Nina Simone, she was a singer, songwriter and a pianist but she didn't just do music
which I found out recently she was also an activist
And I don’t know I think that's really beautiful to understand that you can be who you are in that time
when the struggle was real
And you have a platform and you use it to better people, the young people before you
so that way people like me who are in a creative field can pursue our dreams and our passions and be proud
And hopefully I can also you know inspire somebody in the future too, feel that same way about their dreams
Rosa Parks has inspired me greatly throughout my entire life
She showed that one course of an action can spark a movement
A movement that could change an entire nation
Through resistance and persistent she paved the way for many brave souls to stand up
with dignity and respect for equality
My high school drama teacher Mr. Jordan was a true inspiration to me
He challenged me a lot but I know that coming out on the other side of
that he challenged me to be a better person
challenged me to think better, to think critically, to ask questions and to consider other people around me
I selected Benjamin Banneker as someone who I could relate to on various levels based on what he has done
For instance he studied the relativity of time and space decades before Einstein did
He built the first striking clock in the 1700s
He created an irrigation, he engineered a total irrigation format that farmers use today
a way of rotating the crops, things that we use every single day and whether we're farming
or whether we're going to the store to buy the fresh goods
We have him to thank for the beginning of all of that
My gramma is so inspiring to me because she just turned 70
And she’s lived through a lot of trials and tribulations in her life
including being one of 11 children growing up poor in California
to be a single mother of three, doing it on her own while taking college courses, to be a cancer survivor
So through all that she’s really just taught me to be strong, independent woman
who continued education and just puts family first
Martin Luther King Jr. inspires me because he had the courage to dream a dream he would never see fulfilled
I've oftentimes been attached to see my dreams fulfilled
And I've learned from him, the power of just trusting your intuition and following your truth
and believing that if you dream the dream, it will be fulfilled regardless of you hear for or not
And all these years later he’s still a spaceholder for his dream and that is so powerful
Maya Angelou inspires me because she is a prolific writer
And everything that she said in her writings and in her poems was amazingly inspirational
And I feel like it gave people a voice when maybe they felt like they didn't have one
She wrote I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and I feel like that has stood the test of time
and it's incredible in this writing and the meaning behind it
Harriet Tubman inspires me to stand up for what I believe in
She risked her life to fight for the rights of others
She is truly an inspiration to remind us all to stand up for what we believe in
In the words of Malcolm X, “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything”
Song - Lift every voice and sing