When
the lights dim and everyone sits down inside and the performance does
start, however, it quickly becomes apparent this is not your average
teen performance event.

The subject matter covers social
issues from parental abandonment to gangs, violence, crime, racism and
drugs. The performances are poems and rap songs, and they are all
written by the teen performers themselves from personal experience.

This
is Teen Empowerment: a non-profit organization run by and for youths
aged 14-21. Its aim is to empower and inspire young people to be
leaders in positive social change. "It's all about peer leadership,"
Assistant Director Amanda Holm says.

Teen Empowerment hires
city youths from a wide variety of different social backgrounds. They
meet daily to discuss issues and then hold events such as this one,
where they recruit other teens to come witness and be a part of the
discussions in social awareness. The organization has been around for
17 years and also has centers in Boston, Egleston Square, Dorchester
and Rochester, New York.

"Their biggest thing is every piece is
something personal,' Holm says. "We don't ever want to be preaching to
other kids about 'don't do this, don't do that.' It's more like, 'this
is where I'm coming from, this is what I've gone through, here's why
it'll help you to learn about my experience.' It's always a 'we' thing,
instead of an 'us versus them' thing."

For many of the
performers Thursday, it was their first time in front of an audience.
John Norena, 14, read a poem about how it felt to grow up having had
his father abandon him. "I was sweating a little bit," he says. "But I
need to get it out of me. When I express it I feel pretty good." When
asked about his long-term vision for sharing such personal experiences,
he says, "I want people to know my story. My pieces have a message in
them, a real message."

Merlinda Petit, 15, also performed
Thursday. Although she has been working for Teen Empowerment for three
years, she also still gets nerves before a show. "It is nerve-racking,"
she says. "But at the end of the day you're glad you did it, because
even if it was just one person you reached out there." When asked about
her long-term goals for the project, she says, "I'm trying to limit
ignorance and spread knowledge."