By Angela Trudell-Vasquez

Every year the ACLU of Wisconsin puts on the Youth Social Justice Forum. This is a free day-long event for high school students organized by the ACLU of Wisconsin, where staff and volunteers, teach students about their rights, and how they can affect change in their communities. I developed the workshop, Poetry, Politics and Power, many years ago. This year, I directed the kids to write their own stories and histories. Who are we? How did we get here? What do we want to leave for those who will come behind us? How are we shaped by struggle? I told them they could use “I” loosely and that it did not have to be self-reflective. I gave them ten minutes to write and then asked them to get up and share with the other students in the workshop. I told the young people that others will tell tales about you, but you should work to craft your own narrative, speak for yourself and your community. My theory is if young people don’t have a sense of who they are and where they come from, they won’t have love for themselves. And how can they love others if they don’t love themselves?

As usual, the students blew me away with their poems. This is one of the poems that came out of the workshop. It was written by Jasmine Glass. She attends Escuela Verde here in Milwaukee.

 

I am the one who obeys.
I am the one who sits quiet and nods while the grownups talk.
I am the one who can’t decide, because
my mother made the decisions for me.
I am the one who has been told to
shut up so many times I have lost my voice.

I am the one who hides her pain with laughter
the one that has family and friends, but can’t trust
that they will catch me when I fall.

I am the one that keeps to herself
the one that wants to be alone but craves the
company of others.

I am the one that knows who I am but when I look at
my reflection I don’t know the person looking back
at me.

I am the one who stays in the darkness.

By Jasmine Glass
Written 11/19/14