Titus Batts and DeSonni Hardge are the young co-captains of South Shore Drill Team, a non-profit organization based in Chicago that uses performance art to empower disenfranchised youth. In a city with a  narrative of violence and crime, these two boys are showing their communities that the routines that bond them in drill are stronger than the social pressures that would divide them on the streets. 

“My Brother’s Keeper examines the gift of tribal love between young black men and the communities that protect, support and honor their dreams,” says Rodney Lucas, an LA-based director known for intimate and human storytelling about his hometown, South Side Chicago. “This short is a reflection of the everyday leaders and local icons that propel the black community and their empowered beneficiaries.”

South Shore Drill Team offers education support, employment training and financial assistance alongside its first-class dance program, which teaches students like Hardge and Batts the art of self-love and teamwork—forging a new generation of positive role models. 

“Through a collaborative partnership focused on elevating black storytellers, this piece provided me with a vehicle to illuminate the plight of young black men globally,” says Lucas. “I’m letting brothers in the struggle know that I will always represent and celebrate them through a narrative truth that can only be born out of shared experience."