The girls and young women of Covenant House have been inspiring me for years, with their bravery and determination in the face of dreary and often violent childhoods. Now, it turns out, they have also inspired Audra McDonald as she stars on Broadway in The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess, in a performance called "a major work of musical portraiture" by The New York Times.
The afternoon I saw the show, Audra, the four-time Tony Award winning actress, talked to me about how Bess struggles to leave behind drugs and violence. But first she has to believe in herself, and love herself. She doesn't think she is worthy of love until Porgy - a disabled beggar - helps her see her own dignity, her own value. At the show’s end, as the drugs and the violence begin to overshadow her life once again, Bess flees to the streets and away from the arms of Porgy. And as Bess takes that tragic turn, Audra told me she thinks about the scars and the taunts and the suffering that must have filled Bess’ childhood and corroded her self- esteem.
In Bess’ downfall I heard so many familiar echoes of the wrenching stories we hear all the time -- a potentially powerful teenager under the thumb of a criminal who is not good for her, the temptations of drugs and alcohol looming large when reality is too painful, the prevalence of violence, the commoditization of sex. The people of Catfish Row called Bess a “liquor-guzzlin slut.” Our girls have heard more demeaning, scarring names from a hundred voices, and, worst of all, from their families.
Speaking about Bess, Audra could be talking about the girls and young women at any one of our shelters.
"Even though there is a lot of pride, there’s very little self-esteem," she said of Bess in a recent interview. "She's reaching to be this fully-realized beautiful version of herself instead of this down-trodden, used-up, wasted version of herself that [her old boyfriend] sees her as."
Kids often come to Covenant House without ever hearing encouraging words from their parents, their schools, or the foster care system. As Jim White, executive director of Covenant House New York, puts it, “Most of our kids need rewiring. The way they think is wrong – they’ve heard so many bad things about themselves they don’t believe in themselves. Nothing is possible until that changes.”
Bess' chance for change comes in meeting Porgy, who loves her for who she is. Buoyed by his unstinting love, she tries to rise to his expectations. But sometimes it's a group of people who come together in the form of a place, rather than just a single person, who sees a kid's strength and believes in his or her future. Sometimes that belief is unspoken, shown in the act of providing food, shelter, safety, clean clothes, and open paths towards success. Often, it comes through a long conversation with a counselor, who shows a young person how strong they truly are, to have survived the streets, or the neglect, or the abuse, as long as they have.
Covenant House's mission is to treat young people with absolute respect and unconditional love. Basically, it's to be Porgy, to believe in kids who have stopped believing in themselves. As Audra said in another interview, "The power of love to heal is timeless."
I wish every kid had a Porgy in their lives. I wish we could reach every street kid and convince them of their goodness and potential. Then, the living would be easy, or at least easier, even for kids who never heard gentle lullabies, like "Summertime." Then, they'd come to believe,
One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky.
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