The Distinguished Gentlemen & Miss Honey
“I aim high,” all 20 roar, using their hands to shoot 20 imaginary baskets.
“I will never, never, never, accept failure,” they boom, shaking their heads, “because I’m destined for greatness.”
* * * *
“Do y’all smell that?” he asked the audience. “It’s the smell of fire! Destiny’s burning in the fumes. Young lives just being consumed. As we just resume our everyday lives, as if it is OK.”
“It’s not OK,” the group responded, their voices beating a grim staccato.
“I went to my first funeral yesterday. Twelve years old, shot,” Isaiah continued.
“Pop pop pop,” the group underscored him with gunshot sounds.
The above is from an article in today’s PeeDee about a youth poetry group from Cleveland’s Hough neighborhood.
I like this bit too:
Although they call their director [Honey Bell-Bay] “Miss Honey,” she’s not sweet. She makes them stand at attention, or drop to the floor to do 10 push-ups if they horse around or even crack a smile.
“She’s just growing us to be young men,” said Elmo Vales Jr., 14, who endured Bell-Bey’s wrath recently for fighting. “She wants us to be the leaders. She has to be rough with us. She teaches us that life is not a joke.”
Despite the dismal graduation rates, the poverty, the crime and the killings, let’s not forget that there are lots of good kids out there doing good things and folks like Miss Honey showing them the way to a better life….
