CBS Channel 2 News Visits Rehearsal of STAND UP!

Click to enlarge

For some, Chicago’s Fenger High School has come to symbolize youth violence. Two of its students have been murdered over the course of the school year.
Now, CBS 2′s Dana Kozlov reports, one Fenger student is drawing attention — but for all of the right reasons.  The group of young performers spent their Sunday afternoon singing, “Raise up. Be heard.”

It’s a far cry from Fenger High School for 17-year-old Leo Allen. When not in class at that South Side school, this is how he spends much of his free time; rehearsing for a show called “Stand up! Change Teen Statistics.”
“This is a positive production written for teens by teens so we know what people want to hear,” Allen said.

Allen mentioned the show back in September, the week after his classmate, 16-year-old Derrion Albert, was beaten to death outside a Roseland community center.

It’s produced by the non-for-profit R.Ed.I. Arts and Education Foundation, which stands for Reach, Educate, Inspire. Its executive director hopes to bring the show and its young, diverse cast to high schools all over the state.

“They actually share their own personal stories, knowing that sharing their stories will be the basis for the creation of the show,” Kimberly Farah said.
The show’s director, Diana Martinez, said it will help because it makes kids feel like they’re not alone. It’s raw, she says, adding, “We touch on some pretty, um, not so nice subjects.”

The subjects include violence, drugs, self-esteem, suicide, depression, self-mutilation, racism and other topics not openly discussed.

At the end of each show, the group will offer guidance and resources to help facilitate conversation and to direct students to any help they may need. Leo Allen thinks the show’s message of hope, help and empowerment will resonate with his peers, including those at Fenger.”Be somebody different,” Allen said. “Everything can’t be the same forever. Change it.”

 ”He is tremendously impacted by the violence in his school and the problems in his school,” Farah said. “The sense that I get from Leo is that he most would like people not to give up.”

Farah says dozens of schools have called her, hoping to bring the production to them. But many don’t have the money to do so. She says the foundation is currently trying to raise money to change that and, she said, hopefully begin to make a difference.