Jay’onna Moore is a seventh grader that participated in the Animo Voices Spoken Word contest. She was a runner up out of all Green Dot schools, including high schools. Being very interested in her future and career inspired her to enter this contest and express how she feels.
Jaylah Everett: How do you feel about coming in second place out of all of Green Dot?
Jay’onna Moore: I feel good because I worked hard on it.
JE: How did you prepare to write like them powerful words and everything else.
JM: I prepared it by just thinking about who I am or how I feel that I am and it just came to me I guess.
JE: What motivated you to join Animo Spoken Word in the first place?
JM: Because I wanted to share my voice and hopefully somebody could feel the same way and feel touched by and or feel how I felt.
JE: How did you feel when you found out you won or what were you thinking?
JM: I was like, “That’s cool.” I thought that was cool.
JE: What was the most challenging part about participating in Animo Spoken Word?
JM: The most challenging part was getting it done in time because I almost missed the deadline so I had to, like do it quick.
JE: Did someone inspire you to join?
JM: Ms. Burnell inspired me to join again.
JE: Do you plan on joining again?
JM: Yeah, next year.
JE: What advice would you give someone who wants to join?
JM: Just write what you feel from the heart and don’t let nobody tell you that you can’t write something or say something that you want to say.
JE: What makes your speech different from everyone else that participated?
JM: What makes mines different is the fact I feel that I put everything into it or I feel like I moved people?
JE: What was the message of your speech or what point were you trying to get across?
JM: The point I was trying to get across was like, Black people are at the bottom of society and we need to work together to get to the top.
JE: How would you feel knowing that someone feels the same way or that you touched someone with the speech you made?
JM: I would feel happy so that they could learn to not cope with it but feel better about themselves and not feel bad about themselves because of what somebody else said or thinks about them.
JE: Since you won this year and you got money put towards your scholarship, what college would you use it for?
JM: Probably CSUN or Irvine, one of them.
JE: In the speech what were you trying to be to people listening to it?
JM: I was trying to be inspirational to other people that feel the same way but is scared to use their voice.
JE: Does participating in Animo Spoken Word have anything to do with the career you’re aiming for?
JM: Yes, because I want to be like either a poet or rapper and I want to motivate people to say what they feel and to not be ashamed about how they feel.
JE: In the future would you take one of these poems and turn it into a rap or something?
JM: Yeah I would because I think it would be even more inspirational.
JE: What would your rap name be?
JM: It would be half my name so it would be “Onna.”
JE: How do you feel about it overall, because you joined Animo Spoken Word twice, so how do you feel about them.
JM: I feel good about both of them because I’m able to express myself and show or tell people how I feel.
JE: So what high school are you going to?
JM: I’m still going to go to a Green Dot high school.
JE: So will you continue to participate in high school?
JM: Yeah, I plan on participating because I love expressing myself or trying to send messages to tell others to not be scared to express themselves.
JE: I think you should continue to express yourself. It can help people find themselves or be more confident in themselves because in my opinion your words are powerful.
JM: Yeah, I’m kind of doing this because if I was someone that wasn’t confident or didn’t have a voice I would want to hear someone’s story that I could relate to so I can be able to be more confident in myself or learn to have a voice.
JE: So you’re going to continue to do Animo Voices the rest of your time in middle and high school?
JM: Yeah, it’s like therapy. I write to, you know, get my feelings out.
JE: What if you got a head start and got the theme for next year and the theme was something deep or real; what would you write about?
JM: I wouldn’t really know because it’s so much to write about but also so little but, I would start to think about it.
JE: Did any of your friends ask about your spoken word?
JM: You mean what they thought about it or what I thought about it?
JE: What they thought about it.
JM: My friends just told me I did good and others just said I did too much or was too extra but I don’t care what they got to say.
JE: They probably don’t know how spoken word is or they probably can’t relate because you know, in spoken word you have to express not only your words but also your voice.
JM: Yeah but also they wouldn’t understand because they’re not me.
JE: So what did you have to say when they said that?
JM: I just told them don’t hate, appreciate, and keep their negative comments to themselves.
