Kevin Love introduces the curriculum and describes the first lesson.
Lin-Manuel Miranda explains that his mom taught him that in his saddest times he can observe how he is feeling and draw on those emotions to inspire his writing.
Cathyana Marcel shares a letter to her brother who was incarcerated.
Charles Benitez shares a letter to his dad expressing anger and beginning to work on forgiving him.
Bryanna Daniel shares a letter to her brother who passed away suddenly several years ago.
May Kim shares a letter that she wrote to her past/teenage self, offering herself hope and courage to get through a dark time.
Kevin and Leon describe the way gender rules and roles have impacted their ability to express emotion.
Hussain Manawer reads a poem about his mom and offers advice to students on how to write their own “I Could Tell You” poems.
Jacquay reads her poem about struggling with mental health challenges since she was young.
Lizardo Reyes Jr. reads a poem about his late father who struggled with alcoholism.
Kennedy shares her poem about ‘the weight’ she has carried in her life including the anxiety she experienced during the pandemic and how much it helps her to know she isn’t alone in this experience.
Jaslene shares a poem she wrote to honor her mom’s memory after her mom passed away.
Adam shares his poem about the experience of being vulnerable in his poetry and reflects on the way reading poetry helps him feel less alone.
Charles Benitez shares a poem he wrote about his connection with his mom who passed away after her battle with cancer.
Peyton shares a poem she wrote about the way a mass shooting impacted her life, and how difficult it was to support others when she was feeling so much fear.
Dr. Gowri Aragam offers students a method for “riding the wave” of difficult emotions rather than avoiding those feelings with temporary fixes.
Cathyana Marcel shares the collage she made about her mom’s experience with HIV and her brother’s incarceration. She explains that her collage illustrates that “the hard story is not the whole story”.
Sienna describes the way making a collage allowed her to express her insecurities about her appearance and also helped her realize how special she is.
Ana shares the collage she made to illustrate the difficult transition to college including the experience of culture shock, merging her identities and feeling overwhelmed.
Matt Hill explains that making a collage about the loss of his uncle helped him learn how to sit in the sadness and be ok with how he was feeling.
Olivia describes a collage she made to tell the story of the challenging relationship she had with her father.
Meaghan Birnie and Clare Kehoe – founders of Morgan’s Message – share the story of the loss of their friend Morgan to suicide. The life-saving message of their organization is that anyone struggling with mental health should share how they are feeling and reach out for support.
Daylon describes the collage he made to describe the experience of finding out that the father who raised him was not his biological father.
Gabby Romero describes the collage she made to tell the story of her experience with rheumatoid arthritis.
Sabrina Ward Harrison explains that the process of making art is much more important than the final product, and that her artistic process helps her release emotions.
Dr. Paty Abril Gonzalez describes her experience as a Mexican American Spanish speaking student, and the way she learned how to honor her emotion of anger when she experienced racism in school.
Dr. Neha Chaudhary explains that emotions are complex, that they can transcend labels and that it is possible to feel more than one emotion at the same time. She shares the way photography helps her represent complex emotions.
Courtney Payton describes the way photography allows him to express emotions.
Jazzell describes the way photography helped her express the emotions she doesn’t know how to put into words.
Ian explains how photography helped him express the mixed emotions he was feeling when he transitioned to high school.
Yikia Xu describes his experience with loneliness as an immigrant in the United States and offers that taking photographs allows him to acknowledge and accept these emotions.
Simone Lawrence describes the way she creates street art murals in order to make a statement about racism and inequality.
Paige explains the way the protest art project helped her speak about the anxiety and fear she feels about gun violence and her desire for change.
Dr. Ofelia Schepers shares her experience as a child being placed in an English as a second language class, though she was bilingual, and the way her emotions of anger and rejection drove her to become a teacher and education researcher. She explains that her work is her way of protesting the racism she experienced as a child.
Cordelia Zars explains that she channeled anger into writing a musical about the way boys are raised to ignore their emotions and this can lead to unhealthy relationships with women when they are older.
Stamy Paul explains why she founded Graffiti Heart, a nonprofit in Cleveland that supports the creation of street art and provides scholarships to student-artists.