Melissa, a fourteen year old girl in dramagirls, wrote this poem inspired by Nikki Giovanni’s “The Drum”.  I can’t stop reading it, it is so beautiful and perfect for a day like today that feels a little colder and a little rainier than I want it to.

World by Melissa

The world told my mama
That the dirt ain’t
No good unless it rains
And I said I’m gonna
Tap my feet till the skies pour down.

I had some frustrating news about our space this morning, that it will be unavailable to us next year (not the end of the world, we’ve already been looking at other spaces but it was nice to know we had somewhere), and vague hints around work yesterday with words like “reassess” and “reevaluate” in regards to dramagirls.  Everyone is so afraid of programs that rely upon grants for funding, and it seems like the board at the Theater is advising seeking corporate partners who can bring money to the partnership to sustain it.  Schools like Chase can’t do that in the same way that the Parks District or a school in a wealthier district can.

Our program doesn’t serve many girls — eighteen a year.  It’s expensive to run in proportion to the number of girls we serve– I get paid, the arts project leader gets paid, we rent space, we buy materials, we pay our volunteers a pitiful stipend to reimburse them for gas and hot chocolate money. But I look at a girl like Melissa, whom I’ve known since she was a fourth grader, and who has grown into such a powerful young woman.  In her first show with Dramagirls nearly five years ago, she read a poem about coming to Chicago from Guerrero by way of Texas.  It was sweet and beautiful.  Having her poem chosen, reading it for an audience — she became a Poet then.  She reads her world with her writing — and I feel good knowing she is going into High School, into the world, with that power. I hope we can still make that happen for other girls like her.