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Aurora — Jerrick McKinney on Wednesday went to his old middle school to convey a serious message, and the 350 students to whom he preached paid rapt attention, at times laughing and at others nodding seriously in affirmation.
"There was a time when I thought I had a couple of good friends," McKinney told the students at Cowherd Middle School, on Aurora's east side. "They were gangbangers, and they did all the things gangbangers do."
"They passed me a gun, and I wanted it at the time," he added. But he said he reconsidered after taking the gun and hurled it as far away as possible.
"My hat was tipped to the right at the time," he said, referring to his status as a gang wannabe. "I just tipped it straight, and I walked away."
Most of the youths in the audience nodded knowingly. They accepted McKinney's account, because they knew not long ago he faced the same pressures they now face when he attended Cowherd before graduating and joining MWAH!, or Messages Which Are Hopeful!, based in Aurora.
McKinney's account came toward the end of a one-hour presentation by MWAH!, which since 1993 has been performing its rap, jazz dance and rock ensembles before middle school and high school audiences.
The skits that the high school students perform between dance and song numbers dramatize problems students face, like young men pressuring girls for sex, drug users attempting to get friends to take a toke off a joint, or gang bangers pressuring one another to blast away at rival members.
The students are encouraged to participate, and adult role models attend. The students and adults break into groups to discuss possible solutions to the problems faced by children in schools.
"All the performance does is set the stage," said Ray Moffitt, a social worker who is MWAH!'s producer and has been running similar troupes since he formed the first one in Maywood in 1983. "It starts a process in which people from the community work together to solve problems."
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