ABOUT THIS PROJECT: Chalkbeat partnered with Capturing Belief, a Detroit nonprofit that teaches students to use photography and prose to share their lives and tell stories within their communities, to showcase two photo projects. Detroit students London Hill and Rahmyza Muhammad spent a year working with mentors from Capturing Belief to document their lives. Rahmyza will be a freshman at the College for Creative Studies, and London is heading into her senior year at Renaissance High School.
During Rahmyza Muhammad’s senior year at the Detroit School of Arts, she felt like she was “waiting for toast to pop out the toaster.” But even now, she sometimes still can’t believe she graduated and is headed to college.
There have been big changes for Rahmyza, 17, since last summer, both academically and in her everyday life. In July 2022, she, her sister, and her mother moved from a homeless shelter — where they had been living since the previous October — into their own house. That made it easier for her to do schoolwork. It meant more privacy for everyone, less stress for her mother, and no more communal showers. And it shortened the bus rides she had to take to and from school.
She also participated in the pre-college program at Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, which she’ll attend in the fall. And she also expanded her social circle during her senior year, when Rahmyza felt she was a more mature person than as a junior.
Rahmyza, who will attend the College for Creative Studies in the fall, said she’s “excited to meet new people. And I’m glad to stay in the area.”
But she plans to study abroad sophomore or junior year. Where will she go? She hasn’t decided yet.
A group of Rahmyza’s friends in an art class preparing for the senior show. She said they “were a group that has grown apart sometimes, but stayed pretty close to the end. If you’d seen us in school, you’d say, oh that’s the group of friends that always hang out together.” Rahmyza said Kim Hildebrandt-Hall, the teacher for this class, was an “awesome” teacher. A couple of her friends began skipping class and “fooling around” her senior year. Rahmyza’s reaction? “What are y’all doing? Y’all know you have to stay on track to graduate.”
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza’s photos of her nighttime journey home, including on the bus, left, for a project in her creative writing class. Her bus trips to and from the Detroit School of Arts could turn into odysseys, as are many commutes for Detroit students. At one point, she was taking six bus rides daily to get from the shelter where she and her family lived for most of her junior year to school, from school to her aunt’s house, and then from her aunt’s house back to the shelter. On some days, she would be on buses for two hours, but friends sometimes rode with her. The shelter lacked privacy, she said, and “the internet sucked. It was terrible. I even missed out on a lot of assignments and opportunities because of the bad internet.”
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
When Rahmyza’s school step team went out for a team member’s birthday party, they went to see daffodils on Belle Isle and looked at the water, left, because “it’s so peaceful and calming.” She said there was a lot of drama on the step team, “but in the end, we all figured it out.” Sometimes the school would ask it to perform on very short notice. “We had to have quick learners,” she said. At right, Rahmyza gets ready to skate at a local rink with her friend Kye Evans. It was her second time skating after three years of not being able to.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza’s friend and classmate Myliah Moody, left, poses in front of a fountain at Belle Isle, a park in Detroit. “I really love her as a person. She’s one of my favorite people ever,” Rahmyza said. “She makes sure she shows who she is. She recently shaved her eyebrows off and I was like, oh my goodness.” Rahmyza grew closer to her friend Aaron Lintez, right, during a camp that focused on business skills. Lintez, who’s working on an acting career, asked her to take his picture one day at a friend’s event, and she obliged; he loved the picture. Rahmyza hasn’t decided on a career just yet.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza’s sister Rahmani Mohammad, left, and Celest Laurry, Rahmyza’s mother, at the house they moved into in July 2022. Laurry made sure the move from the shelter to the house was a surprise. “When we pulled up to the house, we were like, what’s going on?” Rahymza recalled. “She said, you guys excited to see your house?” Since leaving the shelter, Rahmyza said her mother “seems a lot calmer.” And the internet’s better, so it was easier for Rahmyza to do homework. Laurry was heading to a party with Rahmyza’s aunt the day Rahmyza took this photo. “It seemed like she had a good time, because she didn’t get home until real late,” Rahmyza said.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Some scenes Rahymyza captured from prom night for the Detroit School of Arts. Her friend Kye Evans is in the far left and right images. Rahmyza also took a picture of herself in her prom dress. She had fun that night, and it reminded her that she had actually made a lot of friends her senior year. “I didn’t really dance because my dress was humongous,” Rahmyza recalled. “I didn’t want to trip, or trip somebody else.” But her friend group went outside the ballroom and danced and were among the last to leave.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza took a picture of the flowers, left, that her mother gave her for Valentine’s Day. The flowers lasted a surprisingly long time. “I was so happy they were still alive. I don’t know, it made me feel the love from the flowers,” she said. The photo was selected to be in a group exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Rahmyza’s cousin King Bethel poses for a portrait on the way to see a movie to celebrate his 17th birthday. “I’d say we’re pretty close, since we grew up together and hung out very often when we were younger,” she said.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza took a selfie on the last day of school. She and her friends hung out for about an hour after the school day ended, until the principal told them they had to leave. She was pretty “hyped” during this moment, but she can’t remember if she just went home after this, or if she hung out with her friend Kye.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza, left, after graduation rehearsal at the Detroit School of Arts. She still finds it hard to believe sometimes that she actually graduated. “It doesn’t feel real,” she said. “It still hasn’t hit me yet that I graduated.” The car in the middle image is decorated with the words “Just graduated.” Vivian Davis, right, is one of the people Rahmyza became close to senior year.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
Rahmyza with her friend Kye Evans in the background and her friend Kyra at right, after the “senior pinning” event. At this event, seniors get a pin denoting their status as members of the Class of 2023. Then, at the principal’s direction, “You make an oath to your parents that you’re going to do great things after you leave the school,” Rahmyza said.
|
Rahmyza Muhammad / Capturing Belief for Chalkbeat
