In' Through the Wreckage
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in’ Through The Wreckage Youth Poetry From a Year of Pandemics, Uprisings, & Revolutions Collected for the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival 2021 In celebration of the Kalamazoo Poetry Festival, RAWK has compiled this digital publication to share the poetry we have had the honor to publish over the past year as we all learned to adapt to a new world. Between our first virtual Summer Writing Camps and our Quarantine Anthology Project we have released four new anthologies of student writing: ∙ Who Can Change the Future? Poetry & Prose from RAWK’s First Virtual Summer Writing Camps 2020 ∙ Shelter In Place Stories and Words from the Socially Distant Front Lines of Home Read and Write Kalamazoo exists to ∙ Separate Together Collected Works From Isolation celebrate and amplify youth voices ∙ Questions You Can’t Answer through the cultivation of reading and writing skills Wisdom & Antibodies From Our Heroes’ Virtual Journeys via joy, creativity, equity, and access. From these publications comes a collection of poems of praise and wonder, of every day joys, of worry and pain, strength and determination, of confessions, confusions, and calls to action. Written in virtual RAWK workshops and mentoring sessions, in virtual school classrooms, and in all the places these young poets found themselves weathering the many storms of our collective existence. RAWK’s mission has always been to celebrate and amplify youth voices, but the past year has underscored why we exist and why we’re going to keep working and adapting to support the young people of Kalamazoo. Now more than ever, young people need space to process and express, to explore and grow, and to step into the inherent power of their words and stories. The writings shared here were collected between March 25th, 2020 and March 15th, 2021 RAWK would like to thank Anne Hensley for the time and creative efforts spent in the editing of the four anthologies © 2021 Read and Write Kalamazoo that contributed to this publication. Contents From Volumes 1, 2, & 3 of the Quarantine Anthology Project, 2020–2021 Black Lives Matter by Amani Hill 1 I Want Things to Change by Cecilia Puente 2 Protests Poem by Hannah Boothby 4 Untitled by Sagan Barber 6 I Am Every Good Thing by Max Bormann 7 I Am Every Good Thing by Harrison Bryce 8 I Am Every Good Thing by Kyree Whitfield 9 I Am Every Good Thing Poem by Sabrina Barrett by Mara Boyea 10 18 Wonderful Women My Smile by Anna Kingston by Regina Castillo-Castaneda 11 19 Love Ones The True Future Of Me by Yamilet Brito-Arevalo by Elizabeth Bippley 12 20 Questions You Can’t Answer The Future. by Eliseo Daniel Blanco by Masha Canfield 13 21 Like a Star Once Upon a Time ... by Tony VanStreain by Giuliana Bush 14 24 Acrostic Poem Rise Above by Gus Roman by Kailah Gaines-Harris 15 27 Acrostic Poem Troubled Treadmill by Kendall Herrmann by Johanna VanLandegent 16 29 Acrostic Poem In My Garden by Jack Stefanick by Ingrid Aardema 17 30 Eraser Poem Stripes by Olivia Brooks by Zanaya Wilson 31 39 Headphones Haiku StrongWind by Jack Stefanick by Zanaya Wilson 32 40 Enchanted Dragon An Ode to Pizza by Taegan Rademacher by Darek J. Roberts 33 41 Horchata List Poem by Jose-Luis & Amaya Olivo by Jeydon White 34 42 Random Stuff Virtual Snow Day by Salvador Blanco by Adam Justa 35 43 Cookbook Metaphor Me by Amaya Olivo by Moira Springsteen 36 44 Transformer Instructions Bittersweet by Adahy Garcia by Caleb Meskin 37 45 Transformer Instructions Continued The Poem About Nature by Adahy Garcia by Mackenzie Lepisto 38 46 Ice Skating Poem From RAWK’s First Virtual by Olivia Brooks Summer Writing Camps, 2020 47 Sand An Ode to Snow by Amairany Arevalo by Kendall Herrmann 54 48 I’m Hopeful Kevin’s Winter Day by Amairany Arevalo by Harper Petke 55 49 Untitled 1–3 Spring by Carter Tuthill by Jacob Milliken 56, 57 50 Question Poem Lake Michigan by Elizabeth Sparks by Stella Scavarda 58 51 Haiku Noodle, My Snake by Elizabeth Sparks by Andrew Boertman 59 52 Untitled The Woods by Maddex DeGraw by L.E. Mansberger 60 53 Untitled by Margie Glynn 61 Strengths Summer Haikus by Stella Tillman by Chloe Jones 62 71 My Community A Summer Poem by Stella Tillman by Chloe Jones 63 72 I’m Black To: The People of 2020 by Tony VanStreain by Eloise Dunfee 64 73 (2 Haikus) Ode to Simple Joys by Tony VanStreain by Masha Canfield 65 74 Untitled Six Feet by Zanaya Wilson by Tessa Hawthorne 66 75 Art is EVERYTHING Future