SIMONE SARTÉ, 16

Simone Sarté, from San Francisco, California, hopes that she will heal communities affected by imperialism, religious oppression, and the denial of human rights. She expresses the voices of her silenced ancestors through various forms of artistry, a strength inherited from their suffering. Sarté is a well-versed dancer in several styles, and performs Philippine folk dance locally in the hope of promoting the under-appreciated artistry of a community who has undergone Western domination.

Sarté writes to reinforce the validity of the human experience, to enunciate the relativity of emotional trauma and triumph, while criticizing the issues founded by the insecurities of our flaws. She fights with her words and her movements, to promote the development of understanding, acceptance, harmony, and egalitarian societies. She participated in the University of California, Berkeley’s annual Asian Pacific Islander Issues Conference, after the publication of her writing in the organization’s 2019 publication. The conference and publication focused on the effects of eurocentricity and alienation of the other; how our dialogues allow the deconstruction of false assumptions about ethnic minorities (primarily Asian and Pacific Isander diaspora) in Western countries; and examined the systems of oppression that plague our communities.

Sarté has been deeply involved in local community work within the Bay Area. Each week, she looks forward to tutoring and assisting elementary students to hone their blossoming verbal expression and writing abilities. She often engages in service work, such as fundraising and volunteering with student-run humanitarian clubs at school, participating in music performances to promote the importance of children’s and women’s access to sufficient education and the tools to achieving a desired future. Sarté earned the opportunity to visit and engage with those involved in the perseverance of schools in Siem Reap, Cambodia, and Ecole Natangue, her high school’s sister school in M’bour, Senegal, as well as neighboring schools within the region.

Sarté aspires to help repair the damaging outcomes of patriarchal societies, influenced by patri-centric spiritual or religious values, and euro-centric mindsets.

Rhetoric

by Simone Sarté

Miss America, enforcers of the law are “loaded”

Jewish men obeying the Christian law, possessed under the white paw, their heads floated

Destruction of native power and native green,

Result with bloody rubies and pricking crystals on the collarbones of a spoiled queen,

Her cutting ignorance slicing a cultural incision.

Now “hotshot” politicians advocate for division

Caucasians claim they are “triggered”,

“Ruptured” but the “racism” of colored roots and rape victims,

We are unhealed, bruised, and bleeding,

They fire back, blaming us for being “bitter”.

Separate spiritualities, thus, they see us as “sinners”,

For sucking back resources they stole from our land, like “chiggers”,

Desperate for control, despite coasting on the shoal,

They “assault” women, tiger babies burdened by the bearer’s toll,

The town “shooting” their frowns.  

Centuries of rhetoric exemplifying repulsion have been passed down

Childish mindsets, self-absorbed sentiments, controlled by the love for a reigning crown.