Remember that old song, “Papa was a rolling stone/ Wherever he laid his hat was his home”? A gifted performance artist changed a few of the words to provide a chilling account of domestic violence, as part of the Third Annual “Chant Down Domestic & Dating Violence” at the Hill Regional Career High School Thursday night. This little drummer girl was alo part of the program.
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The event was organized for Domestic Violence Awareness Month (October) by Ras Mo Moses (pictured), director of the Pink & Blue Arts for Violence Prevention Project. It featured a “Greek chorus” of sorts, composed of more than a dozen young drummers, like those pictured, who opened the program and played between each act.
“Pink and Blue is all about doing prevention, creating an awareness of domestic and dating violence, relationship violence, and all kinds of violence,” Moses said. He had worked in a summer program in the Hill with the Universal Arts Movement, and some of those kids participated last night as well.
The opening scene featured four little kids playing Ring Around the Rosie stage right, until a young man is shot center stage. It was certainly reminiscent of all the violence in New Haven over the past few months — with teens as both victims and perpetrators.
A woman who works with a local victim advocacy program read a poem by a survivor of domestic violence. Then Sharon Thigpen (pictured) sang, “God Bless the Child That’s Got His Own,” and incorporated a pep talk for the young people in the audience that they could accomplish any goals they set for themselves, and turn negatives in their life into positives. Click here to listen.
And then Influence rapped his version of “Papa was a rolling stone, wherever he laid his slap was his home.” Click here to listen.
Moses said, “The event brings together domestic violence agencies, artists, performers, activists, survivors, facilitators, fatherhood and batterer treatment groups and a cross section of the general public. Presenters, performers and speakers include children, youth and adults of diverse backgrounds.”
Sherman Malone (pictured on right, with Sharon Thigpen on left) is a social worker at New Haven Family Alliance. She said she stopped going to domestic violence awareness activities for several years, “because it was always a social worker explaining the signs and symptoms of domestic violence.” It brought her down. But she loves Moses’s Chant Down event, featuring mostly children and teens playing music and doing skits. “It’s more about joy,” she said.
