[Music]
when I was ten in Trinidad and Tobago in
a primary school on a playground
four words gripped my heart and set me
on a course to look for social justice
and those four words came to me because
among 200 to 300 children every day was
one one individual whose hair was never
cold whose shirt was never as white and
as crisp as mine whose skirt was never
as pressed and as pleated as mine and
who never wore a decent pair of shoes
and you know we were in that playground
day in and day out and then one day I
looked at that child and I saw her I saw
her as a human being and it touched me
and the only thing I can do is go home
and say mummy how is it possible how is
it possible that a child could be in a
playground among all of us and no one do
anything to change her circumstance what
can we do and be in the humanitarian
that my mom was she came in and she
discovered what was happening as it
turned out this young lady was actually
living in an abandoned bus with her
mother and siblings and therefore she
could not show up to school as I did
well that question that I asked at that
point in my life when I was 10 years old
what can I do it led to this young lady
having a chance an opportunity to win
fast forward about a decade I know I’m
about 21 in New York City and against
all odds I am determined to earn a
degree in Communication Arts and
thankfully enough my parents were able
to cover that cost but they were not
able to cover my living expenses and so
I needed to work and so I head out
looking for work and of all jobs that
fall into my lap it’s a teaching gig I
know if you had asked me if I was going
to be a teacher I would have said no I
was the worst student that existed I
gave the teachers the most trouble in my
school and therefore I was never going
to be a teacher because I know God was
wide awake yeah so nevertheless I needed
to work and this is what came and that
became my passion when in my early days
of teaching I was running a video
production class doing some video work
with some young children about 20 of
them and a little one comes into my room
and she’s sprightly she’s colorful she
has two different colored socks things
in her hair she’s very busy but very
very very friendly and she comes into my
space and she’s looking at me and I said
oh yes can I help you and she says I
want to be here I said but you don’t
have this class on your schedule so she
says yes but I want to be here I said
you don’t belong here she says miss
Thompson you are wrong I belong here I
said well why don’t you go to the office
get it changed and come back and I will
bring you in so she goes to the office
gets a chance and she comes back and she
comes back with such a passion to be the
best performer that she can be that I
hooked into that spirit and I used it as
inspiration to be the best teacher that
I could be
and then something happened a 14-year
old boy was shot dead on Madison Avenue
and that question that question came
back into my heart what can I do was i
doing enough the answer to that question
brought life to necessary arts and we
ran programs in drama and dance to any
child who would come off the street from
6:00 to 8:00 in the evening and then
life happened and I had to return to
Trinidad and Tobago and when I got to
Trinidad and Tobago I questioned again
what can I do what are the children of
my country gaining through the Arts and
I decided to register necessary arts as
an NGO in Trinidad and Tobago while
working a full-time job and using my
salary to subsidize the cost of the
program because I had to do something
and there was a mandate that I said that
necessary arts will bring in 10% of its
participants as at-risk children any
at-risk child who wanted to come into
our program necessary arts found a way
for them to be there and they were to
make up 10% of our population and we
were able to do that for good seven
years four years into that something
happened my mom was diagnosed with
cancer and three years later she passed
and when she passed I made a life
decision
and the question came up again am i
doing enough what can I do well then I
decided to travel halfway across the
world and I ended up in the Middle East
I ended up in Far East Asia Southeast
Asia and now I’m back in the Middle East
Dubai and I have a fabulous job in Dubai
and I am teaching and I clock out at
3:30 and I go home and then the question
starts to come back up Naima what can
you do what can you do what can you do
well while I am in this region it makes
complete sense to me to get to the
communities within this region with
necessary arts and so I register
necessary yards as a branch here in
Dubai and I get on a plane and I travel
to Kenya now I don’t know anybody in
Kenya but I want to do something I want
to feel as if my existence and my talent
and my gifts are specifically to change
people’s lives so I get on that plane
and I get to Kenya and I tell the travel
agent listen I don’t want a safari I
don’t want to go jumping up and down
with the Maasai I want children
take me to children and we formed the
program called reach the unreachable and
we covered five areas across Kenya
region up to a hundred children per
location and throughout that year and a
half of taken reach the unreachable to
Kenya something happened I was diagnosed
with cancer
I thought well what kind of God is this
that is going to look at his daughter
and inflict her with this disease and of
course my mom had passed and saw the
panic in my heart that I will not be
able to fulfill what I knew my purpose
would be and I laid many nights in so
much pain deep in my bones so much pain
from that chemotherapy and I had to ask
Naima are you going to let this cancer
suck the power out of you and take the
opportunities that you have given to
these children in Kenya away what can I
do I asked myself in that pain and the
answer that came was inspire other
teachers to go to Kenya and so I
inspired like-minded educators to go to
Kenya and take reach the unreachable to
the children and they did well I
survived cancer and I am completely
cancer-free thank you ah so the question
comes up again in my life and now that
you’re cancer-free what are you gonna do
I find myself in a country in the Middle
East standing among almost 40 children
who have survived crisis and conflict
and some of the worst atrocities and I
am standing amidst these children and I
realize I am so inadequate I am in
