Page 8
February 14, 2018
Inspired to Keep Others Out of Gangs
C ontinued froM f ront
it’s my mom’s picture that’s over
my shoulder, so it just made me
think, ‘she’s watching over me,”
Taylor said. “I promised her I
wouldn’t stop.”
Taylor said the movie, which
she collaborated with a former ri-
val gang member to create, is also
set to premiere at the Los Angeles
Film Festival later this year.
“I promise you I am so excited
about this. Lord, I can’t believe
this,” she said.
New sections of her book were
also added to include modules
on cyber-bullying, domestic vio-
lence, and mental health—using
stories others have shared to make
the curriculum well rounded.
Taylor is also one of the found-
ers of Neighbors Against Vio-
lence, a community organization
founded by other female former
gang members.
She said she witnessed first-
hand the beginning of Portland’s
history with gangs brought in from
California in the 1980s. The film
goes back even before that when
many of her friends were affiliated
with a gang called “15th Hood” in
northeast Portland which became
the “Woodlawn Bloods” when the
larger gangs arrived, she said.
Taylor was a witness to the
first confirmed Bloods gang slay-
ing which happened right outside
her house as she celebrated her
“Sweet 16” party in October 1987.
“I wasn’t in the gang at that
time,” Taylor said. “I was friends
with the Crips and I was friends
with the Bloods. But you can’t
control your whole environment
that you’re in.”
Distressed by the killing and
suffering from the shock of a
seeing a church pastor drop dead
from natural causes in the middle
in 1999 she began to rethink her
lifestyle.
“It just all came like domino
effect.”
Knowing she didn’t want her
son involved in gangs, she de-
cided to write a book to serve as
a cautionary tale for the next gen-
eration, preceding her son’s birth
in 2000.
Taylor recalled a time at the
height of her gang involvement
when her auntie plucked her
from a street corner where she
was dealing weed and took her
to church, returning only to find
a yellow-taped crime scene and
somebody dead lying right where
she had stood. She chalked up the
close call to divine intervention.
She also credits her grand-
mother, mother and auntie for be-
ing positive influences on her.
In 2015, gang-related violence
in Portland reached a peak with
182 gang-related shootings, stab-
bings or assaults, the highest num-
ber since the bureau began track-
ing the data in 1998. More than a
third of the 34 killings that year
were believed to be gang-related.
There were 81 gang-related shoot-
I wasn’t in the gang at
that time. I was friends
with the Crips and I was
friends with the Bloods.
But you can’t control your
whole environment that
you’re in.
—Nicole Taylor, author of ‘Ask Nicky’
of a sermon the next day, Taylor,
unfortunately, found comfort from
the dozen or so Blood members
on her neighborhood corner. They
enveloped her into their bosom.
That same day she threw on a red
Pendleton and started down the
path of gang banging for the next
decade.
“I used to wake up be like
‘damn, who am I going to shoot
today?’ You know, for real. That
was our thing.” Taylor said. “It’s
crazy ‘cause now-a-days we got
Crips killing Crips and Bloods
killing Bloods.”
She stopped her gang activity
briefly in the 90s when she started
popping pills to cope.
“I think that has something to
do with like depression--seeing
too many bodies, going to too
many funerals, and being shot,”
Taylor said. “Your bones never,
they never come back to nor-
mal. I be achin’ in this cold,” she
lamented.
When Taylor became pregnant
ings in 2017 and in January five
homicides suspected to have had
gang involvement occurred.
Taylor now dedicates her life
to keeping the next generation out
of the gang life. Her book, Ask
Nicky, which comes in a teacher
and student edition, has a built in
curriculum of exercises and ac-
tivities designed to help young
people make decisions that won’t
negatively impact their futures.
She has gone on tour with the
book and plans another west coast
tour with both the book and movie
this spring. Eventually she’ll also
release “The Nicole Taylor Story,
Part Two,” currently in post-pro-
duction. Both the book and movie
are available on Amazon.
Taylor also plans to expand the
reach of her Neighbors Against
Violence organization this sum-
mer by educating more youth
about gangs and providing them
with activities like t-shirt printing
in a program called “Lots of Love
Factory.”