A dozen homeless or formerly homeless performers took turns singing, rapping and dancing at Lifeway Church Saturday for what organizers believe was the neighborhood's first-ever talent show, and 26-year-old Deoujahne Darc walked away with first prize for an original song called “Grace & Mercy.” Many performers sang or rapped songs they had written themselves. The event unfolded in the heart of downtown Los Angeles's Skid Row, blocks from the upscale restaurants, office skyscrapers and tourist destinations that ring one of the largest homeless encampments in the country.
Darc, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, sang the line “I saw the Lord in the face of a homeless man,” according to LAist. She has been singing since age 4 and has self-produced seven albums, but her path to the stage ran through more than a year and a half on the streets and in a women's shelter after becoming homeless in Oregon. She made it back to California with help from a domestic violence shelter and has since found stable housing. She told the outlet the show reflected people's struggles and their humanity, and said she hopes her voice can heal others.
A Dozen Voices, One Church Stage
The lineup included performers singing or rapping songs they had written themselves, one reading scripture from the Bible, and another covering a rap song to honor a friend who died from gun violence. Passersby stopped to clap or sing along, and at least one performer took on Cyndi Lauper's “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” Skid Row is home to an estimated 45,000 homeless people this year, per the same LAist account of the event.
Among the competitors was 45-year-old Ladelle Handy, who moved to Los Angeles in 2016 to pursue a music career and has been homeless since his eviction in February. He performed an original song dedicated to his mother, who was killed in Chicago in 2001, and said afterward that he wanted the world to remember his talent.
The Preacher Who Organized It
The show was organized by Rev. Gary Carr, who holds a weekly service at Lifeway Church LA, according to the Associated Press. Carr worked at Union Rescue Mission and was homeless himself for nearly 30 years before he was called into ministry in 2009. He said the talent show offered participants a new beginning. A sister church helped sponsor the event, and the inaugural panel of judges included Carr alongside evangelist Geraldine Hughes and Teressa Percell, while volunteers from a local Korean church handed out prizes to contestants, according to Bastille Post.
Organizers selected winners who will keep meeting regularly to develop their talents, with a follow-up performance planned for Easter. It is a modest but deliberate structure, meant to turn a single Saturday afternoon into something ongoing rather than a one-off spectacle.
Part Of A Decades-Long Tradition
The showcase is the newest entry in a much older story. The Los Angeles Poverty Department, founded in 1985 as the nation's first performance group made up primarily of unhoused people, is preparing its 17th annual Festival for All Skid Row Artists in October, per the Los Angeles Poverty Department. The Urban Voices Project, a community choir founded on Skid Row in 2014 by teaching artist Leeav Sofer and outreach coordinator Christopher Mack, has spent over a decade using group singing as a tool for healing and social connection, according to reporting from Roland.
The Numbers Behind The Neighborhood
The talent show's optimism sits alongside a messier statistical picture. The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority reported in July that homelessness rose 1.2% across Los Angeles County to 73,040 people and 3.4% within the city of Los Angeles to 45,194 people, a trend the agency attributed largely to bottlenecks in Time Limited Subsidies rental assistance.
Government investment in the neighborhood has scaled up in recent years regardless of the count disputes. Los Angeles County launched a $280 million, multi-agency Skid Row Action Plan in 2022, aiming to address housing and services needs in the neighborhood. In May 2025, the county opened the 36,000-square-foot Skid Row Care Campus, funded with nearly $26 million a year and offering showers, laundry, clinical care and housing referrals, designed with direct input from current and formerly unhoused residents, according to LAist.
Safety Concerns Remain Close By
None of that erases the neighborhood's persistent dangers. LAPD Central Division officers investigated multiple violent crimes in August along East 6th Street and South Towne Avenue, near Skid Row's worship and community centers, including a fatal shooting just three blocks from the station, as Hoodline previously reported. Those realities frame the talent show not as an escape from Skid Row's hardships but as something built alongside them — a Saturday afternoon where a dozen performers stood in the same blocks where so much of the coverage of this neighborhood turns grim, and instead sang songs they wrote themselves.
