As part of the North Stars, an arts-focused after school program for students from around the city, Denson is used to expressing his emotions through writing.
But when he found himself hunched forward, shuffling his feet on the hardwood floors of the Academy of Music rehearsal hall, listening to a professionally trained opera singer glide through a song whose words he had written, Denson knew he was a part of something special.
"To have your work turned into something bigger than it really is, well, it's pretty cool," said Denson, a junior at at Benjamin Franklin High School.
Denson is one of 10 North Stars whose poems depicting the urban experience were turned into Hip H'Opera, a joint venture of the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Freedom Theater and the Art Sanctuary, the North Stars' parent group.
Some works deal with absent fathers and hardworking mothers. Some discuss music's transformative power in a teenager's life. Others talk about tough neighborhoods, crime, and crack.
Tonight, the students' work will be presented in grand style at the Church of the Advocate - the poems professionally scored and set to a string quartet, hip-hop turned on its head and sung by performers from the Opera Company. A matinee performance for students is planned for the afternoon.
The after-school program is free and meets at the Church of the Advocate in North Philadelphia.
Jeffrey Hart, North Stars administrator and youth mentor, watched a weekend rehearsal with a parent's pride.
"It gives us the opportunity to expose young people to another art form, and to show them the positive acceptance of their art form," he said.
Hart calls it "education on both sides - people in the art world will see that everyone in the hip-hop world is not wild and crazy, and people in the hip-hop world will see that everyone in the art world is not stuck up and out of touch."
Standing at the back of the rehearsal hall, Hart motioned to the students gathered round a grand piano and laughed.
"I don't know whether they get the full magnitude of this," he said. "This is a professional opera singer, doing their work. It would be a lot simpler if I brought in a professional basketball player."
Tierra Brown, a North Star and junior at Nueva Esperanza Academy Charter School, approached the project with caution.
"I've never been to the opera," she said.
But she gave a shy smile when discussing hearing her words - about "art and music - how kids can stay off the street and do something positive" - turned into soaring sounds.
"It feels good," she said. "People can change it up, into music."
Her lack of opera experience didn't keep her from enjoying the music, she said.
"You really have to sit there and pay attention to know what they're singing," Brown said. "But I like the different types of voices that they all have. It's just exciting, really fun."
The students especially liked that their words will be sung by the professional singers of the Opera Company of Philadelphia: Porgy and Bess cast members soprano Julie-Ann Whitely, tenor DonLeRoy Morales, mezzo-soprano Allison Sanders, and bass-baritone DeAndre Simmons. Joining them is soprano, Evelyn Santiago-Schulz.
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