Just watched "60 Minutes" and the incredible story of Ryan Speedo Green... [View all]
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ryan-speedo-green-from-juvenile-delinquency-to-opera-stardom-60-minutes/ (video at the link)
From the anger and rage of a horribly broken home and childhood detention to the opera house, thanks to his drive and talent and the special people who helped him find the way.
No one was listening to the voice locked in solitary except for the few who would save his life, Mrs. Hughes, who was too camera-shy for an interview, and, in detention, Priscilla Piñeiro-Jenkins.
Priscilla Piñeiro-Jenkins: This kid was small, angry, full of just hate. This eloquent man that's sitting here next to me was not who I first met. Every other word was foul. Every other word was negative. There was nothing positive coming out of him.
Piñeiro-jenkins' was a caseworker in the detention center.
He returned to school and succeeded in sports and chorus. A field trip NYC and the Metropolitan Opera and he saw a completely different life.
Ryan Speedo Green: It was the opera, "Carmen" with Denyce Graves, who was the title role.
Ryan Speedo Green: At that point in my life I thought opera was, like you know, for white people. And the lead character, the title role was a person who looked like me, was a person of color. It completely just shattered all my preconceptions of what I thought opera was.
Denyce Graves seduced a soldier on stage and Speedo in the audience.