Thanks to our Write Your Roots Partner
Write Your Roots is an annual all-Town, multi-generational poetry collaboration!
At Chapter 510, we believe that writing is an act of liberation, that narrative matters, and that imagination is a source of power.
Every year, Chapter 510 organizes Write Your Roots in partnership with the Oakland Roots. Write Your Roots is an annual all-Town epic poetry project which activates our multi-racial, multi-generational Oakland community to write a collaborative poem together.
poetry is compiled, woven together, and published in a poem by and for oaklanders of all ages .
Fill out the poetry form online here or in person at the dept. of make / believe (and put it through our pnuematic tube).
WRITE YOUR ROOTS POETRY BOOKS INCLUDE…
write your Roots 2024: Because our futurE
In the year 2053,
Oakland is drawing in acorns.
Colorful and bursting with life
Back to being the jungle we never let breathe.
All her caged birds sing, dissolving
the metal chords around their throats
Liberated
the largest underground city in the world
super diverse
a futuristic utopia
Vibrant loud and booming
Open and connected
Beautiful, full of culture, a place that people
love to visit and enjoy living in.
A wonderful place to bee
Beaming with the life, in every sense of
the word.
write your Roots 2022: Because this BODY
There are places in me that feel
out of place, in hopes of falling into the right
place. I dream of the right place, right time,
right roar, soar, I want to dream of possibility.
And I want to go for it, but I don’t know
what to think. There are places I don’t
even know yet. For us right here, nothing
is impossible. Impossible is nothing.
In my eyes, Oakland is limitless.
When my eyes close, I see static. I think
to myself, “Did I just discover reality?”
And dark. Darkness. I hear ocean water.
I feel very good. I feel warmth spreading
inwards and outwards. I imagine I was in
the middle of space with the stars, reading.
I hear cars drive down the street and
feel rain on my skin. I see all genders
and say all pronouns. I open my eyes.
Crack. Mark. Beautiful sound. Music.
The breeze. My cells growing, ebbing,
flowing into darkness. The bass hitting
hard and calling me home…Read entire poem here.
write your Roots 2021: Because we are power
Oakland is made of the real deal
(he, she, they, them and
those who care). We are Oakland. Oakland is
Oakland is Oakland is Oakland is us, is not
for praise or to please. Is safe ways to help,
Oakland is made of the lake on Sundays, the
hills and the valleys of beauty and hope, of earth,
of a growing oak tree, of interstates,
potholes and poets. Is painted
boards of bright colors for warmth in our eyes, is
geese pooping at Lake Merritt, swarming helicopters,
is culture like ingredients in a stew, coming
together to make something new— (read full poem here)
WRITE YOUR ROOTS 2020:
Because THIS CITY BY Oakland
My motherland
looks like a colorful town
smells like fresh air all around trees
tastes like pure life
an ancient, peaceful place
The feeling when I'm in Guadalajara
hot weather
the smell of the rain
the city is like heaven
That's how my motherland is
just beautiful
My motherland is a small village
we visit every summer
feels like a second home
a green land in México
where my mom was born
and my grandmother lives
…. (real full poem here)
