An open mic BEATS the streets

Photo by Danielle Alvarez

Inside a small, mint-green room at the Greater St. Paul AME Church, Maeva Renaud waits to address an eager audience filled with teens and young adults.

Renaud makes her way from her second-row seat to the front of the room, where she recites a passage not from the Holy Book but from her own book – “One Mind to the Body.” The selected verse: “My Letter to Hip-Hop.”

“Hip Hop, I want to thank you for what I have become
I can see why the game hasn’t set you free
I will school you like you schooled me.”

To applause, shouts, smiles and nods from her peers, a jubilant Renaud returned to her seat, making way for another young voice to take the spotlight.

Open mic works like that: one person after another approaching the microphone and attempting to woo and wow an audience of like-minded critics.

The open mic nights began about a year ago in response to a rise in youth crime in the area, organizers said. A suggestion was made at a homeowners’ association meeting that local youth needed an outlet for self-expression. Soon after, the now defunct cafe – Rustic Treasures – which held adult open mic nights, allowed one night each week for the youth. The overwhelming turnout gave birth to BEATS - ”Bringing Eternal Arts To The Streets” - and the mic has been on since.

Renaud, of Pembroke Pines, traveled to the Village West community- commoningly called the West Grove – on a recent rainy Friday night to participate in an emerging forum where young people express themselves creatively through poetry, spoken word, rap and theater arts.

“I love rhyming, and this is just such a great atmosphere,” said Kieron Sampson, 17, who recently moved to the Village West community from California. “We need to start a revolution and bring hip-hop back to where it was.”

Kieron’s dreams for a hip-hop revival are coming true thanks to Urban Resurrection, which sponsors BEATS – a  community youth program. The open mic is part of the BEATS’ outreach.

“We exist to empower our neighbors to plan, create and sustain the community that they want it to be,” said Laurie Cook, director of community youth development for Urban Resurrection.

Free reign is given to the performing artists, with one exception – they have to keep the message and themselves clean and positive.

Cook, who serves as the emcee, warns the budding artists: “There will be ‘no booty, no cussin’, no thuggin’ and no druggin.’”

The gatherings usually take place in a parking lot across the street from the church, located at 3680 Thomas Ave., when rain isn’t threatening. The program has been so successful that it is looking for a new host location. Until then, the events will be held from 7:30 – 10:30 p.m. on the first Saturday of every month at the Urban Resurrection office, 3894 Grand Ave.

Young people - mostly teens and young adults from the area - pack the performances, which have begun to attract people such as Renaud from outside of the Village West area.

At the outside forums, Cook and a crew of volunteers construct a makeshift stage in the parking lot, including a plywood graffiti wall on which the youth are encouraged to write positive messages, such as “Be the Change.”

“There are so many negative images in mainstream music today,” said Renaud, 26. “They need something more positive like this.”

Ranei Nathaniel, 19, who frequents the open mic sessions, said “Just knowing that we are all young here together trying to get back to the community is a good feeling.”

Cook, along with her two partners, married couple Michael and Erika Philip make up Urban Resurrection. The three met while doing community work for at-risk youth in Chicago. After working in Uganda, East Africa together for a similar purpose, the three began forming a vision for their own project.

Their belief is to immerse themselves in the community where they want to bring about change.

After combining efforts with the University Baptist Church of Coral Gables, the group moved and settled in to the Village West in 2005. For the entire year, they got to know the neighborhood before beginning any community efforts.

“We did nothing but live here, walk the streets, eat and form connections,” Cook said.

Urban Resurrection, which is funded solely by individual donations, has been in existence for three years and includes a five-member staff and five volunteers. All staff members live in the community and work in the program’s two branches – BEATS and UJIMA, a Swahili word meaning collective work and responsibility. UJIMA centers its projects on community organizing.

Although Urban Resurrection organizers say they eventually want to return to Africa to continue their efforts, they want to ensure that the open mic nights continue under the leadership of community youth.

“We are working together in empowering people. If we are doing our job well, it should get to the point that what we are doing is totally run by our neighbors,” Cook said.