Outreach

COVENANT HOUSE IN HOLLYWOOD

http://covenanthousecalifornia.org

We created an amazing written word/spoken word workshop for the homeless youth who live at the Covenant House. We went twice a month for 8 months using our own experiences of strength and bravery as examples to open them up… and we brought snacks. The theme was basically; past, present and future, using the suggested opening phrase or framework: On that day… At this moment… I see myself…

The idea behind this concept was to get them to reveal some of the pain and harshness they’d been through as a way of getting it out and proving to themselves and each other, that having been through such harrowing experiences made them stronger and actually brave — something very new to them. They mostly didn’t want anyone to know their stories at first, but slowly we gained their trust and in the end had a blast.

It was a very emotionl at times, writing, then hearing about terrible abuse, abandonement, running away, deaths and losses of infants and loved ones and yet, they found themselves and we found them true warriors. We bonded heavily and in the end had an evening of performance with poetry, rap, story telling and song. It was fantastic.

Nina then became a mentor to one of the young women who lived there, and who has since graduated to the next level of sharing an apartment that the Covenant House rents and the girls pay a portion of. Nina and Azra have a super close relationship to this day.

“She recently told me that in her last foster home at age 16, when she was away… her “family” had thrown out her lifetime of journals that she’d kept with her profound poetry about all of her dark experiences. She left soon after that and had not written at all until her workshop with us at Cov House.”

Here is one of her poems…

I did what you said
And I ran and I ran 
Ran from the home that had made me its whore 
Ran from the home where I wasn’t even born

Born into this world, he showed me this pain 
Pain that a little girl, should never, ever face 

You are my friend, my solstice you see 
You are the reason I am now free 
I did what you said, and here I am now 
High above the cliffs 
Only to look down 

Down at the life that isn’t my own 
A name and a face I can’t call my own 
A lie hidden behind the scars 
Did you know someone could ever get this far? 

I did what they said and screamed all around 
Yet those screams were of the quietest sounds 

I saw it once, that thing you see 
The repulsive horror of hatred you deemed 
You warned me away, but I couldn’t resist 
I couldn’t resist a temptation so fit 

Fit for the girl who lived with such pain 
Pain that said “addiction is neat” 

Not the addiction of drugs and fight 
No, this addiction was born out of spite

The pool around you, it grows so warm
Warm like the body you once bore 
20 weeks is all it takes 
Takes for a woman, to create her babe 

You heard it in films, of what to expect 
But did you expect to kill your own kin? 
Fighting is nice, when it’s for your life 
But what of the life, fighting for it’s rite 

A punch, a slice, a knife so bright 
You knew the choices 
One or die 

You decided for one, 
What more could be done 

Do you stutter or stop?
Do you beg for their life? 
Do you take a chance, and deem yourself right 
Right for the choices you made in this life 

Skip ahead to when you were three 
Three years into the New World of “peace” 

Do you call yourself smart? 
Do you call yourself dumb? 
Are you brave enough to finally call yourself a Hart? 

Do you graduate with Honors
Or do you press pause 

Stolen from you all those years passed 
When was the last time you truly laughed?

You’ve been running for years
Did you ever think to stop? 
Help yourself out 
Of this grave you’ve just lost 

Why did you do it? 
Who made you this way 
Did you scream out in pain 
When they took your babe? 

How could you do it 
Why did you stop 
Stop for the love of all that’s lost 

Do you look in the mirror 
See your true self 
Or does the abyss 
Stare back and caress

Let it be know by all that’s holy
My name is Azura 
And I am so very, very, lonely 

4-4-2017

Nina recently went back to Cov House and planted a vegetable garden with some of the youth living there. It was a great day for all.

RockThatRed

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