Celebrating Black History Month: Queena Bergen On Poetry And Inspiring The Younger Generation
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - This February, CBSN New York celebrates Black History Month.
We're highlighting stories of African-American history and accomplishments past and present.
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As part of our commitment, we invited several artists to tell the the stories of black trailblazers in spoken word. It's a form rhythmic poetry written to be performed.
As written and performed by Queena Bergen:
What Black History Means To A Younger Generation
Black History teaches a younger generation that they can do it too
That we are than more than just pieces of a diaspora scattered across a timeline
It taught me that we can be the rose that grew from concrete where every syllable will resonate
Each one sounding like ancestral wisdom by can't you see... Black History is our history.
Queena Bergen stopped by CBSN New York to discuss her life as a poet.
"For me, it's through my poetry. You know, I like showing people my experiences. I like talking about past triumphs and some of the victories we've went through," she said. "Poetry is definitely my way of bringing history to life for a younger generation."
Queena also works as a software engineer. So how did she make the leap from one to the other?
"Ironically enough, I think my transition was inverted. I've always been a poet, and I turned into a software engineer. Like any struggling artist, you go through this phase where you have to pay your bills, you have life that happens. Technology was a way for me be to be creative but also to actually have a career in it, because nobody thought a poet could have a career," she said. "One hundred percent. Because I can create poetry the same way I can create a mobile app or a website. It's all art to me."
For more information about Queena Bergen, click here.