Opinion: DSO and Detroit kids pair on COVID

They are a third of Detroit’s population.

They are the future of our city.

They could be in trouble.

And we’re not talking enough about them and the traumatic chaos that many live in.

I’m talking about our children.

Nearly 300,000 children in America lost a parent or care-giver in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Many of those deaths were in Detroit and left children behind.

And soon, the children became imprisoned in misery in their homes without the escape of school, sports and friends.

Before long, they were viewed mostly as pawns in an economic game of chess: Getting them back to school to get folks back to work, trying to meet school attendance goals for funding, making sure kids moved from one grade to the next.

But none of that was normal. Life is not normal yet. And while we were moving them around, did we bother to ask them how they were doing?

Health care and medical providers as well as school officials are charting what clearly is a mental health crisis. I see it. I know many people do. After writing extensively about trauma in my last project for the Free Press four years ago, I wanted to give children an outlet. And because of my new job as director of arts and culture for the City of Detroit, I knew it had to be done creatively.

So my office asked young poets from Inside Out Literary Arts to mentor students from the Detroit Public Schools Community District to write their hearts.

Then we asked the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to pair musicians with the best of these students for a special program called “Duets,” featuring young poets and seasoned musicians performing together onstage of Orchestra Hall.

The project was cathartic for the students, and inspiring for adults.

"I think just the initial vision of bringing students together to write and to feel that sense of community … was really, really vitally important," said Alise Alousi, director of school and community partnerships. "Seeing the students be in person at the DSO felt like we were all coming back into the world. And their voices could shine in that space alongside these world class musicians. Seeing them engage with the musicians, engage with each other in person was just perfect."

The Duets program became that way to engage, thanks to the Kresge Foundation and Wendy Lewis Jackson, who heads the foundation's Detroit program office.

“During the pandemic, in many ways, we were surrounded by silence, and the importance of having young people elevate their voices (and) have greater agency through the arts, this was a perfect opportunity to do that,” Jackson said.

Their voices. That is what the children want us to hear most. That is what adults need to hear, and understand, because we will be bequeathing them the pandemic and more. So we better work harder to ensure they are ready.

My hope is that everyone, particularly adults who serve children and know children, pays more attention to how the pandemic is affecting them. Because the only normal life that may come afterward will be determined by them. The policies we live by will be determined by them. The economy that defines us will be determined by them. So we better be determined to hear them, and help them.

The Duets program will air at 12:30 p.m. Friday, April 14 on WDIV-TV Local 4 after the noon news, and available Friday after the broadcast at detroitmi.gov/ace (detroitartsandculture.com).

Rochelle Riley is the Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit.