Bronzeville Dreams a Little Dream: A Voice For Homeless Youth

Chicago, IL June 11, 2012 – Bronzeville, a historic hub for musicians such as Armstrong and Benny Goodman, home of the late poet Gwendolyn Brooks, writer Richard Wright, and now home to homeless youth of Chicago. The same talent exists accept the circumstances have outweighed the talent…until now. “UNSPOKEN WORDS, a voice for homeless youth” is an art program created to provide a platform for homeless youth of Chicago to speak out through art such as paint, poetry, spoken word, and photography. June 25, 2012 marks the 1yr anniversary of the art program being in the Bronzeville area and in just one year some of the youth have received a scholarship to a photography school, received awards for film, have been encouraged to write as a way to release emotions, and continue to work towards aspiring other youth in the same circumstance. “Homeless Youth Dream, what you mean homeless dream? You mean The Homeless can Dream? Even the thought of that seems obscene…” This is the start of a poem written by Kasey White, a homeless youth of Chicago. The verdict is in and yes, homeless people have dreams. More specifically, homeless youth have dreams. In Chicago alone, more than 10,000 homeless students were enrolled in Chicago’s classrooms fall of 2011. If we are lucky we read about this issue yet how often do we hear the voices of these youth. Well, a date has been set and all are invited to hear their unspoken words. In April 2012, Citizen Weekly released an article that brought much light to the art program and helped bring a vision to life. “One of our goals was to have the art exhibit in the Bronzeville area because this is the community we are servicing and we really want to bring the community together and invite other communities to the area of Bronzeville to see how beautiful the history of Bronzeville truly is. The Bronzeville Visitor Information Center has opened their doors to us and we’re extremely grateful for this! We’re still reaching out to neighborhood businesses with hopes of working together to bring unity to the community in support of the youth who’ll be sharing their artwork personally.” says Mireya, founder of One Heart One Soul. What can you expect the night of the art exhibit? Art, music, conversation, a bit of nervousness, yet overall a sense of accomplishment. We invite you all to save the date in order to help us provide a platform for these youth who are innovatively & creatively speaking out.