General Drug Awareness & Performance

SNAP in conjunction with Luton Borough Council Arts department and performance writer Charlie Dark of Renaissance One worked with Young People who attended the Dallow Learning Community Centre and the Orchard Centre. The two seperate groups became involved in three workshops and rehersals prior to their final perforrmance at the launch weekend at the Hat Factory an arts venue in Luton.

At the first workshop the males were provided with folders that contained the dates and outcome of workshops, SNAP drugs fact sheet, information on cigarettes and alcohol, FRANK fact sheets on substances and LDAP poster with local support agencies for young people. The group read out loud FRANK fact sheets, looked at the drug box and became aware of the effects of substances in connection to themselves, friends and family.

Charlie Dark facilitated games, which helped the group to focus on their listening and observation skills. In addition to making the group become aware that poetry need not rhyme and to play with words creatively by introducing role-play, which made the participants aware of the words, associated with specific actions. SNAP photographed documentary shots for a collage to show the group the following week.

In the second workshop the group word stormed the different names for drugs and explored how substance use would make them feel and want to do if they, a friend or family member choose to take drugs. The group also looked at the drug box again and used the drug box in a role play for a photo shoot in which the group role enacted a group of friends having fun, someone acting as a drug dealer, exchanging money with the gang for the drug box,untill being arrested and standing with their hands against the wall, whilst being searched. After the photo shoot the group worked with Charlie Dark in putting together lyrics from the word storm and the group came up with this after working in pairs:

Stay away from the drugs

Ain't no need for the buns*.
Listen up this ain't no game,
This ain't no fun.
Listen up we got something to say,
Before your gone…
and your time is done.

People take drugs to be cool
Act bad, be gangsters and be cruel.
Take no rubbish from the school
I'm a bad man , I'm a fool.
Different faces, different places
But all at the same places.

Shaking hands, runny nose
Bloodshot eyes, dirty clothes.
They think they are all that,
But they are as small as a rat.
They cant face life,
They cant deal with strife

Chorus: Stay away from the drugs
Aint no need for the buns.
Listen up this aint no game,
This ain't no fun.
Listen up we got something to say,
Before your gone…
and your time is done.

The pain and anger you will receive
That you we will tell you, you will not believe.
Love and friendship you will lose.
Wasting your life by drinking booze.
Batta, Crack, Brown, Smack,
Charlie Coke and Cocaine.
Messing with drugs is no game
Believe me brother, you will go insane

It will hurt it, will kill,
If you do it you will pay the bill.
It's as easy as taking a pill.
Take my advice , it will help you in life,
I will be precise,
SAY NO TO DRUGS AND GET A LIFE

Chorus: Stay away from the drugs
Ain't no need for the buns.
Listen up this ain't no game,
This ain't no fun.
Listen up we got something to say,
Before your gone…
and your time is done.

I've seen people in Bury Park,
In fast cars with neon's and Bling Bling alloys,
Smoking Crack with spiky hair
And rude boy daddy hair cuts
They think they are bad.
I saw this Asian crew smoking weed,
But they wasted their lives-

WHAT LIVES!!
They aint got no life
All they do is live on the streets,
Nodding their heads to the desi fly beats
They will never succeed.
Don't they know, but they don't

Chorus: Stay away from the drugs
Aint no need for the buns.
Listen up this aint no game,
This ain't no fun.
Listen up we got something to say,
Before your gone…
and your time is done.

Some drugs are illegal
And some are not.
Some hurt like needles
and make head brain pop.
Some get addicted
And some find it hard to stop.

People use them to get…
The gangsta paradise,
and filling champagne.
Fast cars come from drug dealing.
Cold chains ice…
Are they robbing or are they stealing.


Chorus: Stay away from the drugs
Aint no need for the buns.
Listen up this aint no game,
This ain't no fun.
Listen up we got something to say,
Before your gone…
and your time is done.
SAY NO TO DRUGS AND GET A LIFE!

MARLOW CREW AKA Ashfaq, Saquib, Raheel & MC Chancy
*Buns meaning drugs for smoking e.g. cannabis, heroin or crack/cocaine.

Three workshops took place at Lewsey Farm Learning Resource Centre where two female Asian students from the Orchard Centre took part in exploring words, lifestyle, culture and substance use. At the start of the workshops the students were reluctant to create a piece of performance poetry or even perform to the public .Charlie Dark enabled the females to talk about themselves in relation to their own senses taste, smell, sight, touch, and aural. This exercise worked well as the following verses where drawn from the thought shower:

Are You From Challney?

Sometimes my life is a STRUGGLE
Sometimes my life is a task
I'd like to share this with somebody ,
But there is NOBODY TO TRUST
But I'm used to it.
Sometimes it makes me SICK,
Coz I'm going through hell and nobody notices.
I think I will runaway,
That will give them something to say.
Perhaps with me gone,
Then that's one problem out of the way.
I think I'm going INSANE,
God take me back to the days when life wasn't so complicated,
This life man I hate it.

I remember when I was a little nipper
My closest friends were Pooh Bear, Piglet and Tigger .
But now I'm am bigger and every time I feel like cussing,
I walk out the door and take a trip to my cousins.
She is the only one who listens,
She knows me down to a tee
She's wicked she went to university.
On the outside I'm tough
But on the inside I'm like a teddy
Just soft and cuddly
And nothing to say.
But in the hands in the wrong company
Their ways and influences bring out the thug in me
But this way none can make a mug out of me.
But still there is one or two boys
Who think they can take me for a ride
But boy once you piss me off
I'll be the one saying Goodbye.

In my culture I was told
to sit there and look cute.
But the thing is I drink, I smoke
And do all the things I'm supposed to do.
Don't get me wrong CULTURE is important to me
But I don't know why
It's the simplest things in life that make me CRY.

I'm just a BAD GIRL
Proud of who I am
But still stuck in two worlds
Mum said I should have been a boy
and my brother should have been a girl.
Mum! Its not my fault I do the things I do
I do them for me and not for you.
Still my mum isn't to bad, I never used to listen
I'm glad I do now
Coz I should have went to prison.

I've got a lot to say but not enough time to tell
I'm looking forward to this freedom and getting out of this HELL.

Rahana & Shireen ages 16

The young women evaluated their work by saying, "we enjoyed it otherwise we wouldn't have kept coming".
A teacher added that they would have voted with their feet and not attended if they had not enjoyed the workshops.