The Men of CeaseFire: Their thoughts on Their Mission.

TY, SEAN, REV. EVANS, ANDRE W, ANDRE N, MARCUS, & SENECA

      May 1, 2013:     I must admit the original idea for this blog entry was to interview one person about their role in the organization known as Ceasefire in Lake County, IL.  However, as I would soon learn, that person was only an extension of a greater form.  Our initial meeting was tentative.  I shook hands with seven men ( Andre N.,  Andre W.,  Marcus, Seneca, Sean, Ty, and Reverend Clarence Evans), all of whom identified themselves as brothers in the cause for peace in our communities. 

      Each of these individuals got two questions a piece and were really frank about how they felt about their roles and responsibilities in and out of CeaseFire.  And I was proud to have the opportunity to speak with each of them.

NSB:  Reverend, who where you before CeaseFire?  Who are you now?

C.  EVANS:  My name is Reverend Clarence Evans.  I was a person that was working in the community with at risk youth.  I'm also now the program manager of CeaseFire. And I still continue to go out and spread the word of CeaseFire and the word of God.

NSB:  Amen.  But, who are you now?

C. EVANS:   I'm a child of God.  I can't change that one.


NSB:  Marcus, how did you get your position and what do you love about your job?

Marcus:  I got my position by referral.  I watched a lot of the other brothers that were already working through CeaseFire.  And what I love about my job is helping the youth and giving back to the community that we tore down.

NSB:  Seneca, how does CeaseFire reach out to the community?

Seneca:  Basically, Ceasefire reaches out to the community by us going around trying to talk to troubled youth at different programs, at different schools and detention centers.  We just basically try to get out there and show them a positive setting-- barbecues and so forth. For example, we got a car show coming up right now, and we just try to show them that there are different means and alternatives to the ones that they are basically taking right now.

NSB:  How can the community become proactive and more involved with itself, Seneca?

Seneca:  Basically, the community can become more involved with itself by us just standing back and identifying the problem.  The problem starts at home.  My opinion on it is all the education starts at home.  And, instead of people pointing their fingers at the police or city hall, I believe us a  community and us as parents should be able to stand back and look at ourselves and  see what's going on in our homes.  And therefore, if we did that, we would be able to solve a lot of these problems that's going on in the streets right now.

NSB:  Sean, does being a part of CeaseFire give you some perspective or insight about your own past?

Sean:  Actually, it does because when I started getting in trouble I was in school at a young age and I see that a lot of these kids out here are growing up without parents or with parents that are not paying them any attention or growing up a single parent home.  And I know that I can tell these kids that if they don't start getting good grades or staying in school they could end up in jail or shot just like me.   It took me a long time just to get out of the streets because I just thought that all the time I would get in trouble I would just get a slap on the wrist.  And that's what a lot of the system is doing to these kids, giving them a slap on the wrist.  And then they end up, later down the line, getting into some really big trouble.  Just like I did.   So, now that I've gotten involved with CeaseFire, it's actually therapeutic for me too.  Because I know that me seeing them going through the same things and in the same cycle that they could end up  going to jail.  Having been in that trouble myself, I've got three boys and I don't want to see them going through the same things.  That's why I try to keep them in their books.  Because I know it all starts at home.  So, if I make good decisions, then my kids should make good decisions.

NSB:  How do you use that insight to reach out to the youth?

Sean:  If they aren't my child, you know.  If I see someone out on the corner, most likely, I know what they are doing.  So, I just tell them where they could be heading, where they need to be, and why they need to try and find the alternative of getting a job.  Telling them that everybody got to start off small.  That's how they can climb and become something.

NSB:  Ty, how do you approach an at risk youth?

Ty:  We approach the young men as men, you know.  Just try to give them an open mind as to what is going on.

NSB:  What advice do you give to them that wasn't given to you?

Ty:  The pros and the cons.  If this is what they want to do, then this is the consequences that they are going to face.  You can either do this or you can do it that way.   It's all about the choices that you make.  My job is just strictly to enforce or just give them the right options of the right way to take--being that I've been there and done that.

NSB:  Nine times out of ten, do they listen?

Ty:  Nine times out of ten, you probably get six of them that probably will listen.

NSB:  Andre N.  What scares you the most about being a parent now? 

Andre N.:  Well, you know, I have a thirteen year old now, and what scares me the most about being a parent is growing up around gangs and I want him to especially just get an education-- something I didn't have.  I didn't got to college, I went to prison.  So, right now, the school environment right now is just infested with gangs.  And I just don't want him to get involved with any gang activity.      I just want him to finish out his education, go on to college, and just be a better man than I was. 

