- Someone once told me that there is beauty in brokenness
and I could never quite forget it.
So that day, I went home
and looked deep in the mirror in search of diamonds,
reminded myself that darkness isn't always a bad thing,
even if it is.
It's symbolic.
It's a frightened rainbow,
quaking beneath the weeping clouds.
It's a waiting room before a wildfire's rebirth,
an opening act before the light makes its debut.
- Someone once told me that words are powerful,
that they can build and create or even destroy.
Maybe in that moment, I realized
that we often don't believe in what we cannot see.
We place the greatest value in what we say.
So say it.
- Say we bloom like orchids in the springtime,
fragile and rare, but determined to stay alive.
Say I'm alive and this moment is a toast to breathing.
These lungs have bore the the weight
of many sighs and many screams,
but have cradled the echo of many laughs
and witnessed miracles.
- [Together] Say it.
- When every second feels like a Monday morning,
may every day feel like New Year's Eve
and every night feel like the moment before
history is being made.
Say I am mystery being made and I cannot be erased.
This is what a mountain looks like before it moves.
This is a self-portrait in the form of mosaic
stitched together with evergreen leaves.
Say evergreen.
Even when the world is cold,
we praise the good days and wedge them in our memories
for times just like this.
- [Together] Say it.
- My artistry is proof that brilliance is resilient,
self-love is an orchestra on the skyline's tongue,
a battlefield on which we say what we mean
because we have nothing to lose.
My joy is a prelude to anything deemed legendary.
Say I am legendary.
I am a yellow kite in the sky,
seamless and bound by nothing,
the sun's closest of kin and the arch enemy of gray skies.
Say the next time anyone calls me out of my name
will be their last time.
I am bright,
I am beautiful,
I am somebody,
I am from somewhere
and I am something this world has never seen.
- [Together] Say it.
- Say Langston Hughes is still the homie,
but this is no longer a dream deferred.
(audience laughs) These passions
are the roots of a volcano, seconds away from explosion.
They're the howl of a wolf pack
that will never be silenced.
They're the footprints on the soil of an escape land
thirsty for freedom.
Say, I will never succumb to the restraints
of a job that does not fulfill me!
Or crumble under the pressure of hand-me-down expectations.
And though we can't count on the promise of tomorrow,
as long as I'm alive,
I will never hold a funeral for my dreams.
- Though we can't always count on the promise of tomorrow,
say I don't have to because today
I am the oldest I've ever been
and the youngest I ever will be.
- [Together] Say it.
- Say, I am this poem,
sharp and honest with a sprinkle of loveliness.
This is an ode to you and me.
- Say I am this very moment's identical twin,
once I have come and gone,
left my mark with red paint in the sky,
allowed the world to witness my greatness,
you will never get me back.
- Say this is the beginning.
Say every day is a beginning,
as long as you say so.