“I had never been able to apologize to my mother for the crimes I committed; not at the time of arrest, not at the trial and not even at the interviews in IPM. I don’t know why I couldn’t say it. I was ashamed too much of the pain I had made her feel… or maybe a part of me, knowing that my mother would forgive me, thought she didn’t deserve it. Rap set me free.”. These are the words of Davidone of the boys detained inside the Paternostro Juvenile Penitentiary Institute Catanzarowho had the opportunity to shed a weight as intimate as it was important thanks to music.
The song
“Sorry mom” is a song that Davide, aka Davo, wrote with the support of educators and other boys and girls during the rap workshops of the Permanent Cultural Presidium, a project of CCO – Crisi Come Opportunità. In Calabria, the two weekly meetings with the kids are led by Christian Zuin, Nancy Cassalia and Giuseppe Fazzari, and coordinated by Francesco Carlo, known as Kento, famous Italian rapper, senior trainer of the rap workshops in the CCO IPMs.
“Now I will be better” is Davo’s promise to his mother. A perfect example of the importance of having an outlet for those who find themselves in difficult situations: a positive weapon, music, which CCO and the institutions it collaborates with use to offer new opportunities to young people who think they don’t have more.
The numbers in the IPM and the testimonies of the protagonists
There are 516 minors and young adults detained in Italian penitentiary institutions at the beginning of 2024, the highest figure recorded in the last 10 years[1]. For CCO – Crisis Come Opportunity, it is vital to provide boys and girls in custody with concrete stimuli to face what they experience with serenity and see the future full of opportunities.
“The music – explains Lucariellorapper, trainer and member of CCO – has a great capacity for sublimation and therefore a therapeutic value. The moment something is told it’s like looking at it from the outside: you can judge and understand it. When the strongest and most negative emotions and experiences remain unexpressed, they become time bombs destined to explode.” Second Kento, “music is an extremely positive weapon, which CCO and the institutions it collaborates with use to offer new opportunities to girls and boys who think they no longer have them”. This is the profound purpose of CCO – Crisis as Opportunity: to restore hope to those who have stumbled, rebuilding themselves and finding themselves every day, step by step. In the IPM of Catanzaro the Permanent Cultural Presidium is supported by the San Zeno Foundation, the Alta Mane Italia Foundation and the Con il Sud Foundation. cuss Mamma was produced by Krizoo.
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