Endurance, Music, and Changing Hearts

My mom is kind. Last year during this time of the year, my mom saw a man on the median of the road panhandling. I was in the car with her. The first instinct of most people would be to avoid him, because it was late and dark out.

She saw him, and like Jesus, she saw he was like a sheep without a shepherd. So she bought chikfila and made a decision to find him. I say find him, because he must have moved due to how cold it was. Furthermore, it was dark. Fewer people were probably giving him money. Anyway, we drive down prince William parkway and search for him behind the target, and finally, we find him in an alley next to a dumpster. She stays in the car, and I hand him the chikfila. This kid, not a man, looked like he’s in college.We learned that his name was Malachi, and his parents had kicked him out because he became a Christian.

Grace Reid is special. She makes the piano speak, just like she did to Malachi. And, one of the defining traits of my mom that I want to talk about is endurance. Endurance is special, and our country needs more of it. We can not give up, which is why I want to highlight a community I am working with that needs more attention and support, and it’s in our nation’s capital.

According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center, 3 in 10 children in Ward 7 lived in poverty in 2023. Furthermore, 65 percent of households are headed by a single mother in Ward 7. When you put the two statistics together, there’s many families with one provider, and these families are most likely below the poverty line. This is generational trauma.

This is a map showing where the historically Black neighborhood of Deanwood is.

The graphs from the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Kids Count Data Center, show that the situation is slowly improving from 2019 to 2023, but the numbers are still too high. The percentage of single, female headed households has only dropped from 77% to 65%. This is an example of the effects and trauma that comes from having been treated like property. From one generation to the next, the real people, people like Malachi, suffer from the decisions of people who did not have to suffer the consequences of their actions. This is generational trauma, trauma passed down from one mother, to the next.

That’s why nonprofits like Strategies To Elevate People DC exist.

They mentor individuals and families. They cosponsor back to school events. They invest in the community.

Please check out their website: https://www.stepdc.org/news---media

Meek Earth Studio is so honored to partner with STEP DC for our forthcoming concert: The Deanwood Concert.

Welcome Concert Goer & Community Supporter,

On Jan 17th from 8pm to 9:15pm Eastern Standard Time, Meek Earth Studio in partnership with STEP DC(Their Website) will raise funds to feed our neighbors--families in the Deanwood area through your concert ticket. 100% of the base ticket goes to providing meals to families in a food desert in our nation's capital. Deanwood is a historically black neighborhood in Ward 7, and this intimate concert directly supports them. You get an amazing night of music. Families get multiple meals, and you get to see exactly how it happened post-concert.

Zeponic Farms(Their Website) and members of their day program will help us deliver the food to a food bank in Ward 7, Hughes Memorial United Methodist Church's Food Pantry(Their Website). Zeponic Farms employs adults with special needs, and we will purchase as much of their fresh kale as we can. Hughes Memorial UMC's Food Pantry(Their Website), under their Missions Ministry, gives away free groceries on the last Saturday of each month from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm. No sign up is required for their patrons. We have coordinated with them to find out what food their patrons prefer and what they are running low on, so we can supplement their ministry for those in need.

This is an exclusive, live-streamed concert event featuring the pianist and composer, Grace J. Reid (Her Website) and the vocalist/dancer Suna(Her Instagram). 

I am so honored to be doing this work, and I hope you can attend, because it’s important to endure. We need hope. We need the expectation that things will work our. We need to expect good things to happen to people who need them. Our country is better when we work together to solve our problems and endure for the blessing that is to come.

$35 — The MEALS TICKET (Meals & Entertainment)

$75 — THE SUPPORTER TICKET (Impact + Investment)