My neighborhood is around the streets of Irvine Turner Boulevard. My neighborhood has a lot of buildings and children. In my neighborhood there are houses being built for new people to move in. There are a lot of cars that come through my neighborhood because my street leads to the highway. As a result of all the cars and the music, it can be noisy. My neighborhood is bad and good. Besides the drug dealers, gangs and shootings, there are the friendly people. I like my neighborhood because I was raised there and lived there for almost my whole life.
Jalil Harris
Central High School
This is a new environment for me. All my life I lived in a house with a big family, getting whatever I wanted and not worrying about my grandmom’s troubles. Now I live with my mom in an apartment, being smart about my choices. I am not following behind anyone. I try to stick around the very scarce amount of positive teens left. In my building there is always noise and fighting. People go from blasting the music to banging on someone’s door trying to get in there. The elevators have numerous dents and hardly ever work. When the elevator doesn’t work we walk up the stairs. As we walk up the stairs, everyone we see is smoking, even kids our age. In school it is different. You have freedom, and you have your friends. But when you come home you stay in, because your mom doesn’t want anything to happen to you. When you’re on the phone you don’t think about the bad things. So I just stay on the phone and away from the harsh reality of my neighborhood.
Anastacia Johnson
Sussex Avenue
In my neighborhood anything can happen: a car robbery, a gun shoot-out or just people wasting their youth on corners, selling drugs and things like that. I live in one of two huge brownish-red brick buildings that kiss the clouds in the baby blue–colored sky. There are 20 floors with 14 apartments on each. It’s like we have our own little villages. Of course, we have people yelling at others or fighting, but not much from what I know. My neighbors are nice. Everyone gets along okay. There’s one neighbor next door; she plays the music so loud that you could hear it five floors away. There’s another neighbor; she’s so nosy that she can’t take a breath before she knows what the latest gossip is. There’s nothing worse than the little boys and girls in the hallway who just get on everyone’s nerves in the winter. I know my neighborhood is not perfect, but I like it.
Yolanda Aguilera
Sussex Avenue
We all live in the troublesome streets of Newark, but there are plenty of times that I could say that I just went somewhere and had the best of times. Many times I have enjoyed riding through the city in my godmother’s black Mercedes with the shiny, spinning rims that caught the attention of many people we passed by. But my home sweet home of the Garden Spires is where I come home to almost every day, where I would always look up and glance at the two giant brown buildings, where bad memories and good times both came to mind. I would greet my friends and neighbors who knew me or my dad, a man well known throughout the buildings. But I would not always receive a hello. Many times the neighbors have questioned me or rudely asked where I was coming from or going to. Of course, there were many times when I have engaged in arguments or fights. As I ride the noisy elevator to the 18th floor, I know my humble abode is not near perfect, but I love it. I know almost everyone and get along with just about everyone. So despite problems, I find it exciting and unpredictable.
Kate Ohene
Sussex Avenue
Cars driving, people walking, dogs barking and cats meowing. These are the things I hear and see as I wake up from a night of sleep. “Time to go to school,” my mother yells. I get up and get ready for school. After I leave the house I hear people greeting each other. Red, yellow, blue and green are the colors of the houses I see as I walk down the big open street. “Hello there,” a man says as he walks right past me. I stop and turn around and see a man walking his dog toward me. “Hi,” he says. “Hello,” I greet him. As I cross the street to get to school, a teacher comes over to greet me. I walk to the playground and see all the kids. This is my neighborhood.
DeJohn Crawley
Sussex Avenue
Two big brown buildings standing across from each other, both 20 floors, both three elevators, 175, 195. The only thing different about these two buildings is one has a store attached to it, the other a school with a playground.
Where I live people don’t want to come. Garden Spires is a store, Laundromat, office and a school. The worst thing about it is the noisy neighbors, rude kids, dogs barking nonstop and all the accidents.
Shelby Bentil
Sussex Avenue
Cookouts in the summer,
Gloves and hats in the winter.
Parents calling their children in
When the street lights go off.
Colorful houses, colorful cars driving by.
Nosy neighbors peering out the window
To see your every move.
Radios up as high as they can go.
Children riding their bikes up and down the block.
This is my neighborhood.
Samira Morton
Sussex Avenue
Hecker Street: The street where the only time you can sleep is in the morning. My neighborhood is very noisy. When you walk past my block your head will snap to your left or right because it’s so noisy, and the noise will catch your attention. Only Puerto Ricans live on the block. The houses are new, and they look beautiful. Every time you drive through my block all you will see is cars. The people that live in the beginning of my block always double-park. There is one thing that makes me feel like a criminal: The lady across the street from my house is nosy. Every time we step out of my house, she’s looking out the window at us. We can’t leave, play jump rope or sit down on the stairs in peace. At midnight when I come home I look up at her window, and I always see her just looking down at me. Other than that I love my neighborhood.
Shontay Warren
Sussex Avenue
I have lived in my neighborhood, Irvine Turner Boulevard/Avon, for five years. It is decent, and we have fun. I made many friends there who have been there with me and will always be there. My neighborhood is quiet, but down the street and in the next neighborhood, Ridgewood, it is very disturbing. The children are out of control. In my neighborhood I feel good because there isn’t too much violence. My neighbors are very respectful and nice. On Irvine Turner you can turn to many nice faces who will always be there. We have lots of fun.
Jerrisa Foster
Central High School
Excerpted from Tell Your Story! : A Young Writers’ Workshop by Newark students from grades 5-9 in Project GRAD Newark (PGN), a joint venture of PGN and the Friends of the Newark Public Library.
