He Grew Up on the Streets, Now He's Making Them a Better Place | Short Film Showcase

You know you can't change the world; you have to start with yourself. I was going down a one-way street, going backwards, and I left the house. I had my gun on my hip. I kept a blunt halfway lit, had my tennis shoes tied tight. These guys, I had to jump out the chyron. I didn't trust nobody; for all I knew, one of my homeboys were shooting in the back of my head. I was always a soldier, all the soldiers in their own army. How did I let my life get this far down the road? You know? How did I forget what my roots were? Growing up, I didn't have a father; we didn't have much money. But my mom always told us, "You know, God is going to provide. God is going to provide."

My life was pretty stable, but at the same time, I was having to deal with my mom's mental illness. My mom, he caught her Dexter, doctors’ laboratory. She looked like a nerd with all the glasses. All she had. I smelled the gunpowder. Some told me, "Your mommy just committed suicide." It hurt him so bad. "Mom, why would you leave? Why would you leave?" After my mom passed, my sisters and my brother didn't really see eye to eye. My stepdad, he ran off. The house eventually was just empty; lights was off, and it was just me. I was 16. I would wake up in the morning; I would go to the living room where we all used to eat breakfast. I waited. I thought my brothers and sisters were gonna come back home, lights was gonna be back home one day, and it was gonna be just like the day before mama passed.

It never happened. It never happened. In the city of Flint, Michigan, all is excitement. The older boys and girls are let out of school. All this is a day the whole town's a fossil. Yes, siree, there's going to be a parade too. Growing up, you hear how Flint was a thriving city. Flint was the American dream.

Michiel, Ed, when I say he's my youngest baby, she's three. He had to say to yourself, "It's not right. We didn't ask for the lifestyle that we grew up in." GM built the neighborhood, and they left; it kind of left my generation feeling cheated because it was gang infested. The whole crack epidemic popped off, and then our houses were condemned or either just non-livable. The city just destroyed itself.

This view of achieve much. "England's by our recognition, our Father which are in heaven, hallowed be thy name. I came to come, thy will be done." I tried raising myself for a while; that didn't work. A lot of my friends used to come around. We still didn't sell drugs or anything like that, but we stole anything to get our hands on to survive. Scheming. This got me turned into a bad police record and amusing the streets. My kid had to step over a K47 to get to the breakfast table.

Unless God did something, things he did to break the yoke on my life, I definitely was headed toward destruction. I was getting shot up early, going in my house and hitting the couch. I looked at the bullet aside. I'm over there. The streets is not a joke. If somebody comes shoot at you, you better retaliate, or either the next guy's going to do it, and that guy's going to do it. So I went to go retaliate, and I got one bullet off, and my gun jammed. I took that as a sign: God is protecting me for a reason to help the community.

This bar, so we ask that you make a testimony out of everybody; don’t ever lie to my [Music]. I've never killed anyone, but I felt guilty for a lot of things, and I feel like it was blood on my hands. My pastor called me into his office, water playing old Flint water; he washed my hands, physically washed my hands, took some... I like pastor and seen my soul. I seen what I really could become.

It's time to wake up; it's time to grow up; it's time to take our city back. There's a program that my church has provided. It's the real brass roof perspective for changing Flint. Black metal image in Flint is put up to be dug his roof. But at the same time, I guarantee every night wonderful run just tell you what just was personal happiness. It didn't have the right guidance.

Give away water, fruit, lad test; it's a way to help the community. I'm the supervisor to lawn care service. We're cutting most of the lots that were previously vacant, homes that were tore down. But it does change the whole view of the neighborhood. Just the elder lady come outside in her hat just, and she just want to watch and watch her neighborhood. Her neighborhood will come back. I love it.

If there's one thing that people should know about Flint, it's that we've been survivors since day one. The day my mom put that revolver up to her head, it made me fight, fight, fight, and fight. But everything I've been through, my job is to teach, to break the cycle. When you put the man together, the world comes together. As to being a part of the problem, we're a part of the solution, a permanent part of the solution.