📽️ The Story Behind Poetry on the Pavement Film Project
- Ivette Ramos
- Jun 3
- 2 min read
How a Stolen Bike, a Broken Family, and a Moment of Violence Became a Film About Grief and Redemption
When we set out to make Poetry on the Pavement, we weren’t just filming a story — we were exhaling pain. We were honoring grief. We were putting names to the silence so many young people carry.
At its heart, Poetry on the Pavement is about Malik — a teenager navigating poverty, peer pressure, and the kind of heartbreak that doesn’t just wound… it transforms. But this story didn’t start on a set. It started on a street where too many bikes are stolen, too many friends disappear, and too many families are left to mourn what could’ve been.
🛞 A Bike That Wasn’t Just a Bike
The story unfolds over a stolen bicycle — but it’s never just about the bike. It’s about the trauma attached to it. The bike that a little girl decided to ride and who lost her life in an accident. The same bike becomes the symbol of grief, tension, and revenge. That’s the kind of poetry we wanted to tell — where objects carry memory, and grief has a long shadow.
💔 Inspired by Real Loss
Parts of this story are fictional. But the emotions are not. Too many kids in our communities are growing up with incarcerated parents, addiction in the home, and friends taken too soon. Malik’s story is the story of many: smart, emotional, sensitive young men learning how to navigate a world that taught them to stay hard.
This film doesn’t offer easy answers. It sits in the complexity.
🎬 Why We Made It
We made this film because we’ve seen Jerry. We’ve been Malik. We’ve watched families like Patricia’s — fractured and surviving. And we believe stories like these deserve the spotlight, not just the statistics.
This isn’t just entertainment. It’s testimony.
⸻
✊ A Streetlamp for Every Story
We called it Poetry on the Pavement because even on the coldest blocks, there’s beauty. There’s rhythm. There’s truth worth filming. And that’s what StreetLamp Films is here for — to light up the stories others overlook.
⸻
Watch the trailer. Share the story. Honor the grief.