By Jena Olson
Speak City Heights partner The AjA Project is helping students at Crawford High School add their voices to the conversation about community health in City Heights. Using photography and narrative, they’re examining health issues — physical, mental and social — at their school and speaking to the issues that most directly affect their daily lives.
One student, Karla, chose to create a photo essay on the topic of graffiti; in her words, “Graffiti is something bad and hurtful for students and also damages and defiant for property. It’s important to me because it is a distraction in school and it can result into school fights.”
As a potential solution to the problem of graffiti at Crawford, she offered this suggestion: “Make a club for students to show their art and express their feelings in a responsible way, instead of writing on school property.”
Warning: Some of the photos below depict language that may be upsetting to some readers.
“This photograph shows an example were the graffiti happens more. It shows that graffiti can come with anyone and anyone regardless of their physical state or appearance.” – Karla
“This photograph shows a lot of writing in a wood desk. It shows that people spend their time just writing instead of paying attension in school.” – Karla
“This photograph shows writing in a wall. It has rude comments, inappropriate words. It shows that people don’t care how the walls look. The writing makes the wall look really ugly.” – Karla
“This photographs show graffity in a pole. This is a gang graffiti that was written in a chair.” – Karla