Student's Ready to Showcase their Talent!!!

Dominique Curtis and Marquita Fisher are posing in the photo with Alexi Giannoullias just before President Obama spoke in Hyde Park

On Tuesday November 16th from 4-8pm Cabrini Connections will be teaming up with Namrata Shah and Jessica Grant of UIC's Red Shoes Review to host a benefit event. All of the details are listed here. The actual building location has been determined and the event will take place in Room 121 of the Burnham Hall building located on the East Campus of UIC (near the Morgan and Taylor St intersection). Please call 312-996-7000, and an operator can give directions to Burnham Hall.

Below are a few of the poetic pieces that several of the Cabrini Connections' students will be showcasing at this event. Please take the time to read their work and hopefully their words and feelings will encourage you to make and effort to come out and be a part of this event or support the overall project from afar.

If you can't attend but would like to support this event, please make an online donation here



Abortion
By: Dominique Curtis

Mommy, mommy. Mommy
I call out for you but you don’t hear
Mommy, mommy, mommy
I am filled with so much fear

Mommy, mommy, mommy
I touch you but you don’t feel
Mommy, mommy, mommy
I’m telling you I need you

Where are you mommy?
I don’t know why you’re leaving me
I’m looking at you
But you pretend you don’t see

Mommy how could you do this to me
Don’t you understand I am you’re other part
Mommy you don’t understand
Mommy you have no heart

You were not ready for me
That I understand
But what about what I was ready for
Mommy what about my plans

Who will speak up for those who can’t?
Who will be the voice for those without?
Who will hear the cry’s of the baby?
Who will see the tears of the child?

I see for those that are invisible
I stay for those who everyone leaves
I stand for those who can’t walk
I talk for those with no voice

(95%), are done as a means of birth control
Number of abortions per day: Approximately 126,000

It all starts at home
By: Dominique Curtis

Killing and dying, abusing and abused, raped, hurt and fill with the pain

It all starts at home when mommy tells you, you ain’t s***
And how much she hates you and regrets you
It all starts at home when daddy hits you and beats you
When he breaks you up inside and out
It all starts when hell is the place you call home

The problem is that homes are broken and no one’s listening and no one’s learning
You see everyday we see people lost to the streets
Gun shots missing and piercing the innocence of child
But you see we don’t change because we have become immune to it
The gun shots and deaths have become common nature

See but this starts at home
It starts with the little girl who was raped and abused when she was young
So when boys only wanted her for her body she didn’t know that this was wrong
And when she ended up pregnant at 15
She raised her child while she was still a child herself
And you see she still didn’t understand right from wrong
So she raised her baby girl the same way her mother raised her
Teaching her that her biggest power is between her legs
And that if a man hit her it was ok just deal with it
And the cycle just continues of young girls abused and raped
Blind to the problem in their situation

And see this starts at home
It starts with the little boy that was raised in a home where momma smoked and daddy drank
And daddy was the man he looked up to and followed behind
And so when daddy hit momma it was fine
And he was taught the only way to be a man and be define is by clutching a nine and committing crimes
And so when he got a girlfriend he didn’t see a problem with putting his foot on her face when she didn’t do what he said
Because this is what he was taught and how he was led
And the cycle continues of little boys not knowing how to be man
Blind to the problem in their situation


So you see the problem is
The respect we are being taught is turned and spun
Boys defined by tattoos and guns
Girls walking around with babies like hand bags and accessories
We have babies raising babies
Bad parents raising kids to be bad parents
And so we see kids killing kids and then we become kids killing kids because we don’t know any other way
See when we know better we do better but all we know is our hearts and souls
Which we were taught was define by our body and how many men we slept with
And our guns and how many people we kill
And so we can not change our future until we correct our past

We were never taught that our brain is the best thing to fight with
And our true potential lies in us not with what we have
Our true talents are not material things
And our true beauty is inside

So we need examples of good parents we need teachers
And I think you should have to take a class before you can be a mother
I think you should be a man before you can be a father
Because I find it painful to see the babies beautiful faces
Being brutally beaten and disgraced

See I think it should all start at home
When mommy gives you hugs and kisses
And daddy tells you he loves you
And this makes you feel so special
When your house is finally a place you can call home

I'm From...
By: Marquita Fisher (Quita)

I’m from Chicago and Cabrini Green
Where you hear gun shots
I’m from phony and backstabbing a** friends
Wanting to love and hate

I’m from home to home
Living with my friends
I’m from kids getting raped and beat
Police not doing s***

I from going home and hearing about girl X
I know yall heard about it
How she was raped, beat, and got poisoned

All on the news and on TV
Police lying saying they gone find them

I’m from don’t do that cousin please
To shut up and don’t say s***
I’m from my so called family
Where was they when he touched me

I’m from my so called daddy
Not being there for me
I’m from my mother walking out on me
And I have no place to go

I’m from Bam! A slap to my face
Blood dripping from my lip
I’m from mother sitting there
And not saying s***.

I’m from moving in with my auntie
And Kiera being there for me
I’m from seeing Kiera on Wednesday’s
In our laughter and goofiness

I’m from a place I could call home now
My auntie staying by my side
I’m from a better life now
Sleeping very safely

I’m from get up and get ready for school
6:00 got to get to get up
I’m from “have a good day at school
And be good”

I’m from “Marquita come in the house to eat”
Grandma’s cooking on a Sunday
I’m from who I don’t know?