#otrch

da'janae

when you ask a group of kids what they’d do if they suddenly had one million dollars, you learn a lot about them.

when you ask the kids of children's creative corner (with the intent of using these ideas to make a film with them), the first response, from every single one of them, independently, is to help their mommas and their aunties and their cousins. they want to pay their rents for them, and buy them cars, and get them new clothes, and on.

to make any progress beyond this point, you have to assure them that in this imaginary scenario, their families receive plenty of money, too. they are not confident in this, and still they want to share. you stipulate that they must use at least half on themselves, and that this is the half you want to hear about.

finally, you move into the real, personal desires. things like new shoes from deveroes, “personal hygiene,” chicken, “children’s clothes and a house,” headbands, a trip to hollywood, a party at frisch’s big boy with friends, a limousine, or a football and basketball ... team.

instinctively, for reasons even she cannot explain, one of the kids declares that before doing anything else, she would put half of her money in the bank.

should you ask this same person to invent where the money came from in the first place, she will confidently explain that her husband left it in the mailbox for her one day.

on the other hand, when faced with this same question, her younger brother imagines that he would acquire his million after many years of saving in his work as a doctor. a family of savers, it seems.

often, along the way of framing these imaginary purchases, the kids slip into referring to this arbitrarily chosen, intentionally “enormous” lump sum as $1000, or even $100.

as you continue working one-on-one with them to dig up more ideas, it is clear that many of them do not regularly dream of having a lot of money, or of enormous wishes in general. they are a (sometimes disappointingly) realistic bunch.

more than this, however, and more important than this, they are extremely generous. they are concerned with the well-being of others, and with giving back what they can.

three of the eight kids who show up to participate in art class on this evening – two of them working as a pair, the other sitting clear across the room – decide that they would like to use their money to buy homes for the homeless.

when one of these kids stands up behind the podium to present this idea at the end of the class, a girl who tends to be rather … “sassy” … laughs and pokes fun at the notion. the presenter – who is 12, and who also wanted to buy personal hygiene and a basketball team –  is unfazed. he turns, and looks her straight in the eyes. “yeah, they’re gonna get houses,” he says. “and they’re gonna be good houses. and they’re gonna have lives.”

it is a distracting, distracting morning at over-the-rhine community housing