Incarcerated teens find escape in music and poems composed with artists
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Residents listen as Sound Impact musicians play during the final performance of their three-day residency at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center in Alexandria, Va.Shuran Huang For NPR -
A juvenile detention center resident plays tambourine in collaboration with Sound Impact violinist Kayla Moffett during their final performance of the three-day "Use Your Voice" residency.Shuran Huang For NPR -
A Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center resident reads a poem alongside Sound Impact board member Keisha Johnstone.Shuran Huang For NPR -
Sound Impact's three-day residency culminates in a final performance fusing the incarcerated youths' poetry and melodies with the collective's live music.Shuran Huang for NPR -
Sound Impact trumpet player Amy McCabe speaks with a participant after their final performance.Shuran Huang For NPR -
A Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center resident holds a marimba after his final performance as part of Sound Impact's "Use Your Voice" residency.Shuran Huang for NPR -
A Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center resident holds a trumpet after her final performance of the residency.Shuran Huang For NPR -
A Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center resident holds a viola after his final performance in Sound Impact's "Use Your Voice" residency.Shuran Huang For NPR -
A Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center resident holds a tambourine after her final performance in Sound Impact's three-day residency.Shuran Huang For NPR
Jaylene is about to turn 16. But it's no Sweet Sixteen. She's among the tens of thousands of kids who wake up each morning incarcerated across the United States.
One thing's clear for Jaylene: she wants to break a cycle that she says also landed her uncles and her physically-abusive, alcoholic father in jail. She's due to get out in September after being booked for a drug-fueled, high-speed car chase and two hit-and-runs. It was her first time behind the wheel, she says.
Music, she says, gives her hope for a better life. "At the time of my arrest, I was very heavy on percs [percocet] and fentanyl. And my withdrawals would make me become a person that I'm not, make the evil come out of me," Jaylene tells NPR's Morning Edition host Michel Martin. "Music is my escape, you know? That's my therapy right there."
She performed spoken word as part of a group of 12 kids at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center for a recent three-day workshop to write poems, compose melodies and play with six musicians from the Sound Impact collective. A larger group of 30 teens listened to concerts on the first day. NPR is only using their first names for privacy and security reasons.
"The system looks at us as animals," Jaylene says. "But I appreciate people taking the time to come in and work with us because they know we got potential. At the end of the day, we're still kids, you know, and a kid is going to be a kid forever, no matter what."
Jaylene, who says she loves rap and cites J. Cole, Nas and Lil Baby as inspirations, read the following original text: "Fruit of my labor, about to go and chase it. / In this life there's no escaping / about to take it slow and patient. / There's no need to go and waste it. / It's basic, just face it. / There's no escaping the matrix."
Joint performances saw the young detainees read spoken word and poetry or play simple melodies accompanied by the musicians on a makeshift stage of artificial turf. Sometimes, the musicians would stand or crouch near the kids wherever they sit or lay on cushions, surrounded by potted plants.
Large posters of colorful, bucolic scenes - bursting with waterfalls and blooming rhododendrons - hung around the gym with plastic tile flooring. In a final performance, the musicians — a violist, cellist, flutist, trumpeter and two violinists — performed "Turn-Around." Composer James M. Stephenson stitched together the piece based on short melodies the youths wrote on the first day of the residency.
"Music makes you okay to feel whatever way you're feeling," says Keisha Johnstone, a member of Sound Impact's board who advocates for at-risk youth. She says interacting with the musicians and participating in the creating process helps these kids build self-confidence and self-worth to work through and overcome their past missteps and trauma.
"When they wrote that song and our musicians came behind them and started playing, they were like, I can write, I can produce," Johnstone adds. "All you got to do is start planting the seed... and eventually they start to see."
Another incarcerated young person, Aunner, shares a poem that begins with: "Awake, awake / cast away the darkness / which fills deep within / you are light, you shine the void."
He says his poem is about finding light during a "very dark" time after he used drugs and got kicked out of his home by his mother. "As a young man, society tells you don't cry and stuff like that. But it's okay to let those emotions go. It's better to let it out."
Aunner's grandfather was a fiddler, a connection to music that has endured. "When the song is right, you get goosebumps and all that stuff is very beautiful, very beautiful music," he says.
Now, Aunner says he's aiming to share his experiences with drug use because "I don't want nobody to go through what I had to go through... it's just not worth it."
Jail is a hard place to grow up. Federal data estimates the number of jailed young people at around 25,000, while the American Civil Liberties Union says there could be as many as 60,000.
"I just want to enjoy being a kid," Jaylene says. "Yeah, we're locked up. But also we're building family, we're building strength and we're building a child in here as well."
The radio version of this story was produced by Ben Abrams. The digital version was edited by Phil Harrell.
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Transcript
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
In recent months, frightening stories about young people have been in the news, stories about kids getting hurt and causing hurt. At some point, some end up incarcerated. As of 2020, the last solid numbers we have, some 25,000 juveniles were spending time, even growing up, behind bars.
