The seminar program is more than a experience in Washington, DC or New York City. Seminar participants create visual and/or written expressions of their experience and groups develop action plans to take back to their communities. Seminars are about empowering participants to change issues of injustice affecting their community.

Check out some of the artwork and poetry from past participants! Want to share your experience? Email webservant@umc-gbcs.org your pictures, poetry and stories.

1. Photos and Artwork
2. Poetry and Stories

These poems and stories are from past participants. Read more at our blog http://umseminar.blogspot.com.

We?re Stuck Together: Make a Better Place for All of Us Larry, Adult Leader Unity Center March 2012 A conversation between Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson TJ- How did our experiment in government go? AL- Well when you said all men are created equal and you and your buddies couldn?t deal with the slave trade guess who had to handle that? TJ- Not you? AL- Yep! Me and the rest of America. It split us apart for a time, just like it split your small group. It became a matter of life and death for an ideal . That ?all men are created equal? idea you put in the Declaration of Independence, yea it lives and grows but a lot of people died to make it live. TJ- I wonder how the idea is doing now? You are a pretty old guy even in history books by now I bet AL- Yea, I am, we?re both old and can you believe?? Well you probably knew you?d be there for people to read about, after all you wrote the Declaration of Independence-but me- well you would never have envisioned me- but the idea of equality sure helped me. It made me possible AL- Look at these ?community? kids March 28, 2012. All of them are here in Washington today because of that idea ?all people are created equal?. TJ- It looks to me like that idea is still alive AL- Yes, it?s alive because they are alive. They will have to carry the idea wont they Thomas? TJ- Yea Abraham AL You can see around Washington some real nice monuments to other folks who?ve carried the same dream. TJ- Well there?s yours and mine and Martin Luther King Jr. AL- Now that man is one man I?d like to meet TJ- Me too! He sure got it right but I see it cost him Abraham AL- Yea TJ- Just like it cost you AL- Well it?s an ideal that still costs people TJ- Yea and that Robert Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. Looks like they knew what we were talking about AL- Yea, sacrifice and ?the last full measure of devotion? TJ- Yea, I see over on your monument that you said that at the cemetery at Gettysburg. ?These honored dead? who gave the ?last full measure? of their devotion in offering up their lives in that battle AL- Yes but look at how all our lives are still alive and our words are still read and our thoughts rethought. TJ- and these ?community? kids from Cleveland Tennessee, it?s truly their idea to carry now isn?t it? AL- Yes TJ- and God help them

From My Mom?s Perspective Maria, Youth Unity Center March 2012 My children are important to me. I can?t let life go by with them around me. These are times I want to cry. To think my children aren?t going to have their rights given by God by the time these political wars end. To live in a nation in which I moved to escape physical hurt, where discrimination is somehow legal. Tears my soul to see a nation that was established for freedom turn into a nation of unfairness and despise. I want to do something to speak with a person who can carry the message to the president but to not speak the language they will never hear me. All I can do is encourage my daughters and sons to become involved and speak out to society about these things that tear soul and kill life. I sometimes ask where is God in these times, but I stop myself. God gave me my children. God gave me life. God gave me courage and a voice.

Time Progresses I Grow Strong Adult Leader Unity Center March 2012 I was a nobody Not acknowledged Not recognized Then I went to school I became somebody A person changed I stood high I was a nobody Not acknowledged Not recognized Brought down God came to me and took my hand A person changed I stood high I am a somebody But others are not I brace my jaw in anger It is their right to be a somebody God possesses me of this from the inside out I must speak out Persons changed We stand tall

Free Tatyana, Youth Unity Center March 2012 I am an orphan who wants someone to love me. I want people to look at me and say ?you?re special?. I want a family to go to, to laugh with and to cry with. I want to be free, free from racism, free from poverty, free from evil, just free! I am determined to go and fight for my freedom! I?m going to grow up and have a great job, no matter what color I am. I?m going to have a loving family. I?m going to be free!

Untitled Siarah, Youth Unity Center March 2012 What?s really important to me is for everybody to have the same right to do whatever they want and to not be judged by the way they look or where they are from. I think that our group is a great example of a community and we do not care where we came from. We are like a big family. For me it doesn?t matter if you are African American, Latino, Russian or American. I just think that God made everybody unique. And I?m thankful for that because if in this world we only had one race, one culture and the same personalities our world would be boring.

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