Poems from SIMbolic

My name is Simeon Carson and I am 20 years old. I was born in Harbor City, California and received the majority of my upbringing in Compton, California. I graduated from Dominguez High School in June of 2011. My role models are Huey P. Newton, 2pac Shakur and Malcolm X. Since my adolescence, I have been fascinated with the English language and wordplay. Since words were and still are my forte' I've spent countless hours studying the dictionary and literature beyond school. At the age of 8, I was regarded as prodigy because of the advanced English skills I had developed. I had honed and refined my skills near perfection, but I was not satisfied; I decided to find a creative outlet to showcase my talents so I took up poetry as a hobby. Year after year I gradually improved until I had become a prominent poet in my neighborhood. Growing up in the Compton, which was known for various rappers such as N.W.A. and Ice Cube, I was exposed to the urban hip-hop culture and I also took up rapping as a hobby. When I reached the high school level I had decided I wanted to be a lawyer and eventually a politician. I always had a passion to lead so I became involved in organizations such as the Black Student Union and Associated Student Body in High School. After a year of dedicated service to both organizations, I was elected Senior Class Vice President and the Black Student Union President. The B.S.U. encouraged me to study history and analyze my surroundings. As a result I developed a radical critical consciousness. It became evident in my poetry that I was becoming more aware of my surroundings. I took notice of how modern hip hop pollutes the mind of the youth and I stopped rapping completely and focused on my poetry.After meeting the urban spoken word artist Food4Thot I decided wanted to combine hip hop and poetry so I became a spoken word artist as well. As of September 2012, I have served as the resident poet for 90.7 fm's Tuesday night political talk show, Beautiful Struggle. I have also made appearances on New Era Radio and as a teacher for the Occupy LA movement, I love poetry and hip hop equally, so I decided to use my talents to educate the misguided youth of my generation. The subject matter of my poetry now reflects serious political and world issues such as racism, child molestation, capital punishment and a majority of other controversial issues. There is nothing more satisfying to me than being able to do what I love and help people at the same time. I rhyme for the people.