During December of 2020, I received an email from the advisor of Global Citizenship Club (Ms. Yakovac). She shared that a new club called “equity collaborative,” was looking for student club representatives. I chose to join, to see what it was about. 

During the next 5 months a group of students from a wide variety of clubs, from “Girl up” to “Principal’s advisory class,” met periodically. 

These meetings led to the first Equity co-op on May 7th. It was composed of a Keynote speech by Mr. Jamele Adams and student-led club lessons focused on targeting inclusion, respect and anti-racism. 

I had the privilege to share my first original spoken poem. 

Ever since I was really little I gravitated towards reading and writing. As I got a little older I chose to journal. Yet, by the time I sat to write, before sleep, I was half snoozing off already. 

That is when poetry entered the picture. It was a quick way to jot down some emotional thoughts. I mainly wrote free verse poems so I could focus on sharing the content, without worrying what rhymed with what.

Through the years writing free verse poems helped me explore emotions and situations, while giving me some techniques. 

On the other hand, being a person who had experienced different cultures and had often had the opportunity to spend time with people from different parts of society, I had always been aware of the prominent fact that we are all very similar.

So, during one of the Equity Collaborative meetings where Mr. Adams joined us. He explained what his speech would consist of and suggested that he would be interested in having a student join him during the Keynote speech. I was immediately interested. 

Writing it was a process where I allowed myself to create an opinion around the things that were going on, instead of just listening to others and feeling helplessly overwhelmed. I learned and researched what an effective way to meet individuals with polarizing views were, as well what effective poetry looked like. This led me to lean into my music listening experience.

The poem went through many drafts and what seemed endless editing. As you can imagine picturing sharing original work to a large audience was quite intimidating. However, I sparked references to other work that inspired me through the poem, to feel that the authors and artists were there with me, cheering me on. 

Here I will share some of these references and what they meant for me.

To start, the structure of the poem was made as a response to one of my favorite poems: "Where are you really from?" by Carlos Andrés Gómez. Mr Gomez is a poet from the Bronx, of Colombian descent. Like me his complexion breaks the stereotype of how Colombian individuals look like. This poem focuses on his experience through this difficult topic, which from the first time I heard it resonated with me.

The way he begins with a cold-open anecdote, making you feel like he is personally speaking to you. As well, how he changes speeds and creates a vivid conversation, I found very clever things that I wanted to implement in my own poem.

However, I found that his anger and focus on what he “didn’t want to experience” took away from what he “did want to experience.” So, my poem used a similar structure to his, but focused on an empathetic viewpoint that encouraged what I wanted to experience.

Original:

I know everyone you hang out with looks like you,

Has a name you are able to pronounce,

And or share

My poem:

Take time to pronounce new names and dive into the unique things others bring

Then, content wise, a main inspiration was Kendrick Lamar’s 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” I had been meaning to listen to this for some years, yet the months before the co-op was a perfect time to dive into it. You may be familiar with the popular track “Alright.” Yet the album dives much deeper, and when this track is listened to along with the rest of the album its meaning is enhanced. 

The way he changes his voice, to portray the many characters and the motifs that create the growth of his character are amazing. 

From a first listen the way he expanded his poem through the tracks to show growth and an expanded understanding of his experiences, was something I found immediately marvelous. My personal favorite track is “Momma” where he shares how even though he had fame and believed he completely understood how the world worked, going back to his roots reflected that he actually knew very little. As an immigrant, who had the opportunity to go back to her roots and question my own lack of understanding of them, this song really resonated with me. 

In short, this album is incredibly marvelous, basically a play with many layers of content from music theory to the story plot itself. If you haven’t listened to it, go do it.

It is quite complex so I suggest listening to it accompanied by the first season of the podcast Dissect, which focuses on explaining its details.

I chose to feature a reshaped version of the beginning of the poem that goes through the tracks in the following way:

Original:

I remember you was conflicted, misusing your influence

Sometimes, I did the same

My poem:

I get conflicted

Misuse what I know

Have you ever done the same?

On a similar note, another music lyric reference is Rapsody's feature Spoken poem in Jacob Collier’s “He won’t hold you.” This song is a beautiful, pandemic related song, Jacob’s Harmonies and Rapsody's truth allow you to come at peace with the way the world is now.

Original:

I had to face myself, my fears, my fails

My poem:

We need to face ourselves, our fears, our failures 

As well, I chose to mention the title of one of my favorite songs is spanish “Hasta la Raiz,” about which I go more in detail in my other article: “An Homage to the Music That Has Joined Me in the Past Few Years.”

In terms of literature, I chose to feature a quote from one of my favourite books “ The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Malcolm X and Alex Haley. The Amount insight Malcolm shares through this book is beyond me. It is able to give advice to every human, regardless of gender or race, while still being a big eye opener into the Black experience in America. The reference is as follows:

Original:

I was going through the hardest thing, also the greatest thing for any human being to do. To accept that which is already within you, and around you.

My poem:

Go through the hardest thing

yet the greatest thing, for any human being to experience

Accept that within you, and around you.

Last but not least, two female poets that are a great inspiration for me are Rupi Kaur and Kate Tempest.

Rupi, is famous for her 3 bestseller poetry books “Milk and Honey,” “The sun and her flowers,” and most recently “Home body.” She keeps showing that poetry and vulnerability are things that people resonate with and can live in mainstream media. For me, she showed me that my immigrant/ mixed culture experience is something I could talk about and have vulnerable conversations with others. Her reference comes from her poem on page 139 of “The Sun and Her flowers”:

Original: 

[...]

is [my] father’s words

and mother’s accent

what does it matter if

my mouth carries two worlds

My Poem:

Replace a simple “broken English”

With the understanding that voices, can carry many worlds

Kate Tempest is a spoken word artist from the UK. Their poetry album “The Book of Traps and Lessons” is SO good. Even though I encourage you to listen to it in its entirety. The closing track “People’s faces” is by far my favorite, and the one I really recommend you listen to. The way they showcase the way they are used to being overwhelmed yet is bluntly vulnerable is gorgeous. The part that always surprised me is near the end where she talks to us mentioning something they are sure we have experienced, since they know we have been overwhelmed. The way it catches any listener back in, even the distracted one, made me make it a reference in my own poem immediately. 

Original:

All I've got to say has already been said

I mean, you heard it from yourself

When you were lying in your bed and couldn't sleep

Thinking, “Couldn't we be doing this differently?”

My poem:

All I have to say 

Has already been said,

I mean you heard it from yourself

When you saw them standing there

Alone

Misunderstood

As you can see, I wrote this from art I found beautiful. This shows that there is no one artist, regardless of medium, that exists in a vacuum. Anybody who practices regularly, dives deep into inspiration and is willing to understand why they find that inspiring. While they showcase it in their own art, they are able to be an artist. Most of the pieces mentioned above can be found on YouTube or Spotify.

Here is my full poem if you want to read it.

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