166su

The stories were filmed with the help of 166su Valley Television and the coordination of the city’s Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Team. At the beginning and end of each clip, residents recited The Royalty Affirmation.

The affirmation became 166su’s official affirmation when the city council adopted a resolution in July. The declaration, designed for recitation, was crafted by Fletcher Nichols, who taught and directed fine arts programs at Patrick Henry High School for about 35 years.

“It’s about our humanity. It’s about honoring life. It’s about caring for our brothers and sisters,” Nichols said Sunday evening. “It’s not about people coming together to do one more photo op, one more press conference, one more opportunity to say, ‘I have the answer.’ It’s really about love.”

Sunday’s presentation of residents’ stories and affirmation recitations was held inside . The event also featured a group discussion, led by the prevention team and focused on examining different community perspectives.

The affirmation video series has been in the works for the past couple of years. Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Coordinator Chris Roberts said the videos will be shared social media platforms and will appear in targeted advertisements.

“Your words can go farther than you physically can go, and they can stick around a bit longer than what you thought,” Roberts said Sunday.

“We want to show you different examples of how this affirmation is being used, and how people’s stories are being able to be told through the affirmation,” Nichols said.

Five residents whose affirmation stories were shared Sunday evening. The first was Douglas Pitzer, founder of tutoring service , who shared that he once was a young person with too much free time on his hands and became involved in gang culture.

“The results of me hanging with that group ... No, I wasn’t in jail. No, thankfully, I wasn’t found dead,” Pitzer said. “But however, I was found in the middle of the street, random time of night, bloody, beaten up. You literally could not recognize my face because of what those individuals did.”

Pitzer said he doesn’t want young people to learn from negative situations the way he did.

“If anyone out there ever wants to know more or needs someone to talk to because they feel alone, reach out to me, because we are royalty,” he said.

Antonio Stovall, 166su native and former Youth and Gang Violence Prevention Team outreach worker, shared in his video that his mother was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, and he had to pick up the pieces.

“I had to build up the courage and the willpower to go and do the work. The work was to bring more harmony and healing into the home of my mother,” Stovall said. “I had to clean up the blood. I had to get her belongings and give them away.”

After that, Stovall said he wanted to help others heal.

“I felt like if I can go through this traumatic experience, I can also teach others how to go through traumatic experiences, and not only go through it, but also transcend it,” he said. “I see death as an opportunity for us to celebrate, to celebrate not only life, but the continuation of life, just in a different way.”

Brandy Campbell’s 17-year-old brother Nickalas Lee was murdered in June 2017. She shared in her video that Lee’s death has impacted her family, particularly her son, who is now a teenager.

“His memory fades as time has gone on. Seven years have passed,” Campbell said. “My memory hasn’t faded, but his has, and that’s just the way it goes and it makes me sad. But also, he’s my reason to live and my reason to keep going. Grief is very difficult as the big sister, because I miss my brother so.”

She encouraged members of the community to listen to each other.

“Don’t just listen to respond,” Campbell said. “ Listen to hear them and help them. I think we need to love our neighbors more and more. My brother was murdered six miles from home. You can get anywhere in 166su in 15 minutes. There’s no excuse to say, ‘This happens over there,’ or ‘It happens over there.’ It happens here, in our community, six miles from home.”

, said in her video that people who inflict harm on others feel pain, too.

“We need to forgive each other,” Harper Gunn said. “We need to forgive ourselves so that when we come into contact with other people, we’re not speaking out of a voice of hurt ourselves. We’re speaking out of a voice of, ‘I’m loving myself so I can love you.’ And I hope that for our children.”

Harper Gunn said her daughter’s middle name is “Royal.”

“I want her to know that every time she sees her name, that’s the mirror image that she gets back,” the mother said. “The affirmation in itself speaks to what we want every single person to feel about themselves,and then we can feel that way about each other. If you treat yourself as if you’re royalty, then you’re going to treat other people the same.”

Connie Steele, , shared in her video that she has witnessed grief firsthand in the community.

“I’m the one who must meet with grieving families, a grieving mother or a grief-stricken father, who has to select a casket for their son,” Steele said. “I stand firm with other funeral directors across the country, who some years ago launched a campaign with the slogan, ‘We don’t want to bury our young boys.’”

She, a mother herself, said the community wants young men to grow up and become productive citizens.

“I challenge you to give of your time, your finances, your expertise, as it will take all of us collectively to show our youth that gun violence is not the way,” Steele said.

Fletcher said about 20 stories, including the five shared Sunday, have been recorded to date, but he hopes more people will come forward.

“We need you all to be ambassadors to move forward,” Nichols said.