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On Wednesday evenings all summer long, State Street in Media closes to traffic for Dining Under the Stars. Restaurants serve customers al fresco on the asphalt while they watch performances at selected intersections.

During the opening day of Dining Under the Stars on May 7, people in shorts and t-shirts looked up from their baskets of fries and burgers to see a troupe of teenagers wearing skin-tight black and red vinyl costumes marching through the clusters of tables in military formation with a call-and-response chant:

You! (You!)
You know the story (You know the story!)
You tell the whole wide world this Maci Lago territory.

They are the Maci Lago Universe, a drill and runway performance troupe based in Chester that marched to the intersection of State and Olive Street to perform a ferocious drill routine to a medley of Beyonce songs. The pop-up performance was a taste of what they are preparing for the upcoming finals of a drill competition to be held later this month in Ohio, where they hope to emerge as national champions.

Co-founder Darnisha Garland says Maci Lago Universe does not just put on good shows, it makes better kids.

“It helps with your anxiety,” she said. “You ever get that feeling when you walk into a room, and it’s like, ‘Lord, there’s a bunch of people in here!’ It helps you walk into your presence and be exactly who you are.”

Dancing for mental health

Garland founded the troupe in 2016 with her partner Nashay Cottman as a spin-off of their cosmetics brand Maci Lago, to give kids a safe place to learn creative skills, primarily through performance. They formed MLU as a nonprofit in 2020.

“We sing, we act, we dance, we do runway, we do drill, we do different forms of dance,” said Garland, aka Danny Tyga. “With all of that being said, we focus on youth mental health.”

Garland and Cottman practice the troupe four days a week, interspersed with occasional visits from local therapists and counselors to check in on the well-being of the teenagers. Cottman said some of her dancers have experienced trauma due to poverty or abuse, sometimes stemming from their gender identity or sexual orientation.

“Mental health is something that every human in this world battles,” she said. “You don’t have to have a bad mental health level, but it’s something that we realize in our community. People deal with it differently.”

Mental health among adolescents is a “crisis” according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, particularly among Black youth who have a significantly higher suicide rate than white kids.

A 2019 report by the Congressional Black Caucus shows that suicide attempts by Black young people have increased 73% over the previous 25 years, and death by suicide is increasing among Black youth faster than any other racial demographic. The report cites “pervasive structure inequalities” and a “mistrust of healthcare providers” among the reasons for a crisis in Black mental health.

Garland learned as a child growing up in Chester that dance boosted her personal well-being.

“I was a horrible kid growing up,” she said. “I struggled with my anger, depression and a lot of other things. I had programs that I was involved in that basically kept me off the street.”

One of those programs was the drill team Majestic Flex Squad, which Garland says changed her life.

“It helped me communicate better. It helped me grow my emotional intelligence,” she said. “I was allowed to have that freedom of expression. It helped me understand my emotions.”

Get into the groove

Danae’sha Ingram was just 10 years old when she discovered Maci Lago Universe as the team was getting started. Over the nine years she has been with the troupe she has seen troubled kids so socially stunted they were hardly able to talk, who then blossomed through dance into confident and functional young adults.

“People come here with a lot of insecurities, or just being shy, and I think it breaks all of that,” she said. “If you want to escape from something, that’s where you come. Here, it’s love. It’s just love.”

Love goes hand in hand with discipline. Cottman said if the young people want to perform with the crew, they have to keep their grades up and avoid falling into delinquent behaviors.

But even if the kids stumble, they are never alone.

“We try not to turn the kids away, but you find different ways to punish them,” Cottman said. “You can’t perform because your grades weren’t right, but you still got to show up to practice. You still got to be a part. We try not to kick them out, because then where will they end up?”

Dance Yourself Clean

There are not a lot of places in Chester for youth to go. There is one indoor recreation center in the city designed for young people, run privately by the Boys and Girls Club, which received assistance from the city for its expansion in 2010.

Chester’s current mayor, Stefan Roots, was formerly Director of Public Property and Recreation when he expressed a need for more recreational facilities in Chester but the city has been in bankruptcy since 2022.

Maci Lago Universe currently uses the basketball court at Shiloh Baptist Church for rehearsals four times a week. The organization runs on a shoestring budget and a lot of hustle. Cottman said they have bounced around town several times over the last decade as spaces they once relied on became unavailable.

Cottman had to temporarily shut down the troupe for three months when it was between spaces. She said that period of organizational homelessness proved how critical Maci Lago is for at-risk youth. Even a brief pause in activity caused some kids to revert to harmful behaviors.

“In that three months, I had two kids get expelled, one kid got shot, and another kid ended up pregnant,” Cottman said.

“That gave us confirmation that the program actually works,” Garland said. “The kids went downhill that fast. It gave us confirmation. We got to work harder. We got to find a new space because the program actually does work.”

Maci Lago Universe is currently looking to build itself a permanent home. Cottman has been keeping an eye on large, empty properties in Chester that can be converted into dance spaces.

Despite the daunting cost of such a project, Cottman said there can be no compromise.

“We come from the era of rec centers. In every neighborhood in our city, it was a space you can go to. You can eat there, you could hang out with your friends, you can do cultural arts. Just go play basketball,” she said. “That space no longer exists.”

“We’re trying to bring that back. A safe space for these kids to go and just be themselves,” Cottman said. “Even if they want to just chill and play a video game here, they’re not on the streets. They’re not getting in trouble. They’re safe.”

Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series that explores the impact of creativity on student learning and success. WHYY and this series are supported by the Marrazzo Family Foundation, a foundation focused on fostering creativity in Philadelphia youth, which is led by Ellie and Jeffrey Marrazzo. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.