LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wearing shiny heels, a thrifted dress and a red rose in her hair, Deoujahne Darc belted out an original song on a small, makeshift stage in the heart of Los Angeles’ Skid Row.
“I saw the Lord in the face of a homeless man,” she sang, as the crowd swayed along.
The 26-year-old’s performance was one of many at what's believed to be Skid Row’s first talent show on Saturday, featuring song and dance from a dozen homeless or formerly homeless performers.
The downtown LA neighborhood has one of the largest homeless encampments in the U.S., with approximately 45,000 homeless people this year. While Skid Row has become synonymous with abject poverty, the several dozen blocks of tents and debris is just a few blocks away from upscale restaurants, office skyscrapers and tourist destinations.
Many of the performers sang or rapped songs they had written themselves. One performer read Scripture from the Bible that he was particularly moved by. Another covered a rap song to honor a friend who died from gun violence. While some passersby only stopped to grab food, others stayed to clap or sing along as the mood changed with a lively rendition of Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
At one point, a fight broke out outside — as they often do on Skid Row — but the performers inside the church didn't seem to notice. Right outside an entrance decorated with white-and-gold balloons, mounds of trash bags and cardboard boxes piled up on the street corner. A man slept through the commotion on a pile of cushions on the ground, hiding from the heat in the shade of the building.
Ladelle Handy, 45, opted to sing and dance to an original song. He spun and moved around on stage wearing a leather jacket over a sleek blazer, confidence emanating as the crowd cheered. His friends grooved along to the music and gave him a hug when he finished.
Handy grew up dancing in Chicago and moved to LA to pursue a music career 10 years ago, but has been homeless since he was evicted in February.
During his time on Skid Row, he slipped into drug use and depression, he said, and he wasn’t sure if he would even perform last weekend because things weren't going well. But he was energized by the other performers and knew he had to get on stage.
His performance Saturday was dedicated to his mother, who was killed in Chicago in 2001, he said.
“Showcasing my gift that is a God-given talent, I know I have it,” Handy said. “I just wanted to make sure that the world remembers that I have it.”
The talent show was organized by Rev. Gary Carr, who holds a weekly service in the area at Lifeway Church and saw that the residents of the community had more to offer than what Skid Row has come to represent.
“People give up on the disenfranchised, thinking that they’re worthless,” Carr said. “They have value, and through the talent show today you can see — it’s a life story there, it’s a struggle.”
Carr came up with the idea to highlight people’s talents with a sister church, which helped sponsor the event. They knew another local pastor’s weekly open mic was popular among the residents, and there would be many interested in performing.
They selected winners who would continue to meet regularly to develop their talents and put together a performance for Easter.
“This is an avenue to a new beginning,” Carr said.
The 69-year-old said he had been homeless himself for nearly 30 years, spending time on the streets between spending time in prison. In 2009, he said he was called into the ministry.
While Carr became a pastor and worked at the Union Rescue Mission, one of the oldest shelters in the city, many of his friends remain homeless.
He reminds them, and others that come to him, that there's still hope.
“These people really know me, they knew me when I’m at my worst,” he said. “And they know what the Lord has done in my life.”
For Darc, the Skid Row stage was a platform for her to share her music and inspire others who have gone through similar struggles.
She was born and raised in Los Angeles and ended up homeless in Oregon after a troubled relationship. With the help of a domestic violence shelter, she returned to California. She spent more than a year and a half on the streets and at a women’s shelter before she found stable housing.
“This is the realest I’ve seen people be, the good, the bad, the ugly,” Darc said.
Even the green dress she wore for her performance had significance — it was one of the first pieces of clothing she purchased with a friend at a Goodwill when she landed in a shelter in California. Finding housing and buying the dress felt like being a mermaid coming onto land from the ocean, she said.
“Like I just had to learn to walk again,” she said.
Darc has been singing since she was 4 years old and said she has self-produced seven albums.
She performed her original song, “Grace & Mercy,” to show others that everyone is deserving of such virtues as fellow humans, and she wants her voice to be able to heal others, she said.
“Instead of me speaking I’d rather just put it into the pen, put it into my music and give it to the world that way,” Darc said.
