STORIES

Maybe you have a friend you helped through a hard time or maybe you have a friend who helped YOU through a hard time. Maybe your story is about joy and excitement or maybe it is one of despair where there seems like no way out. Perhaps ….just maybe….there is someone out there who will read your story and realize that your story is also their story. We are not alone…You are not alone.

Student Interviews

Cheri Jacobs
Niishia Hysaw
Albus Brooks
Stasia Jones

Cheri Jacobs

Dance is one of the most unique, exhilarating, powerful, and  inspirational forms of expression. It takes strength, courage, and creativity. It is a way to articulate yourself using your body as a tool to release your emotions and attitudes. People can vicariously understand you without any verbal communication. Dance can be used as a one-way ticket to another reality. It can take you far away from the infinite amount of issues that bring you down and cause you pain. The second your body is in motion, is the second you step into another dimension. This is why Check Your Head deeply appreciates the craft and understands its power.
    Cheri Jacobs, a student at East, is one of our most dedicated dancers in the Hip Hop program. Her talent is apparent and her skills are refined every semester. She is always determined to work hard and learnas much as she can. I had the honor of meeting with her to discuss dance, her life, and her experience with Check Your He ad.
     Cheri has been dancing ever since she was a little girl. She told me, "ever since I was a little girl, I would dance in front of the mirror." I pretty much could have assumed that considering how talented she is and the fact that she is still really young. I wanted to get deeper into Cheri's mind and understand why she loves dance and what her favorite aspect of it was. She made it really clear that one of her favorite elements about dance is the fact that it relieves stress. She also expressed that she enjoyed how dance is a form of exercise where you can lose weight as an alternative to having to lift heavy weights all the time.
    I'm always curious about what goes on inside a dancer's mind when they're dancing. I wonder if there is a prominent emotion that they feel? Are there certain thoughts gyrating around their head?  Do they feel a source of energy guiding them? So I asked Cheri about the energy or the feeling that soared through her veins when she danced. She responded with: "Sometimes the feeling I get is aggression. Sometimes you need to get it out. Sometimes if I'm mad at my parents or my friends, I'll use dance to relieve all the stress and issues I have." It's good that Check Your Head gives her that healthy outlet to release that aggression.
    Our conversation then switched over to hip-hop. There is an enormous variety of different dance styles. Some examples are: ballet, jazz, modern dance, swing, salsa, and many more. Hip-hop was one of the most recent styles that radically changed our dance culture. Hip-hop created a revolution for dance that opened the doors to a whole new unique form of expression. I wanted to know and understand Cheri's connection with this style and why she chooses to dance that way. She explained, "There are no rules with hip-hop, so you can do what you want to do. With other forms, there are rules you have to follow up and down. With hip-hop you can do your own thing. You can be the only person that can do your kind of dance. You can teach others, but it will always be your own." It was really inspiring to see how passionate she was about hip-hop dancing. It's obvious that it's a huge part of her life.
   Everyone has their own unique ways of dealing with their emotions.  Some people play sports, others play music, others might draw, or read, and the list goes on. It is essential to find an outlet to have the ability to come to terms with life and all the obstacles and struggles it might bring in your direction. I wanted to know how dancing emotionally helped Cheri. I was seeking out if dancing was therapeutic to one's mental health. She had a lot to say about this: "If you're dedicated to it, it can bring you to a solid mind. It gives you something to look forward to every day. It's therapeutic because it does free your mind...It allows you to actually be yourself and be whoever you want.  You could say it's an escape in a sense. It's a way to corner reality to your own terms."  I completely understood what she was talking about, but what about Check Your Head?
Cheri has been in Check Your Head for three years. She is one of our most consistent students. I was really interested in how Check Your Head has impacted her life. I asked her a few questions about her experience in the program and how it affected her. She obviously expressed how dance was, hands-down, her favorite aspect about Check Your Head. It's clear from the previous topics how dance was an outlet for her to relieve her stress and deal with aggression. It's great that Check Your Head gave her that outlet to be able to deal with those kinds of emotions and issues. She also commented on the fact that she thinks the program is great because it gives people who are dealing with mental health issues, a resource to go for a positive direction on how to deal with those feelings. She reiterated how it's a great outlet, and "how it can help students on their outlook and it can actually have them reach out and be happy." She also explained how, "it's something positive to look forward to. It gives you something to do on a day to day basis." I was really happy that Check Your Head has had such a positive impact on her and we are really proud of all her growth throughout the program!

