The Going Home Project
What is there in this beggar lad
That I can neither hear nor feel nor see,
That I can neither know nor understand
And still it calls to me?
Is not he but a shadow in the sun -
A bit of clay, brown, ugly, given life?
And yet he plays upon his flute a wild free tune
As if Fate had not bled him with her knife!
- Langston Hughes
The Going Home Project is a story-based initiative.
Self-representation and autobiography centralize the youth’s experience of who they are and what their world is.
It is an experimental process that applies theater as a catalyst for problem-solving.
The youth confront issues through a host of artistic modalities that offer them choices of expression.
Entrance points include tactile/embodiment through theater improvisation and voice work, visual self-exploration through drawing, creating street maps, photography, and digital storytelling, as well as aural/oral engagements through spoken word, poetry, and rap.
I conceived of The Going Home Project in 2017 in response to the local and national crisis of houselessness among youth.
The project is an interactive theatre venture that employs various art modalities that respond to the participants’ proclivities. I partnered with Noah’s Anchorage, a non-profit that works specifically with runaway, homeless, street, and at-risk youth as well as young adults in the community.
The first incarnation of the project culminated in a performance at Community Art Workshop for an audience of stakeholders that included staff from local youth-serving organizations, policymakers, and those in positions of power that can make a difference in these young people’s lives.
The performance itself was an act of self-determination. The discussion with the audience following the performance was moderated and constructed to stimulate ideas about solutions.
Going Home Project photos by Clarissa Koenig and Barbara Parmet.
“It all started when my father went away. The first year without him was no less than hell on earth.
Many times my brother or I would threaten suicide. At that age we had already begun to disregard the basic instinct of survival. We had no food. We would spend many hours in the line at the local food bank trying to get our next meal. After a while my mom started to talk to an ex-boyfriend of hers from her youth. He would come to visit us and he helped to make our lives easier. Eventually he asked us to move in with him. Things began to stabilize. ‘All of our problems are solved,’ we had thought, but we were wrong. He became violent and abusive and since I was the proudest of my family I would receive most of his beatings. Fortunately he never laid a hand on my mom. This went on until I was about 15 and was finally big enough to hit back. After that moment the beatings stopped. We had one year where life was actually enjoyable.”
– Milo
