by Kamia Fair

My Name is Kamia, last name Fair born in 04.
An African American girl who comes from a city
Of violence and poverty, this is where I’m from.
Poetry keeps my mind off the stressful world,
I love poetry and poetry loves me,
Poetry gives me freedom of speech with a lil rhythm.

The world, the stressful world
I live on south side of Peoria
The world full of violence, young boys
Getting killed every time you blink
This the world I live in.

The world the stressful world, getting ready for
Bed shots we hear we all get down in fear,
But it’s like music to gangsters’ ears
The world the stressful world.

Poverty, low income single moms
Doing all they can with no help,
Family men feeling the need to sell drugs
To take care of his family because
He can’t get a job, cause of course
Nobody wants to hire a black man and a felon
The world the stressful world.

The name is Kamia, last name Fair born in 04
An African American girl who comes from a city
Of violence and poverty, this is where I’m from
I’m not ashamed but I do wanna be
better than this stressful world.

About Kamia Fair

Kamia Fair was born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, and is a senior in high school at Manual Academy. Fair loves nature and R&B music. She has many personalities—one is a free spirit and another is closed in and shy. She loves anything that has a true meaning. Fair’s book is her voice and freedom. She likes to write about things like her past, present, and future, as well as the things she lives around. What inspired her to start writing poetry was trauma that happened in her past. It began as an every day journal, to finally bringing it out her inner self. Fair hopes to bring more people like herself from her community to write— or at least more people from her community to read what she speaks, and hope for it to inspire them and hope for them to hear her voice to feel where she is coming from.