What am I to a cockroach?
Or what is a roach to me?
This roach is not a roach
But a germ covered bacteria eating genius.
Scattering by light,
Screaming at sight.
Two standing their
Ground, but at the
End of an atomic bomb
One remains.
What is a roach to me?
The night my sister brought in the
Dead nasty roach to show me—
Destroyed my courage and punctured my throat.
Tears swimming down my cheeks,
Seen many before this, but still.
Birds, monkeys, crabs, turtles
Of many species going extinct.
Yet ever since the stone ages, it is
Still here crawling about, snickering to
Itself as it takes a joyride in the microwave.
Playing dead and leaving
Babies everywhere, yet
Here I am unable to do
Anything to these pests.
What am I to a cockroach?
Or what is a roach to me?
The roach is a bug
Trying to survive and I
Am a provider of food
And I can’t do anything about that.
In 2006, over 25 youth began participating in weekly after-school writing workshops where they congregated in the hallway of a two-story building in West Fresno and learned the essentials of creating media and telling their stories. The group evolved over the next five years and is now proudly recognized as The kNOw Youth Media.
Through our program, we create opportunities for our youth participants, who in turn create long-term positive change in their communities. Our approach weaves youth development and youth media innovation to produce our biannual youth publication, multimedia projects, and community forums.
The kNOw began as a project of New America Media, which was the country’s first and largest national collaboration and advocate of 2000 ethnic news organizations. In 2018 The kNOw became a project of Youth Leadership Institute.