adequate there is no way I can help
these kids with everything that I have
all the talent that I have I cannot help
them and so the question comes up again
what can I do and so I go and I have a
meeting with some psychologists
who share with me that they too were
feeling inadequate and that conventional
psychiatric methods were no longer
enough to work with traumatized children
and that they indeed had to become
creative and innovative and risk takers
and that it would be a good idea to
collaborate with artists to try to find
a middle ground where we can reach these
children and in that process it occurred
to me that I could pursue drama therapy
and so the answer to my question what
can I do was do some research find out
more about drama therapy and pursue it
and so I did and so now I am an intern
drama therapist registered with the
North American drama therapy Association
in San Francisco and I am in the middle
of studies to earn that certification
well in my quest to understand drama
therapy I wanted to try it out with a
with a very specific program so I took
myself to Tobago and with a team of us
and we went to work with about 20 young
people and it was there that I met a
young man named diamond we set out to
tell their stories we set out to have
them be the protagonists in their own
stories as we role-played their
real-life stories and diamond story had
to do with being an athlete diamond was
representing Trinidad and Tobago as a
track star and he took the block and
before the gun could go off he went off
and he held that failure that false
start and it broke him and when he
looked to his community for support they
crushed him in the roleplay we rewind
the story he takes the block again and
before he can go off before the gun
could go off he goes off and again he
feels that failure but this time in the
roleplay his community lifts him up and
in that moment Dimon experiences what we
call catharsis such a significant change
in emotion that brought him to tears and
to the realization that he can succeed
and in that moment I realized that I had
made the right choice and that pursuing
drama therapy was absolutely the way to
go the question what can I do when I was
10 years old in a playground has stayed
with me my entire life and it drives me
and guides me to do the best that I can
do for Humanity and so the question is
what can you do
can I urge you to dig deep for the power
of you to ask the question what can I do
might I make a suggestion that perhaps
the next time you take a walk in the
mall that you look for the hired help
who is walking behind the privileged and
let your eyes meet theirs look above
their foreheads and see the words I have
value and offer up a smile to that
person or might I ask you on your next
vacation if you are traveling for about
ten days to take two of those days and
go to a remote village in a developing
nation and sit with a child with a book
and read and see the images and the
words come off of that page through your
voice and touch a child that’s what I
could suggest I don’t know what you
would do but might I please add you to
dig deep and recognize the power of you
and act upon it by asking what can I do
thank you
[Applause]
when I was ten in Trinidad and Tobago in
a primary school on a playground
four words gripped my heart and set me
on a course to look for social justice
and those four words came to me because
among 200 to 300 children every day was
one one individual whose hair was never
cold whose shirt was never as white and
as crisp as mine whose skirt was never
as pressed and as pleated as mine and
who never wore a decent pair of shoes
and you know we were in that playground
day in and day out and then one day I
looked at that child and I saw her I saw
her as a human being and it touched me
and the only thing I can do is go home
and say mummy how is it possible how is
it possible that a child could be in a
playground among all of us and no one do
anything to change her circumstance what
can we do and be in the humanitarian
that my mom was she came in and she
discovered what was happening as it
turned out this young lady was actually
living in an abandoned bus with her
mother and siblings and therefore she
could not show up to school as I did
well that question that I asked at that
point in my life when I was 10 years old
what can I do it led to this young lady
having a chance an opportunity to win
fast forward about a decade I know I’m
about 21 in New York City and against
all odds I am determined to earn a
degree in Communication Arts and
thankfully enough my parents were able
to cover that cost but they were not
able to cover my living expenses and so
I needed to work and so I head out
looking for work and of all jobs that
fall into my lap it’s a teaching gig I
know if you had asked me if I was going
to be a teacher I would have said no I
was the worst student that existed I
gave the teachers the most trouble in my
school and therefore I was never going
to be a teacher because I know God was
wide awake yeah so nevertheless I needed
to work and this is what came and that
became my passion when in my early days
of teaching I was running a video
production class doing some video work
with some young children about 20 of
them and a little one comes into my room
and she’s sprightly she’s colorful she
has two different colored socks things
in her hair she’s very busy but very
very very friendly and she comes into my
space and she’s looking at me and I said
oh yes can I help you and she says I
want to be here I said but you don’t
have this class on your schedule so she
says yes but I want to be here I said
you don’t belong here she says miss
Thompson you are wrong I belong here I
said well why don’t you go to the office
get it changed and come back and I will
bring you in so she goes to the office
gets a chance and she comes back and she
comes back with such a passion to be the
best performer that she can be that I
hooked into that spirit and I used it as
inspiration to be the best teacher that
I could be
and then something happened a 14-year
old boy was shot dead on Madison Avenue
and that question that question came
back into my heart what can I do was i
doing enough the answer to that question
brought life to necessary arts and we
ran programs in drama and dance to any
child who would come off the street from
6:00 to 8:00 in the evening and then
life happened and I had to return to
