STOP THE VIOLENCE WITH PENNIES, POETRY, LOVE, CLEAN-UPS By Grace Lee Boggs Michigan Citizen, June 11-17, 2006 The response to my May 14 column on Crime and Violence suggests that more folks are beginning to realize that “we’re the leaders we’ve been waiting for.” My friend Pat emailed me about the “Pennies for Peace” project that she and her co-workers at the Detroit Medical Center Rehabilitation Center have founded. Pennies received will go towards creating a plaque “In memory of those killed in senseless violence" to be posted on a house in the Heidelberg Project. On the spinal cord injury floor, she says, “we’re seeing an increase in the gunshots resulting in paralysis. Even more alarming is the increase in females shot.” She is circulating my article. Milwaukee Hip Hop artist and activist Biko Baker is keeping me informed about the Campaign Against Violence that he and his friends began last fall to inspire Milwaukee’s inner-city teen and young adult population to take a proactive stance against interpersonal violence. Working in coalition with community- based organizations, labor unions, and the spiritual community, they are tackling the causes of violence in a holistic manner with the goal of providing Milwaukee with a vision of the “Beloved Community.” Their goals are long term. They know they can’t change a culture of killing overnight. The Campaign is in three phases. In Phase 1 youth volunteers canvass central city neighborhoods asking residents “Why is this neighborhood so violent?", "How can the neighborhood be less violent?" "Who do you trust in the neighborhood?" In Phase 2 individuals trusted by neighborhood residents are identified as “Peer Mentors” and asked to accept responsibility for maintaining interaction with community residents. Phase 3 involves workshops, block parties and demonstrations. Groups of young people go to street corners, juvenile detention centers and schools to meet with kids one-on-one, to talk and to listen. Their slogans: “ Stop the Violence with Peace and Love!” “Nobody is going to help us but ourselves.!” Their conflict resolution workshops feature performances and exercises by “The Poets” Kwabena Antoine Nixon and Muhibb Dyer whose poetry gives young people an outlet for the often-suppressed anger, fear, shame and resentment that come with living around violence. They enable many to come clean with themselves about how they really feel in their lives and neighborhoods. The “Vision” component of the workshop encourages participants to see themselves in positive situations and to believe in that vision for their future. “We have them write out what they are going to do, how they’re going to do it. “ It is like a healing process, says Biko. “When we come to a classroom or community situation and talk to people, they’re allowed to do something they’re not allowed to do in everyday life, take the mask off, remove themselves from the boxes society places them in, and be real.” For example, “at a juvenile detention center this 15 or 16 year old who had been involved in a murder started crying because he had been so emotionally pent-up.” Other groups in the city are encouraged by the campaign’s transformational approach. After Scooter Schmidt was murdered in May 2005 in his north side apartment, his family was wondering what to do with the $5000 given them by friends in his memory. During a December candlelight vigil for the families of Milwaukee's 2005 homicide victims, Scooter’s sister heard the powerful words of Poet Muhibb Dyer of Campaign Against Violence and decided that together they could make a difference. This spring the two groups met twice near Scooter Schmidt's former home for a community cleanup. Volunteers gathered neighborhood children to help. They swept sidewalks, filled bags with trash and knocked on doors to encourage others to help spread their message of a safer community. Bobby Drake, 23, a Campaign Against Violence volunteer, said the cleanups involve residents in caring more for their community. "It's in appearances," he said. "If your neighborhood looks like the 'hood, why would you believe you can do more?” Email Shea Boggs Center, |