Lehigh University’s Kashi Johnson, an associate professor of theatre, issued a challenge to three of her former students: to write individual spoken-word pieces on a topic of their choice and merge the stories into one.

Johnson teaches a class titled Act Like You Know — a Hip-Hop theater course. In the class, her students learn many nuances of spoken-word, a form of poetry that is performed, not simply recited.

Johnson said teaching spoken-word poetry is a natural offshoot of being a theater professor and is a strong component of her classes.

“I think it’s a more direct route for my students to say what they want to say creatively and still have to embody and perform the things they feel,” she said.

Having recently taken Johnson’s Act Like You Know class, Tamara Jones, Kevin Stripling and Caroline Gonzalez eagerly accepted the task.

With three distinct styles— but sharing an affinity for spoken word— they were ready to collaborate.

First, they had to decide on a topic.

Jones, Stripling and Gonzalez were finishing a successful academic semester and decided to write their piece on the college experience.

Jones said it was a little difficult because their voices were so different. But because of that, it was a perfect topic to work together on.

“It was great, because we did have such distinct voices and views on the same story,” Jones said. “That way we can reach even more people.”

The poem touches on themes of success, failure, no regrets and stepping outside one’s comfort zone. For only a few hundred words, it is passionately stuffed with a colorful array of young emotion.  

Johnson said she thinks the piece speaks to students who have yet to arrive at college and to the ones who are there and may have forgotten what they’re there to do.

They decided to title the piece “You Are Here.”

Jones described the title as being on the path of the road of life. She said graduating high school and going to college is such a big event that it’s a great turning point—like a fork in the road.

“You are at that point,” she said. “That big moment in your life. You are here. Like pointing to a part on a map.”

Johnson thinks the poem describes college for students far beyond a college brochure.

“I love it,” Johnson said about the poem. “I’m moved every time I look at it.”