Ray, an OES student at Odyssey House, wrote an account of street dancing and gangs in Brooklyn. The story ended with the death of his friend during a concert at the Atlantic Avenue Armory. “The Fast Life” was published in Streams 2.
Little David came walking up the Ave. with the Gates Ave. Posse. Little David was the youngest of the posse; for he was only fourteen. We let him hang with us, because he had a lot of heart for a young guy. Most all, he could dance his ass off.
David and I were the dancers of the group. But he and I didn’t get along too well, for the simple fact that we used to battle in dancing 24-7.
So David and the Gates Ave. Posse came up to us. We started really bugging. We started hooting and screaming, “Go Brooklyn! Go Brooklyn!”
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Later on that night, at the Armory, there was a lot of fighting going on. It was a fight for the borough of Brooklyn. It seemed like the whole borough teamed up to fight Bed/Stuy.
But they still had no wind. We were on our turf. We had a big rumble. I got caught out there with brass knuckles over my right eye. That’s why I got a scar there.
Cops came, and the crowd dispersed. A small amount of my posse made it into the Armory. So did the other posses.
Time passed by. We started enjoying ourselves. The last time I saw David, he was getting into some beef with some dude ‘cause David was freaking the dude’s girl.
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The next thing you knew, the ambulance had arrived. They went into the Armory. They came back out with David on the stretcher. Blood was gushing out of his head. They tried to stop it, but nothing worked. All of a sudden, he started having convulsions. Blood started running out of his mouth, nose and head. Then he just looked up at the sky and died.
It messed me up bad. People were screaming. The Bed/Stuy Posse started beating up everybody they saw.
I didn’t take part in it. All I thought about was a grade-A kid, who started hanging out with the wrong crowd. The streets took over. And now he is dead. I started to question myself. Will my life end like that, too?
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