High school students Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen were on Queen Latifah’s show the other day to perform a slam poetry piece called “Somewhere in America.” The powerful piece sheds a critical (and much needed) light on the intentional “gaps” in the American school system, where atrocities and institutionalized racism are glossed over or ignored.
These three poets are part of Get Lit, which is an organization that’s “dedicated to bringing the power of poetic expression to at risk teens through a standards-based curriculum fusing classic literature and poetry with contemporary Spoken Word performance techniques.”
It’s a worthy organization with worthy representatives if these three powerhouses are any indication.