Activists work to curb Lexington’s gun violence by starting young

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - With homicide numbers at an all-time high in Lexington, questions about how to stop the violence have dominated conversations.

One Lexington Director Devine Carama and other community activists are working to curb that violence by starting young.

Friday morning, students at Crawford Middle School shared poems and raps that they wrote about gun violence.

It was not an easy assignment for some of these 8th Graders at Crawford Middle School. Many of them have been impacted personally by gun violence and the challenge for them was to write about that, express how it’s impacted them and then share that with their classmates.

“They’re living it. They’re experiencing it. And, so, we can’t hide from it,” Carama said. “So, we got to talk about it and we got to get them comfortable talking about it.”

Each 8th grader wrote a poem or a rap for class and then performed it in front of their classmates.

Carama said this is the second year for the program and, thanks to donations from Soul N Rose and Love Always, each of the students who participated received a hoodie and had the chance to take home a book from the Luna Library.

Carama hopes the program can teach these students to use their voices to start making a change.

“Music and poetry help you to heal from within,” Carama said. “It’s therapy for yourself, but then it also gives you a voice and a platform to uplift others.”

One of those 8th graders told us it was very impactful to hear her classmates talk about this topic because they are the ones who need to start making the change.

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