CHILDHOODSLOST CHRONICLES Opens Window Into The Lives Of Philly Teens, March 11-12

The Childhoodslost Foundation is letting audiences take a peek at the lives of local youth with a new play, Childhoodslost Chronicles. This new theatre piece developed by the foundation in partnership with Children of the Arts Foundation and Dollars-n-Sense Records, LLC, features local teens performing vignettes tied to gun violence. The piece is written by Bilal Islam, who also directs. This piece runs March 11-12 at the Arts Bank. 601 South Broad Street. Tickets cost $35 and are available online at https://thechronicles.eventbrite.com/

The Childhoodslost Chronicles stage-play uses vignettes from the daily lives of youth to highlight just how quickly and how regularly youth look for and obtain access to guns and how often these experiences produce traumatic results. As our youth seek out attention, affection, material status, and "street cred," their means to an end, often involves gun violence. Each story in this production explores scenarios that youth oftentimes find themselves caught up in. This production offers a look at it before it happens and some of the serious outcomes of poor choices. The cast features students from several local high schools who play powerful roles.

In the first vignette, "Like father like son," a son desperately wishes for his father's love but finds himself hurting his mother just as his father did. In the second, "Robbery," a teenager steals a gun from his uncle then goes on a crime spree. In "SM," an argument on social media between girls turns out to be more than words. "The Gun" tells the story of a young boy who finds a while walking home from school. The stories are interwoven to tell one powerful story of the destruction a gun in the hands of youth can bring about.

"It is our belief that through productions like these we can present real life issues," said Kaliek Hayes of Childhoodslost Foundation. "Before young people go through them, we can show outcomes before they have to face them. Ultimately we hope to create a dialogue among young people with the hopes they will use this as a learning tool and be better equipped if they are ever in these situations."