JAYLENE: People just - they just think of us just as delinquents, just as rebellious kids. We make mistakes, but we want to change, you know? The system looks at us as animals. But I appreciate people like them taking their time to come in and work with us because they know we got potential. At the end of the day, we still kids, you know? And a kid is going to be a kid forever, no matter what.
MARTIN: Jaylene is among several teenagers I met recently in Alexandria, Va., at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center who participated in a three-day workshop with artists from the Sound Impact collective. The artists work with kids of all backgrounds in all kinds of settings, helping them learn to express themselves through the power of music and spoken word. Over the course of three days, they accompanied the teens as they crafted and recited poems and played small instruments. And finally, they performed a piece made up of melodies the kids had written for two violins, a viola, a cello, a flute and a trumpet.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
JAYLENE: (Reading) Fruit of my labor, about to go and chase it. In this life there's no escaping. I don't take it slow and patient. There's no need to go and waste it. It's basic. Just face it. There's no escaping the Matrix.
It's just, you know, just because of where I'm at, you know?
MARTIN: Where are you at?
JAYLENE: Been locked up for five months now. I grew up really rough. My father was in my life till I was about 10. But when he was in my life, it was very abusive. He was an alcoholic. He used to hit my mom physically. And, of course, that brought me trauma. Started vaping in eighth grade and tried to fit in. And I moved on to marijuana and Percocets. So I moved on to straight fentanyl. And I overdosed once, and I was in cardiac arrest. I also had drunk, like, alcohol with it, too.
MARTIN: What's it been like in here?
JAYLENE: My father, my uncles were locked up in here, you know? So it's a cycle that I want to break. I'll be leaving in September. I've improved a lot - my demeanor.
MARTIN: Participating in something like this, what does it do for you?
JAYLENE: Time is flying by. You know, I'm turning 16 in here. And, you know, I just want to enjoy being a kid. It's like, yeah, we're locked up. But also, we're building family. We're building strength. And we're building a childhood in here, as well, you know? We just made music, you know, in a matter of two days. All my friends engaged with it. Music is my escape, you know? That's my therapy right there. I love rap. I even make my own, you know? It's the violin. The cello is beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
KEISHA JOHNSTONE: My name is Keisha Johnstone. I'm currently on one of the board of directors for Sound Impact organization. My background is education. I've worked in so many different programs with at-risk youth.
MARTIN: What is it that you think that music specifically does for the kids that helps them to feel the way they do?
JOHNSTONE: That music makes you OK to feel whatever way you're feeling. You know, and we create that safe space in here for them to express themselves. We also, like, you know, work internationally with international communities. You know, so it's a universal language. That's the thing wherever you go. You hear that - the "Billie Jean." I could take it to any country. I could - no words. And they're going to recognize it.
MARTIN: A number of the kids we talked to - they've really been through some things that would be hard for adults to take, let alone kids to take. And I just wonder if you think there's something about this work and this experience that can be healing in that way, as well.
JOHNSTONE: Once they start to see their talents when they wrote that song and our our musicians came, you know, behind them and started playing - and when they started playing that music and they're like, I wrote that, they were like, I can write. I can produce. I'm a poet, you know? So it starts to produce that self-confidence, that self-worth. All you got to do is start planting that seed or laying that little crumb. And it's three days. So imagine if it was longer.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
AUNNER: Awake, awake. Cast away the darkness which fills deep within.
Hi. My name is Aunner.
MARTIN: What was your inspiration? Tell me how that came to you.
AUNNER: So it was a very dark time. I lost a lot of hope. I struggled with substance abuse and stuff. So at one time, I really thought I was going to be lost in the streets. You know, I thought I had no future. So it was just - it kind of just resembled to me like, don't be afraid to shine your light. As a young man, you're - you know, society tells you, like, you don't cry and stuff like that. But it's OK to let those emotions go. It's better to let it out than keep it in with you.
MARTIN: How did you pick up the violin?
AUNNER: My grandfather was a fiddler, so I always loved the sound of the violin or the piano.
MARTIN: Do you like any particular kind of music?
AUNNER: I listen to anything as long as it got a good beat, you know, and it got a message. Since I've been here, I've been changing my life around and trying to build that support that I need so that when I get outside, I'm more prepared. I've done a lot of things. I raised - I helped raise money for fentanyl awareness. I'm just trying to spread my word and share my experiences with the kids, especially the youth, because, unfortunately, a lot are heading down that path. And it's very unfortunate. I don't want nobody to go through what I had to go - you know, I've - mother kicked me out, you know, problems with the law. And it's just not worth it.
MARTIN: What was the best part of this project?
AUNNER: The goosebumps and stuff. I love when you hear beautiful music, especially, like, instrumentals. It's very beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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