‘Heroes’ Lets At-Risk Kids Call the Tune

Jennette Zeestraten’s voice cracks as she reads into the microphone: “Years go by, by and by, they livin’ large and you ‘bout to cry.”

A prolific poet, Jennette, 15, had never before recorded her work.

“If you mess up, just keep going forward,” said her teacher, Shane Coleman. “Today, you’re a messenger.”

Jennette wrote “Education Is Power” early Monday, encouraging kids to stay in school, stay off drugs and make something of their lives.

On Tuesday, Jennette and Joseph Garcia, 13, recorded the poem. Desiree Guevara, 15, sang a lilting melody in English and Spanish that will be layered with their voices.

Theo Covington, 24, and Jennette’s brother, Brandon, 13, will mix it on a Macintosh computer loaded with sophisticated recording software.

After three takes, Jennette managed to capture the raw emotion of her poem.

“Dreaming is one thing,” she said, fanning her flustered face, “but doing it is another.”

Coleman applauded and hugged her.

“That’s it!” he said. “That has feeling.”

Coleman, 43, is not only her teacher but also her stepfather and the founder of Heroes of Life, a program that helps children and young people ages 10 to 25 learn to record their own music. They gather round him each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at the Pacoima Community Center.

Coleman lives in Sylmar with his second wife and their blended family of 10 children, ranging from 5 to 26 years old. His graying goatee makes him look wise. His treble clef earring--one of three in his left ear--makes him look cool. But mostly he is patient.

Heroes for Life, founded by the Coleman in 1989, is part trade school and part hangout. Kids from some of the San Fernando Valley’s poorest neighborhoods hang out there. Most heard about the program through word-of-mouth or were referred by probation officers and employment agencies.

“We have so many out there that are dying or going to jail,” Coleman said, “they don’t [know] what’s out there for them.”

Coleman knows what he is talking about. He said he fought off 12 gangbangers who tried to recruit him as a kid growing up in Philadelphia. Instead, he was into sports, martial arts and playing drums.

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He moved to Los Angeles in 1975 but dropped out of college because he could not afford tuition. Soon he was playing and managing local bands and eventually producing music.

Then everything changed.

“I laid my [drum]sticks down,” he said, “when I took a good look around at the kids I saw in the street.”

He envisioned helping kids help themselves through music. To pay for it, he drove a tractor-trailer and used his spare cash to convert the garage of his former home in Val Verde into a recording studio. He spent his life savings, he said, on recording equipment.

Heroes of Life has operated on a shoestring budget, funded mainly through donations. A $25,000 grant in 1998 and support from the city helped put the program in the community center.

“In here, the brown and the black work together, not out in the streets fighting,” he said.

Kids can take classes for a fee, but most seem to just drop by in the afternoon.

“We have a revolving door,” Coleman said.

On a recent day, Tamara King, 10, of Reseda, sat down at the drums. Willie Gordon, 10, of Lake View Terrace tinkered out what sounded like “Lean on Me” on a white upright piano. They kept themselves busy until it was their turn to record phrasing that will be laid behind the voices of Jennette, Joseph and Desiree.

Soon it started to come together. The group took what could have been a lost afternoon and created a throbbing beat with percussion, strings, piano and keyboards. The music is never written out; it’s done on the fly.

“[It’s] all about feeling,” Coleman said. “We can take these kids off the street and let them express how they feel. We don’t care what their conversation is, as long as it is positive.”

Within an hour, everyone was drumming their fingers and bobbing their heads to the beat.

“I’ve never gotten to actually sit down and work on a mixing board every day,” said Covington of Lake View Terrace. “It gives me a sense of accomplishment, like I did this myself.”

By learning how to use the point-and-click software for recording music, the students will develop skills that could help them make it in the real world, Coleman said.

“It’s not pie in the sky for these kids anymore,” he said. “There’s a job market now.”

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By next week, the kids hope to “burn” their audio to CD, shoot some video in their neighborhood and try to market their one-minute piece wherever they can. They think the video should be broadcast on network television, between Saturday morning cartoons.

“When you’re in a positive atmosphere, you can do anything,” Covington said.

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