The Streets Barber Stories - Episode 4 : Keytone

Each day when I cut hair on the streets I meet amazing people with amazing stories. Stories that most people never get to see or hear. Stories that can warm my heart, and break it at the same time. This is Autiek, aka K-Tone. He is one of the few South Sudanese refugee boys I got to spend the day with recently. K-Tone was forced to leave South Sudan at the age of 11 with his family. He told me that back in South Sudan they didn’t know where their next meal would come from, fearful of being dragged into the violence at any moment. Basically, he was living day-to-day hoping for the best. After living in Melbourne for a few years - getting comfortable living in a western country, he started getting involved with a group of kids who would spend most of their days drinking alcohol. He told me that he would often drink until he “felt numb.” I wondered why he needed to feel numb at such a young age - but it made sense knowing he grew up in a war-torn country, ridden with violence and hardship. He admitted that he had a problem with anger growing up and resorted to violence to solve his frustrations. During this phase of his life, he was constantly getting into fights and had many brushes with the law - which eventually put him into a juvenile detention center for his various offenses. When I asked him how that was, he told me “I hated it - but I learnt so much from it all.” When he said that, it really resonated with me because it reminded me so much of my time in rehab. I hated it but in turn it was the best thing I have done in my life. K-Tone continued saying “before going to juvie I hated authority and the police, so I decided to study politics, and learn more about leaders like Martin Luther King. I also studied literacy because I realized I love to write.” He found an outlet for his anger through writing - whenever he felt angry he would write down his emotions as song lyrics. Hip hop became his release. Since leaving juvie he has joined the hip hop collective called the “Bench Mark Crew”, a crew made up of other refugees who use their lyrics to help make an impact on the community and try to inspire youth to use their talents for good. After shaping up his afro and giving him a line-up, him and his crew spit a few bars for me and we just vibed as the sun set by the river in Footscray. What a day it was indeed. #thestreetsbarber #cleancutcleanstart Video created by Round 3 ( round3.com.au ) Music 'Shine On It' by Custodian of Records, Nobody Got Rhymes For That (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Cus...) 'Train' by Dust Motes , Equilibria (http://freemusicarchive.org/music/dus...)