Wire Actor Gave Back to Baltimore Projects

Sandra Sohn helped troubled teenagers
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 28, 2012 2:47 PM CST
Wired Actor Sandra Sohn Went Back to Baltimore Projects
Actress Sonja Sohn, from the HBO series 'The Wire,' participates in a panel discussion at the Justice Department May 31, 2011 in Washington, DC.   (Getty Images)

Sonja Sohn couldn't leave Baltimore behind after The Wire. So the actress who played Det. Shakima “Kima” Greggs on the HBO show started a program for troubled teens called ReWired for Change, the Washington Post reports. Meeting in a university classroom, she urged thugged-up teenagers to reconsider their life decisions and relationships. Wire writer David Simon said pityingly: "There was a part of me who wanted to put my arm around her and say, you are about to go on a journey."

The teens watched episodes of The Wire with Sohn and discussed their fractured lives. Soon enough, they were making smarter decisions—avoiding a fight here, treating a judge respectfully there. When Sohn moved to LA to act in ABC's Body of Proof, the project continued in a church-owned house where participants are pursuing better schooling and jobs. “The possibility of a different way of doing things—that’s the key piece," says a former gangbanger on staff. “A lot of them, they don’t even see another way.” (More The Wire stories.)

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