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. 

Long Day

by Michele Torres

I’m waiting for my life to start.
Each day always the same,
Staying like this will break my heart.
It all feels like a game.

Everyone tells me I’m not alone.
All I see are shadows.
My heart has turned into stone.
I feel stuck in a shallow.

Just like a wave in the ocean,
I do have a motion.
But I am not going anywhere.
Have I been already there?

Where has my motivation gone?
How long can I stay strong?
For now this will draw on.
Soon my heart will sing a new song.

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