CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) — While congressional leaders on Saturday visited Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — where a 2018 mass shooting left 14 students and three staff members dead — a family affected by the shooting was in Chicago.
Patricia Oliver's son, Joaquin, was 17 years old when he was murdered in the Parkland shooting. She said Joaquin’s death left Oliver and her husband Manuel “confused” and unsure what was going on in their lives. They knew, though, that they had to take action.
“Since that happened, we've been on the streets … doing different kinds of [activism],” Oliver said.
Now, Oliver and Manuel are traveling around the country on a 23-stop, national activism tour to cities that have been impacted by gun violence. The tour honors what would've been Joaquin’s 23rd birthday.
The tour included visits to Highland Park and Chicago, as well a one-night-only performance of “Guac” — a show titled after Joaquin’s nickname — at the Greenhouse Theater in Lincoln Park.
“That is the story of Joaquin and us, as a family, before anything happened,” Oliver said. “We were a regular, common family, and then this hit us. And that's the story: How was the Oliver family before the shooting and after the shooting?”
Oliver said gun violence “is hitting us every day,” and the show is meant to get folks thinking about what they can do to help prevent it.
“It’s a hard fight, but I think that if we keep going, we're gonna get it,” she said.
Related
Related
Listen to our new podcast Looped In: Chicago
Listen to WBBM Newsradio now on Audacy!
Sign up and follow WBBM Newsradio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram