The Pandemic Made an Artist Again

#WRITINGPROMPT: WHY IS WRITING YOUR SUPERPOWER?

Children help me remember my voice is my superpower.

I have always expressed my voice and my mission through my writing. My life’s mission is to help end violence against children. Somewhere along the line, I forgot that I didn’t have to lose my access to joy in the process.

I started writing poetry when I was in elementary school. I got a guitar when I was 13. I played and sang with abandon, never worrying if I knew the words or even the tune for whatever song I decided to learn next. I read the morning announcements over the loudspeaker in junior high school, was in the debate club in high school and college, and read my poetry in smoky cafes.

When my daughter was a young child, I used my voice to tell her stories at night, sing her to sleep, and help her learn everything from the alphabet to the difference between right and wrong. The sound of our laughter rang through the house, bouncing off the walls. The entire world was our canvas, as we painted, made puppets, sang together, and had deep, uplifting conversations that began when she was younger than two.

Once my daughter entered elementary school, I began working for a peace education center, where my creativity was incorporated into other aspects of the job. My puppet shows started having deeper themes, touching on topics that would probably be banned now as “critical race theory.” They addressed issues such as where Black children’s ancestors came from before slavery. The shows also pointed out that America didn’t need to be discovered since indigenous people were living here, and it wasn’t lost. I was still having fun while using art to make these critical points.

Along with working directly with children, I was also doing workshops in a woman’s prison and started to learn about the issues faced by these women and their families. The women I worked with missed their children, and their suffering was unlike anything I had ever experienced, unlike anything I had ever even known existed before. So I began asking the universe to help me find a way to help those families.

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