Charlie visited three residential programs to play the residents songs from his new CD. The response has been powerful and uplifting. And the youth have offered great suggestions with respect to enhancing the material.
Unspoken Words
Most of these lines were written by a female teenager residing at a homeless shelter in Iowa. In my biased opinion, this is one of the sweetest and most gut-wrenching songs I’ve ever heard.
Many of the kids – trauma victims – who have contributed lines, from throughout the world, write about the same thing: Wanting forgiveness from their biological families. Wanting/needing to reconnect.
Never Give Up
The background story: Most of these lines were written by some awesome kids living at a psychiatric hospital in Virginia. I recently returned to this hospital and played Never Give Up for some of the contributors.
It was an amazing experience. Most of the kids at the hospital offered great suggestions for improving each song.
Respect Yourself
The background story: I conducted a training for folks working at a teen parenting program in Vermont in the Fall of 2012. When I introduced the segment on Using One-Line Raps with their clients and broke the participants into groups to have them write raps for their clients, a woman came up with the following line: Even if he begs, don’t open up your legs. OMG! This line triggered the birth of Raps From the Souls of Warriors. In the final version, we’ll have a female rapping the opening lines. This was a great suggestion from the kids in Virginia.