The black-and-white flier said "come help us celebrate" the first issue of the "Homeboy Review," a literary magazine serving as a voice for the poets and writers of Homeboy Industries. The 160-page publication is a mix of the works of neophyte scribes as well as acclaimed writers like Luis Rodriguez ("Always Running, La Vida Loca, Gang Days in LA") and Kerry Madden ("Harper Lee Close Up"). And the dramatic author readings in the lobby outside the Homegirl Café rivaled those at Vroman's in Pasadena and other trendy SoCal bookstores.

But this being Homeboy Industries, one of the largest gang intervention programs in the nation, the June 11 evening event was at least partially overshadowed by an act of horrific, fact-of-life L.A. street violence. One of the contributors to the literary review, Trayvon Jeffers, was the victim of a fatal shooting at a San Dimas park just five days earlier. According to Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies, the 28-year-old man was killed at a barbecue attended by known Compton gang members.

So Fabian Montes didn't read from his own "Untitled" poem in the review. Instead he dedicated a new poem called "Mi Corazón" to Trayvon, who he quipped was an African American but with the soul of a Mexican.

"Your natural gift to make people laugh came from your heart, your wit, your logic, your original laughter, and fed into us with a spontaneous moment," Montes declared poignantly. "I will always hear you sing, 'Mi Corazón,' because that's exactly from where you sang to us from your heart."

When it was his time at the podium, Robert Juarez simply observed, "Trayvon just brought joy; he made everything funny." Then he read a poem about his own baby's mother called "Incomplete Circle."

Hector Verdugo's poem, which he read fast in a rap-like cadence, drew one of the loudest applauses from the audience of nearly 100 listeners: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of darkness of this world. For these same rulers created the gang drug underworld. Father G, led by pride, has given us a weapon to earn our stripe.

"This weapon is love. It's as powerful as medicine. We take this medicine and we're being nursed. 'Cause, you know, how can you love your brother when you can't love yourself first? Our heads up, smiles wide, pressed Homeboy shirts we wear with pride, doors open, giving hope to the hopeless, curing loneliness and misery. Thank God for this place called Homeboy Industries."

Father Greg Boyle, founder and executive director of Homeboy Industries, read from his forthcoming book, "Tattoos on the Heart." The Jesuit pointed out that the reading was about kinship and about God's dream come true that people find themselves in a state of longing for each other.

"As we wait for God's glory we create a community of kinship, and that's what we do here at Homeboy Industries," he said, adding, "and that's certainly what Trayvon did as he lived here."

Before giving the last reading, poet and author Luis Rodriguez asked for a round of applause for all Homeboy poets and writers. He said the literary review, which began as a writing program of Homeboy's curriculum classes, proves that even in the "darkest corner and forgotten places" there can be beauty and poetry.

"We must never give up on our young people, and that's what Father Greg and the others here do - they don't give up. I know that when he talks about deaths and the people he's had to bury, I know how hard it is because each death breaks your heart every time. And it takes a big heart to keep breaking and coming back. So thank you, Father Greg, for your heart."

In 2006, Leslie Schwartz obtained a grant from the California Council for the Humanities and PEN USA to teach a writing class at Homeboy Industries. When her students movingly read their work from a little homemade anthology, the novelist and writing teacher knew they needed a real literary magazine to showcase their insightful poems and essays.

Three years later the first issue of the "Homeboy Review" was published, with Schwartz serving as both editor-in-chief and managing editor. And today, she's more convinced than ever that seeing their name in print, along with having the chance to publicly share their life stories, is a crucial tool to inspire ongoing transformation in gang-involved youths.

"What they get out of it is the opportunity to discard their old stories and create new ones about themselves," Schwartz told The Tidings after the reading. "And in that process they mirror back to themselves in their writing their own transformation. I consider it a very important part of the rehabilitation that goes on at Homeboy Industries.

"So it's a beautiful thing for me, because I have tangible anecdotal evidence that the writing works - that it changes people's lives," she stressed. "I've seen it. It's gone from a hope to a reality."

The Homeboy Review costs $15. To order a copy, contact Homeboy Industries, 130 W. Bruno St., Los Angeles, CA 90012; phone (323) 526-1254; www.homeboy-industries.org.