ATLANTA — An analysis of the most recent GBI crime data shows a disturbing pattern: The number of assaults, thefts and drug arrests among teens is increasing.
Nearly 10,000 arrests in 2021 were among teens forced to face the justice system.
Now, an innovative new program in Atlanta is teaching kids how to deal with pain and violence in their lives through poetry.
Pain on Paper is teaching kids how to write their own life stories and use them to create art, something Founder Pezo Johnson hopes will help write a new life story for teens in Atlanta.
Among those the program has touched is Jordan Walker, who said that before poetry, his life didn't have rhyme or reason.
"Chaos, absolute chaos, I was a knucklehead," he said. "My father didn't want me so much he took an abandonment charge and left me outside the jailhouse."
Before he found a beat, Walker bounced from group home to group home in the city.
"When he (Johnson) first approached me about the program, I thought it was goofy. I thought it was stupid. And then he said something to me about poetry, and I looked at him like he had five eyeballs. Because I felt disrespected," Walker said of the moment he was introduced to the program.
But he was surprised to find safety in the stanzas.
"That structure, that discipline, it made me think a second time as opposed to going off emotion and just energy. Instinct," Walker added.
Now, the program is reaching teens such as Sean Tyler Gibbs, who shared some of his own verses below.
About the experience of joining Pain to Paper, Gibbs added "You're uncomfortable. You have to express yourself, be afraid."
Ultimately, facing that fear head-on is empowering kids in Atlanta and Johnson is trying to teach kids across Atlanta to hold that beat; and to use words instead of weapons.
"I just wanted to give kids a couple of seconds; impulsive decisions drive a lot of this behavior, so I wanted to give kids a couple of seconds.," he said Johnson.
The program teaches kids ages 10 to 16 in Atlanta how to get their feelings out, giving them a moment to write their own life stories.
"These kids are out here willing, these kids are out here, and they'll kill you for nothing! But if they had some structure, if they had some incentive, things could be different," Walker noted, adding that, with Johnson, they're drafting a new life story.