Cavata Clothing Company

A few weeks ago my friend, Teryn, asked me to come and sing a few songs to open up a poetry reading.  This wasn’t an ordinary poetry slam, though; Teryn is the director of a program in Lynn, Massachusetts that supports homeless teen mothers and their children.  I had heard so much about the program and the girls so I was more than happy to be a part of it.  Some of these girls had their babies when they were as young as 14 or 15 so to hear them recite poems about their families, children and hardships was an extremely deep experience.  Even if they couldn’t articulate exactly what they wanted to say with the right words you could feel the emotion break though any grammatical or linguistic barriers that were present.  There were even a few girls who could barely speak English so they had their Spanish-written poems translated by other girls.  Still, even through broken English, these girls came out of their metaphorical shells and spoke from the heart.  Its amazing what people will express when they write a song, a poem, create a painting or a dance; its like everything they were too afraid to say in a conversation suddenly pours from them when its interpretted through art!





I had been going through a bit of a “blaaaah” period up until that day; you know, a few ups and downs, not exactly sure where the road was leading.  It wasn’t until I stopped focusing on my own problems and opened myself up to this new experience that I felt more happiness by helping others through art.  We all feel a little ”blaaah” sometimes but I highly recommend the next time you feel like you’re not quite sure what to do with your life or you have a problem you don’t know how to deal with, take a step back and practice some compassion.  For me, music has always been my way of communicating exactly how I felt and singing for those girls and listening to their words created a uniquely touching experience we all felt good about.  But this doesn’t mean you HAVE to use music or art.  If you like sports, cars, politics, have religion, etc., use that!  Sometimes when we step back and broaden our perspective it helps us see an even bigger picture in the long run.  Thank you, Teryn!  I had an amazing time and I’ll definitely be coming back for another visit!





-Lori