ICYMI 3 Teen Girls Call Out America’s Biggest Problem In Viral Poetry Slam

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Whenever a new year rolls around it's a great time to reflect on the achievements on the previous 12 months and dive into the future head first feeling confident, excited and empowered. But with all the horrific things that happened around the world in 2014, most of us started 2015 with a bit of a heavy heart, with many more news stories threatening to dampen our spirits and make us lose hope.

There are some common threads amongst all these tragedies, one being the power of the voice. When people speak up, like the teen girls we're about to introduce to you, powerful things happen. Awareness is raised, strength is recognized, communities band together for support, and in some extreme cases, action is taken for the better.

But what happens when the voice of the people is drowned out by oppressive regimes and, God forbid, the ignorance and silence of others? The problems continue.

The teen girls we mentioned are part of an awesome creative organization called Get Lit recently performed a confronting, spine-tingling and powerful poetry slam on The Queen Latifah Show. It was titled ‘Somewhere in America' and points directly at some of the major news events of the past year. The overall message is that they are calling on their generation, the youth, to stand up, raise their voices, wise up and recognize the problems that are happening in society around them.

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Belissa Escobedo, Rhiannon McGavin, and Zariya Allen talk about how the younger generation are more interested in selfies, social media, and superficiality to care about the real issues of the world and know that they can make a difference.

The harsh reality is that it is not just teens who are acting this way, it is all of us and their message is a timely reminder to wake the eff up!

Watch the performance below, then watch the interview with the Queen herself where the girls discuss that not many students today in America are aware of certain literature that is banned in schools for trivial things preventing them from getting a richer understanding and context of the problems that currently exist in the world.

Dear readers, let's not allow another year to go by where we sit in silence while others rock the boat. Let this be your encouragement today to be brave and stand up!

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