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My name is Darnell Caldwell. I’m 16 years old.
My name is Abraham Richardson. I am 16 years old.
Name is Andrew A Burgher. I am 15 years old.
We interviewed Ramon Riley, Ramon Riley on July 31st, 2015.
I am from Braddock, born and raised. I had a great childhood. I remember going outside and being able to play and not being worried about being too late at night or, you know, being safe or anything like that. So that was the best part of growing up in. Braddock was getting to run around and act the fool.
I grew up in a single mother household, grew up in the projects. So as a young person, a lot of the influences that were surrounding me weren’t necessarily positive influences, but I think also the underlying challenge of growing up in a culture where there’s a fear of success. It was a challenge that I face. If you were the smart one who actually studied and did your homework, you were the one who was going to get jumped and beat up. And so you had to almost act dumb and I refused to do that. I refused to do that. And it was a huge challenge for me. I got jumped several times.
Art was my salvation. I knew I was good at art. I had a natural talent for art. And the only way that I could do art was to get all the other homework and all that stuff done. And then I was allowed to go and spend extra time in The Art Room.
As I got older and started to learn more, I was inspired by Picasso and Matisse and Romare Bearden was the artist that made probably the biggest difference in my life. Romare Bearden was African American artist who actually spent time in the Pittsburgh area, and so he has artworks that show the steel mill and show some of the things that I was familiar with and I grew up around.
I went to college at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and then I got my Masters 17 years after that at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Education changed My life. Education to me, and part of the reason that I’m a teacher now, is I believe it’s the equalizer. We don’t all come from families of privilege or wealth, but we can all learn. I remember being a freshman in high school. And it was around that time that I thought, you know, I think I could be successful. I went to CMU pre college art classes. And the reason that was a unique experience is that I was around other students who also loved art, who were from all different school districts. And that was the first time I was able to put my skills against students from Mount Lebanon and Bethel Park and all these school districts. It seemed like they were a world away, and that experience taught me that if I could be successful by my own standards that that would be good enough to take on the world, so to speak, and be successful in the world.
In my career now, well, there’s a lot of challenges. First of all, as an art teacher, I’m well aware of what a lot of people think of art. I’ve also gotten a lot of feedback that art is not important. How I have overcome that is I have lived by the example that I think has inspired a lot of young people. Young people can sense happiness, and I think the students I’ve taught are well aware that I love my life. At the end of the day, it’s about the joy and happiness that you have in your life. I think one of the other challenges is I teach in a majority white school district. I have been the only black teacher in the whole district for most of my career, and so again, talking about that feeling of being alone, to look out at these teachers on in-service day and to feel like I’m alone, mostly because I look different from them. Most of my mentors were teachers, and aside from having you know my mother and my sister, teachers helped save my life. I mean, I can sound confident now, but the reality is there was a lot of times I wasn’t very confident and I doubted what I was doing and I had those great mentors to remind me and to pump me up to stay motivated.
Advice for African American boys…Well, there’s a lot in that question that you asked. I think in our culture, in our United States, American culture, we have narrowed what it means to be a male, what it means to be a boy, you know? And- and if you are somehow not out on the football field or something like that, that you’re not tough and therefore not a boy. Don’t limit yourself to just your own culture. Sample everything and expand what your culture is, because that’s what other cultures are doing to us. They’re taking our culture and expanding what their culture means.
I had the pleasure of meeting Doctor Maya Angelou. And so I walked up to her and just said. “Doctor Angelou, you don’t know me, but I’m a teacher and I just wanted to thank you for being an inspiration in my life.” She made me feel I was important and that I was special. Ever since then, I thought if this great woman of history could make me feel that way, it’s my responsibility to try to make all the people that I come in contact with feel special too. Everything matters. It matters. Everything matters.