This is My Story: ACT-SO is What Dreams Are Made Of

by Jessica Avant

My favorite spoken word poem begins “I heard that dreams are illegal in the ghetto” and growing up in one of the worst parts of Richmond, California, this phrase was less a poem and more a philosophy. It is the mantra of many youth where opportunities to discover oneself are slim and futures seem limited and predetermined. If success is ever to be found, young people expect to find it in athletics and select forms of music and not much else. Those avenues are fine for those who feel that that is their true and chosen purpose but as a last ditch effort in order to be something, it is unacceptable. It was only through many opportunities that I was able to learn my reason for being and there was one in particular that developed a young Black girl from Richmond into a woman at Iowa State University.

This is where ACT-SO comes in. The Afro-Academic, Cultural, Technological, Scientific Olympics of the mind is major youth initiative founded by author and journalist Vernon Jarrett. Being only for students of African descent, 28 categories encompass competition options throughout performing arts, fine arts, sciences, mathematics, humanities, architecture and entrepreneurship. Through its structure, it could only seem as one of many other academic and artistic competitions in America, but it’s not. ACT-SO brings together students that may never have met to achieve great things. As an ACT-SO Alum and past national winner, I have had the opportunity to witness and experience youth develop themselves by mastering and/or discovering talents that are overlooked or oppressed by internal and external stereotypes about what an African-American is supposed to be able to do. You have African-Americans from ghettos and suburbs, Iowa (Yes, there are Black people in Iowa) and New York, performing arts schools and public schools, performing “Nessun Dorma” and presenting business plans for Black hair salons. I saw Black students teaching Black students about the variations within our culture and that solidarity didn’t suffer as a result.

I went in drawing and came out playwriting.

I went in an artist and came out an activist.

I went in a believer and came out a witness.

My name is Jessica Avant, I am a past ACT-SO participant and this is my story.

“Our children need to be told they can achieve and that God blesses those who hold onto their dreams. We gotta take down the signs so the kids won’t know that the devil’s trying to make dreams illegal... But dreams are not illegal.” (Twin Poets, 2003) If you believe you can, then ACT-SO!