Niishia Hysaw

1) When did you first get into free style poetry?
~ I've always written poetry as a form of therapy. For me when I was younger journaling and having diaries always helped me cope with my situation. Spoken word came to me through Check Your Head. I did one piece and I tried to read it differently. I think its all about delivery. So when I start reading my poems differently, I started performing them as spoken word. So, I started learning different techniques and ways to write. That happened my sophomore year.

  2) Can you recite a particular quote from a piece that therapeutically or emotionally moved you? 
~Yeah I wrote a piece called introspection. I was crying in my car and it was my junior year because I was really stressed out. It starts like this: " These chains I cant seem to see, but i can feel them wrapped around my ankles, gripping tighter and tighter, cutting deeply into me." It's all about you being your own victim. The whole poem is about how I chained myself. It's about how I thought other people did it, but I realized it was myself. I can't blame anybody else. It's about owning up to your own mistakes.

3) What were some of your influences?
~Mia Angelo. She is like my mother. I love her background. I truly believe your background makes you the writer that you are. She is a famous poet, actress, singer, and she is the epitome of strength. Her childhood is really interesting, so I can relate to a lot of things she has been through.

4) What does free style do for you emotionally and mentally?
~I love the mic! I love the stage! I love the people! I love the atmosphere! I think it's a foundation for emotions. People get up there and poor themselves out into the audience. It's almost like an addiction. It's the safest outlet for people who have things going on in their lives and don't have control over. It's also an outlet for people who need a place to express everything that's going on in their lives with their emotions, family, school, internal suffering, or whatever it may be.

5) If you had the chance to tell a billion people in the world why they should invest their time into the art of free-style poetry, what would you say?
~I would say writing has no boundaries. You can do a lot of things in life, but there are always limits to them. Writing is something that no one can ever take away from you. What you say and what you feel will always be yours. And free style poetry is an expression of "self." It is never something customized. It is always yours. I think people appreciate that because it's genuine and it's not made up or an act.

7) Do you think Check Your Head has helped you through emotional times? If so why?
~Oh yeah! There were a lot of coming together moments and one of them was when we learned about suicide and teen stuff because people were just being real. It should be a class! It's not even offered in school. This is what people go through. I'm learning history, but what about me thinking suicide? People need to know they're not alone when they feel loneliness or failure. They need to know how real these issues are and Check Your Head offers that. They teach you how to manage those feelings and they teach you that it's okay to feel that way. It definitely has helped me because I got a chance to share some of the experiences I have been through and how I got through them. I think my stories helped other people.

8) Do you think Check Your Head made you more empathetic to other people dealing with mental health?
~ I always have had a latent connection with people who have been through the struggle. No matter what you're going through, somebody is also going through something. It may not be the same thing, but it's still their struggle. When you have that common ground, you can still come together and say, "hey- I understand. Whatever it is your going through you are going to be triumphant. I may not be able to relate to you, but I have been through my own struggles and you can make it because I have. It is possible."

9) Do you think Check Your Head made you more aware of mental health issues?
 ~ It didn't for me as much because I was already struggling with those issues before I was in the club. I definitely noticed it with the freshman and sophomores who just came from middle school and joined Check Your Head. I can see the difference in them. They are very open-minded about other people's problems and their stereotypical attitude. I think it definitely has broadened everybody's perception of people and the things that they go through.

10) Do you think Check Your Head helped you know how to be a good friend to others in need?
 ~ I think they teach a lot of techniques on how to approach crisis situations with people. What do you do if your friend is suicidal?  How can you tell if your friend is going through this and that if their not talking to you? They definitely teach techniques. Some kids really don't know what do when their friends are going through stuff. I definitely have learned some ways to approach the situation and have a more effective outlook.

11)What is your favorite aspect of Check Your Head?
~I love the people who sponsor Check Your Head because they are genuine and they are there. It's not like we don't know these people or they're in the background and we don't ever get to see them. We actually get to meet these people, who are human. I really like that feeling. I don't like to feel like I'm underneath or beneath someone. I also don't like feeling as if I'm not human and they're my saviors. The people from CYH are all human and they say, "Look its okay to feel this way and now we are going to teach you to deal with it."

Instructor Spotlight: Albus Brooks

What was your first experience with Young Life that really changed you, that got you to be doing it for 10 years?
~I grew up in LA and that's where I got involved with Young Life and I still remember my first experience.  There was a kid on my basketball team and he went to Young Life. I heard some people talking about it and I thought, "I'm in."  I just remember adults taking an interest in kids.  This leader ran up to me and grabbed me when I first got out of the car and was like, "Man, let's kick it, let's do this."  And the rest is history.  I believe that investing in our kids' future is going the change the outlook of cities, states, and even the country.  I've just enjoyed it, and now I'm seeing what's happening because we've just invested in a few.

