DEAR AMERICA

Taking the stage, communications junior Karmiah Smith performs one of her own pieces in a TEDx Talk
by Bailey Arnone

“I am so proud of you. Keep on doing what you're doing and making changes in life.”
The event organizer’s words echoed through Smith’s backstage waiting room. As the youngest speaker of the night, Smith was selected to perform in TEDx Delray’s “Point BREAK” event, focused on “social change through civil engagement.”

Her journey to the big stage began in the summer of 2024, when Smith was awarded first place in a poetry competition. Along with scholarship money and the publication of her poem in “The Well of PBC,” she was presented with an opportunity she did not anticipate. The head of TEDx Delray, Natalia Romero, reached out to Smith after seeing her performance in that competition. 

“She said she would love it if I could send her more of my stuff, so I sent her some of my news articles, videos of me performing in slam poetry competitions, and written pieces of my work,” Smith said. “Then she got back to me and told me she would love for me to do the TEDx Talk.”

Her first step in participating in “Point BREAK” was crafting a piece that was both personal and applicable to the event's theme. To create her spoken word poem “Dear America.”

“When I sit down to write a real slam piece out, I rarely start writing it all down at once. Throughout the week or month, I jot down little bullet points of inspiration and weave those through. That's how my TEDx Talk piece came to me. I wrote in my notes app ‘Dear America’ because I knew I wanted to do a letter poem, and the rest just flowed,” Smith said. 

Drawing from personal experience, Smith addressed topics that she connected with emotionally, and hoped listeners would too. 

“I often lean towards writing about politics and social justice issues, because I like to write pieces about things that make me feel,” Smith said. “It doesn't matter if I feel angry or sad or really happy. I write based on my emotions, and that's where my emotions have been recently.”

Smith sought to intertwine politics with her personal life, drawing inspiration from experience and the stories of her family. The piece centred around her family's immigration from Jamaica, their contrasting experience in the two countries, and the impact this made on her life.

“I was in third grade during the 2016 election, and that was a big one, of course. I vividly remember my class splitting sides, talking about whether their family voted for Trump or Hilary,” Smith said. “Seeing as I’ve gone to predominantly white elementary, middle, and high schools, I wrote about that experience and how I’ve been treated based on that. It was a lot of very personal anecdotes, mixed with the Americanness of it all.”

Smith’s journey in slam poetry began early in high school, in creative writing classes that helped her to “develop a love for writing creatively.” Guided by this passion, and support from her instructors, she was introduced to the slam poetry team.

“I joined the slam team my freshman year, and Ms. Rigdon was the one who was talking about auditions coming up,” Smith said. “Now I’m the co-president of the slam team, and I love it. I've grown up with slam, and I love that I get to be at the head of something that I love so much.”

At the event itself, Smith was the last speaker of the day. After her four minutes of allotted time, she said that people she did not know came up to her to share their similar stories and offer appreciation. 

“My favorite part of performing is seeing how the people react,” Smith said. “After my talk, I had multiple people come up to me sobbing, saying that my poem really connected with them and their experience.”