NYC Says Enough!

One day, my friends and I were meeting to coordinate our school's involvement with the walkout, and the idea to make merch developed organically. We had the logo and found places to buy the supplies, but no idea how to do anything. When I mentioned the project to my neighbor Louis, he immediately offered us his assistance and studio in the Entrance Gallery. After that, it was all pretty easy. We set up on a chilly Saturday in April, turned on some music, and banged out 70 sweatshirts in less than two hours. Earlier today, we got together and printed 30 more, and we plan to make another run of white ones printed with orange ink for NYCSE team. My friends and I have been selling them at our middle-school and it has been incredibly inspiring to see how much support NYC Says Enough receives there. The whole printing and selling process has been such a meaningful chance to talk to kids I don’t typically speak with about our shared beliefs surrounding gun law reform. Everyone is so ex...

On March 24,  protesters across the country mobilized to demand common sense gun reform, and support gun violence survivors. NYC Says Enough board members Grace Goldstein (me!) and Rebecca Fair-weather, and Stuyvesant Says Enough members Maya Angles, Eve Wening, and Debi Saha, were invited to attend the main #MarchForOurLives march on Washington, with Seventeen Magazine. Other NYC Says Enough members joined the DC and NYC marches.  The March For Our Lives on Washington was extraordinary. Teenage (and even child) speakers from various communities that experience gun violence held their massive audience in captive attention and wonder for hours. School shooting victims' speeches drew tears from many. When Emma Gonz ález spent the last few minutes of her speech in silence, waiting for the signal that it has been 6 minutes and 20 seconds since she walked on stage (the amount of time it took for 17 students and teachers to lose their lives at her school in Parkland,  Florida...

The March 14th walkout was a stunning success, a moment larger and more powerful than any student organizers could have imagined. Students from schools around the city (and country) joined the movement to #endgunviolence by walking out of their respective schools, and participating in a moment of silence for the 17 victims of the Parkland school shooting.