KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ( WATE ) — As she stands before crowds to perform her poems, Rhea Carmon uses her voice to create spaces for conversations on current issues of social change and justice. It’s through her own story and creative flow that she finds strength to speak for those who came before her and the many generations that will come after.
Rhea Carmon, the first African American poet laureate of Knoxville, is a mentor, a motivational speaker and a math teacher. However, she finds herself teaching valuable lessons through her poetry.
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“It’s a feeling of knowing this is what finally needs to be heard,” Carmon said. “My message in all of my poems is humanity. So I use my story and the things I’ve gone through, as a woman of color, to help other people connect with me, as Rhea,” she said. “When you start to see my humanity, it tears down all the those walls that try to divide us.”
The story Carmon shares through her poetry is one with much history, dating back to her fourth great-grandmother.