Culture Shift Experience: Group aims to keep kids out of caskets

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A new project aims to change the culture on the streets of Baton Rouge through music and other art forms with the Culture Shift Concert.

“The hardest thing for me to deal with is listening to a mother’s scream,” said Marcus Lewis, Manager of Winnfield Funeral Home.

Lewis has been working in the funeral business for eight years. He says the most difficult of those eight years came later in his career.

“It’s a little easier dealing with someone who lost an adult, but when you lost a child, you’ve lost someone whose lost dreams,” Lewis said.

An alarming number of young people’s deaths this year prompted folks in the Baton Rouge community to show kids what it’s like on the other side.

The main goal of the Culture Shift Concert is to shift the perspective of the young people in a positive way.

“When you see your friend in front of you in a funeral in a casket, and he’s not moving or when you see the casket at all. It makes you think this is real. I could be there,” A.V. Mitchell said, Community Engagement Specialist for the Culture Shift Concert.

Organizers say bringing the community together for these events may not be the only answer, but spark awareness to senseless killings.

The event is Friday, May 25th, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at United Faith Christian Ministries.

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