Student Work

From a SpeakTogether virtual workshop, Talent Unlimited High School, Spring 2020

This poem was composed during a six-week session conducted by author and spoken word artist Sheri Booker, who worked with a class of 10th-grade students to develop their voices. This workshop took place during a global pandemic, a national lockdown, and uprisings across the country to end police brutality and structural racism. Read more about the works in this collection, which are artifacts of this period and a true testament to the vision, creativity, and resilience of these students.

Listen to a recording of the following poem above. 

Self Journey

by Michele Torres

Everybody is telling me to act my age
Being 16 I am in a good place
and I am on a journey.
Now in summertime sadness.
I am a delicate flower.

It’s sad but true.
Laying on the sand.
Can the sun rain on me?
Make me feel new.

I never knew who I was.
But I can’t wait to be my new light.
My world, I make on my journey.
I know now nothing can hurt me.

Michele Torres was a sophomore at Talented Unlimited High School in NYC at the time of this recording.