Jamii Tata
Jamii Tata is a parent, writer and educator who utilizes creative writing, performance poetry, storytelling, audio production, self-publishing and entrepreneurial training as Literacy Learning tools to educate inner city youth in community spaces (i.e. libraries, community centers, schools and community gardens).
50 Banners, 50 Barrels
The project 50 Banners, 50 barrels will create 50 vinyl poetry banners and 50 poetry rain barrels. Community poems will be created for the project in partnership with youth and elders of the North End neighborhood and across the city. Poems will be about Detroit, displacement, water, food and farming, land, self-determination, resiliency and Blackness.
After poems are created, members of the community who helped make the poems will work with graphic designers to create banners with beautiful typography and images for the poetry banners. They will also work with visual artists to adorn rain barrels with art and then add the poems to the rain barrels. The project will have multiple culminating events, displaying the 50 banners and barrels in communal spaces such as gardens, parks, community centers and will be paired with opportunities for participants that interact with the display to respond to and/or continue the poems.