Shavonne
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
Description: A young woman in a black dress floats in water using a cardboard box. She holds a black folder to her chest as she stares into the distance. She is on the Hudson Bay with a city skyline visible behind her.
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
“I’ve learned so much about how I can change my community and the things that are actually going on in my community that I didn’t even know. I describe myself as an outgoing, smart, caring, loving, funny, artistic, very positive person. I am barely sad because I believe every day you should be happy because you are waking up and that’s a God willing chance. I believe you have to live your life to the fullest, and to do that you have to be open to new things.
Poetry makes me happy. I love poetry because I love animals, I want to be a Veterinarian. I love kids and I love to just sing sometimes. It’s another way of expressing how you feel. It’s different. There’s many different versions of poetry you can do. I am more interested in outspoken poetry which is how you say it is what you mean and you do it how you want to do it.
I wrote my first poem when I was in second grade about my mother because she passed away. It helped me get over the fact that my mother died and it helped me open up to my feelings. I like the fact that it doesn't keep you in a box. A poem that has to rhyme, has to rhyme it’s in the box. I like to think outside the box and outspoken poems allow you to do that.
I love Maya Angelou’s Phenomenal Woman. It’s like an outspoken poem because you can say it however you want.
I perform one of my poems and I call it “To this day.” It’s mainly about my life and some of the struggles I’ve gone through and some of the things I’m still overcoming and some of the things I’ve done that I’m proud of and not so proud of.
I want to tell my audience that I am strong. I've been through some hard stuff, but I am strong. I am making it through, I am intelligent, I am still in school, and I am making it through any trials and tribulations I’ve been through.
I truly want to see myself being a Veterinarian. I’d like to own my own pet store and we can do grooming stuff too.
I have a lot of poems, but I’d love to publish them and have a book. My life is a story.”
New York, 2017