Program News 2008
“Life Is About Leaving A Mark”
Pioneering Hip-Hop DJ Grandmaster Flash spent a recent evening with young people who live in our residential programs, sharing dinner and taking in performances by the youth as well as imparting life lessons and answering questions from our young people.
Flash, aka Joseph Saddler, stressed the importance of moving beyond the past and accentuating the positive. He candidly spoke of his father's abuse and his mother's mental illness, but also credited the former's extensive record collection and latter's desire for her son to be educated in electronics for the inspiration that led to his invention of the art of using a turntable as musical instrument.
The Barbados-born and Bronx-raised Saddler, who also presented copies of his autobiography, The Adventure of Grandmaster Flash, My Life, My Beats, to the programs was eventually placed in foster care and sent to a group home upstate. He detailed for the rapt audience how the experience forced him to come out of his shell and learn to accept other people for who they are, as well as teaching him that dreams can be pursued in the toughest of situations.
Saddler spoke of his resolve to do something that would leave a mark. "It's what life is about," he said, "You may feel that you were dealt a bad deck of cards, but if you believe in yourself, any one of you can be the next whatever you want to be."
June 6, 2008
