My name is Natalie Riquelmy and I am a new addition to the Ignite team! I’m a senior at Mount Holyoke College, majoring in Africana Studies with a concentration in Artivism, and am minoring in Theatre Arts. My passions include poetry and spoken word, acting, and encouraging/empowering youth through the creative arts. I come from El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, a high school that saw the talents and potential in each of their students, and nurtured them to become confident and hungry for community involvement and social justice. Seeing that made me want to be able to do that for others like me. After hearing about Ignite the Mic, I wanted nothing more than to work alongside Francheska and Eilish to keep it alive. Having a venue as well as an opportunity to share one’s work, be it poetry or a monologue, or dancing, singing, etc., is imperative to the process of self-liberation and community building. I’m extremely excited to be working with Ignite the Mic because I believe it will be a breath of fresh air, an ember to dance around my heart and flare up my passions, and finally a way for me to be involved in the community outside of Mount Holyoke’s walls. I’m ready to experience the many things that lay ahead and be inspired by a rising generation, a force to be reckoned with.