NSB:  What else do you want for your kids that you didn't have?

I want them to be a part of their kids life forever.  And not go to prison and leave them. 

NSB:  Andre W.  What is the source of the madness in our communities at large?

Andre W.:  Poor supervision for the youth is one of the main reasons that things are going the way the are.  What you do is sit back and pay more attention to these youngsters--focus more on them.  Be more hands on with them instead of sitting back, and letting things go on.


It is nice to know that people can change, take responsibility for themselves and turn their own lives around like these men have.  The road that they walked wasn't easy, but each of them paid dearly for their bad choices.  They own and acknowledge the choices they have made and have become better men for them each in his own right. 

That said, this conversation is not finished.  I had to ask them how they felt about gun control legislation as an effective means to curve violence in Urban Areas.  It's been on the news, the issue has been before Congress, and now I offer the issue to the men of Ceasefire.  Read the next posting about the men of Ceasefire.   Their answers just may enlighten you.  

"Ceasefire 2013": a song for us.

The Messenger: Suave Da Lyricist

It is Tuesday, April 16, 2013; the day after the bombings that took place during the Boston Marathon in Boston, Massachusetts.  The images of that day are still fresh in my mind, but I am also reminded that right now in Chicago, Illinois and areas even closer to Nogo, people are mourning the lives of love ones lost to constant gun violence.  It is a problem more terrifying than international terrorism and it is something the people of my community live with everyday.

Today, I got the opportunity to speak with Suave da Lyricist, Glen C. Pitts the CEO of IND.TouchStudios, & producer Twan (aka Hey Hey Hey This a Twan Beat) about their song "Ceasefire" and the negative effect that black on black violence is having on the youth in our community. 

Who is Suave da Lyricist and how long have you been making music?

Suave da Lyricist:  Suave da Lyricist is just a person.  And I don't want to add no spectacular synonym to the name, I'm just a person.  I'm just me.  I'm somebody who has been doing music ever since I can remember.  At least a good ten, twelve years, I've been doing this.  Suave is just a person relaying the message, he's a messenger.  I relay the message through words.  That's pretty much it.

What brought about the creation of the song "Ceasefire"?

Suave da Lyricist:  Well, the reason I brought my guys here is because they pretty much came up with the idea for it.  Twan--I don't know how he came up with the track, but Twan had the track.  And Glen called me over, and Glen said, we got to do a record about all this killing going on, and I think this was after Janae McFarlane got killed and he was like man we got to do a record because there is just so much going on right here.

What's been going on out here, I was kind of cold to it because I grew up in the Robert Taylor Homes.  So people getting killed and all that, I'm conditioned to it.

Like you're numb?

Suave da Lyricist:  Right.  So, the passion they had about it is like how I felt in '93-'94.  So when they spoke on it, it unleashed some suppressed feelings about it.  So, I took his idea with it and I got to writing from a parents standpoint.  So, it just bled out.  I don't know how long it took to write; it may have taken about ten to fifteen minutes.  And it just went from there.

Twan:  And we told him not to hold back on his words.  Express what he means and how he really feels to make it real, you know.

How do yall feel about how the song "Ceasefire" turned out from a producers standpoint?



Glen Da CEO   "Stop the Violence, stop the shooting."

Glen da CEO:  I feel that it's great.   I mean it's got a few lines that can be changed.  Some words can be changed.  You know, some people might not relate to it, like the church people.  But, the message is clear about what we are trying to do and what we are trying to stop.  I mean, we didn't want to just stop with the song.  We wanted to take this to a whole 'nother level with marches and rallies.  All that type of stuff.  But, we are still working on that right now.

How can hip hop contribute to nonviolence and community outreach for our community particularly?

Glen da CEO:  Depending on the message.  Everybody can be swagged out cool without the violence.  You know what I'm saying.  Everybody wants to be cool and be this person that they want to portray themselves as, but they're not.  So, through music, I think we can contribute to the community by giving them something to listen to, something to vibe to, but from a positive standpoint.  Something different.  I think that is how we can get through to the community with something positive that we talk about in these lyrics.