How are Check Your Head and Young Life similar and different?
~ Well they are different because Young Life is faith-based, but they are very similar because they both teach leadership principles. I think that the thing I most love about both is the contact with kids.

What do you think, when you're teaching leadership principles, is the most difficult topic to get through to the majority of students?
~I think it is the idea of blazing a trail for yourself, and not going behind the masses.  If we can get kids to begin to blaze trails and see leadership qualities within themselves, no matter what their background or history- talk about a revolution! It's hard. No one said it would be easy. That's a part of our struggle, trying to allow kids to see who they really are. We saw that a little bit in Check Your Head this year.  It's kind of cool.

You always hear statements about how negative the media is today for our young people.  So with a decade of experience working with young people, do you think that those statements are true, that the media has gotten worse in their portrayal of life, and how do you think that affects kids? 
~Totally!  The average teenager watches 40-50 hours of TV a week, and plus being on the internet.  There's only 160 hours in the week.  So almost half the week is given to the media and with iPods, these kids are always plugged in.  Now I have a problem with the media because the media is always capitalizing on black folks. When I say capitalizing, I mean capitalizing on the struggle in inner cities. So my job is to unplug what's going on with the media and what's going on in this world and say, "Listen, you have a voice.  You don't have to be plugged into all this other stuff, what's your voice, and how will you contribute to change the world?"  So the media, man, it's crazy.  I can't believe how addicted we are to it, it's amazing.

Stasia Jones - East High School - Class of 2008

It is a partly sunny afternoon after school in May and I’m sitting with Stasia on the patio of Qdoba Mexican Grille on East Colfax Avenue. She sits at the table upright over her burrito, and openly expresses her love for guacamole. As we progress into the interview I am struck by Stasia’s confident and calm presence. She is relaxed back in her chair, intently focused on our conversation and when she speaks her voice is steady and smooth, her words adept, simply flowing out. Among a long list of favorite musical artists, she includes; Busta Rhymes, Common, Erykah Badu, India Arie, Talib Kweli, Mr. Laurie, and Chris Hayes. Between school and working two jobs, Stasia manages to fine some solace through her love of art, music and lyricism. As a natural MC, she addresses life situations. “What you’re going through as an adolescent, what you hope to see in your future. When I spit, it’s just whatever comes out. Like I’ll spit at the grocery store about some Coco Puffs, just whatever in the aisle.”

Stasia is mixed, Black and Puerto Rican and is originally from Brooklyn, NY. Growing up as the middle child in a family that includes her mother and eight brothers, Stasia was first introduced to writing by her mother. “I guess when I started writing, I didn’t really know I could write, but my mom suggested it. She said that I should just start to write because I used to be an angry child all the time. I didn’t know why a lot of things happened to me or to my family. I started writing, started enjoying it, so I started spitting and freestyling and drawing and dancing and painting. Getting into the whole arts thing.” Stasia doesn’t hesitate to inform me that she hasn’t always been one to turn her anger and hurt into artistic expression, “Y ou know the old Stasia woulda got up and fought, smashed some heads or something like that, but now I’m realizing that physical conflict isn’t always the best way to handle things.” I am not surprised by this, as Stasia is clearly a strong character. But she is refined and humble and shows wisdom that is beyond her years. I begin to wonder if she sees this in herself, if she knows that her message and her demeanor are genuinely inspiring. “I definitely want to inspire people, but I’m not here for some talent show. I’m not here to be entertainment, I just do what I do. I guess I just take stuff in and spit it out how I do to be original, to be individual, to be like me. I think people can relate to somebody just being themselves instead of rapping about money, cash, and clothes. I mean, I’m broke, sometimes I wear the same clothes.” Today she is wearing an oversized black t-shirt and jeans.

As a participant in Check Your Head at East High School, I am curious to know if the program has made an impact on her. She shares: “Some of the topics in the program brought up debate within myself about a lot of stuff I was accustomed to doing. But instead of getting defensive I thought, you know what? Maybe this is right maybe it will help.” I remember a more reserved, solemn Stasia from the beginning of the program, and in some ways have difficulty comparing that person to the person I am talking to. She gives the example, “Like for the lesson on supports, I said my only support was me, myself, and I. I didn’t really think I support or friends because a lot of times people think they know me but they have no idea. Things like that made me think, maybe I should express myself more and let people get to know me. It’s pretty cool.”

Before we leave I want to know, what Stasia would say if she had the chance to send a message to her peers and those who will come after her. She replies, “Do what you love, be individual, be a trend-setter, be like nobody else out there, be as original as you can. Originality and creativity slip so far through the grates.”

Send your stories to:
pkennedy@mhacolorado.org