Youth Poet - Lorena Garcia
Special | 2m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
Poet Lorena Garcia, who draws inspiration from her Puerto Rican heritage, recites “Wepa.”
16-year-old Lorena Garcia often draws inspiration from her Puerto Rican heritage and experiences. She describes her writing as “making do with what I have until it’s good enough.” Garcia recites “Wepa”—a word of celebration upon returning home.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
WHYY Presents is a local public television program presented by WHYY
Youth Poet - Lorena Garcia
Special | 2m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
16-year-old Lorena Garcia often draws inspiration from her Puerto Rican heritage and experiences. She describes her writing as “making do with what I have until it’s good enough.” Garcia recites “Wepa”—a word of celebration upon returning home.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch WHYY Presents
WHYY Presents is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
More from This Collection
Video has Closed Captions
World-renown poet Sojourner Ahebee shares her story and poem titled “Birth.” (2m 40s)
Video has Closed Captions
Keyssh Datts, a young poet “who’s trying to heal with words,” recites “Lucky Me.” (2m 26s)
Video has Closed Captions
Andre’a Rhoads, Philadelphia’s Youth Poet Laureate, shares a poem about personal growth. (2m 21s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship(gentle piano music) - My name is Lorena, I'm 16 years old.
The sentence that best describes me as a poet is making do with what I have until it's good enough.
Wepa!
A word of celebration.
Pulling into the last house on the block, your heart starts to dance before your body is even physically able to.
Stepping out of the car as you take a glance at the lost plans and broken rubber bands surrounding you, you can't help but thank God for how far you've made it.
The balloons desire so hard to sway freely around the night sky, but are held back by tied up strings of plastic here at this very place.
You see a lot of yourself in those balloons, desiring so hard to sway freely around the night sky, but are held back by a new found lack of social skills, held back by your previous self crying for you to come home, held back by a grave fear of the undesired, but tonight, your heart dances.
Opening the door and being welcomed by (speaking in foreign language) (mumbles) reminds us that life is more than just pain.
(indistinct), teleporting your spirit right back to the motherland for the first time in over a year.
Fear no longer whispers.
Physical contact is no longer a death sentence.
Social anxiety bruise in the pit of my stomach in the form of regret and coffee spills out of my mouth forgetting how much is appropriate.
It's been backed up for awhile.
The six foot barrier is finally just a memory as my hands remember what electricity feels like, as the music wines the key in my back and my hip sway to the beat of the vibration to the floor.
My vocal cords become a speaker.
I become a speaker.
My voice is louder than I thought it ever could be.
And my body Bluetooth syncs to the temple of my fellow party-goers claps.
(singing in foreign language) Leaves my lips and I find myself singing lyrics I didn't know I had memorized.
Find myself singing Christ of celebration for the victory of boards.
I forgot that I fought too for the first time in over a year.
Fear no longer whispers.
Connections are no longer just to wifi.
Love is no longer miles apart.
So, Wepa.
I'll see you next weekend.
Support for PBS provided by:
WHYY Presents is a local public television program presented by WHYY