Archive for August 2009

Jamie Foxx And Mental Illness

(BlackDoctor.org) — Jamie Foxx played the role of Nathaniel Ayers, a once promising Julliard classical bass student, in the movie The Soloist. Robert Downey Jr. played Los Angeles Times columnist, Steve Lopez. Lopez formed a relationship with the homeless Ayers one day in 2005 after talking with him.

Lopez subsequently learned of Ayers past with the famous New York school and began writing columns about Ayers in the Times.

In his third year of school, Ayers’ music future was cut down after a severe mental breakdown. He was diagnosed schizophrenic, instituted, and never returned to the school. He lived with his mother in Cleveland until her death in 2000.

Ayers had been in and out of mental institutions since his original diagnosis in the 70’s. However, medication and electric shock could not help him recover. After his mom died, he moved to Los Angeles hoping to find his father and he soon found himself homeless.

Lopez saw him playing a two string violin in Pershing Square downtown LA with all his belongings in a red shopping cart. Lopez began writing about the gifted homeless musician. Citizens who followed the stories essentially donated a new violin for Ayers, who accepted it reluctantly.

The Soloist: A Lost Dream, An Unlikely Friendship, And The Redemptive Power of Music by Lopez was published in 2008. The movie was based on the book.

Mental illness can strike anyone. Regardless of status, race or religion. The patience to recognize the person below the illness can go a long way. We disregard mental illness and homeless as eye sores, and dismiss them as “freedom of choice.”

No one chooses mental illness. As no one chooses cancer. America has a long way to go to remove the stigma of mental illness and homelessness.

This story illuminated for a moment the gift that lay below the darkness. Nevertheless we’ll curse the first mentally-ill homeless person we see.

By Nicole Smith, BDO Staff Writer