Suave da Lyricist:  I agree.  I definitely agree, but just to piggy back on what I said before, I grew up in a neighborhood where, excuse my French, that shit was accepted.  It becomes an ice cream truck comes down the street and a nigga get shot, somebody gets arrested, somebody gets beat up--like these things are what we become conditioned to and its acceptable then.  But when you get older, I mean, we all parents now.  I can't even fathom burying my shorty especially because somebody shot him.  And then there is no real reason behind it.  So just like Glen say, I mean like this music, this music is a vessel.  And unfortunately, these kids are more relatable to the music then they are to they parents as teachers.  Cause they look to teachers, I mean to be straight up, they aren't looking to these teachers.  I mean, they there in school because they got to go.  But they'll listen to these artists.  Because that is who they dream to be.  But, somebody got to be able to add some sweet to the bitter.  Because it is bittersweet, but at the same time, if it's all bitter we can't be mad if they grow up and become a product of what's going on now.

Twan:  I mean, basically, we are trying to change a little bit of what the children are hearing and thinking from all this other hip hop.  By them hearing this message, it could give them some perspective about what life is about.

And about what life could possibly be for them.

Twan:  Yes.

Glen da CEO:    Not only that, if hip hop/rap music was incorporated into the schooling, I think it would give kids more to do.  Like if they had a music other than just playing the type of musicals they be doing at the schools, if they incorporated like a hip hop class in school, in the music class to give them something positive, because they not going to let you rap about killing and shooting in school--they're not going to do it.  So, if this was incorporated in the school more, maybe it would get a bigger message out there to the kids.

Suave da Lyricist:  Hip hop as a genre is shunned in the school system because of the representation that comes from it when the genre is mentioned.  When you mention hip hop, people already associate the ones that are you know thugging.  They're not speaking on LL Cool J, they're not speaking on the ones who are relevant still that are on the other side of what's going on.  So that's why there is a salty taste in their mouths but just like Glen said.  But, mainly, first and foremost, you got to stop being afraid, and that's another reason why so much stuff is foing on and not being fixed because people are scared.  So, that was another reason of making a record because people--and I'm going to be all the way honest--people know me and about my affiliations in the city.  But, for me to do a record like this, it lets them know that, yo, this is some of how I felt. So, if I can't bring you the real, then you can't respect me as a man because we all got to be able to stand up and conduct ourselves when stuff out of balance.  So, this is definitely a record that when delivered right  and a message is given by somebody that can be respected then it will go far.  Because if the messenger can't be respected for what he is saying, than the messenger can't go far either.

There was a time when a person could learn a lot from hip hop: about themselves, about religion, about their culture and about positivity.  Now, it seems, there is a gun culture, a drug culture, and a gross sexual culture in hip hop that needs to be weeded out in order to become more positive than what it is.  Do you foresee hip hop falling by the way side in the next 5 to 10 years if things don't change?

Twan:  Nah, I don't.  I mean, hip hop is basically the way that people live.  You never run out of things to talk about what you doing and everything, so no.

Suave:  I think as long as the big corporations still got they hands on it it's not.  Because, they going to always try to keep up with what going on as a trend as far as the record labels go.   It's different from the BDPs and like we talking stuff from 25 years ago.  I mean, I remember those records, and I know then those labels weren't doing stuff they doing now. These labels these days are personally handpicking records that going to be only be applicable for right now.  As long as they can try to find somebody who can do what they want for right now, they going always be able to keep it alive, but it's going to always be records like "Ceasefire" that's going to exists that aren't going to get heard.  I mean, Interscope, Def Jam, and those people aren't trying to hear "Ceasefire".  For real, for real, because that means all that money that they make off all that other stuff is not going to make any more money.   All it takes is one record and one person of importance to hear that record and then there you go you losing your money.

If people take nothing else from this one piece of music, what is it you want your listeners to get from the song "Ceasefire"?

Glen da CEO:  The message is clear:  ceasefire.    Stop the violence, stop the shooting.  Save our kids. That's the message that we want to give.  Other than that, there's nothing.  That's the whole message that we want them to get is just to stop. Stop the shooting, stop the killing. Even if you shooting at your target and miss, than there goes a kid getting hit by a stray bullet.  So, the whole message is just to stop it.  I wish we could go back to the days when you wasn't doing nothing but fighting.  But nowadays they shooting side ways.
So the whole message is just ceasefire.  PERIOD.

Twan:  Also, I think,  another message, what Suave said in the song basically  like not just our kids but we got to look out for each other.  And just for the parents to step up and be parents for all kids.  Not just your own.

Glen da CEO:   Like back in the day.  When your momma could whoop me and my momma could whoop you.

