Unified Voices Poem
For the Southside Stories performance at Alternate ROOTS Week, Squad members Ilah and Khavah combined a line from each of the word on the street member’s “I am from” poems; which is a poem that expresses who we are and what made us who we are. This poem was made from...
The Southside Trailer
Squad members Nya, Ceirra, Keitra, Kaniya and Ammi created this short video to introduce the Southside neighborhood to the audience during the Southside Stories presentation at ROOTS Week 2019.
Colors Of Love
I create art because it is a unique way for me to express myself. When I create art, I don’t think about anything negative or stressful. I just let thoughts fly around in my mind. Art makes me feel relaxed. My work is inspired by my family and Word on the Street. What...
A Bee’s Goal
This piece is about community and the goal that it works towards and reaches. The important thing about this piece is that community can do anything - as long as everyone helps out a little. This work to me means that having a community is very important and can take...
Already Out Of This World
This painting represents drug influence by peers on someone who is already under the influence.
Opinionated Voices Podcast
Reflections on Michele Alexander’s Appearance at UNC Asheville
Michele Alexander is the author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. Alexander was the Keynote Speaker for the 2018 Martin Luther King week at UNC Asheville. Squad members were invited to attend and we brought along our audio equipment...
Interview with Maria Hinojosa
Maria Hinojosa is an American journalist. She is the anchor and executive producer of Latino USA on National Public Radio, a public radio show devoted to Latino issues. She is also the founder, president and CEO of Futuro Media Group, which produces the show. She was...
Lee Walker Heights Homecoming Celebration
Lee Walker Heights is the oldest public housing community in Asheville, NC. The community was built in the 1950’s and is about to be renovated. Members of the community celebrated their history with food, games, music and speakers. Squad members from Word...
Self Portrait By Jay
Self Portrait by Jay
Human
By Nevel Swain Hair, legs, feet, feeling , we have them right? But yet I get treated like the mud underneath your shoe. Nothing. Made fun of ‘cause of my clothes, my pants, but Ma always told me to love y’all Brothers look up to me I’m all they got. Growing up without...
Silence
By: Kaliyah I feel silenced when I’m the only black person in a class because I feel out of place so it makes me hesitate to raise my hand or ask questions and I just have to be so proper and it’s horrible because I feel like I’m nothing or like a small piece of...
Who Am I?
By: Melani Segovia I don’t know who I really am right now. I don’t know where I belong. My name is Melani, but I go by many different things. Sometimes, they call me “Edith’s daughter”, while other times, as “The New Girl that came from the USA”, and my MOST favorite...
Children Working
When I came to El Salvador, I noticed a child walking in the middle of stopped traffic asking the people in the cars if they wanted their windshields cleaned. I thought he was alone, but his dad was on the side of the road watching him. He had...
Green and Red
By Awesome CC Green Green is my mother cause she keeps me alive day in and day out but that’s all about to change cause I’ve stripped her of her trees and oxygen calling her nothing but scam Making her time run out faster but before I simple just let her die Let me...
Love
By Awesome CC They say love comes from the heart but what they fail to see is that love also causes you pain but in so many ways it can make you stronger as a person Trust me For someone to hurt you any type of way you have to love them first and don’t think let's...
A Nation of Immigrants
By Melani Segovia These are different published pieces interwoven together to form a spoken word piece. I made this piece because it talks about immigration which is something that is really big in my life. I wanted to show people that immigrants migrated to the...
Violence
by Niobe Wright Violence is pain, Violence is not a game, People who use violence should be very ashamed. Violence can be used in many ways. People all around the world use violence just for some sort of pay. Violence is in our schools. To me that’s not cool. If you...
Dear World: A Letter
by Kaliyah and Amyah Dear World, We are writing this letter about how deportation impacted us and how we feel about this happening to others. In the U.S, deportation is a very big subject and a hard thing to go through especially if you weren't expecting it. One of...
Where I’m From: A Community Poem
By Cierra, Sharissa, Niobe, Samiya, Kaliyah, Sade, Serenity Where i’m from... the smell of my grandmother's fried chicken fills the air . Where i’m from...i see the mountains and I feel the cold air. Where i’m from... the heat from the heat from the summer day burns...
Marc Bamuthi Joseph: Poet and Dancer
By Serenity Lewis, Donovan Spencer, Melani Segovia Last summer, we got to interview an American Performer, Marc Bamuthi Joseph. He started his arts career at the age of 10, after acting in a lot of TV commercials. He was at his home when we spoke...
Meeting Ronald K. Brown: Dancer, Choreographer, Storyteller
By Melani Segovia, Jeanette Quitizaca, Dylan Spencer Evidence a Dance Company was founded by dancer Ronald K. Brown in 1985, and based in Brooklyn, New York.Their mission statement says, “ The mission of Evidence is to promote understanding of the human...
Childhood memories
Body Acceptance
This is a batik color watercolor painting of a girl’s body in the background you can read that it says “love yourself and your body”. Body positivity is very important to me and i created this art piece to represent it.