by Audrina Wellington by Tessa Hawthorne 67 76 Sunshine A Poem About Today by Audrina Wellington by Anonymous 68 77 Ode to Isolation Death by Caroline Guo by Yamilet Brito-Arevalo 69 78 Untitled by Jackson Atkins 79 Untitled by Jackson Atkins 80 Will Black Lives Matter? by Layla Roberts 81 Untitled by Sagan Barber 82 Untitled by Sagan Barber 83 For the Future I Want ... by Hanis Sommerville 84 Hesitate by Vivian Enriquez 85 When We Free Ourselves by Vivian Enriquez 86 Black Lives Matter by Amani Hill, 5th grade When I heard what was going on in the world right now, it made me feel sick to my stomach. Not just because I’m Black. But because it is not right. The news has been blowing up I saw the video. It was frustrating to see a person that is equal to all being hurt because of his skin. I remember in AT classes, last year, learning about this My teacher said, “Racist people still exist.” I was just thinking, “I don’t know about that. I haven’t heard about it in a long time.” Now I know that it is true. Actually, I remember feeling misplaced last year because I was the only black person in AT classes. Think about this: What does Target, Family Dollar, and other businesses have to do with this? Our world is getting changed into a warzone Whites vs Blacks again Why do we have to bring this back up? How many times is this going to happen? We have been silenced throughout the years it’s our turn to protest and say what is right but all of a sudden it’s a problem. 1 I Want Things to Change When a White person kills a Black person, it’s self by Cecilia Puente, 5th grade defense. When a Black person kills a White person, it is murder. I get really mad sometimes. I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE Like really mad. Like I want to yell. It’s like those old time movies. People only see Black and White. I want to scream. Why can’t they see what actually matters? I want to throw a fit. I want to break things apart. I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE I don’t want people to look at me and just see the color of my skin. People shouldn’t be afraid of who they are I want them to see me. Or what they look like For who I am. Or the color of their skin I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE Afraid that one day they’ll be killed by people Who are being paid to protect to them I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE You say Black people cause more trouble? Have more fights? That’s because you’re in their neighborhoods Watching them like a hawk. I WANT THINGS TO CHANGE 2 3 Protests Poem Our voices are stronger by Hannah Boothby, 8th grade than weapons they carry, so we don’t let go of our hope. I marched in the protests, when memory fades, I’ll never forget these horrors. I’ll remember the history, because it’s my history, ‘cause not so long ago, we shouted and marched, down through the streets, hoping to change our world. They had their guns, and they had their dogs, but we had our dreams and our hope. Our voices were stronger than weapons they carried, and so the laws were changed. I see the protests, when we pass away, history remembers these horrors. The future will not forget what we did, oppressors and the oppressed. So we shout and we march, down through the streets, tired of hate in our world. They have their guns, their gas and their bullets, but we have a say in what’s seen. 4 5 Untitled I Am Every Good Thing by Sagan Barber, 16 years old by Max Bormann, 4th grade It only takes a spark, I am as loud as a lion, A single flicker to ignite the poised tinder of an open mind. and sometimes as quiet as a mouse. As the fire spreads, so does your voice, I am super fast, as fast as light. It becomes ignition for others’ action. I am artsy like my mama. A forest fire of wild thoughts, I am silly like a monkey, and sometimes serious like a Burning trees that whisper for the fight. tiger. People douse us with waterlogged insults, I am snuggly like my stuffed animals. Sordid attempts to put us out, I am proud like a cat that caught a mouse. They haven’t realized that attempts to strangle us, Only make us tower higher; The unstoppable burn of active action. Some people won’t survive, The opposers are too scared of us and smother them. We fight for them, their deaths will never be in vain. We fight even when the fire is smoldered, Nothing left but embers growing dim, But if there’s even one minuscule light left, We’ll rage on again and again, Coming back brighter and bolder than times before.