remember that moment quite often.
Romario, 9 – Trenchtown
I draw a drive-by-shooting that happened over at my school … I was at school … when people from jungle came driving by in a van and shot a man on the road … the man was a gun man … when it happened I run into the school … and went home fast … I feel sad…
Sheldon, 12 – Trenchtown
I draw a drive-by-shooting I saw last year. I was swinging in the park … a car passed and somebody fire gunshots from it…one person that was in the park … got shot and died … everybody run when it happened … I was so afraid … once I would have a bad dream about it….
Tony, 14 – New Haven
One day, I was eleven years old, two of my friends and me went to look for boards to build a go-kart. I see a big truck and a man with a gun stop it to rob the driver. But the truck driver had a gun too and started to fire shots and the other man get shot. I was frightened and hid in the bushes. When I hear a lot of people come I came out and look at the dead body … there was blood everywhere … and me see the shots in his chest, belly, arms and legs … plenty shots the man get! … then two police car come … I often remember that day … every time I play with my friends or at Capoeira training when I get a lick on my arm or on my leg I see the dead body with the gunshot wholes in the arms and legs again … and I’m afraid to look at my own arm because I think it will look the same … with wholes and blood…
Travis, 17 – New Haven
When I was eleven years old I saw a shootout at Duhaney Park crossing … two bad man fight each other and the police came into it … police fire shot upon them but them come too late… one gun man run away and the other one drive away in his car…I was so afraid I was at the roadside when it happened … I was afraid to get shoot and run away…
