Lives the Life of Service, Speaks the Truth

“I’ve done a lot of web work; I mean a lot of web work. Creating web sites for prestigious companies and I do graffiti art too.” He had such an excited and genuine look in his eyes that made me feel comfortable and excited for him. About four youth participants in a tiny room only about the size of a walk-in closet, we interviewed Wilbert “Will” Weeks for a position teaching graphic arts in our afterschool program. We were impressed and immediately knew he was perfect for the position.
Since that time I watched him become a staple in our quite large community of Harlem Children’s Zone Employment and Technology Center. Will is a twenty seven year old former graffiti artist who would, by his admission, “tag up New York City.” He loved finding new and different places to tag up. “Sometimes,” he says, “I would even be surprised at the places I would tag up.” Graffiti art was an outlet for him since he says that being the middle child and the example for his younger brother since his older brother went to the military, left him feeling starved for attention. “I was a knucklehead for a long time. I wanted to be a gangster. I made bad decisions that hurt my family. I ultimately made a bad decision that caused me to move away and drop out of high school.” Will went to Job Corps where teens have an opportunity to earn their high school equivalency and work at the same time.
After completing the Job Corps program, Will met a mentor who he says helped him “fall in love with servicing his community.” He saw teenagers who were going through the same things that he did and used to tell them, “your life is a mirror of mine,” which made him want to help even more. After discovering his love of the arts and community service, he fell back in love with school and began college.
“I just wanted to be somebody. I had to be somebody of substance. I always thought, what will my tombstone read... Lived the life of a gangster die the gangster? No, I wanted it to read… Lived the life of service, spoke the truth.”
Will left a full sociology scholarship in Mary Mount of Manhattan College to pursue what he was really passionate about which was arts. After realizing that the school was “over his head,” Will transferred to The School for the Visual Arts. He loved it there and took classes that he enjoyed, except for the required classes he says “were boring. I never understood why I had to take practical art. Eventually I saw the importance of it. But if nothing else, it made for a good conversation starter and impressing ladies.” He chuckles and puts his hand over his face briefly.
A this time Will waves over a student, “come here and sit down you should really listen to this.” After a little bit of fooling around and joking the student sits down and leans in listening to Wills interview. “I love kids man, you are the weirdest people but the most honest.” He says after he jokes with a group of girls sitting in the table next to ours.
Pursuing what he loves which consists of giving back to his community by working with teenagers who are just like him as a teenager and teaching a subject he loves, is his passion and dream. He says for anyone interested in a career in the arts, “its fun some days, hard most days. If you are interested in solving problems this is the path for you. Carry a sketch book where ever you go, anything is inspiration.”
He adds that if you are in the career for the money it will not happen for you. “if you don’t love your art, you’ll get raped by it,” he says. And he urges everyone to ask themselves what his mentor Alfonso Wyatt asked him repeatedly those years back, “Will you make it or will you not make it?” That choice is yours, will you?