E-MAIL
PRINT
"All of my music is family friendly and has a positive message," Michael "Ras Attitude" Goodwin said Saturday before shooting on Strand Street in Frederiksted.
Shot around Arthur Richards Junior High School, Point Elizabeth and parts of Frederiksted, the video sends a positive message about young men and women reaching their full potential. About 40 area kids took part, including Goodwin's own children.
The Stop the Bleeding Foundation sponsored the video, with help from Island Vibes Video and Silhouette Entertainment. Stop the Bleeding is a nonprofit organization founded by Cheryl Francis, wife of Lt. Gov. Gregory Francis, with the aim of reducing childhood neglect and abuse and providing young men and women in the territory with a more positive direction.
"At this point, we have to take a multi-layered approach to reducing violence," Semaj Johnson of Stop the Bleeding said Monday after the video shoot was over. Music is one of the more effective ways of getting a message through to young teenagers, in part because it has a "cool" factor that kids are drawn towards. The same message would largely be ignored if it came in the form of adults in positions of authority just lecturing children, Johnson said.
"Music reaches out to young people," he said. "As much as it may sound glib to talk of things being 'cool,' that is what kids are about."
According to Johnson, violence on V.I. streets arises in part because young men in particular need to prove themselves to their peers and be "cool" and because they do not know how to respond when their pride and dignity are attacked. So helping kids learn ways to manage conflict and deal with stressful home, school and social situations is crucial to preventing violent crime in the long run, he said.
With music "we are hoping we can reach youth in a different way and help shift the culture," he said.
"In a sense, we are combating a violent culture," he said. "Violently asserting yourself is sort of the norm, and if you don't respond that way, you are not seen as cool nor as strong. So we want to get the message out that you show your strength by demonstrating your maturity and that violence shows weakness, not strength."
Now that shooting is over, the video will go into post-production and may be ready around the end of this year, he said.
"First we will show it on local television," he said. "But depending on the final screening, we would like to get it onto Tempo (Caribbean music television station)."
This is at least the second kid-friendly reggae video shot on St. Croix and featuring local youth since the beginning of the year. In March, international reggae vocalist Toussaint recorded a video of his new, socially conscious song "Be You," with award-winning St. Croix documentary film maker Johanna Bermudez-Ruiz and Laurent "Tippy" Alfred of St. Croix's I Grade Records. Though unrelated to one another, both songs focus upon a positive message for young Virgin Islanders, and both videos prominently feature area youth.