Why One London Choir has Become a Refuge for the Homeless
Singers Adel Tuzani, Dean Johnson and David Cook. All have experienced homelessness (photo: Laura Lynch)
They gather every Monday evening in a converted church hall in a working class London neighbourhood. Men and women ranging in age from their twenties to their sixties with one thing in common: they know what it is like to have no home.
Some, like Dean Johnson, ended up on the streets after losing battles with drugs and booze. Then, a couple of years ago, Johnson saw a poster on the wall in a shelter inviting people to join a homeless choir in a shelter and he decided to try it out.
He has been coming every since.
“It’s my drug,” said Johnson. “Because I’m a reformed alcoholic and it’s my sixth year of being sober. Now I’ve found a new drug which is choir — I don’t pay for it, it’s free.”
Marie Benton founded the choir in 2008 as a way to mix her love of music with her charity work.
“Really it is about inclusiveness and giving people something that feels like home,” she said. “That’s our aim to create a safe haven for people to sing and enjoy themselves and make friends and feel that they belong to something and that their influence can be a part of that and that we are really building a community.”
They are not trying to be chart-toppers, but the members do like interpreting established hits such as Coldplay’s song, “Politik.” The lyrics, about finding strength and peace of mind resonate with Adel Tuzani. He is a recovering addict who was homeless for two years.
“I know it can’t fix my problems just by turning up and being a member of a choir but it’s given me a different perspective on them,” said Tuzani. “It’s shown me there is another way. It’s not all doom and gloom.”
The group does not perform for money. Their gigs help pay for expenses or to raise money for charity. David Cook, who has been homeless on and off for years, said that singing has changed his life.
“I used to be greatly ashamed of how much of my life I’ve wasted and the way I’ve lived,” Cook said. “But now I’m quite proud of who I am now and so it doesn’t bother me. I know there’s sometimes a stigma attached if we necessarily do a gig and get a great round of applause it doesn’t necessarily mean we were great. People are feeling for the different people on stage or just maybe feeling that these people are trying to do something. As little as it is, they’re doing something.”
After every rehearsal, the participants go downstairs for a home cooked meal. The food is important to those who have lived on the margins of society, but they say the choir and music feed something else: their soul, their spirit and their belief in themselves.