A gathering is where it started:
I see black and brown faces talking about
white missionaries who think a bullet can save
me from my blackness,
from myself.
And I feel at home as ever because I thought
I was the only one because that is what
society teaches you. Loneliness.
But pain can find a gathering of people and
a gathering of people can make a community
thrive,
where words remember spirits once spoken
and give thanks to them for being, for knowing
that even when we don’t see the sun,
and we all blend into the night,
we have each other to lean on and continue to fight/write.
Welcome to Writers in Baltimore Schools.
May this place be a second home for you as it was for me
Rejjia Camphor is a sophomore at Hampshire College, and a 2016 graduate of Baltimore City College High School and Writers in Baltimore Schools.