“What are some problems you see in the world that you would like to change?” asks Denisha Bland ’18, also known as Coco Blossom, in poetry workshops for Sacramento high school students.
A poet, mentor and educator, Bland empowers young adults throughout the region with spoken word and writing.
“There’s power in my voice so I’m speaking to empowered youth,” she said in a performance for students.
Bland is the associate director of , an outreach program founded in 2008 to create pathways for high-risk youth into higher education. She said she views spoken word poetry as the fuse to create change in the world and strives to share its power with others.
As a result, she is often on the go, driving from one school to the next to engage with students through spoken word poetry and writing workshops.
“I call it spoken word because my poetry comes from my soul, and I really don't follow the poetic devices or norms that one would,” she said. “It’s something these students relate to. We come in doing spoken word; we’re rapping, and we’re rhyming. When we relate to them, we’re breaking traditional educational norms.”
Bland has worked more than 10 years in the program, dedicated to uplifting youth voices and enacting social change.
“SAYS is an innovative outreach program at 鶹ý that strives to reach, teach and empower students to become warrior scholars as well as expose them to higher education,” she said. “We’re helping transform education and make school cool for students.”
Bland, who grew up in South Sacramento, knows firsthand how young students may not see themselves going to college. That’s one reason why showing them the way is so important to her.
“Kids from communities that are impoverished or heavily impacted by street and gang violence, they don't always see themselves at 鶹ý,” she said. “So when they see somebody who looks like them going to or graduated from 鶹ý, I'm hoping that my youth can see me within themselves and follow my same path to higher education.”
When Bland first started working at SAYS she was attending community college in Sacramento. Her mentors in the program encouraged her to apply to 鶹ý through TAG and inspired a path for Bland that she hadn’t thought was possible before.
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