Charlotte-area middle schoolers turn homelessness poetry into musical

HARRISBURG, N.C. (WBTV) - Middle schoolers at A.C.E. Academy Charter School in Harrisburg have written a book of poetry about homelessness and are now turning it into a musical.

An estimated 2,500 people are homeless in Mecklenburg County. Some are visible at intersections or in tents around town, but most are not seen. They work in service jobs as teachers, firefighters and veterans.

Students Jazelyn Torrence and Maddison Goodman are among the young poets who wrote about the crisis.

“Concrete as their pillow, unprotected from the cold, probably lonely, having no one to hold,” Torrence wrote.

“Just because I’m homeless doesn’t mean I’m heartless. Just because I’m homeless doesn’t mean I have an addiction,” Goodman wrote.

Students learned from those experiencing homelessness

The project to write a book started a year and a half ago. Their Teacher Dr. Kim Johnson said the students chose the topic.

“If we’re going to be authors, we need to talk about what homelessness is,” Johnson said as she told the students.

The class listened to people involved in the struggle. Those who have been helped by the Home Again Foundation of Charlotte. The nonprofit provides housing and services to the homeless.

Students also worked to feel what it’s like to be without.

“We would go outside sometimes and sit on the concrete. Sometimes they would lay down on the concrete. And I would say, tell me what that feels like, because there are some people who are having to do this every night,” Johnson said. “And they came up with words like cold, scary, lonely, disconnected. And I said, take all those words, write them down, and then go back and put them in your poetry.”

It took Torrence a few days to write her poem.

“It just flew out,” Torrence said.

When Goodman sees people experiencing homelessness, she said she now wants to talk to them to hear the story.

“I just brainstorm like what could they have gone through and I definitely want to talk to them too as well,” Goodman said.

Poetry becomes a musical

The printing of the book of poems wasn’t the end of the story. It is now being turned into a live performance. Music teachers were brought in to write an original score and help adapt the poems to song. Students have been rehearsing the show for weeks.

“It wasn’t enough to just put the words on the page. It had to breathe. It had to live. Their messages, their voices had to be heard,” Johnson said.

The students said they want audiences to learn the lessons they learned.

“I definitely want them to take away, like I said, my life lesson to not judge people based off what you see,” Maddison said.

“I really want people to look at homeless people and not just have a specific stereotype,” Jazelyn said.

Johnson said if one person walks out of the theater with hope about homelessness, the work will be worth it.

“If they walk out of that theater with one message in their mind, what can I do that can make a difference? Then everything we’ve worked for is worth it. We we did our job,” she said.

The performance of “Home Live” will be Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Julius Chambers High School in Charlotte. Proceeds go to the Home Again Foundation and the school. Tickets are $20 which includes a copy of the book. More information is available on the school’s website by clicking here.