Fellow ABEA student Damon Gunn’s poem Kill Zone was not about violence, but about dealing with the emotional baggage of his parents’ separation. Gunn, also a finalist, said the title is about getting rid of all the negative emotions he was feeling by writing them down. He hoped his poem would be an inspiration to other students enduring the same thing.
“I honestly feel that there are kids in this room that are going through the same thing I went through. I hope I touched their heart and that they are not alone,” he said.
Lawrence Fredrick Meade Jr., a freshman at Urban Prep Academy for Young Men in East Garfield, took on this issue of false hope among youth. He mainly addressed the false hope kids have of their future when the education system fails them. Many students, he said, think playing ball like Kobe Bryant, or joining a gang, would bring them what rapper K. West calls the “Flashing Lights.”
“I want to let them (youth) know these are failures,” Meade, 15, said. “You don’t do things of those natures like prostitute, drug deal or invest all your time in a boyfriend or sports. You always have to have some type of knowledge. Education is the foundation.”
Author and poet Charles Ellis, who put on the event, knows the therapeutic value of poetry. Ellis grew up in an abusive home in a tough West Baltimore neighborhood. Ellis, 37, admits he lived a life on the streets, and spent 13 years in jail for murder after shooting his father who was abusing his mother. “I had issues,” said Ellis, who began to write poems in jail to vent his frustration. “While I was in there, I did poetry shows. And people came to see them. Poetry for me is an outlet to relay my thoughts, and I just kept writing.”