There should be no doubt around the creativity, power, and solutions young people possess. SocialWorks knows that and we’re constantly astonished. So much that we make it a priority to include this energy into our initiatives, events, and partnerships – our Google collaboration “Super Me”, Champion collaboration, #Wardrobe4CPS, and our first initiative, “Parade to the Polls”. It never fails. But don’t always look to enhance our programming through student’s voices, sometimes we just look to enhance the voice itself.

This brings us to, “The Cure”, a piece written and creatively directed by Hailey Love, Jeremiah Shade, & Noah Chris. This trio is no stranger to creating larger than life moments and spreading truth through poetry (see previous work). As we work through CV-19 as a nation and take to commissioners, directors, and leading experts, let us also remember to talk to our young folks because they just might have the cure.

View Hailey Love, Jeremiah Shade, & Noah Chris in “The Cure” below and an interview about its creation.

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• Think about what emotions, experiences, knowledge (etc) you brought into writing this piece.
• Favorite line of the poem and what that means for you?
• What effect do you hope this poem has, and on who?

Hailey Love – Hi, my name is Hailey Love, and I’m here with two of my close friends as well as two of my favorite poets Noah Chris and Jeremiah Shade. As an independent group of young poets, We work together to create original pieces that reflect our thoughts and hopefully have an impact on whoever’s listening. The piece you heard today is our take on “The Cure” for violence in our communities. I really hope you enjoyed hearing it as much as we enjoyed creating it!

Jeremiah Shade – This poem was a wonder to write. I think I can say for the three of us that this was a very important and very necessary topic to touch upon. I think the most important thing for this piece was touching on everything that each of us wanted to address, no matter how big or small. As a group in our preliminary meeting, we discussed some things that we felt important to share. One of the main points that I wanted to address was the effect that violence had on innocent people, whether that be direct or indirect. I know people who have lost loved ones to acts of violence completely accidental, so I felt the need to include that. I also think a major part of this poem that was fun and challenging was synthesizing the problems we face in the streets and in our healthcare system to highlight the parallels that black and brown people face. We had the ability to do so in our writing, but this was the first time as a group of independent poets that we also had some say with the film director, so it was very empowering to be able to tell AND show the story that we wanted to create.

Noah Chris – Writing this poem to me was a Unique experience for me seeing how violence is everywhere around in our communities . me and my close friends here come from different parts of the city i come from the northside of chicago which is considered safer but there is still violence where im from. I have friends who have died from gun violence and i know a lot of us have friends or family that we’ve lost and i think its important that we start ending the violence not only for them but for ourselves and for the future. i think my favorite line in this poem was where it talks about funerals only being for those who to live to be a hundred years old because thats what i believed when i was younger i thought everybody got to live until 100 until i started understanding what was happening on the tv. so i hope after hearing this poem a few more of will live to be a 100 and really strive to end violence everywhere

Hailey Love – When I drafted my ideas for this piece, it was important for me to capture the story and really outline the similarities between this global pandemic that the entire world recognizes and the issues that our communities face daily, which people don’t always personally identify with. I hope that this comparison will make anyone who sees this piece feel obligated, knowing what hardships we’ve faced globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic, to align themselves with efforts to end violence in communities worldwide as well. One part of the poem that I really connect to is the line about hoarding the supplies (meaning hand sanitizers and other cleaning solutions) and comparing that to hoarding education, money, and resources that have been misallocated by a nation. I believe that we reverse the cycle of poverty that influences violence in communities by pouring resources into those communities and assuring that people have what they need to live. That comparison was really accurate, and it hit home for me.

Jeremiah Shade – We wrote this piece to spread awareness and charge people with a sense of accountability to think about violence the way we’re thinking about COVID. Everyone has to do their part, and no action goes unnoticed. Being an advocate to stop violence in your community means stepping outside of yourself and having compassion for others. That is the only way that we will be “The Cure.”

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