a few days back, i went to perform (and sort of loosely volunteer) for a group of homeless kids/adults...by kids i mean late teens (thinking 18/19 and older).....i was tagged on a post by my girl Naz to come make this night special to them....it turned out to be a beautiful night......at first it was looking kind of slim.....
there was one guy that was sort of in and out, but there was one that was just chlling....he was there....sitting in the seat my himself.....for some reason, i was magically drawn to this guy ....i never said anything to him, and he actually got on the mic and did a poem, but there was just something about him.....maybe it was the backpack that i figured held everything that belonged to him, maybe his crooked teeth that outlined how nothing had be straight for him since his permanents came in, or maybe.....
i dont know.....
maybe it was just the fact that he was homeless....i try not to feel "sorry" for ppl....i know most ppl dont like that it anyway.....but its hard to be and have been so blessed in life, and see others who are less fortunate and not feel anything.....at least for me.....
the program was held at this double-turned-outreach shelter, and we used the porch as the stage and the front yard to put the chairs in.....we also donated journals, notebooks, pens, markers .....something to write with and on.....there was a table in front of their chairs and couches where they could go "shopping" and get their free items......they attacked that table....by 8pm, the crowd had come in.....we had fed them a monster meal of pizza, breadsticks, fettucini, lasagna, homemade rolls, dessert, pop.....it was beautiful.....some of us served and of course poet favorite StacE Love was in the bldg helping bring smiles and serve food....
i watched a couple of them write with their new notebooks and i couldnt help but wonder what kind of life was being put on those pages......and what form of art would be used to bring life to those pages....it was something to see....one by one, we performed poems, talked about photography, showed off pictures.....there were several artists there, including Tony Styxx who gave them a brief beatbox to show them that art comes in many forms....i mixed together a poem about men and one about women to give them something to feel good about.....steff gave them a thank you poem to relieve them of their shyness.....Naz showed out, then Naz and Eric showed out together......
and then there was them......quite a few of the kids graced the mic with their artistic testimonies.....poems, songs, words and raps brought the audience to its feet at times and every time Naz brought someone to the mic, we made a "rap" thing to go with it.....i cant remember what we were saying, but i think we helped kill the nerves that may have been creeping in any ones window as they approached the porch stage....Lol....
they were awesome.....u could see the defeat in some of their eyes....listening to the poems they spit and the songs they chose to sing, you could tell there was a part of them that we helped to awaken....there were broken, survival of the fittest spirits on that lawn and you could feel it....you could see it....but that night....they werent broken....they were chilling.....even when some of them looked bored, u could tell they felt safe....they didnt want to leave and they didnt want that night to end.....i think a few of them wanted to lease that moment for a year so they could live in it.....
i dont know exactly what we did that night.....but we did something.....we "moved something".....someone(s)...it was SO NOT about us.....not about being the tightest writer or best artist....having the dopest feature with the tightest name, it wasnt about egos or eggos or nothing....it was about them....which is what it should always be about i guess, but when you write for personal, its hard not to be personal sometimes....but i digress....
there is something about the poet that mainstream isnt hip to, so they hop from us....LOL
we are a different breed....not necessarily rare, but i think artists who truly do care, who are about "the ppl and the community" arent too hard to find at these types of events....this is where you get that inner joy and that glow from when you are an artist.....to watch your work and the work of your peers, bring forth joy in others, even if only for briefly, is priceless....there's just not a check big enough for the rewards of these kinds of shows.....i dont do free shows on a regular.....i dont want to...shouldnt have to....and wont. Plain and simple.....but will i still do free yes?
Yes
at my discretion.....ask, i might do it.....i might not....if not, i'll probably at least show up if i'm free.....but depending on what it is, i might just do it.....this show was open for anyone walking down the street to stop......this was an open life changing session.....maybe they left the lawn and went back to smoking weed.....maybe they lost their notebooks or their pens ran out of ink.....maybe they slept under a bridge that night.....i really dont know....
but i wont forget them....and they'll never forget the night that a few artists got together in THEIR honor.....they probably slept a little bit warmer inside....
maybe they shed a tear over the lost notebook or found a new pen that works on the curb.....
maybe they wrote a bomb ass poem after the blunt was finished.....
but for sure, they had a moment.....
a moment where they learned, were reminded and shown that there are some ppl left in this world that care....
not because they are homeless, not because their teeth are crooked....they dont care because they want to make them their new project.....they care because its their natural human instinct to do so.....
we care cause its our natural human instinct to do so.
poetry saves.
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