Dreamcatcher

POLICE SIREN WAILS FAINTLY

DISTANT DOGS BARK

ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC PLAYS

This has been buzzard-ville right here. Girl.

It's like the guys hang out here right now

more than the girls right now.

You know? That's Peppy, ain't it? Is that Peppy? Look like it.

Girl, go back there and get that ho!

This fool gonna run into me. A white man...

OK, slow down, slow down. You goin' go up and down these blocks.

Make a left. Make a right. Which one? Left or right?

There you go, there you go, right there. OK, it's a car over there.

Yeah. It might be Teddy. And that look like a baby, don't it? Mm-hm.

Ooh, see, what this guy doin'? Wait!

You see, he can see I got my signal.

Sweetie, you need condoms!

This ho, she... Want some condoms, baby?

OK. You want some condoms? You know you want some. Come here!

You OK? Go on over here.

Oh, my God!

And now, he's stabbing me and I'm just punching him.

And I'm telling her, why won't he die? You know what I'm sayin'?

But my mind was slipping. And I passed out.

The drugs, I have to stop. I broke down crying to my friend.

I said, "Don't let me wake up, Lord.

"In the morning, I don't want to wake up."

I'm too scared to take my own life.

But, in a way, I wish somebody would, you know what I'm saying?

Cos, I mean, people die with two or three stab wounds.

And here I am, I got stabbed 19 times and I'm still here.

This friend of mine, just the other day,

she put my hands to her chest, she's been stabbed so many times.

Mm-hm. And I looked and I cried, "Oh, my God!"

And I raise up her shirt and she's been stabbed. She's...

I'm crying, I'm holding her.

This was just this week. And I'm holding her.

And she died in my arms.

And I just, you know... It just messed me up.

Because, here it is, they get stabbed,

they this, they that, they die

and I'm stabbed and I'm still here. This and that.

And it confuses me at times because I want peace.

I really don't want to be living.

Oh, first I started sellin' drugs. Uhm, dropped out of school...

And I started dating. You know, older males, older than me?

My whole family, my mother...

You was born with crack in your system? Yeah.

But I've been going through a lot of stuff...

And... Here you are.

So, you've been out here prostituting,

so you can get high, right? And you're 19 years old?

Have you ever thought about getting off drugs?

And doing something with your life? It's OK, baby.

It's all right, sweetheart.

SHE SOBS

Teetee, you know what? I used to be right out here too.

You know what I'm saying? From that hotel to the corner.

From that hotel to that corner. That's what I did.

You know what I'm saying?

Hiding...

Hiding from myself, actually. You know what I mean?

I know what pain is. And I know you're in a lot of pain.

If you want somebody that's going to care for you unconditionally,

Tee, we here to do that.

See, you didn't know about this.

You didn't know there was some women like that here, did you?

You didn't know that there was somebody

that you could reach out and hold your hand

till you can learn how to walk.

And that's what we do.

We understand right now

that you're in the midst of what's going on out here.

OK? We did it all. Been high and all of that.

So, we understand.

But right now, you are in the midst of what's going on.

So, are you ready to get help tonight?

We're not here to pressure you or to judge you. (No.)

We just want to know when you're ready.

So, you can call us. Can you? Do you know the name of this organisation?

The Dreamcatcher Foundation.

You got any dreams? Catch your dream.

You got any dreams you want to catch? Yeah...

And when you get sick and tired of being sick and tired,

you call us and let us help you.

There's a girl that I know. She came from the West Side, Chicago.

Her mother died when she was six months old.

She was put into the care of her grandmother.

Her grandmother was alcoholic, you know, went to work every day

but, physically, emotionally and mentally abusive to her.

And she started getting molested at the early age of four or five.

Sometimes the people that her grandmother

had keeping an eye on her

were some of the people that molested her.

She used to sit in the window

in an area where prostitutes worked up and down the street

and she used to watch these ladies all the time.

