Founder
Built from inside the work
First Verse and Next Verse were developed by someone who sits in the room with young people every week, and who makes music himself.
Founder, First Verse · Next Verse · Last Verse
Floyd Howard Wright II
A former youth offender who spent years incarcerated, Floyd found in music the outlet that opened doors on the other side of the gates. That path led him to build First Verse and Next Verse.
Music was Floyd’s outlet while he was locked up, and it is what opened doors for him once he came home. Those doors led to the creation of this music program, which he has run at Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall, Campus Kilpatrick juvenile camp and countless step-down transitional facilities.
He has spent a lot of time reflecting on the “bread crumb moments” that led to the moment that removed all doubt. He grew up without much, but with the luxury of a loving family that saw them through the struggles common to most families getting by.
His father, though a troubled man, was an academic and an educator: a Vietnam War veteran, a minister and a business degree holder. He instilled in Floyd and his siblings the value of education, and the belief that to know something, you have to understand it.
Floyd knew that understanding things at the smallest level would let him see complex, enormous things in their small parts. So he started reading: every Complete Idiot’s Guide and every “For Dummies” book he could find on economics, finance, currency, taxes and the institutions behind them. That reading gave him a working knowledge of how money and systems work, and the ability to apply those principles to the hands-on skills he taught himself along the way.
Today he is a Credible Messenger and youth counselor, Deputy Director of Renewed Ambition, and a composer, producer, designer and animator. First Verse and Next Verse put all of it in one room.
Stay small enough long enough, you’ll be big enough soon enough.
Why the program is built this way
Credible Messengers, trauma-informed practice, music as the language
The program is typically delivered by Credible Messengers, and can be run by anyone with equivalent qualifications: lived proximity to the population, trauma-informed practice, comfort using music to teach, and the ability to hold discussion without judgment.
- Formal academic credentials are not required to facilitate.
- New facilitators observe, co-facilitate, then lead with a debrief.
- Every facilitator signs off on the trauma-informed non-negotiables first.