Wisconsin Life

(slow, dramatic music) Ready? I got this. Althea Miller gives you the sense she's about to do something remarkable. This is for the queens. Yes, that's us-- Whether it's a performance as a spoken word artist-- Caramel latte swirl. I need to be on stage. If I'm not on stage, then I am denying myself joy. Or, as she pursues an advanced degree. I'm currently a master's student studying multi-cultural education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Whoo, what all am I involved in? A lot. (chuckles) (drum music) That includes sharing her passion for West African dance at Madison's Woodland Montessori. I love this idea of Sankofa, that's from the Akan people. They have several beautiful symbols that mean a host of wonderful, spiritual things. And that's the one that myself and a lot of my friends we to connect to is Sankofa, which means that it's not taboo to go back and recover that which is lost. Going back and recovering what's lost includes digging into African roots through dance and reconsidering her own story as the child of a single mother and an absent father, which she does in her poem, "We Be." Sometimes, we be left lonely with children that took more than ourselves to conceive, but we be pink sidewalk chalk. And so she did everything that she could to make me not feel that absence and that's kind of what I was hitting on like, "We be pink sidewalk chalk." Draw hopscotch to jump past struggles,

we be that

resilient. Resilient, it's an often overlooked characteristic that "We Be" speaks to. We be mustard seeds moving mountains, mighty. Making valleys, level grounds for our children to play on. It's not just my story, there's a collective story being told. We all share some part of history, some part of trauma. We're all connected somehow and so to be able to get on stage and share that connection is very important. Althea also makes those connections in the classroom as a champion of multi-cultural education. Education is liberty, so I want to make education more accessible. That's what we should be focusing on, making sure that education and the way that we teach all students of all ages is relevant to who they are, the context that they live in. We are giving something to our friends and we are receiving something. The context Althea lives in continues to shape who she is. The more that I dance or read or study or work in the community, the more that things come together and the more the picture of my life becomes clear. Like many students, Althea doesn't know exactly where she'll end up, but chances are it will be some place remarkable. Education, as a form of liberty. Art as a mode of healing. These are things that I'm working toward. I don't have a particular, like a specific idea of what I'll be doing, but I see it converging to a point and that's what I love. (applause and children cheering)