Reading has the power to create a more just and compassionate world.
A book can help you understand the story of someone completely different from you. At the same time, a book can reflect your own experiences back at you, as if to say: I see you. You are not alone. For the students Words Alive works with every day - students unaccustomed to seeing themselves represented in the books they read - it is the latter experience that is the most transformative.
Together, our students read the chapter in The Hate U Give where Starr Carter grabs a microphone at a protest to make her voice heard. She uses her microphone to make sure everyone knows that her friend Khalil’s life mattered, before and after he was murdered by a police officer. Our students relate to and feel her anger - because they’ve experienced it themselves.
Together, our students read Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice about how a Black teenager in 1960s Alabama served as a spark that ignited the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. Our students applaud Claudette’s resistance, and her effort to step into her own power - because they’ve faced discrimination in public spaces, and they’re resisting too. They also grieve how little progress we’ve made as a society since Claudette’s youth.
We have a moral responsibility to our students and their families to stand with those seeking fairness and to advocate against systemic inequities. Which is why we’re making clear today, to Black students, parents, volunteers, collaborative partners, donors, teachers, and our entire community: We see you, we hear you, and you are not alone. Black lives do matter.
They must matter.
They matter to Words Alive.
Reading has the power to change the world, but only when we bring the words alive with our actions. As an organization, Words Alive will support the efforts of those seeking dialogue, understanding, healing, and change. We will listen, first and foremost, to what is needed and how we can help. We will continue to give our students a microphone, just like Starr Carter’s, and we will amplify their voices.
Because Black voices, and Black lives, matter.
