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Danai Gurira is a actor and activist. She is a Zimbabwean-American actress and playwright. Gurira is known for her Tony award winning play ‘Eclipsed’ and her roles as Michonne on AMC’s The Walking Dead and Okoye in the knew film Black Panther.

In 2008, Gurira appeared at the Global Green Sustainable Design Awards to read a letter written by a New Orleans native displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

In 2011, Gurira co-founded Almasi Arts Inc., an organization dedicated to continuing arts education in Zimbabwe. Gurira currently serves as the Executive Artistic Director.

In 2015, Gurira signed an open letter begun by the ONE Campaign. The letter was addressed to Angela Merkel and Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, urging them to focus on women as they serve as the head of the G7 in Germany and the AU in South Africa respectively. The following year Gurira founded the non-profit organization Love Our Girls, which aims to highlight the issues and challenges that specifically affect women throughout the world. In 2016 Gurira partnered with Johnson & Johnson in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

“Danai Gurira is celebrating Ladies Day by ensuring her voice is heard. The playwright, actress, and activist made her way to the United Nations' Observance of International Women's Day in New York this morning—an event at which she was slated to speak—in modern warrior guise, her buzz cut paired with a swipe of unapologetically bold pink lipstick.

Gurira's career is one built on female empowerment, every move serving to pave the way for legions of females to follow.” -Vogue

“UN Women celebrated International Women’s Day by hosting a panel featuring Reese Witherspoon and Black Panther actress Danai Gurira – two Hollywood figures fighting for gender equity in their industry and beyond.

Gurira shared a tearful and powerful anecdote of her time meeting women in Liberia who had experienced sexual abuse and harassment.

“When I’ve sat in the presence of women and girls that have gone through things that I couldn’t even begin to imagine, all of them said to me no one had ever asked what had happened to them. That really got to me,” Gurira said. “At the time I was an extremely broke playwright who had a fundraising party and a friend said he’d match whatever I made, and I was able to pay my New York rent and go.”

She continued, “But now I’m in a different position, so now I have to go again, and I have to meet those girls face to face. So it’s about that circle closing because those girls have the potential, desire and resilience. If we don’t get up and do something practical in our various positions of power, she will not reach her greatness and her potential.”

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Don’t be afraid to do things that seem to crazy. No one knows what the future holds, so really let you imagination flow.

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All too often characters do things or act in a way that  doesn’t seem like them. And while that could be a part of the story, you have to make sure that they are reacting in a way that is true for them.

An even more important thing is how they act after an incident. Do they pick themselves up? Do they give up? Do they grow stronger? It’s important for these things to be shown and written in a way that is true to who the character is at the core.

In my opinion, character development is my FAVORITE thing about writing and reading or watching movies/tv shows. Seeing how characters change over time because of things that have happened to them is easily the most beautiful thing in the world to me. It’s very important to develop and change a character throughout the story.

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1. Don’t be afraid to touch on sensitive topics. If there’s something you want to write a poem about, do it.

2. There isn’t exactly a pattern or template for poetry. Write it in a way that flows or sounds good to you.

3. Experiment with different words. New and bigger words will make your poems more elegant and simplistic, believe it or not.

4.  Analogies are fun to use in poetry, but don’t over do it.

5. There are all sorts of different types of poetry. You can use poetry to express yourself or write a story. Don’t feel limited.

6. Poetry isn’t all rhyming like it is made out to be. You don’t have to rhyme, but you can if you want to.

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My brand is like the waves of the ocean. It comes and it goes, but I never know what it carries.

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I don’t feel like I can answer it yet, which I hope is all right. I just don’t think that at this time I have found who I am, so ‘branding’ myself isn’t exactly easy nor my main focus. I have been trying to focus on finding myself, and I am getting there. I will get there eventually, but I can’t brand myself without knowing who I am, which I don’t. I’m not going to post this on the padlet because it’s too personal. But I think it is very important and right for my main focus to be finding myself, because everything will be a lot clearer with that advantage of knowing myself.

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FIbUV86bCcoFv1YwGGvRH2YdxNc5so8OIH_xZe3VHjk/edit?usp=sharing

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qIvXqjY_ROClb12VwrRzegepPyycPGtIf9HTV6rhkl4

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUKrylSaz_sOJGP_qPqnkhmC7r1V_QOoyBVW-ST0UAQ

https://docs.google.com/document/d/19aRyHJHxMv8ekTSUgBf7gUUN2lOFwaKaIqHTA2v_uks/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GHsId39D8bIEKboL0FuqsTVcHr2kRNlJzn8wF1v4-ZI/edit?usp=sharing

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https://docs.google.com/document/d/19aRyHJHxMv8ekTSUgBf7gUUN2lOFwaKaIqHTA2v_uks/edit?usp=sharing

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Try lots of new genres

Step more outside my comfort zone

Be more diverse and creative with my characters

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Poetry

Romance

Fantasy

Sci-Fi

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One of the struggles I’ve had is having inspiration. A lot of the time I will want to write something but I never know what to write. Usually when I face this problem,I go on a walk or reread some of my favorite books to try and trigger ideas.

Another struggle I face is writer's block. Writer's block is basically when you cannot think of anything to do or you become unmotivated to write or continue writing. A lot of times when this happens I take a few weeks break from writing and the try to come back to it. It’s a hard problem to face and it takes a lot of time to overcome.

Finding the right words is something that doesn’t happen as often for me, but it happens for sure. Usually when I can’t seem to find the right word for something, I turn to google and look through all kinds of words similar to the ones I had been think of using previously.

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Rain Lohr was born on October 2nd, 2004 to the most wonderful parents in the world in Longmont, Colorado. Rain has always had a passion for the arts, whether it be performing, painting, or poetry. From a young age, Rain was a big reader. She read many classics, those being her favorites. When it comes to writing, it's a sort of outlet for her to be creative and express herself in a different way, one which she doesn’t have to show anyone or one where she doesn’t have to have a lot of supplies to do. She enjoys writing outside, and loves the sound of fingers clicking on keys. Rains favorite genres to read are fantasy, adventure, sci fi, and poetry. Though she has many genres she enjoys reading, she has very few that she actually likes to write. Though her opinion on writing genres often changes, here are the two that she has been writing more recently: Sci-Fi/Thriller & Poetry. Rain enjoys time with friends, but also likes being alone. She is passionate about her beliefs, and hopes people enjoy reading her work.

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J.R.R. Tolkien
Rupi Kaur
Jules Verne
Robert Louis Stevenson
Ruta Sepetys

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The Lord of The Rings -  J.R.R. Tolkien
the sun and her flowers - Rupi Kaur
Journey To The Center of The Earth - Jules Verne
Belle Prater's Boy - Ruth White