Suave da Lyricist:  I did a show the other night that was I guess you could say was just circled around the whole movement.  And, there wasn't anybody there.  There was just the artist that was booked, and just a few stragglers and nobody else.  What I want people to take from the record is stop always just showing up to funerals.  You know what I'm saying.  We'll show up to funerals.  We'll show up with the bears and the flowers and the candlelight visuals and all that.  But, we don't show up to the stuff that prevents it.  So if anything, just to get up.  And to piggy back off what Glen was saying about the record,  I could have done this record without cursing initially, rather than having to go back and do a radio edit, but it was the rawness of it.  My momma ain't never water down nothing to me.  The people that cared about me ain't never watered down nothing to me.  So I felt like to put this record together it was me really  giving you me.  This wasn't nothing edited so I could send to the radio so they could play it because it is bigger than radio.  I could care less if the radio mess with the record because it ain't just for them.  9 times out of 10, those radio directors don't know what's going on in our hood personally.  They hear it on the news like everybody else.  Those people don't even know who Janae is; they don't know who Hadiya is personally.  They only know because channel 7 broadcasted it.  I given that message on a strength of if I can't give it to you in the raw, then I can't give it to you because that is how it is presented to us.  I mean, these kids getting whacked ain't edited.  I just got a call earlier and heard that one of my guys sons got killed.  I mean, he was only half way from school and he got whacked.  I mean, I'm sure he had other plans this afternoon.  Why give it to them watered down?  Give it to them raw because that is what they are going to respect.

Well, we were all in agreement.  Something must be done to combat the erosion of morality and life in our communities.  Not just in North Chicago, but in communities around the world.  We pray and we feel for all who tragically lose their lives.  And I personally want to dedicate this blog entry to Janae MacFarlane and Hadiya Pendleton.  Both young ladies are gone to soon, and both are still remembered and missed by their loved ones and friends.

Ceasfire everybody.  Let's all come together and stop the madness. 

The music, the song, the message is *CEASEFIRE* 2013   <====  Click here to here the song and support your local artists and support and believe in the message.

 

CeaseFire: Rally for Peace 2/9/2013

When:  Saturday afternoon, February 9th.

Where:  North Chicago High School Auditorium

   Before arriving at the event, my mood was stoic.  I didn't really think much would happen today or that I would really learn anything.  (Just being honest)  But, after I left, I had a renewed faith in my community and still many questions ran through my mind.

  What is this entity, this CeaseFire program?  And why is it necessary?
              CeaseFire is an anti-violence program and an initiative of the Chicago Project for Violence Prevention aimed at reducing street violence by using outreach workers to interrupt potentially violent situations.  And in the words of one Pastor who spoke at the event, "The reason why we have Ceasefire is because people are dying . . ."  And he was right.  People, young people, are dying needless and preventable deaths because of gun violence.

            This is not right.  In January of this year the murder rate in the city of Chicago was at 506 deaths.  The highest in a decade.   And most of the time the perpetrators of these violent acts are themselves minority youth.

            This rally was a cry for relief as well as a call to action.  For our community is in peril and we are to blame if this situation is not fixed. 

             This is not a game.  Especially to those who have lost a love one to gun violence. 

IS it unfortunate that we need an organization like CeaseFire? 
                Yes and No.   It is unfortunate that these measures have to be taken, but lives are on the line and bullets don't have names.   The next time it could be me, or you, or your child on a cold slab at the coroner's office waiting to be identified.   And since, this type of thing happens everyday in most urban communities, I don't call it unfortunate that we have organizations like CeaseFire working to prevent violence. I call it a blessing.

                  What is unfortunate is the circumstances that brought the necessity for CeaseFire about.
Too many people are saying we can do better for the disenfranchised but not many of those people are willing to get in the mud and pull them out.  The men and women of CeaseFire are doing just that.

                   Sometimes, just sometimes, a person can becomes so jaded that they think that no one cares.  Fortunately, I realized today that I live in a community that does care about itself. North Chicago, IL really came out and represented itself in a positive light this day.  And I can say that I am proud that I was there to witness it.

What can we do as a community to make change, real change, happen in our community?

               CeaseFire sets a provocative example:  The Violence Interrupters( ex gangbangers, drug dealers, etc.) are a special unit of violence intervention experts that work to mediate conflict on the "front-end".   They have picked up the mantle of community leadership that was in effect during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s.  Moreover, they are proof that being a "felon" does not mean that you are a "failure".

Through these ex offenders, our church leaders and our politicians, can reach out to those who would commit violence and with a firm, kind understanding offer solutions before tragedy occurs.

IT may take more time than I have breath, but after today, I (miss stoic, miss jaded) am a believer that change can happen in North Chicago.  But we have to want it for ourselves.

If you want more information about the CeaseFire program go to www.ceasefire.com