“If the Street never used to talk, I woulda shake your hand.
If the street never used to talk, I woulda come to your father funeral…I would drop your daughter to school for you. But these streets does talk…these streets does scream to you, to me, to touch and not feel.”
-Terriq and Terryl B.
When 18-year-old twin brothers Terriq and Terryl B, as they prefer to be called, wrote the piece titled, Doh Touch Meh, for the speed category and final round of the 2Cents Movement's Raise The Bar (RTB) annual secondary schools spoken word slam competition, it was furthest from their minds it would receive the kind of attention it has, since posted to social media on October 23, by the school they attend, Arima North Secondary.
To date, the video in which the boys are seen in their school uniforms in a classroom setting, engaged in a theatrical spoken word performance, has reaped over 100,000 views and has even been reposted by distinct soca artistes like Ian “Bunji Garlin” Alvarez and Akeem “Preedy” Chance.
But, the rave does not just seem to be about the boys' performance, rather the message it sought to convey which is evident in the hundreds of comments posted by some viewers.
Contrary to popular belief, by the depiction of these brothers, thugs have a hidden compassion—a silent voice no one thinks exist—a voice that says “I want to talk with my friend like old times again, but he is in that gang and I am in this gang. And we are at war, so I can't let them no, I still care.”
The Maloney-based pair articulates this in a nutshell, during an interview with the Sunday Guardian at Guardian Media's office. They said the message was guided by the category title-extremism and violence and was inspired by true-life events.
“Growing up in a community where crime is present, we would have witnessed different crimes in the past. We would have used that to somewhat influence our piece and to help us come up with the ideas and the words,” says Terryl.
“And how to bring about this message in the simplest of words as best as we can, so that persons on the outside could get a better understanding of what persons in a gang experience," Terriq adds.
They reiterated it is an actual reality, noting that the two characters in the piece demonstrate how two friends would have grown up together and because of gang-violence, that friendship has to be torn apart.
Referring to a stanza in the piece where the characters talk about longing to shake each other's hands but cannot. Terryl emphasised, “Something so simple as shaking a hand you can't do because of gang violence.”
When Sunday Guardian visited the Arima North Secondary School on Friday, the school's visual arts teacher, Seon Thompson, said the school was exceptionally proud of the brothers. Thompson said the two, who had only been involved in the art and exercise of the spoken word just little over a year, were naturals, having a knack for the art and proving so by being steadfast, grasping every opportunity to further enhance this talent.
Asked if he saw students, particularly male students, from such schools getting involved in an expressive art such spoken word, as a creative tool for them to divert their anger, frustrations and conflicts, Thompson says, “Most certainly.”
“Spoken word deals with pertinent issues, such as violence, domestic violence, drugs, etc. Hopefully, these brothers can use the spoken word to train other youths on how to take these issues they may be struggling with and transform it verbally through spoken word. And hopefully, it can send a message out there,” Thompson adds.
In addition to the social media success, their piece has gained, it has also taken Terriq and Terryl and the school's spoken word team- The A Team, to this year's finals in the RTB, competition, after beating eight schools in the East-zone. The boys are keeping their fingers crossed that at the final performance to be held at the San Fernando Central Secondary School, on November 8, 2019, they would bring home the first place award.
