There are two sides to the Calliope Project. The two sides are Back-a-town and Front-a-town. I am from Back-a-town. There are many different courts and in each court is different.

My court, Rocheblave, was very chilled out. There are fights every now and then, but not that much. In the Rocheblave driveway, that’s where a lot of people get killed, usually over money or drugs.

One of the most dangerous courts in the project is the Thalia Court. Even though I was in that court a lot, my mom didn’t like me over there. In Thalia Court, anything is likely to happen at any given time.  From murders to kidnappings, to people getting stabbed up, it’s all the same when it boils down.  Drug dealing was the major cause of deaths in the projects, cause when one person is making more money than the next person, that person would want to kill the money-maker to take their spot.

On the other side of the project is Front-a-town. It was the same as Back-a-town. It had got so bad at one point of time that Front-a-town and Back-a-town started beefing with each other. At night time, some people from my side would go on that side and start shooting anybody they was beefing with.  While the little children are seeing this. The lil kids used to come over to our side to fight even though we used to win.  A couple of days later we used to be right back playing with each other.

Mom: Where are you going?
Me: In Thalia.
Mom: No you are not! Are you crazy?
Me: But Mom.
Mom: But Mom nothing. You are not going over there and that is that.

Me: I’m not going to be long and I am going to be careful.
Mom: I said no and that is that.

Even though she would tell me not to go, I would just wait until she falls to sleep and go over there. One day, they started shooting so my mom woke up and looked out the door to see if I was out there and when she didn’t see me out there she walked to Thalia looking for me. When she saw me she grabbed me by my ears and told me to get inside and punished me for a week.