When first assigned her civic engagement project, Tawakoni was skeptical. What would she do? But, after talking over possibilities, she knew the perfect project: a poetry slam where she could share her own poetry about surviving domestic abuse. Tawakoni writes, “The reason I have chosen poetry to bring awareness to domestic violence is quite simple, poetry is much more personal. I’ve talked with many poets and the one thing they have all said, myself included, is that poetry is about very real feelings and experience. We all can find facts and statistics on the internet, we could all attend a conference, or even watch the latest news coverage on the topic. I would not want the lives of my poets to be the reality of everyone. It is by sharing our stories through our poetry that I plan to accomplish my goal which is to bring more awareness to the growing problem of domestic violence and abuse. ”
What did she learn from doing this project? Tawakoni writes, “I learned a lot about myself through my project. I often just try to get through life by living each day and not thinking about the next. I try to put my past behind me by forgetting and that is not always best. By doing this civic engagement project I feel like a big weight has been lifted from me. Even though I had not been in my abusive relationship in over seven years I was still allowing it to hinder me by keeping everything in…This project forced me to self-reflect and reach deep within myself. It helped me realize that I have a voice and by using that voice I can help others find their voice as well. Domestic violence is not just a one person problem. Domestic violence is my problem and domestic violence in your problem. I was able to see that I too can be an ethical person. I can be like the people in our textbook. I can live and be Care Ethics.”
If you want to do a project like Tawakoni, she has some advice for you: “I think my project would be easy for any student to accomplish. Even if they don’t write poetry or if they have not been a victim they can still find poets and they can still help be a part of the solution by continuing to bring awareness.”
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