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For my people…

Inspired by Margaret Walker’s poem “For My People” and in partnership with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Project Curator Natasha Trethewey, people across the country write about daily life in their own communities.

Saint Louis, MO

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For my people Autism isn't all bad! My Autism has given me an Adult Level Vocabulary when I was 10 or 11 years old and now My Vocabulary IQ is 120 in the Mildly Gifted Range and it has taught me to really appreciate and enjoy...

San Antonio, TX

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For my people Easter is a celebration of new life. For many, years decorated eggs have been a symbol of that new life and the joy of renewal. Years ago an old gentleman gave me a hand painted egg. It had been emptied and was painted...

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For my people the rituals of spring begin with Lent. Those forty days are a gift to us as a time to look at our lives and consider what we need to do to renew ourselves made make a new start. Just as nature begins a...

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For my people the young, the youth. We have so much power that we don't recognize. We are the future. Set your mind free and be whoever you want to be. As we live in this weird times remember to make the best out of it...

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For my people - I am the eighth child in a family of 16; or 17. Our neighborhood was known as "La Paloma" which used to encompass several blocks on a street known as South 18th Street in McAllen, Texas. Everyone who was Hispanic lived on...

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For my people - For my people, the generation that be the zeitgeist of humanity. For my people who like to rob the sun of its glow and spread it across the room. For my people who like to dig up the sounds of ancient...

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For my people , the fellow students. Waking up to go a mere couple of feet to your school. Trying to stay motivated to graduate. Having to be inside for the "best years of our lives".

New Orleans, LA

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Oklahoma City, OK

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For my people during the Civil War, a classified and unknown Federal Unit called the Mississippi Marine Brigade was born at St. Louis and staffed with many Iowa members, estimated by some sources as nearly half the 2200 on its roster. Key members in this effort...

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For my people I am a community activist raising my voice in the service of justice and healing. My elders endured the "American concentration camps during WWII" and I experienced the aftermath of this racist event as a young child. Not until later did I realize...

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For my people ... I was b orn into a family with deep Mississippi roots. My ambition and desire is to understand, celebrate and honor the great legacy of my people through historic preservation and research of all things cotton, its industries, its cultural narratives, and...

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For my people, Happy Lunar New Year.

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For my people : My great-great grandfather , Patrick, came from Ireland at the age of 20 in 1858. This meant , being born an 1838, that he was 8 years old when the famine hit. He survived the Coffin Ships and made it to America...

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For my people who were killed in the Pogroms of Russia.

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For my people ... who lean on the creative process for solace. In March 2020, I launched a community art project called Made in Isolation, which c hronicles how practicing artists and people of varied backgrounds are responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Amid what has quickly...

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