Fabulous Fall Pt. 2 - Juri

(Ify is a Nigerian term for an extraordinary spirit. That’s about the most accurate description for Juri I can imagine)

Eating with Jennifer in the Caf. one day a girl next to us said “Hey Hannah, I know a woman who’s teaching music in the Detention Center. Would you want to help?” I can’t really describe what I felt when she said that. Other than a sense of happy urgency, as though something so meant for me, so menat for me that it was almost myself, was calling me to come and I needed to listen. Three days later Jennifer and I were waiting for Juri Ify in Starbucks across from the 150. Eight years ago, as a student in Berklee, Juri started a collaboration between Berklee and the Boys and Girl’s clubs in which students went to teach the kids music. Last month they celebrated the installation of a 60K dollar recording studio and a finished music facility. Juri began programs like this throughout Boston and even in Washington State. On the side Juri models, plays piano for the Boston Ballet, is the music director for a Boston Theatre company, accompanies for a local choir, teaches 100 private students weekly lessons through a music studio, makes and sells jewelry, knits while doing sit ups, and that’s all I can remember right now. However, this wasn’t enough for her so she decided to start a non-profit organization called Genuine Voices.

That’s where I come in.

When this tiny little Japanese woman arrived and sat at the table with us my life changed. Her passion beamed soberly from her eyes and I wondered if I could really be of any help to her. I wondered what it was like in the Juvi, and what the boys were like. She told me about how she’d worked in maximum security teaching groups of 10 boys and how it’d become so stressful was vomiting blood and had to stop. She told me precious stories of changed lives and her love for the boys. I told her I wanted to go, wondering what in the world I was doing.

A couple days later I was on the T (the subway) headed to the “other” part of town. Juri met me at the station and walked me across the street to the massive building of brick.

We walked to a black metal door and pushed a button on an intercom. A creeky stairwell met us inside and we climbed it to another locked door. The second floor is the school area which is surprisingly warm and inviting. As soon as I stepped inside the nervousness was gone and I sat with a little boy. A tiny little boy stuck in a sixteen year old body, and topped with a 3 foot afro. I’ve met most of the 20 resdents now and have yet to meet one that’s not a little boy inside. When I’m with them I wonder about their mothers and how it can be that I am the one allowed to be with them right then. I wonder how in the world such a rotten thing could have taken place. I get angry at evil and at whatever led to a childhood spent in such a place. I hate to be let out of those latched doors and see them knock on the little window from inside and wave, peering out of their 40,000 sq. feet of reality, into a forbidden world. Stepping onto the sidewalk is a privilege they don’t have. It’s so strange. But the center is a wonderful place. There are so many amazing staff personnel there and I’ve been deeply touched time and time again by watching their interactions. It’s beautiful. I respect them so deeply and love them for what they do. My first few visits to Eliot, (the Center) I spent giving private piano lessons.

It was amazing to see the talent in some of these boys and I slowly became addicted to the moments of enlightenment and victory, particularly with the ones who were easily angered or discouraged.

Since then my time there has evolved into 2, two hour, group sessions every week which I lead with a fellow student named Oliver. We’re easy to point out of the chaos there, I’m the homeschooled blondy, and he’s the little vegan “Cracker.”

(Above is: Ai - who will be helping us in the spring, Juri, Me and Oliver, waiting for his Veggie Burger...

which was well worth the wait)

Here are some stories:

Eddy: Eddy is 16 years old and was convicted for armed robbery. He caries a large wispy afro that rocks with his stride. The other boys show clear respect for him, although he’s not as big as most of them. He often talks about his family and his grandfather who died recently. This has thrown him through some hard times, being stuck “inside” through that process. Here he is playing piano in one of our early lessons. The camera cuts him while he's giving me the greatest compensation I could get: saying "I'm a BEAST!!"

“Big Baby”: Big Baby is about 250 pounds of bulk reaching over 6 feet high and looking out over the world from a gentle baby-face. He’s slow to speak and usually quiet when he does. His ambition is to become an airplane steward so he can see the world. One day I told him there was a beautiful sun beam in the hallway. It had to come through the directors office and to the hall through a small window, but it was warm and a fiery orange. He came and stood in it with his eyes closed and we just enjoyed it for a moment. I wondered how long it'd been since he'd been outside.

With his thick hands I don’t know how he’s been able to play piano but he’s picked it up with unprecedented endurance, and over just 4 months is reading chord symbols. He started out with an attention span of what felt like 2 seconds and has wound up spending hours on the piano working on just one phrase. When he improvises his phrases have a beautiful melodic couture. Here are some quotes from a note he wrote to me:

“You have opened my perspective on life and shown me that there is more to life than hanging out and getting in trouble. Thank you for your gratitude and patience in teaching me.”

S: S is a broad shouldered bright eyed young man with a beaming smile and good eye contact. S’s ambition in life is to become a social worker and work with troubled youth. He’s attending the Bible studies at the prison and is very respectful and open. S played saxophone in middle school because his brother had one, but he wished he could play the violin. S is remarkably musically inclined in percussion, guitar and bass. He picks up instructions quickly and respectfully responds to our authority. Oliver brought in a violin for him to try and within the first hour he was playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. He’ll be released back into society while I’m on break so Oliver is working to start an After DYS music program so we can keep in touch with him. I think he was teary when I said it was my last time to be there with him.

Oliver and I are the only ones working at Eliot right now but we are to begin scheduling other students to come in and help us. We hope to be teaching at more facilities in the Spring. Juri titled me Director of Outreach for Genuine Voices and I’m responsible for bringing groups in to share with the boys. My first act as took place last Friday. It was a bitter night and I walked down Massachusetts Ave with a trail of 17 Berklee students close behind me. The excitement and joy and gratitude I felt for those students and in anticipation of the night was almost sacred. The students were members of the Berklee Concert Choir, and the Woman of Peace choir, which is composed of 50 women from 42 countries and sings songs from various cultures

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4mNnSyAPa4

The members of the choirs sacrificed almost 3 hours of their Friday night the week before finals to come and minister to these boys in a strange, scary place. When we arrived at the center, they sang their souls out for, and with the boys, breaking out into spontaneous hymns and carols. One of the staff members said “I’ve never seen some of these boys light up like this! It’s almost scary!”

To wrap up the semester we wanted to put on a performance as a band. When we arrived and started preparing they were mumbling “I aint doin none of that performance shit!” (excuse my language) and I argued for a few minutes with Big Baby about weather or not he’d do it. I felt like a proud mom when those boys played the whole way through the form in front of their peers and the staff. After we played two rhythmic pieces we just jammed on different progressions. I can’t believe they’ve gotten to the point that we can jam!