Trinidad and Tobago and when I got to
Trinidad and Tobago I questioned again
what can I do what are the children of
my country gaining through the Arts and
I decided to register necessary arts as
an NGO in Trinidad and Tobago while
working a full-time job and using my
salary to subsidize the cost of the
program because I had to do something
and there was a mandate that I said that
necessary arts will bring in 10% of its
participants as at-risk children any
at-risk child who wanted to come into
our program necessary arts found a way
for them to be there and they were to
make up 10% of our population and we
were able to do that for good seven
years four years into that something
happened my mom was diagnosed with
cancer and three years later she passed
and when she passed I made a life
decision
and the question came up again am i
doing enough what can I do well then I
decided to travel halfway across the
world and I ended up in the Middle East
I ended up in Far East Asia Southeast
Asia and now I’m back in the Middle East
Dubai and I have a fabulous job in Dubai
and I am teaching and I clock out at
3:30 and I go home and then the question
starts to come back up Naima what can
you do what can you do what can you do
well while I am in this region it makes
complete sense to me to get to the
communities within this region with
necessary arts and so I register
necessary yards as a branch here in
Dubai and I get on a plane and I travel
to Kenya now I don’t know anybody in
Kenya but I want to do something I want
to feel as if my existence and my talent
and my gifts are specifically to change
people’s lives so I get on that plane
and I get to Kenya and I tell the travel
agent listen I don’t want a safari I
don’t want to go jumping up and down
with the Maasai I want children
take me to children and we formed the
program called reach the unreachable and
we covered five areas across Kenya
region up to a hundred children per
location and throughout that year and a
half of taken reach the unreachable to
Kenya something happened I was diagnosed
with cancer
I thought well what kind of God is this
that is going to look at his daughter
and inflict her with this disease and of
course my mom had passed and saw the
panic in my heart that I will not be
able to fulfill what I knew my purpose
would be and I laid many nights in so
much pain deep in my bones so much pain
from that chemotherapy and I had to ask
Naima are you going to let this cancer
suck the power out of you and take the
opportunities that you have given to
these children in Kenya away what can I
do I asked myself in that pain and the
answer that came was inspire other
teachers to go to Kenya and so I
inspired like-minded educators to go to
Kenya and take reach the unreachable to
the children and they did well I
survived cancer and I am completely
cancer-free thank you ah so the question
comes up again in my life and now that
you’re cancer-free what are you gonna do
I find myself in a country in the Middle
East standing among almost 40 children
who have survived crisis and conflict
and some of the worst atrocities and I
am standing amidst these children and I
realize I am so inadequate I am in
adequate there is no way I can help
these kids with everything that I have
all the talent that I have I cannot help
them and so the question comes up again
what can I do and so I go and I have a
meeting with some psychologists
who share with me that they too were
feeling inadequate and that conventional
psychiatric methods were no longer
enough to work with traumatized children
and that they indeed had to become
creative and innovative and risk takers
and that it would be a good idea to
collaborate with artists to try to find
a middle ground where we can reach these
children and in that process it occurred
to me that I could pursue drama therapy
and so the answer to my question what
can I do was do some research find out
more about drama therapy and pursue it
and so I did and so now I am an intern
drama therapist registered with the
North American drama therapy Association
in San Francisco and I am in the middle
of studies to earn that certification
well in my quest to understand drama
therapy I wanted to try it out with a
with a very specific program so I took
myself to Tobago and with a team of us
and we went to work with about 20 young
people and it was there that I met a
young man named diamond we set out to
tell their stories we set out to have
them be the protagonists in their own
stories as we role-played their
real-life stories and diamond story had
to do with being an athlete diamond was
representing Trinidad and Tobago as a
track star and he took the block and
before the gun could go off he went off
and he held that failure that false
start and it broke him and when he
looked to his community for support they
crushed him in the roleplay we rewind
the story he takes the block again and
before he can go off before the gun
could go off he goes off and again he
feels that failure but this time in the
roleplay his community lifts him up and
in that moment Dimon experiences what we
call catharsis such a significant change
in emotion that brought him to tears and
to the realization that he can succeed
and in that moment I realized that I had
made the right choice and that pursuing
drama therapy was absolutely the way to
go the question what can I do when I was
10 years old in a playground has stayed
with me my entire life and it drives me
and guides me to do the best that I can
do for Humanity and so the question is
what can you do
can I urge you to dig deep for the power
of you to ask the question what can I do
might I make a suggestion that perhaps
the next time you take a walk in the
mall that you look for the hired help
who is walking behind the privileged and
let your eyes meet theirs look above
their foreheads and see the words I have
value and offer up a smile to that
person or might I ask you on your next
vacation if you are traveling for about
ten days to take two of those days and
go to a remote village in a developing
nation and sit with a child with a book
and read and see the images and the
words come off of that page through your
voice and touch a child that’s what I
could suggest I don’t know what you
would do but might I please add you to
dig deep and recognize the power of you
and act upon it by asking what can I do
thank you
[Applause]
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