Voice of the Youth
“We have lost young people because the church has not seen their potential. The gangs have seen their potential, though. The pimps have seen their potential.” -Phil Jackson
The starkest need and also greatest potential we have seen in the West Grove is in the young adults. It seems like most people see them as a hopeless detriment to the community. But as I walk the streets I don’t see drugs, but deferred dreams. I don’t hear cussing, but voices that need to speak. I don’t see sagging jeans, but a search for indentity. We started to see what could be, but had to wait, wanting our sight to be matched with that of others in our community. So we waited and prayed, envisioned and waited and prayed some more. Meanwhile, we kept walking the streets. Meanwhile Jesus was already on the streets, planting His vision. Finally, those pieces have started coming together. Our Community Voice group wanted to do something to give the young adults a way to express themselves in positive creative ways. We came up with Youth with a Voice open mic and artistic expression night…
At a few minutes to seven a group of about fifteen teenagers arrived, some eager to jump up on the mic; others holding back shyly. Little Walt kicked it off with a rap he wrote, while others trickled in and grabbed the pads of paper and pens to draw with. The sounds of markers rubbing on paper were heard as more gathered outside the shop to add their mark on the “graffiti” wall we created. The normally calm shop came to life with beats, colors, words, drawing out the beauty in these youth and creating a vision of what could be. Some freestyle rapping started to flow. The youth were challenged to be unique in what they were saying; to tell their stories rather than falling back on the cussing and crass words everyone uses. One of thefreestylers sat down to write.These are the words he left:
Will the Wind Blow
Will the wind blow in my cold chilled world
or will I sit in a sunny breeze and just wait,
wait 4 my chance to blum like a summer time flower,
how can I express my feelings of courage and endless struggles.
I wonder will I sit or will the wind blow.
Posted on December 6th, 2007 by Laurie
Filed under: News
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