Life > March 27, 2003

By Stephanie Bennett

Arts & Entertainment Editor

Art is often used to tackle weighty issues, especially in the recent tumultuous past. One such production meant to open eyes while entertaining is coming to campus today, with performances at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“Home & Hood,” presented by the Summer Youth Film, Theatre and Visual Arts Institute Ensemble, is a 30-piece collection of poetry, rap and song written entirely by Winston-Salem inner-city teenagers aged 13 to 17. The group also filmed a documentary about their work and performances, which will be shown as well.

The ensemble was actually brought to campus by seniors Tom Hynes, Vishak John and Derek Gilliam, who saw the performance together in the fall when it was presented in downtown Winston at the Artistic Studio Theatre.

Energized by the “heart and passion” of the young performers, Hynes and his cohorts approached the university to bring the teens’ work to campus.

Although “it should have been very difficult, especially with all the student-directed one-acts and rehearsals going on … I was fortunate to get in touch with the right people in the right places at the right time” and set up performances, Hynes said.

Program director Lynn Rhoades is optimistic about the impact the show will have here. “This is an opportunity for all of us who are privileged to be educated … (and) become conscious of our privilege.”

Started as an offshoot of the Strategic Approaches to Community Safety Initiative, a community partnership of neighborhood and service organizations, local clergy and law enforcement, the ensemble was originally an after-school volunteer program.

Rhoades, a member of SACSI, felt that young people’s “perspective, indeed their take on life, (is) reflected in the music they listen to and the movies they watch.”

So she decided to find an outlet for students to “have the tools to both access and articulate stories in a way that the rest of the community can hear them.”

In 2002, the group had enough community backing, including the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art and local music venue Project Space 211, to expand into a five-week summer program.

Successful students in the program become part of the professional ensemble that will perform this evening.

The participating teens come from an area where “violence is learned from peers and families, and often functions as a survival mechanism for them,” according to a grant proposal written by Rhoades and PS211 president Mark Linga.

Youths involved in the program are able to “connect … with resources they didn’t know were available, expanding their world (while) expanding our world,” Rhoades said.

“This has been a real conscious-raising experience,” she continued. “It helps me be aware of the complexities of their lives … (and) the joys and sorrows of young people in the world.”

Hynes and his friends were equally impressed with the youths’ efforts. “(The performance) was the perfect combination of entertainment and education,” Hynes said.

“On one level, it was very enjoyable to watch as it took you through all the different emotions you could expect to feel in a theater production: drama, comedy, sorrow, anger and joy,” Hynes said. “On another level, it was very thought-provoking.”

There’s also a good cause behind this week’s performances. The proceeds go to fund the monthly workshops, which add support structure for the summer program, as well as this coming summer’s productions. The performers actually receive a stipend upon the program’s completion as well as payment for any performances during the year.

But there is a more enriching goal of “build-(ing) awareness of positive organizations in the Winston-Salem area, like the Summer Film, Theatre and Visual Arts Institute,” as Hynes said.

Come out tonight and support the Winston arts community that so many students protest does not exist and learn about the lives of these talented individuals and, as Rhoades puts it, “how they strive, how they survive.”