Thank you for joining us for Rise Up & Create!

Don’t forget, your amazing art work will be on display at our biggest rock concert of year, Play It Forward!

Saturday, August 24th at 2pm at the Anheuser-Busch Biergarten in Merrimack, NH

Tickets are $40 or FREE for students on scholarship (Ask the office to claim your free ticket!)

Scroll Down to read their words on advocacy, resilience, and resistance!

We explored visual art, the written word, and music as different forms of advocacy, resilience, and resistance. You’ve seen their art, now read their words.

“One Last Breath”

A song about my depression and how I am getting over that depression with an epic battle between me and my inner demons

One last breath!

The time has come to free your soul!

One last breath!

Tonight you kill the ones who wronged your fall!

(Whoaaa aahhhh)

Yeah I've been battling my demons since I can remember

A long last standing salvation of anxiety and depression

Gotta get into the question asking for the sessions of therapeutic justice

I'm waiting for the right time to strike this inner demon of mine

It's a never ending battle of life and death

I'm on my last breath

I can't take this anymore! Gotta grab my sword and free these chains of mine!

One last breath!

The time has come to free your soul!

One last breath!

Tonight you kill the ones who wronged your fall!

(Whoaaa aahhhh)

Hold up I gotta take my meds now

This demon I created has his hold on me now

I'm fighting through his grasps but these clasps of anxiety and depression won't leave me be and it feels like everybody is watching me!

My body aches, my hands are weak, my veins are numb

Fighting this demon won't be easy

God just talkin ‘bout this is making me queasy

Racism

People, people, people the color

of their skin, brown, white, tan, black

love yourself either way, either color,

either day, treat others how they wanna be

treated. Treat yourself how you wanna be

treated.

A Burning Dream

Sorrow and guilt has kept me bound with no song to sing no hope in sight. For I, a helpless flightless songbird, am trapped and bound with no light no joy. For I have seen the darkest of things. I’ve been through hell and back and as payment I’ve lost myself. I no longer recognize the reflection in the mirror. As the hate of this world takes me away and the flames of this burning world turn me to ash, I hope no, I wish one final wish… That this world will one day bloom into one of beauty and acceptance, for fear and hate to be as small as a grain of sand, for the birds to fly back with songs in their hearts for the world to be wonderful. I may never wake to see my dream come true but yet hope, giving it to someone like you who might make it grow so one day someone with a song in their heart can look out and see my dream… and hopefully then the dreams will come back, too.

W a r

Fighting

Disagreements

Territories

Losing homes

Death

Refugee

Unfair

Gun violence

Over and over

it happened once

and over and over it happened again

gun laws are not a thing

they’re just a hope

or dream

nothing else but a word

We ask for change

We bring attention to it

but still we are left with a word

and a dream

I wonder when it will be enough

when will the shootings stop

because it’s just one after another

When will it be enough

Parents, brothers, families, sisters

have put with with losing ones they love

because it wasn’t too long ago

that the Parkland shooting happened

where 10 victims were killed

They were innocent teenagers

living their life on the day we remember as Valentine’s

There and then we asked for change

We asked for change in the Nashville shooting in Ihop

We will keeping asking for change, until there is change

What Our Students Are Saying

ABUSE: is something where you harm, torture, or injure someone who did nothing wrong or do it without feeling guilty for them.

Mental Health Education

The missing part of education in schools is one that is there but goes unnoticed. It’s the key to one of the most prevalent problems, the mental health crisis. The lack of knowledge people have in psychology is immense. Schools have a huge focus on physical health as it is very important, but what we don’t have enough of is psychology.
   Physical and mental health go hand in hand. You can’t have one be good without the other. How can schools expect kids to get out of their seats and be active during gym when they can’t even get out of bed in the morning? While they try to seek help from those who they should be relying on, their parents, they can’t even find support in that as a lot of people still don’t believe in psychology and view it as a pseudo-science. Having people take psych can be so beneficial to stop this from continuing.
   Many that struggle with mental health or those who are neurodivergent are often stigmatized, forgotten, and seen as weak or just stupid people. Those with these issues often go undiagnosed, which forces them to go through life feeling miserable. Knowing these things are important for people to thrive.

ANIMAL ABUSE: is something where you hurt, force, or torture an animal for no reason without fealing guilty for it at all and you do it every day.

Animal Testing

Animal testing is when a certain animal is tested for a product like skincare and makeup. These animals would be tested to see if the product is good or not. The animals that are most used are rabbits. They are captured and injected with the product which can harm them to the point where they just die.

Almost all makeup and skincare products are animal tested. Make sure to use products that aren’t animal tested.

Animals that are used for testing are cats, dogs, mice, rabbits, and monkeys. The animals are tested since birth.