Sonja Sohn, from ‘The Wire’ to helping Baltimore’s youth

Actress Sonja Sohn wondered: What if she took the HBO series “The Wire” into schools, dissected how characters negotiated their environment and got kids to talk about how they did the same in their lives? Could that help them see how there could be other possibilities?

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Sonja Sohn with ReWired for Change participants, from left, Sean Hawkins, John Wood and Nikita Brady in Baltimore. After the final season of the HBO series “The Wire” in 2008, the actress, who played Det. Shakima “Kima” Greggs, hadn’t been ready to leave the show behind — neither what it stood for nor the Baltimore streets on which it had filmed. “I had an extraordinarily strong sense of purpose,” she says. The result: ReWired for Change, an organization that aims to help the city’s troubled youth. The first session began in late 2009.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

ReWired for Change participants, from left, Sean Hawkins, John Wood, Marcus Nole and Shakiara Hawkins near the Village House. To start the program, Sohn gathered advice and support at the panels and the college classrooms that cast members from “The Wire” were frequently invited to. She cultivated contacts and tapped “Wire” writer/executive producer David Simon and cast mates to join the board and give money. A few Baltimoreans held fundraisers. To cover shortfalls, Sohn figured, “I could drain myself until we got this thing off the ground.”

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn with “Wire” co-stars Wendell Pierce and Dominic West. Playing a cop reminded Sohn of her past in Newport News, Va., in an area much like the Baltimore neighborhoods where “The Wire” was set. There was a good deal of fighting in her home and on the streets, where cops were not the good guys. Acting the part on the show was unnerving. “The Wire’s” broader message made it palatable, Simon says. “I think that was a great relief to her, because I think she had some latent sense of horror that she was going to be working on a cop show as a cop.”

Nicole Rivelli / HBO

Sohn as Det. Samantha Baker in ABC’s “Body of Proof,” which initially filmed in Rhode Island. As she settled into her role on “The Wire,” Sohn grew invested in the reality of the streets in Baltimore. In 2008, Sohn and cast mates Jamie Hector and Gbenga Akinnagbe went to North Carolina to campaign for Barack Obama. Sohn was stunned to learn that their work on “The Wire” had bequeathed them a platform. “Something happened to her,” Hector says. “I guess she realized the amount of change she could effect in the lives of young folks.”

Michael Desmond / ABC

Sohn in “Body of Proof” with John Carroll Lynch. Sohn wanted ReWired for Change’s pilot program, ReWired for Life, to be community-based and grounded in both social justice and academic theory. The participants would watch episodes from the show, discuss what they had seen and relate it to their own lives. Eventually, they opened up and began sharing their stories.

Michael Desmond / ABC

Pastor Marshall Prentice of Zion Baptist Church in East Baltimore said Sohn could use a house the church owned on East Lanvale Street if she fixed it up. It stood across from two vacant houses, near known drug corners; it became the program’s Village House.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn hired Koli Tengalla, a veteran community activist and a fellow at the Open Society Institute, to direct the Village House. The program was always designed to function without Sohn, who has relocated to Los Angeles, where “Body of Proof” now films.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

ReWired participant Nikita Brady hangs out with her friend Mani Martin. Brady spent years fighting and stealing. She had been told she could play basketball in college if she could get in, but “I didn’t have that extra push, that motivation, until I met with Sonja,” she says.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn talks with ReWired participants on her last day at the Village House, which aims to serve as an anchor in the community ReWired was trying to engage.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn with Steven Holmes, 23. Even with the full schedule in California, and a rash of health issues that plagued her last fall, including a burst blood vessel in her colon that landed her in intensive care, Sohn is working closely with Tengalla to plan the next steps for the Village House.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn and Holmes embrace on her last day at the Village House.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn says goodbye to Michael Augus Jr., 7, during her going away party as Tykera Davis, 9, looks on.

Hector Emanuel / For The Washington Post

Sohn with Michael Augus Jr. Sohn is searching for new sources of funding and talking up the program in venues such as panel discussions at Harvard and Attorney General Eric Holder’s “Defending Childhood” task force, chaired by former baseball manager Joe Torre.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Sohn says goodbye to Doreen Dates. Simon says he was surprised when he first heard of Sohn’s plans for ReWired for Change. Most TV and movie people who adopt a cause, he says, “say a few words, they’ll go to a dinner, they’ll give some money, but this is time. Time is the ultimate expenditure.”

Hector Emanuel / For The Washington Post

Sohn with Nina Harper, executive director of Baltimore’s Oliver Community Center.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

ReWired participant Crystal Brown dances to music on her iPod.

Hector Emanuel / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

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