"I got kicked out of school for a misunderstanding, for something I didn't even do."

     "What was that?"

     "I brung a shotgun to school -- which I didn't," he continued. "But before I came to this school I was on the streets, standing on the corner. I was at another school, but I didn't go. I thought this stuff [creative writing] was stupid at first," says one of the participants of Street of Dreams Workshop who cannot be named because he is on probation.

      The Street of Dreams is an outreach program taught by local San Diego musicians as a public resource for the San Diego Court Schools. It has been operational since 1998 and was first taught at the Place, a school for homeless teens. Today it serves as a magnet program for seven court schools. The Street of Dreams workshop began artistically, as Trailer Park Queen, Teresa Gunn's 1996 "performance art" album, which told the tale of Juanita LaRue, a biker chick from Imperial Beach. Later that year, she created her first songwriting workshop at the Place in downtown San Diego.

     Gunn tells me, "There are 1500 children in these schools. These are a public school system and a working part of the San Diego County Office of Education. They are an alternative for youth who have been expelled from the regular schools. They have an eight-hour day. They have no funding for art or music -- Street of Dreams musicians work for free....I went through a check from the FBI to be cleared for this work...

     "Eventually," she said, "I want to put alternative rock musicians in teaching positions.... I see a very strong connection between rock musicians and at-risk youth. You know, we are outsiders, and we learn our own way. And we manage to make a business out of that."

     In May, the Women's Foundation hosted a CD-release show for the workshop's collective, the Poets of Prayer, a combination of volunteers and students, who performed selections from their self-produced debut, Hope, at the San Diego Women's Club in Hillcrest.

     "The Poets of Prayer disc," she said, "is the first step toward a student-run record label based out of the Street of Dreams workshop." Gunn described her goal of using local musicians -- former Beat Farmer Joey Harris is involved along with other local musicians -- Johnny Rivera, Chris Hoffee, and Dave Romero -- in mentorship roles at the label.

     According to the brochure, the workshop uses a method called "word art" to transform the students' "emotional lives into creative solutions."
     One such solution:

I regret / not telling you sooner / but now we are face to face / like angels souls and flowers / She was telling the truth / falling in love is something / beautiful and clean / I regret not telling you sooner. / I was just wasting time... Alejandro Angeles, age 14, Monarch High School.

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