A light rain fell as students, parents, and neighbors assembled near Norman Mayer Library in Gentilly to celebrate the life of Damiri Eves, the 14-year-old Abramson Sci Academy student who died in a traffic crash on September 4 at the intersection of Gentilly Boulevard and Norman Mayer Avenue.
To his friend Jayla Pollard, the rain seemed like a message about Damiri.
“He made it rain at 5 o’clock on the dot,” Pollard said. “He made it happen to let us know that he was here with us and that he didn’t go anywhere.”
Pollard described Damiri as a close friend or a sibling.
She was “a friend — a sister,” she said, when asked about her relationship with him.
By about 5:14 p.m., about 250 students, parents, and teachers began gathering to honor Damiri. Young people carried balloons, while neighbors handed out commemorative handkerchiefs with his photograph printed on them.
Glenn McKinney, a neighbor of the Eves family, handed out the keepsakes while wearing a black headband and dark glasses.
Two minibikes were also at the gathering. One young rider revved the engine and performed a small burnout, spinning the rear wheel while keeping the front brake on, creating puffs of smoke from rubber of rear tires.
Before the second line began, Damiri’s father, Harry R. Eves III, encouraged the young people who showed up to check on one another, to keep supporting his family, and to listen to their parents.
“We don’t know everything,” he told the crowd. “All we do is try, and that’s all we do. We try our best. There’s no book on it.”
Eves reminded some participants holding shiny Mylar balloons not to release them, because of a new state law banning the release of metallic and Mylar balloons. After he counted to three, a flock of latex balloons rose into the air, most reflecting Abe’s colors.
A second-line band struck its first notes and the group began second-lining along Norman Mayer Avenue.
‘No negativity, all positivity’
As he walked with the procession, Damiri’s father said the community’s support had helped him feel better than he had in the days immediately following his son’s death.
“We’ve got a lot of love out here, a lot of support,” Eves said. “No negativity, all positivity.”
Seeing how many people came out for Damiri also brought Eves some comfort.
“It’s good to see all the love that my baby had,” he said. “It makes me feel better.”
Eves said that planning the balloon-release and procession had been difficult. Much of the time after his son’s death seemed like “a big brain fog,” he said. “My son kept telling me I have a job to do, so I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.” For him, he said, that job includes seeking justice for Damiri and calling for the arrest of the driver who hit his son, who was riding a motorized mini-bike at around 12 noon on the day he was struck and killed.
The sound of a horn on the corner
To those who live near the Eves family, the block is missing a familiar sound.
“I’m going to miss that boy playing that horn on that corner,” said neighbor Allyson McKinney. “You couldn’t ask for a better kid.”
She remembered his early days of playing his baritone, when he repeatedly played the ESPN theme, to the point where she ask him, in jest, if he could play anything else.
Over time, he improved. He practiced alongside his brother. When he started playing music by Maze, the soul and funk band led by local favorite Frankie Beverly, McKinney put him on another level. “We knew he was official,” she said.
McKinney said that when she and her family moved to this part of the Gentilly neighborhood, the Eves family embraced and aided them.
In return, they embraced the Eves and came to consider Damiri one of her own.
“That’s like our son,” said McKinney, who took Damiri to buy parts for his motorbike not long before the accident. He simply loved riding it, she said.
An across-the-street neighbor, who preferred to be identified only using his nickname, T-Bo, said he had known the family since Damiri was a toddler. His children grew up with Damiri and they became close friends.
He admired his little neighbor’s generosity of spirit, he said. “Big heart, big heart.”
For those on the block, the mood had fallen the moment Damiri died and has stayed low. He summarized: “Gloomy. So sad. At a loss for words.”
Students and teachers grieving
Abramson students came to the celebration to pay homage to their well-loved classmate, a young man who barely weighed 100 pounds and was nicknamed Termite.
“We really got to celebrate him,” said Brevin Malveaux, a senior at Abramson. “We had to show him that we are still here for him, even though he’s gone.”
Joel Bryant, who taught Damiri in Algebra I, drove past the crash site on that tragic Friday after leaving a nearby AutoZone store but did not hear until he got home that a 14-year-old had been involved. He said a prayer, then discovered the student was Damiri. “Immediately, I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’” he said.
The atmosphere at Abramson has been solemn, he with students trying to stay focused on academics while processing their grief at the latest death of a classmate. “For me as a teacher, especially being from New Orleans, it’s a bit too normal to have such deaths at such a young age,” Bryant said.
Soon after Damiri’s death, the school had sent notices informed students, parents, and teachers. In coming days, social workers and trauma-response teams gathered in the cafeteria and talked with students, to help them process the tragedy. Within classrooms, teachers led individual conversations and discussions with students.
“It’s a hard thing to just move on past,” said Bryant. He and other teachers were stunned, both because they were fond of Damiri and because he was so young.
No specific school tribute had been finalized yet, Bryant said. But because Damiri was a band member and was known by students in several grades, most of the school has been enveloped in sadness. They will likely be looking for ways to commemorate his life as a group.
“We definitely are holding space for the students to grieve,” Bryant said.
Damiri Eve’s funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m., with visitation at 8 a.m., on September 28 at Rhodes Funeral Home, 3933 Washington Avenue, New Orleans, LA 7012
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