"We Are Poem..."

Community members who attended the April 8th "Poetry and Global Citizenship workshop had a chance to write a community poem. This poem was created by compiling select lines and phrases from the essays and poems written by participants during the freewrite part of that workshop.

By: Fevzi Sarac, Cheria Lane, Margaret Eaton, Beverly Stewart, Stephanie Reyes, Cristian Núñez, Brandon Robert, and Jahi Mackey

I am from a place that others run towards while I run away

I am no longer afraid to speak out and speak up

I am searching for myself in the darkness

I am ashamed that it is so hard to express all that I am

I am AA but I am really just human I have a heart, lungs, blood

Emotions, doubts and a brain

We're all born the same way

Through a woman

There's always an aspect of me

That stays individual

Yet carries with me pieces of the communities

I was and chose to be present in

Community is a choice of creating

Safety

Security

Authenticity

And respect

May everyone be seen

And feel as if they belong

I am an immigrant

The colleague of Einstein

Who escaped from Hitler's Germany

I am a Muslim

the follower of Muhammad who is revolutionary

The believer of God

He's the same for everybody

And yet

I still feel displaced

I still feel as though I am not enough

Still feel as though I am not Black enough Still feel as though I have to box myself in

In order to step outside of another box

Still feel rejected

Misunderstood

Forced to conform and yet

Told to be different

So in all honesty

I am from a place of recovery

But right now

I am going to the bathroom