Get Offended: Poem & Performance

Throughout my poem, I spoke about who holds the power in the United States. I feel that this is an important political issue, due to our president speaking about kicking these immigrants out of the country when this country which isn’t his. None of us should be given the power to control our one country that isn’t ours. I try to make the connection with myself and the the topic by having me speak as all of the immigrants by saying “we” as the refugees of Syria, Mexicans, Native Americans, and African immigrants.

The poetic devices that I used were metaphors comparing “we” to the president. For example, “you call us rapists...your father raped the Africans and the Indians and the Arabs and then you get the alluring Puerto Rico.” I use repetition in order to prove my stance, “United States of America… United States of Terror.” I decided not to use alliteration as much through my poem only because I’m not too good at using it. I do like the alliteration of “terra” because you can see how that could lead to so many outcomes in wordplay. If I had more time, I would have liked to have used some more rhyme so that when I would perform I had more cadence.

While I was performing my poem, I did raise and lower my voice at times. I felt like getting louder people would understand the stance that I am taking and my frustration with this situation. I usually feel like no one will listen to what I have to say because I am a teenager and it will not be taken seriously. As I would get, louder I would also increase in speed to let my anger out. If there were points where I was making a remark to our president, I would look down to seem confused, but in a way that I’m saying something where people will realize, “Oh, I didn’t even think of that” or “Exactly, you understand”. If I could improve, it would be improving my hand gestures because I would use them to point to something or to myself but I would have like to have used them for purposes of imagery.

NBE Performs Get Offended from GCE Lab School on Vimeo.

We are the refugees you call terrorists

We are the mexicans you call rapists

We are the Africans you call slaves

We are the founders of YOUR country that you call pocahontas.

We’ve heard

We ’ve tasted

We’ve seen

We've felt the wounds

That are now scars

That become beautiful

Just like how a seed gets planted

Still grows

And as the plant grows

The flower blossoms into something beautiful

Then the flower gets abducted by the soil she grew up in

Terra

Torture

Torment

Territory

Terror

Terrorism

Terrorist
For god's sake
You cause the tears to be drawn by the strongest of people
Tears

He made them cry tears of blood

The founding fathers that founded the “new world”

“They shouldn’t be worried”

“They came here illegally”

Just how YOUR people just came across a country

The goal was to trade

But at the end they traded the people

The people who are MY ancestors

Who are also YOUR ancestors

It even says it in the name
United States of America
United States of Terror

Broken by boundaries

Tethered by territories

Terrified of terrorists

My people.
They keep coming
And they keep going back
They go back because you say we are taking your jobs away

YOUR founding father was the one who stumbled upon America

who assaulted the natives and killed them with the hidden gems

You call us homeless
But it was your  forefathers,

founders of the “New World” who took us  out of Our  land and made US homeless
You
Intoxicated US
Raped US
Sold US
Lynched US
Because your people found out we were useless

Useless

Used

Use

You used US

History repeats itself,
But don’t you learn from your mistakes?
Oh wait
Your people haven’t learned that one yet

So how do you expect me to learn something that your people wrote for me.

You call us rapists

“They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. But some, I assume, are good people.”

You say we’re your favorite mexicans
YOUR father raped the Africans and the Indians and the Arabs and then you get the alluring Puerto Rico.
And you STILL call it U.S. territory

A part of the United States

Part of the United States of Terror

You

terrorist.
You call us terrorists?
We’re dangerous you say
YOU were the one who used used for the oil that you need to provide for your nation
At the end we just want to provide.
So doesn’t that just make YOU the terrorist?

You call us the names of our past

But what you don’t know is that you had a past

Your past as a rapist

Your past as a terrorist

Your past as an intoxicator

The past of MY people were affected by you

I wonder

Is the pot cracking because there are too many tongues?

Or is it cracking because of the defiance of my people?

The melting pot is cracking

With the roars of the americans you call immigrants

With the punches of frustration that is interrogating the minds of the immigrants

With the mouths of a foreign language although

At one point

Your ancestors’ language was the foreign one

You can take us out

But you must take yourself out first

You’re superior for now

But with the defiance of MY people you will not take us out “your” America

Sobek Has Launched!

  The name of this term was Rocket science. Throughout this term we were able to learn about the history of space exploration. The class got to go to the Adler Planetarium where we found inspiration for our rockets, what were were exploring through space exploration. We got to visit the Museum of Science and Industry where we explored aerodynamics by looking at the transpiration gallery that the museum had.  We were able to explore the different people and their diverse minds who were able to help throughout these different space missions. We were able to look into interior designers like, Galina Balashova, Katherine Johnson, who was a female African American mathematician in her field, and the list goes on. Throughout this term, we created our own fire rockets, looked into aerodynamics, and at the end we created our own water rockets. At the end, for our final action project we were given a budget of $1,000,000 where we could create our own water rockets. We came into this project with experience because before this we were working with other mini-missions that our teacher created foe us where we explored pitch,yaw,and roll which is important in aerodynamics, we tried out different mathematical equations like a parabolic formula, etc. These are my overall results of the water rocket launch!

                   

In conclusion, I become fascinated by the different fields that made up NASA. NASA has made it more and more possible to explore space and has connected all of us even throughout the hard times. Times of the Cold War we still managed to be together even throughout the space race.