Everyone remembers Columbine. But how many school shootings do you remember afterward? Odds are, they’ve started to run together. Issues like that, coupled with a spike in youth crime, makes Monday night’s showing of “Enough!” at the Kennedy Center all the more poignant.
“Enough!” is a collection of six short plays written by teenagers from around the country, introducing their perspective on gun violence and how it impacts society. All of them are about providing perspective, understanding and humanity to a difficult subject.
Niarra Bell, 18, of Hampton, Virginia, wrote about an encounter between a police officer and a young man.
“The interaction very quickly jumps stakes,” she said. But then the scene freezes at what could become a life-changing moment. “We get to uncover a little more about the scene that’s happening. Normal day-to-day life, we don’t get to slow down. We don’t get to pause in those high-intensity situations, but my play is just forcing us to and seeing what happens if you take a few more moments before tragedy.”
She said it was inspired by her own frustration with the vilification of police officers, where it can often be distilled to cops versus young Black men.
For Justin Washington, of Rochester Hills, Michigan, his play was inspired by the music industry and the instances of gun violence that have wrecked the lives of promising young artists. But on the issue of gun violence as a whole, he said it’s something impacting his generation in ways others before haven’t had to deal with.
“So it’s kind of upon us to speak on it, and see what we can change about it. Because at the end of the day, we’re passing this to the next generation, and the next generation,” said Washington.
Is it an issue his generation can impact?
“That’s a good question,” he said. “It really just depends on how we are influenced, because I feel like a lot of the things we learn, we learn from other people. People older than us. So we take on the values that we learned from other people, then obviously, the cycle is going to continue. But we need that generation to just kind of like cut it off and be like, ‘no, we’re sticking on this.'”
“I want people to want to protest. I want people to genuinely want to stand up and be passionate about an issue and not just become complacent … and be like, ‘OK, this happens every day,'” said 17-year-old Pepper Fox, of Louisville, Kentucky. “It shouldn’t happen every day, obviously. And I want people to want to be the reason that stops and not just want other people to do it.”
This is the first play Fox has ever written, and shows the impact of a series of violent incidents happening inside a 911 dispatch center.
“I think that we’re going to be one of the ones to get the closest to” solving the issue, she said. “I don’t know if it’s something that can be 100% stopped at this point. I think we can get somewhere comfortable with it.”
How does she feel about seeing the first play she ever wrote performed at the Kennedy Center?
“Seeing people up there saying my words just feels like a dream. Honestly, it doesn’t feel like it’s actually happening,” said Fox. “It’s the freaking Kennedy Center. Yeah, it’s a really big deal. It’s awesome.”
Washington said when he got the call saying his play was going to be performed, he was rendered speechless.
“He (director Michael Cotey) had to keep asking if I was still there, because I was lost for words,'” said Washington. “It’s validating in a good way. It makes you feel like what you’re doing has a platform and it’s making a difference.”
The show starts Monday night at 7 p.m.
