May was a whirlwind month for MACLA: we closed escrow and completed purchase of the building we have rented for the past 20 years! We couldn’t have done it without the extraordinary $750,000 grant we received from ArtPlace, the largest grant made in the last funding cycle. We shared the good news on May 20th at a public announcement in neighboring Parque de los Pobladores (recently revitalized with ArtPlace funds). The wide range of well-wishers included San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and other City officials, MACLA trustees, donors, artists, and community members including Consul General of Mexico Carlos Ponce. We were especially excited that the creative voice of the future was represented, as the 55 students from Summit Preparatory Charter High School taking classes in poetry, dance and music at our Peapod Adobe Youth Voice Academy also attended. Luz Campuzano, a 16-year-old Summit student, performed a compelling original poem for enthralled audience members.

In all the excitement, we had to take a few steps back and remind ourselves that this didn’t happen by chance. Instead, MACLA now having our first-ever permanent home is the culmination of hard work and the diversity of partnerships we have been able to build over the past several years. What a great way to kick off of ArtPlace supported work!

Here is the poem that Luz shared with us.

"Repetition" by Luz Campuzano
Repetition, I am NOT a victim
of repeating the same system
I don't dance to the same rhythm
And have often had change given
You and I are so different, but you and I have the same vision
You like dogs, I like kittens
I like change, you like traditions
I want college, you want tuition
But when it benefits the both of us, there are no oppositions
Every day I tell myself, don't consider the illiterate as littler than literate, the literature has ill intent so we must deliberately deliver it
'Cause if we show no interest,
Only looking for a quicker step, how will we be able to show the world that we are different?
Surely not by repetition
It'll be my head before I ever become a victim
of repeating the same system, dancing to the same rhythm
You and I are so different, but you and I have the same vision

Luz Campuzano is a 16 year-old who attends Summit Preparatory Charter High School. She considers herself to be an emcee and a poet. Writing is her life, and she has been taking rapping serious since she was 15. Luz goes by LuzID when she performs. The "ID" stands for "ID" in the "ID, ego, super ego" theory, given by her old hip-hop teacher Kahman Jamaal. She has been getting into poetry more this year through Slam Poetry. She writes to show people who she is and send out messages she'd like them to take from it.