DOWNTOWN : Life Stimulates Artful Monologues

Obioma Iwuoma always felt out of place.

Born in Nigeria, Iwuoma never felt he fit into the “all-American lifestyle” his childhood schoolmates in Baldwin Hills and Venice seemed to enjoy. He felt uncomfortable at home with his parents’ strict rules.

So Iwuoma sought identity and a sense of inclusion by hanging out with taggers and nonstop partyers. That led to estrangement from his parents and a one-year period of homelessness, during which he wandered the streets and slept wherever a friend could spare a couch.

Now 20-year-old Iwuoma is writing a monologue to express his personal frustration over identity.

Iwuoma and nine other young adults will present their monologues at the Los Angeles Theater Center at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

The show is part of the Human Services program, a project begun soon after the 1992 riots in an effort to get young people involved in rebuilding the community. The program is funded by the Commission on National and Community Service implemented by the Bush Administration.

The Los Angeles Conservation Corps was instrumental in starting the program and expanding it beyond the original premise of cleanup. “Young people should help with more than cleaning . . . they should get involved with the root causes of the problems,” said Carmelo Alvarez, Human Services program director.

Twenty 18- to 23-year-olds from the inner city were recruited through community centers, homeless shelters and free clinics for the yearlong program. Because of the full-time commitment to the program, participants are paid minimum wage and are eligible for college scholarships after completion.

The first group of 20 graduated from the program last year and in November a new group was assembled. Calling itself the Human Services Tribe, the group has visited AIDS hospices, homeless shelters and gang hangouts to talk to youths and determine how to help the community.

The tribe has taken such steps as hosting a Casino Night at an AIDS hospice and assisting individuals on a more personal basis by writing letters for terminally ill patients and counseling would-be gang members.

The group also helped entertain nervous youngsters at one of the emergency shelters set up after the Northridge earthquake.

The upcoming show, “Resistance 502,” provides members of the multicultural group a way to express their inner emotions about identity while educating young people about the history of racial conflicts in the United States.

Group members researched events of racial conflict from 1492, when Columbus arrived in North America, to the present; 502 reflects the number of years that have passed in that time.

Each member chose a historic event and a personality from that period to express their own personal turmoil.

Iwuoma chose to express himself through the character of a youth lashing out at police during the 1965 Watts riots.

“When are you going to realize we’re people, man?” Iwuoma said during a rehearsal of his monologue. “We’re proud black people . . . you can’t beat it out of us.”

Iwuoma said he still struggles with the concepts he voices in his monologue, but that the Human Services program has helped him become more self-assured. He has even reconciled with his parents, with whom he now lives.

“It doesn’t matter who you’re following, as long as you follow yourself,” said Iwuoma, who hopes to use the lessons he has learned in the program to eventually open his own homeless shelter.

“This made me realize I can relate to my parents, as long as I see myself.”