But these ladies looked kind of shiny.

And all she ever wanted to be was shiny.

She never wanted anything else.

And she asked her grandmother one day, "What are those women doing?"

She said, "Well, those women get into cars and take off their panties

"and men give them money."

She put a little dress on, and her little cheap shoes

and she went down to an area where she knew the prostitutes worked.

And she got into the car with her first customer.

As he was on top of her, she cried. But she got out.

Because she kept hearing her grandmother's voice, saying,

"You need to bring some money into this house."

And then she got into the next car.

When she got into the next car,

she started crying and she asked the man, she said, "Please...

"Don't do this." Because she thought about what she had done.

And she had gotten too far. But it was... It was too late by then.

Her life was 25 years in prostitution.

That young lady got shot five times, stabbed over 13 times.

At the end of the road, she got into a car with a guy who dragged her

six blocks, tore all the skin off her face and her body.

And she thought she would never have a face again.

All she asked for was her face back.

And to make her a lady, cos she could never remember being a lady.

And she just wanted her face back.

And today, that young lady stands before you.

A lady with a face.

This... This is crazy.

Oh, no, I had one on last night and I wanted to put it back on today.

You know, it's my new look.

You got a new one? Yeah.

OK, I'll put on another hair.

But see, when I change hairs, I change personalities. Oh!

I know where my hair is!

In the hair thing.

Well, maybe... You get it?

No, it's not in here. It's not?

TV IN BACKGROUND

This one. I like that one too.

You like this one? I don't like this one.

You don't? I mean, I love it but it's not, I don't feel it today.

Right now, I'm trying to figure out,

I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to put on. You know?

Cos I FELT like that hair.

You know, it was, like, fun, springy and I felt like that.

Now, I'm throwed off.

I'm throwed off, so...I gotta get throwed back on.

DISTANT CHATTER

DISTANT SHOUTING

INDISTINCT CHATTER

ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC PLAYS

Hey! Get in the room!

Come here!

INDISTINCT CHATTER

It's hard to have a sister, ain't it?

It's hard to trust women again after being out

there in the streets for so long.

Because when we're out there, men teach us to not like each other.

Because if we like each other, that's way too much power.

Then they can't control us if we get together.

That's rule number eight in the pimp's code of conduct.

Never let a ho like a ho. Ha!

Cos then if they get together, they can turn against him.

So, they always had these things out there about us,

so that we wouldn't get together.

Or, that we wouldn't know that they were using us

because only another sister would tell another sister,

"Girl, he ain't no good, he's using you."

But if they kept us separated, divide, they could conquer.

We got some time now

and I'll leave the floor open for any of y'all who wanna share.

He came after me.

Beat me outside the car till I was bloody.

Dislocated my jaw, knocked two of my very back teeth halfway out.

Made me take all my clothes off.

And that was to ensure that I wouldn't jump out of the car.

And he tried to make me perform oral sex on him.

Well, my jaw was dislocated and I couldn't do it very well. And...

You know, he's still beating me in the car. And I'm already bloody.

So, whatever...

Erm, and he's talking about...

..you know, he wants to do it to me in the butt.

And...

I'm like, so, this time I'm telling him anything I have to,

so he doesn't kill me.

He went and took a lunge forward. He put me in a headlock.

And I started screaming.

The guy let go of me and I dropped to the floor, or to the ground.

And I started running across the parking lot.

I went home and I was in and out of a comatose state.

I finally ended up going to the hospital. (Wow.)

I spent three days semi-comatose.

You know, that's just some of what the streets can do to you.

My name's Kina.

Thank you, Kina. APPLAUSE

As you all know, just recently, they vacated my whole record, right?

APPLAUSE

Y'all better understand about that one, baby!

THEY LAUGH

OK? And... This is the woman who helped me do that.

Erm, you've been there and you're probably still struggling

with feeling like the way you've been treated

is what you deserve, right?

My job is to hold the rest of the world accountable