Former and present juvenile detention inmates perform poetry and rap to an SRO audience, exploring issues of incarceration, love and freedom.
By David Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times
Last week, 11 present and former teenage inmates of Camp Vernon Kilpatrick, a juvenile detention facility near Malibu, presented three evenings of improvisation and poetry at the Malibu Stage titled “Locked Up in Malibu.” As a twist on the outing (similar to one which debuted last year), four former inmates spoke of their freedom in rap and “slam” poetry in the part of the show called “On the Outs.” (“Slam” can be described as unrhymed, in-your-face, highly expressive poetry).
Produced by local playwright Sandra Heyward and presented by the Malibu Stage Company in association with the L.A. Department of Probation, the event Friday night drew a standing room only audience that responded with standing ovations.
Directed by professional actor Susie Duff, who has taught acting at the camp for seven years, seven current inmates opened the evening with improvised skits inspired by situations suggested by the audience. Rotating through several classic improvisational exercises, the group prompted near-continuous laughter with skits such as one portraying a traffic jam (accompanied by a cacophony of traffic sounds) a business meeting in a men’s room and a take off on Meet the Press. Although inexperienced and somewhat nervous, all players turned in winning performances. They included Alonso, Marcus, Gary, Chris, Andrew, Peter and Drew, the funniest and most self-assured of the group, who possesses a positive genius for recreating all kinds of sound effects. (Unlike last year, the Times is free to mention the last names of the inmates, but has chosen not to do so in consideration of privacy).
As good as was the improv part of the evening, the most memorable moments were elicited by four “slam” poets mentored by Heyward in the “On the Outs” part of the bill: Mario Rivera, Peter Ramirez, Tim Perez and Malcolm Walker.
Perhaps most positively phrased by Perez’s “I’m Spreading My Wings … I’m A Man Now, Not A Boy,” and “Where I’m Going, I’m On A Mission With No Intention To Give Into Intermission,” the freedom theme elicited all shades of response. Ramirez, who has reunited with his girlfriend since release, saluted her in his a cappella song “Yearning” and poem “Touch Her II,” a sequel to his angst-and-emotion filled paean to teenage love of a year ago.
Malcolm Walker’s rap reminder of life behind barbed wires, and Mario Rivera’s poetry seemed more real world rooted, however.
“I cried to be free,” Rivera read from a recent work. “It’s sad to see my dreams crushed by captivity. My own family branded me an outcast to their love circle.”
The quartet teamed together on a final collaboration themed, “Past, Present, and Future.” Ramirez, charged with limning the Past, was dead-on with his: “So many years have gone away because of my wrongdoing,” and Rivera developed his theme of a continuing struggle with society in considering the Present. But it was Walker who brought the biggest response when he questioned (in rap) what the Future holds for him: “Could I? Should I? Will I survive?” Tim Perez wrapped it up with a litany of good and bad aspects of life “On the Outs.”
“We no longer want to be viewed as animals in a cage,” he stated, “we’re going somewhere, and this is reality.”
Stage and lighting manager was Jerry Wolf Duff Sellers. House manager was Rick Holden.