Dreams & Dreamers

Daren Jackson slipped out of his Sunday-best black suit opened the collar of his black button-down dress shirt and changed into a pair of khaki cargo shorts on the hottest day of the year last month. With a heat index of 106 degrees Fahrenheit it was a fitting climax for his Wilmington career a big bye-bye to his family friends and the supporters of the DREAMS Center for Arts Education that nurtured him to this point. This fall Jackson will leave the nest to join the ranks of the North Carolina School of the Arts.

He stood near an open window on the second floor of St. Marys Tileston Auditorium and looked over Fifth Avenue and the intersection of Ann Street that leads to DREAMS. He had come full circle first as a student at St. Marys and second as a DREAMer. His gaze bridged the distance back in time to his earliest memory of attending the arts after-school program in 2000.

“That was half my life ago. When I first went there it was for acting. They were doing improv exercises like Pretend you have gum on your shoes now pretend youre a cat now pretend youre 50 years old now pretend youre 100 years old now pretend youre 200 years old and I just fell down ” Jackson 16 says laughing.

From theatre he segued into music and when he met musician Laura McLean she became his rap coach songwriting instructor and CD producer giving him his first computer and his first bass guitar.

When he takes to the stage McLeans protg changes the energy in the room in the DREAMS Center sanctuary at the International Longshoremens Association hall during the annual holiday showcase at the University of North Carolinas Warwick Center Ballroom during the DREAMS Cabaret annual gala or at the proscenium at the Tileston Auditorium at St. Marys (on the hottest day of the year) while McLean runs his sound board.

For his farewell concert he streamed together original hip hop tunes like “Move On” with the UB40 cover “Red Red Wine” and Mos Defs “New World Water ” backed by live music performed by his peers and sang duets with his mother and muse Melinda Miles.

In the lobby he sold and autographed copies of his CD “Hungry Emcee ” and said “I wanted to do this just to do it but also because Im going to go to School of the Arts next year and I wanted to have a big blowout until we meet again Wilmington.”

Jacksons ascension to the School of the Arts is a first for DREAMS whose co-founder and executive director Tracy Wilkes developed the program to provide a creative outlet to disadvantaged youth who otherwise would not have access to an arts education. Now in its 11^th year DREAMS is outgrowing its headquarters having to turn students away each year while achieving and over-achieving its initial goals: DREAMers graduate from high school; DREAMers apply to college and attend undergraduate programs throughout the state. With Daren Jacksons departure the school observes yet another unprecedented milestone.

Occupying the center front row of Big Darens rap concert was Little Darrin Long 10 his two sisters Dyna 11 and Demiya 9 and their mother Jennifer Bellamy.

“Hey Darrin ” Jackson says slapping a high five. “Hey Daren ” Long replies.

Because of their aptitude for dance the Long children are among several DREAMers that attend The Dance Cooperative on 17^th Street (another home away from home) where they study advanced ballet and modern dance with Anne Firmender and other founding members of The Dance Cooperative.

“At DREAMS they get such a nice well-rounded education in all of the arts ” Firmender says. “Whenever DREAMS has any students that show potential in dance they recommend them to us so that they can study more intensely.”

Darrin who travels around his mothers home by sliding down the banister onto the top of the piano and lowering himself to the living room couch says he first woke up to dance through the film Honey the story of a young woman who wanted to open a hip hop studio to keep kids off the street. “When I was little ” says the 10-year-old “I played that movie and I danced to it over and over and over.”