|
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
 |
STAGES Summer
Employment Program Celebrates
STAGES summer program participants celebrate after their closing ceremony.
An excited buzz filled the room on August 18th as the staff and participants
of this year's STAGES Summer Employment Program prepared for their final
presentation. Family, friends, Powerful Voices staff, and community members
gathered at the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center in Seattle to celebrate
the accomplishments of five girls who chose to spend the past seven weeks
of their summer as interns at the Powerful Voices office. For six hours
a day, four days a week, participants have been developing job-readiness
and social skills as they explored expression, art, and activism.
The girls worked hard to create a program of art and spoken word. After
the guests had settled into their chairs with plates of delicious food
and desserts provided by the class and their families, the once ordinary
multipurpose room was magically transformed into a café complete
with smooth beats and beautiful lighting.
After an introduction by instructional coordinator Blak Washington, one
by one the girls took the mike and shared some of the writing generated
in the program this summer. Chioma, a fifteen year old participant read
her poem, "I Am":
"My glimpse of hell had to have been the times when I was taunted
and teased for being dark skinned, it was as if my skin was the only thing
they would always see, And no matter how much I tried to ignore them they
still found pleasure in making fun of me, it took me time to find that
I am beautiful with my skin tone and in this world of strangers I was
not alone, I had to learn to accept what god blessed me with, and dark
being ugly is simply a myth, I am beautiful…yes beautiful I am dark
chocolate skinned and loving what I'm in…"
In addition to community based trainings and arts exposure, each girl
has received support and advocacy throughout the summer. Girls will be
directly supported to take their GED test or enroll in school. After the
experience, some hope to become writers, others want to continue working
with Powerful Voices. Regardless, all five girls are accomplished poets,
performers, and activists equipped with a strong sense of self and tools
that will carry them into the future.
Chioma reflected on the evening, saying, "I loved writing poetry
and performing it. It felt really good to have people respond to our work-
I didn't know it would make me cry. I loved it!" People's responses
to her work have inspired her to continue to write, possibly as a future
career. She added, "Before this summer I didn't know what I wanted
to be. This program has helped me discover latent talents I never knew
I had."