Jasmin Roberts – Hidden Figures

Curated By Ralph

"The Road Not Taken" is a source of inspiration for me, because it encourages me to seize opportunities and chart my own course in life.

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Jasmin Roberts, performing “Hidden Figures”

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For half of the movie my body lived in The 45 seconds where he jabbed me hard In the shoulder repeatedly kicked my Chair and then raised his hand to hit me Fitting that the film was hidden figures That little black catherine johnson Painted the screen in front of me Reciting numbers that they couldn't Understand that she herself couldn't Fully understand the magnitude of until You are floating Zero gravity light years above the Ground looking down at your world Shaking with fear and anger at the same Time you cannot perceive racism in this Country Until only the white woman next to you Can stop the white man behind you from Assaulting you with his bigotry with his Hands you do not know what it feels like How hot and cold the air in space is how All of the oxygen is forced from your Lungs and your blood and sweat and spit Boil in the weightlessness until the Planet looks as if it's the size of a Marble you don't understand that Fighting gravity sitting in that chair Is a protest That continuing to exist is your Inadvertent protest that being a hidden Figure Is about shining softly into the dark Unvisited corners of the universe Dissipating some of the fire within you

Without drawing attention to the burning I imagine how intense the flames got for Sandra bland Who i often see in my own eyes i think About what it is to be a star The way her flesh must have devoured Itself the moment it knew the white man Was coming for her That there was no stopping him that the House she called body was burning down And there were no telescopes in the Vicinity to witness her light going out I think about how the white woman next To me that day saved my body from being Just another star among many that died Without anyone asking where it went And i know I need to live in that moment right Where she chose to save me told that man To stop hitting and harassing me where She took out her telescope to look for Me The lone star in the milky way of white Faces but did you know that some of the Stars we see at night are actually Already dead It takes at least eight minutes for Their light to travel from space to Earth and in that time a star can Explode into a supernova or swell into a Red giant blowing away its outer layers And fading into the fiery frigid space Around it so tell me How am i supposed to live in the now

When in truth I might already be gone [Applause]

Hey... I'm Jasper!

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