III: Forever Changed

Everytown surivor network show us the way of grace

Back in 2018 we met organizers with Everytown for Gun Safety, a movement of more than 6 million mayors, teachers, survivors, gun owners, students, and everyday Americans. Since then we’ve had an incredible relationship with countless collaborations. For this year’s volume of The Collection we were amazed at the breadth and depth of vision and creativity coming from the net work of survivors, showing us the way of grace in the face of immense adversity. We caught up with one of the survivors Jeremiah Fristoe, and OPEN DOORS Reality Poet Vincent Pierce, who both share a deep love of music and in it’s transformational power to steer young people away from guns and into creativity. Jeremiah, who goes by the name of Re@l is a mentor with Guitar Over Guns and Vince started ZING!. I started by asking Vince to introduce himself to those of you who don’t know him yet.

Vince: Yeah. I'm Vince from Newburgh, New York. Little bit about my upbringing—I was young, living the street life to where it got me paralyzed in a wheelchair due to gun violence. And I joined OPEN DOORS, say about five, six years ago and started producing music, rapping and writing a lot of poetry, going to schoolS to talk to kids about gun violence. I started a program in 2019 that brought kids into the studio that couldn't afford to and taught them music production. I received a grant to do that and paid them to be there but then COVID came around and we couldn’t meet in person. Still I had this grant money and was thinking how can I spend it?  So I started this virtual online open mic Friday nights called Guns Down Mic Up! and give out music equipment that can help any artist in pursuing their dreams and help them go farther.

Dexter: That’s amazing. Thank you, Vince. How about you, Jeremiah? Maybe a little bit about yourself, your background, where you hail from, a little bit about your upbringing?

Jeremiah: Yeah. So I'm Jeremiah Fristoe, artist name is Real and that has two meanings [inaudible 00:02:25] light that love. Originally, I'm from the east side of Chicago. I currently have been staying on the South Side of Chicago for the last, maybe nine to ten years. Chicago native, born and raised. I do a lot of community work. I work with an organization called Guitars Over Guns, which is a mentorship program that partners with CPS schools and private schools and institutions where musicians, artists, singers, rappers, host events—we pretty much volunteer our time and teach after school. And sometimes during school, depending on the setup and we're just there to give to the kids, help them to develop their art, their talent, and also give them opportunities.

And one of my biggest things is I get paid to do what I love, which is music and art. I do production, I teach production, songwriting, rap a lot. And one of my biggest things has always been to show kids and young adults—because I'm only 25, I'm still young myself—show them that you can get paid to do what you love to do, and you can also help bloom your community and help grow and expand your community.

I do a lot of work with Haven Studios, which is a free studio on the South Side of Chicago. I volunteer a lot of my time over there with my mentors, Addison and Dennis and pretty much they've opened up that space so that young adults and youth and the community, and even if you're not on the South Side, you can [inaudible 00:04:21] your way over there. You can come and record for free, learn about recording, producing, find opportunities, open mics, get your music video. And the whole deal with that is that we want to continue to show the youth and the rest of the world what we do... Excuse me, I'm actually at the studio right now.

[Voice of someone singing in the background]

Dexter: That's okay.

Jeremiah: Yeah, we want to show the youth and continue showing the youth that they can pursue their dreams, that there are avenues, you don't have to be on the block. You don't have to subscribe to what TV or the internet is telling you that you got to be this or that. And yeah, on the personal side, I'm no stranger to the streets. At a younger age, I decided, based off of what I saw, that I wasn't going to live the lifestyle that was presented in front of me and the one that I was told would be my only experience and just kept furthering my message. I did end up getting shot last year, actually, before my 24th birthday. But it didn't deter me. If anything, it just let me know that I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And I continue to use that and that message to show the youth, you know what I'm saying? That there is another way, you don't have to be a statistic and that if you stay positive and keep a persistent pursuit of a good life for yourself that you can overcome...

Dexter: That's amazing, man. That's so dope. I love what you're saying too, that you're still young and the fact that you have the mindset to know already that you have an impact in your community and to be able to affect young people that way, I think is so dope. I guess my next question for both of you is—I find this so inspiring, the work that you guys are doing, and I'm wondering, what was it like for you, let's say in Chicago when you were a young kid, or for you in Newburgh, Vince….what was it like,?  Did you have people doing the same kind of thing for you?

Jeremiah: Man, so, I love Chicago—good and bad. I definitely did not have any type of programs like this when I was a youngin at all. And if there was, I had no idea. The only way that there was any type of real help, programs, anything like that, was through the local church and there's nothing wrong with that. I just feel like limiting that type of support to a religious experience isn't enough in helping the collective as a whole. But yeah, I mean, growing up, it definitely was wild, man. My parents always taught me to think for myself, so I always surveyed my situation, my surroundings. And as somebody would say “keep your head on a swivel,” you know what I'm saying? Where I was staying at was a specific gang location, and where I went to school was another gang location. I personally never joined a gang myself, but I've always had friends and family members that were close to me that were associated with that lifestyle. So I've always been around it, and I always tried to see what the mistakes were and what the benefits were. And those older than me always used to tell me to continue to use my mind. So that was my escape. I was like, "Okay, I got to be able to navigate these things, these types of situations." But yeah, man, I remember being in grade school and hearing that most of us would either be dead or in jail by 18 from our teachers. Whole lot of crazy stuff, man. But I always remembered “keep your head on a swivel,” wanting more for myself. I was blessed to see people that even in their situation, their struggle, they were able to encourage me and a few other young men that I knew to be better than them and to be better than our situation.

So I feel like my whole life after that has just been plain and forward. The only thing that I can do is pay it forward and just try to use my wisdom to teach them how to navigate through lifestyle

Dexter: Beautiful. I love that. What about you Vince? I mean, I've never been to Newburgh, what was Newburgh like when you were a kid? What you are offering now, did you have somebody doing that for you? Was there a model for that, when you were young in Newburgh?

Vince: Nah, Newburgh is small man and just nothing but crime growing up, and seeing that and not really having a positive person like that, as you say. Everybody that was older than me was basically in the streets and basically teaching you how to survive and being [inaudible 00:10:58] and there definitely wasn't no programs, not even the afterschool programs had that. I mean it was more or less go to afterschool, play ball and that's it. It wasn't an individual program set up and yeah, which is crazy. I was telling one of my other friends, "Imagine where I'd be if I was a kid that had this program?" I just try to encourage kids, like Jeremiah was saying, it's encouraging that you can be bigger than what your environment expects of you. And like you say, you can make money from doing something you like instead of working for somebody for 20 years and never like the job.

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