Building Bridges with TCAPS Annual MLK Exhibition

Over 200 students contributed poetry and visual art on view on the 2nd floor of Commoungrounds until February 22nd.

“Voices Carry Forward”

TCAPS Students Poetry & Visual Art Pairings

“Voices Carry Forward” features 86 original poems written by students from Building Bridges with Music poetry workshops, each centered on compassion, peace, understanding, empathy, and love. Advanced and AP art students from all three TCAPS high schools visually interpreted these poems, creating paired works that place words and images side by side.
This exhibit highlights the practice of empathy as an artistic skill—students were asked to listen deeply to another person’s voice and translate meaning, emotion, and intention into visual form. Together, each poem-art pairing represents an individual voice, while collectively they reflect Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s belief in collaboration, understanding, and the power of shared humanity.

“Collective Voices”

TCAPS Arts Students Mosaic Installation

“Collective Voices” honors the power of words as the foundation of oral tradition and social change. NUMBER TCAPS students selected a word rooted in Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s core values—Compassion, Peace, Understanding, Empathy, or Love—and created a 6x6” visual interpretation of that word.

These individual responses explore how a single word can carry personal meaning, cultural history, and emotional weight. When assembled together, the tiles form a large-scale mosaic—a wall of voices—representing how spoken words, when shared across a community, gain strength and collective power. This exhibit reflects the idea that language connects us, and that many voices speaking shared values can shape a more just and compassionate world.