We are a free people, but our minds are enslaved.
The news and social media act as new chains.
Life is a game of chess, we must find our role.
I feel like it’s the world against us, their only common goal.
There is still segregation within our great nation, all because of our rough hair and pigmentation.
To my brothers and my sisters we must have a goal.
And from many, we form one, stronger as a whole.

George Wells is currently enrolled in the Odyssey Institute, a core program of Illinois Humanities.

This project anticipates Conversations with the Collection: Belonging, a yearlong project that opens August 16 and explores ideas of belonging through objects from across cultures and eras on display throughout the Smart Museum’s collection galleries.

Follow the Smart Museum blog for a weekly look at the conversations, events, and works of art being developed over the course of In Anticipation of Belonging.