Welcome to the conversation!


Welcome to the conversation!

Harriet Beecher Stowe's (1811-1896) best-selling anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852), made her the most famous American woman of the 19th century and galvanized the abolition movement before the Civil War.

The Stowe Center is a 21st-century museum and program center using Stowe's story to inspire social justice and positive change.

The Salons at Stowe programs are a forum to connect the challenging issues (race, gender and class) that impelled Stowe to write and act with the contemporary face of those same issues. The Salon format is based on a robust level of audience participation, with the explicit goal of promoting civic engagement. Recent topics included: Teaching Acceptance; Is Prison the New Slavery; Traces of the Trade: A Story from the Deep North; Creativity and Change; Race, Gender and Politics Today; How to be an Advocate

This blog will expand the reach of these community conversations to the online audience. Add your posts and comments to keep the conversation going! Commit to action by clicking HERE to stay up to date on Salon and social justice news.

For updates on Stowe Center programs and events, sign up for our enews at http://harrietbeecherstowe.org/email.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Inspiration for youth who are #writingforsocialjustice

Are you or a young person you know writing for social justice? The 2014 Student Stowe Prize will recognize outstanding writing by United States high school and college students that is making a tangible impact on a social justice issue critical to contemporary society. rThe deadline for submissions is January 10, and over the next week we will be featuring writing samples from the finalists and winners of the 2012 Prize. For more information about the Student Stowe Prize, criteria and guidelines, and how to submit your writing, visit the Student Stowe Prize page on our website or email StudentStowePrize@stowecenter.org.

Today we feature the poetry of high school finalist Roberto Josue Sanchez. We hope it provides inspiration to young high school writers who are considering entering their work!


To the Warriors Who

To the warriors who have grown surrounded by hate
This is your time to grow and create change…

To the warriors who have been drowning in hell
Here is your chance to gasp for the air of the Heavens…

To the warriors who haven’t been awaken yet
Time has come to awaken from your sleep
The time to fight is near
The time to grow stronger than our fears is here
The time for our sorrowful tears to turn into victory cheers has come…

It’s time to get up and get something done…

And to the Warrior who has waken me up from the time of darkness in My Heart, untargeted anger in my eyes, and the fear in my soul…

I must Thank you.



New Generation

Lack of community
Destroyed Families
All cause by Poverty

From the times we were oppressed
To these times, when we are depressed
Cause nothing is being done

We much fight to end this discrimination
Release everyone’s tension
Exit the house of sexism
Throw away the chains of racism
And have one big family reunion

Where we show our Love for one another
And find a way to get along with each other

Because there is no reason for your sisters to be treated any less than your brothers
No reason for separating into different races when we are all human beings
No matter what ethnicity
We are all people with feelings
All had those times we broke down and started screaming
With our faces tearing
Due to the words of discrimination the other races has been cheering

And there is no reason to look down upon those suffering in the Hell of Poverty
Most of us fight and fight hard to take off these chains
These chains that have been unevening the plains of the way "Us and Them" live
At what point does man-made currency equal living peacefully through all eternity?
So that you work souls to the ground for a penny a day
Treating the people who are fulfilling your dreams like slaves
And consider the "Cheap Labor"
As if they are any less than you because your pennies supply them with food
Cause luxury goods aren’t needed
It’s just a bunch of crap we are being sold by society
So that everyday that is what our minds are craving

In reality, we are all suppose to be equal
And our separate attempts to emphasize this have been feeble
But together, as a family as intended
We as a people can overcome this oppression
Create a new federation
Fighting the battles of discrimination
To help solve our problems globally and as a Nation
So we can avoid tainting, destroying
Our Sons and Daughters, Nieces and Nephews
As we take our steps into the New Generation!

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