00:00What's your race? Fool me, I'm black. I wrote a play called The Evolution of Race.
00:13My play is about shattering stereotypes. It's about sharing cultures and bonding together.
00:22My goal in life is to create change and promote change through my art.
00:52I'm not the type of person to see something wrong and watch it happen. I'll go and I'll fight for what's right.
01:04Catch it. Catch it. I know who you're after.
01:08Who I'm after?
01:09Today is our Black History Month program and we haven't had one in three years.
01:14I'm student body president. We had to actually fight for this because we haven't had anyone
01:20to actually cooperate with us. They always say that we're here to work for the kids. We care about the kids.
01:27When you turn around and the kids have opinions about things, it's like we're shut down.
01:32I go to a historically black high school in a historically black neighborhood,
01:37so I feel like if no other school should be doing it, we should.
01:43It's important for students to see positive images of what they can be.
01:48The history of our culture.
01:53I helped create the art on the wall because I wanted a lot of black history to be incorporated into the school.
02:03It shows generations that'll be coming what we can do, what we're capable of.
02:10There's a lack of positivity shown when it comes down to my generation.
02:14We're just like dopey, criminals, who just stay on our phones all day.
02:20Through my creations, I want to portray more positive images of our generation.
02:25I know I'm just one person, but it only takes one spark to start a flame.
02:32My play is about a guy who has a dream to leave his community in order to pursue his career
02:38and make something out of himself because he's tired of the stereotypes that are put on him.
02:44You always dream. Wow. We ain't never gonna get out of the hood.
02:54I have some things in common with my main character, James, because I also want to leave to pursue my career and achieve my goals.
03:10In the third grade, I had this dream of this goal that I needed to accomplish.
03:16Back then, it seemed so far away because my life was way different than now.
03:24The city officials, federal officials, had urged that people get out of the city
03:29because even given that Katrina had veered off to the right and this wasn't the worst-case scenario,
03:34we can certainly see what's happened all across the city as we drove around the city of New Orleans.
03:41When Katrina hit, I had to evacuate to Mississippi with my step-great-grandmother.
03:49But I learned that people go through storms and they come out greater than they were before or even stronger.
03:56Before Katrina, I was always that student who quit on myself even though I had a lot of grand ideas.
04:05I had low self-esteem. I didn't think I was smart enough.
04:09Doctors thought that I was blind because when I went to my eye exams, I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.
04:16I just was saying like random letters and numbers.
04:19But the truth is, I didn't know how to read.
04:22And I didn't even know that I didn't know how to read.
04:25A change came about after Katrina when I went to go live with my step-great-grandmother, Joyce.
04:31She would help me with my homework and that was the first time education was ever stressed.
04:37So not only did I have support at school, I had support at home.
04:41I learned how to read, write and my confidence grew.
04:45That's when I began to dream, like dream to go to college, dream to write, dreams of becoming an artist.
04:54And I found my creative self.
04:57When I came back to New Orleans, I was a whole different person.
05:03Through my writing and through my art, I want to promote change and I want to cause change.
05:12I know a part of that is giving back to others and helping people like I was helped.
05:18So again, what happened to his mom and dad?
05:21His mom was banished to the world of Buchania and his father Donna.
05:27I volunteer at Big Class because they allow children to express themselves creatively through writing, sometimes even drawing.
05:37I met one little girl and she reminded me of myself in Mississippi.
05:44She rode backwards, but it didn't stop her at all.
05:49At her age, I was in sort of the same predicament, but I wasn't like her.
05:53I didn't, you know, keep trying to go.
05:55I was embarrassed and I just quit on myself.
05:58She inspired me to work harder because at a young age, she's not giving up and I see myself in her a lot.
06:06It reminds me that people didn't give up on me.
06:10I chose to take Bard Early College classes.
06:14It's a liberal arts university.
06:16They offer courses to high school students.
06:19I actually earned college credits in African Diaspora and Writing to Rewrite.
06:26And I never would have thought that I was going to graduate from high school and earn college credit at the same time.
06:33I always leave college credit in high school.
06:43Who am I?
06:44Which one is who you are.
06:45Who am I?
06:46Who am I?
06:47I am.
06:48I am, I am.
06:49Who am I?
06:50Who am I?
06:51Who am I?
06:52Who am I?
06:53Who am I?
06:54Who am I?
06:55and dealing with creativity.
06:57I was accepted into Howard and it is my top choice.
07:00But I have no money, but I'm trying.
07:04I'm gonna go, so yeah.
07:08Even in difficult situations,
07:10I look at it and I take the good out of it.
07:13It inspires my art because it gives me something
07:16to talk about, it gives me motivation,
07:19it gives me something to show to those people
07:22who don't really understand in order to make
07:24them understand.
07:26And now introducing Vernisha Hooker's
07:28The Evolution of Race.
07:33Little brown girl with the curly hair.
07:34I see you staring at the girl with the pale white skin
07:37and the naturally pressed hair.
07:39I see you thinking you're not good enough.
07:41But look, baby girl, let me tell you,
07:43your hair is full of life.
07:45Last I heard it's not possible to defy her gravity,
07:47but your hair does.
07:48Your hair reaches up to the heavens to connect with our God,
07:51but you want to look like little Becky
07:52with the lifeless bland hair?
07:54No, when they try to beat you down, you laugh.
07:58Show them that beautiful smile and you tell them,
08:00nah, I'd rather stay little and black with my curly hair.
08:24You might say it's not possible to have a muz.
08:26Just as I guess it's a little uno, oh,
08:28I would rather stay little and black with my curly hair.
08:30Now you're not going to be the case.
08:32Now you're going to be the case.
08:33Then you can select a you touch.
08:34I feel good enough,
08:34and you're going to ask that some of the results now.
08:35Five minutes, you are looking to see your face.
08:37Follow me, you'll see what's going on in the last.
08:38You're going to be the case.
08:39What's going on in the last six minutes?
08:41I'll do the part.
08:42I'll do it.
08:42Only then.
08:43I'll do it.
08:44I'll do it.
08:45I'll do it.
08:46All right.
08:46I'll do it.
08:48I'll do it.
08:50And I'll do it.
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