University of Wisconsin juniors Keith Jackson and Martinez White have both experienced their share of struggles.
“I’ve been through a lot of stuff where I grew up as far as school, with the police, drugs, streets, all that crime, everything. I’ve never seen the light at home,” Jackson said. “Being [in Madison], this is a different mentality, a different environment, so you get away from things that happen in Chicago.”
Jackson, a native of Chicago’s infamous south side, and White, formerly an inner city resident of Milwaukee, participated Sunday in what they described as a “refreshing” performance by spoken word artists and motivational speakers Kwabena Antoine Nixon and Muhibb Dyer of Milwaukee.
In honor of Black History Month, the poets spoke about the trials of being black on campus and the difficulties and repercussions associated with coming from a disadvantaged background.
The pair urged about 40 audience members to let go of troubles from the past and to take control of their future.
“You never know what life will present to you,” Dyer said. “Nobody knows what the future holds, and if you don’t know, why not lie to your advantage? Say, maybe I’m going to accomplish my goals, accomplish my dreams, that no obstacle will get in my path. Why not say you can? There’s two worlds. There is the language of failure and the language of success.”
Along with performing, Dyer and Nixon led participants like Jackson and White in exercises that helped connect and give voice to audience members.
White said as a UW student originally from a single-parent home, he has trouble finding people to relate to on campus. He said hearing others from difficult backgrounds speak at the event helped him refocus his purpose as a student.
“If they can get through that, I can get through what I’ve got to get through. I can get through my five-page paper and sit through my lectures. I can get that credibility and say I have this degree from the University of Wisconsin and go back to where I come from and be that agent of change,” White said.
Jackson agreed some of the stories told were eye opening and stressed that he believes you cannot know someone just by looking at them.
“It definitely was motivation for me because the changes that I want to make — I have a stronger will within myself to make those things happen,” Jackson said. “It’s totally different when what they’re speaking on really relates. It strengthens you. It empowers you.”
He went on to say there is a need for open-mindedness on campus, as judgment is what leads to mistakes between people.
Wisconsin Black Student Union President and UW sophomore Cameron Thierry said the pair was brought in with the intention of providing a nontraditional performance in regards to Black History Month.
“We want to focus on things that are currently going on in the black community and then also how we can try to recognize those situations,” Thierry said.
