Language travel and education has been an enlightening tool for me to understand the systematic forms of oppression and human rights violations those in my community face Poetry is the tool I used to express it As a first generation American balancing city and village identity has become my art It is my dream to open an all girl orphanage for literacy as I have seen the implications of illiteracy in my own family and the countless women and girls I have worked with from shanty towns in Morocco orphanages in Peru India Jordan and Guatemala to the countless other locations Iave visited As someone who is fluent in 6 languages languages is a form of empowerment as we maneuver ourselves in this post colonial world Indigenous knowledge is passed down to us through generations and it s our duty to see understand and incorporate into our lives City Girl Village Heart