Students

You already know Makitda and Genvieve.

Johntell- a very tall handsome young man with bad acne and a quiet, deep voice. He was originally from New Orleans and moved to Chicago after his house was destroyed. He was only in the program because CPS said that he had missed too much school, which is what happens when your school is destroyed by a fucking hurricane. I tried to get him into a different program but CPS would have none of it. A stand out basketball player who worked hard in class, hard at the court, and who hung drywall with his father and uncle after all of that.

Jervon- a very small but well built guy with thin braids and violent eyes. He immediately acted up in class and after he decided to do something, he could not be changed. He was also a genius, a black Good Will Hunting. He acted as tough as anyone, but had the clearest, most elegant and effeminate cursive handwriting. I would ask students for a page and he would give me three, albeit with terrible profanity in his pristine handwriting. I lent him my best pen and never got it back, which taught me the valuable distinction between hope and trust. He could be my best friend in the class room, or he could destroy any lesson.

Kwmaine- a tall dark student with a sinister face. he was doomed, dark skinned and with a natural expression on his face that made him look terrifying. But he is a decent enough guy. Did everything I asked him to do but did it as quickly as possible so that he could draw. He was an exceptional cartoonist, but he kept drawing bunnies with guns and cigars. I still want to know what kind of gang uses a rabbit, I know which gang but why a rabbit? Everyday he would ask me if I could get the class a micro-ma-wabe so he could eat lunch with me. And asked for a poster of Beyonce
Three weeks into the program I called home to let them know the Kwmaine was doing everything I asked of him. his grandmother was so happy, because last year his brother had been shot and killed at middle school, and Kwmaine had been arrested for assault twice since then.
I thought he was one of the nicest guys I had met.

Angelica-the first thing you notice about Angelica is the piercings in her brow and lip, which I thought was a pretty stupid thing to do for someone who gets in fights all the time. She only had one volume, and it was not quiet. She spoke inarticulately and in a manner that defined any rule of grammar (standard or AAVE) but she was a brilliant writer. One day she stayed after school and handed me a paper that she had written. It is hard to explain, kind of like a scene or still life in writing, but it was very good. After I said so she told me that she was glad that I was her teacher even though I had yelled at her for telling someone to shut the fuck up cunt. I felt great until she went on to tell my about her father killing herself.

He was a very difficult student. He refuses to admit that he could stop swearing. Said that his mother beat him every time he swore, but he just couldn't help himself. this made him a little bit hard to deal with in class. Also the fact that once when two students started mouthing off at each other, he went around the room organizing the desks in a circle.
He had incredibly green eyes that were not the product of contacts. And his face was horrifically scarred. White and red scar lines running every which was across his face. So after we got to know each other and I had to yell at him for saying, "you are really fucking cool Mr Ryan" I asked him how it had happened. As a kid he had pulled a goldfish bowl down over his head.
I was so relieved that it wasn't due to violence.

There were 80 others.