Poets Proffer Self-Esteem to Troubled Youth

By SCOTT SONNER

Jan. 2, 2000 12 AM PT

ASSOCIATED PRESS

RENO, Nev. —

At their best, they spur a suicide note--the first cry for help from a troubled youth.

At their worst, the trio of poets leaves an auditorium full of at-risk children feeling good about themselves, proud of their newfound talents and shouting, “I am beautiful!”

The Watts Prophets--born from the ashes of Los Angeles’ Watts riots in 1965--spin their magic today through rhythm, poetry and rap at schools, youth organizations and detention centers across the country.

“Poetry is the tool we use. It’s easy to make kids understand there are no mistakes in poetry,” said Richard Dedeaux, a member of the Watts Prophets.

“You can make no sense, or fantasize, or go into deep-rooted feelings,” he said after a recent appearance in Reno.

“Some are funny; they turn it into jokes. Some talk about their daddy in prison or the abuse at home. It’s very, very valuable--to go inside kids’ hearts and unleash these pent-up feelings.”

Amde Hamilton, a priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and Otis O’Solomon make up the rest of the trio from California. Their promotional flyers say they tell stories from the ghetto with poetry and rhythm, “a uniquely African-American art form from which modern rap emerged.”

Although the themes are the same, the tone has mellowed since the trio first started writing about racism, poverty and violence in 1967 at the Watts Writers Workshop, a local arts mecca set up by Budd Shulberg, the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of “On the Waterfront.”

The sound of drums could be heard everywhere in Watts in those days, in the parks, on the streets, in the nightclubs. Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus and Don Cherry were among the jazz musicians who frequented the clubs along Central Avenue, Hamilton said.

The rhythms echo through the trio’s performances, in recent months at such varied places as Newark, N.J.; Lincoln, Neb.; Davenport, Iowa; and Santa Barbara.

Their next tour heads for Lawrence, Kan., Feb. 7-11; Memphis, Tenn., Feb. 14-20; Whittier, Calif., March 8; Ann Arbor, Mich., April 3-8; and New Orleans, April 10-15.

They came to Nevada at the invitation of the Sierra Arts Council as part of its Children and Violence Project. Their message was a perfect fit, council spokeswoman Loni Harris said.

“We’re trying to redirect at-risk students to focus any violent behavior toward the arts, poetry or writing or painting or performance,” Harris said.

“The idea is put it down on paper rather than going out and acting on it,” she said.

Students at Traner Middle School in Reno spent two days in poetry workshops, then appeared at a school-wide assembly to read their works, rap, break dance or just tell something about themselves.

“I see myself in so many of these kids,” O’Solomon said.

Even the boy in charge of adjusting the microphone did so with a clear sense of pride.

“There’s a whole different aura about the kids. They feel special,” Principal Debbie Feemster said.

Feemster expected the poets to talk about growing up in Watts.

“It was so much more,” she said. “They helped teach the kids to write and communicate and feel good about their own ideas. Kids who have trouble writing one sentence were writing pages about their lives.”

Traner is one of the most diverse schools in Reno, with children of every race and culture--a working-class neighborhood on the edge of downtown where parents often work two jobs or night shifts at the local hotels and casinos.

“We really are a rainbow,” said teacher Peggy Lear Bowen.

“They were able to take students who never have had the courage to express themselves in the written word before and give them another tool to express themselves, to show they are a human being.”

Dedeaux said it can be even more fundamental than that.

“For some kids, this is the first experience they’ve ever had with a feeling. They don’t know what it is. Nobody ever told them what they are feeling is a feeling,” he said.

Hamilton said one of the biggest problems facing at-risk youths is that their parents usually aren’t home. “In a place like Reno, often both parents work and sometimes all day and late at night. So there’s no one to talk to,” he said.

“Writing is an area of expression when there is no area of expression. When there’s no mama to talk to or papa to talk to, you can write it down. Save a thought or maybe trust another with it,” he said.

As individual workshops progress, children begin to work up enough courage to share their work in class, Hamilton said.

Sometimes “we have to hold some work back because it becomes too personal,” he said. “Kids will just burst out and start crying because they’ve never shared their feelings. They want to talk about what is on their mind.”

“When we visit a school, we about always end up with a suicide note--someone crying out that no one listens to.”

Hamilton said it usually is easier for a child to write down his feelings than talk to someone about them.

“The boys who shot at Columbine--one of them had written it down. They expressed themselves on paper beforehand. They couldn’t express it to any adult or other kids. But he wrote it down.”

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Words to Live By

Poems written by seventh- and eighth-grade students at Reno’s Traner Middle School who attended writing workshops with the Watts Prophets:

I am black

I am intelligent

I am tall

I am articulate

I live in a rich neighborhood

I used to live in the ghettos

I’m in foster care

I live in the Biggest Little City in the World

I love basketball