In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Exelon provided tickets to students from Rowe Elementary School and the Exelon African American Resource Group to attend Too Hot to Handel: The Jazz-Gospel Messiah, a feel-good production that puts a contemporary spin of jazz, gospel, and blues on Handel’s Messiah at the Auditorium Theatre. Before the show began Saturday, January 14th, one talented student from Rowe Clark Math & Science Academy, Jasmine Wilson, had the opportunity to perform her award winning poem on stage.

Jasmine was one of many students from around the city of Chicago who submitted their original poetry for the Too Hot Poetry Contest. Students in grades 3-12 entered this year’s contest by responding to one of two prompts: “What is community?” or “What does beloved community mean to you?”

Jasmine is a senior at Rowe Clark Math & Science Academy and is actively involved in her school community as a student ambassador, student mentor, cheerleader and a part of the academic bowl. She used these friendships and experiences as inspiration for her poem on community, and shared her beautiful words on stage. Her poem is below:

On this road there are abundance of faces,
Boys and girls, from different places
All searching for an answer in the land of opportunity
Only to realize the solution is community
On this road, we search for solidarity
But foolishly and mistakenly, we awaken imparity
Ups and downs, twists and turns
We’ve ignited a fire
But on this beloved road
We will not burn.