As part of LISC's commemoration of Juneteenth, we are sharing a poem/performance by Ashley Rose, former LISC AmeriCorps member and an award-winning poet who is dedicated to using her art for racial healing.
Ashley Rose is a Haitian-American educator, writer and restorative justice specialist from Boston. She is also an award-winning poet and a former LISC Boston AmeriCorps member. On top of that, Ashley Rose has worn even more hats, with jobs ranging from leading a participatory budgeting effort in Boston to a decade and a half of teaching peacemaking and poetry in schools, drug rehabilitation centers and community centers.
She has been named Spoken-word Artist of the Year by the Boston Music Awards, Most Influential Person Under 35 in Massachusetts by the OneIn3 Impact Awards, and Extraordinary Woman of the Year by the City of Boston.
In the poem below, "Dark-Skin Representative," Ashley Rose celebrates the overwhelming contributions of Black women to the success of this country, and the imperative of pride, visibility and recognition—core messages for Juneteenth 2021.