“I had never been able to apologize to my mother for the crimes 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 too ashamed 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 Davide, one of the boys detained in the Paternostro Juvenile Penitentiary Institute in Catanzaro, who had the opportunity to shed a burden as intimate as it was important thanks to music.
“Now I will be better”
“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 therapeutic value of music
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. 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.
“Music – explains Lucariello, rapper, 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: he is able to judge it and understand it. When the strongest and most negative emotions and experiences remain unexpressed, they become time bombs destined to explode.”
According to 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.
Sorry Mom was produced by Krizoo. Listen to it
