One local high school student is taking matters into his own hands to stop violence in his community.
Antwan Hinton, a local senior in the West End neighborhood, is holding a special event this Saturday at 4 p.m. to bring the local community together at Wade Park.
The event will feature free games, free food, free haircuts, guest speakers, local DJs and line dancing, face painting, free back-to-school essentials, raffles for FC Cincinnati tickets, a three-on-three basketball tournament and more.
“I grew up around a lot of violence. I lost my brother to violence, my cousin, my coach, my friends,” Hinton said. “I watched people get shot. I’m trying to show people that there’s a different path.”
Hinton and his family put on the event for the first time last year, which was picked up on by local community organizations.
Elissa Yancey, president of A Picture’s Worth, learned of the event while putting together their Widening the Lens project and drew even further attention to the event. Now, in its second year, the event is sponsored by A Picture’s Worth, United Way, Interact for Health and the Sanders Development Group.
“A lot of young people around 12 and 13 want to be fake gangbangers and hold guns and all that,” Hinton said. “But I’m trying to show you that you don’t gotta take that. You don’t gotta be a follower. Be a leader.”
For Hinton, he recognizes that the event is not something he should be responsible for at such a young age, but he hopes it can create a positive change in his local area.
“You know, I see all this stuff,” Hinton said. “I don’t want to think about this stuff, have it be on my mind. And that’s what this (event) does. Everybody can come get together, have a good time, have a good vibe. I can enjoy myself, talk to people, play games, play basketball. You never know who you’ll meet here and connect with.”
After graduating high school, Hinton plans to attend University of Cincinnati to play basketball and study education, but he also has dreams of being a firefighter. In addition, though, he plans to keep this event going every year and continue to champion non-violence for local youth.
“I can talk and tell them this and that, but they gotta have the mindset to change it themselves. I’m just trying to get them connected with their community so that they know there’s a different path,” Hinton said. “I always tell everybody just be yourself. You don’t gotta be doing drills and stuff to be cool. Whatever you want to do in life, you can do it, as long as you be yourself. Don’t ever let anybody tell you that you can’t do something, because you always can.”
