As an AmeriCorps Teaching Artist with Providence CityArts For Youth I've had the privilege of integrating myself into Roger Williams Middle School, a Title 1 turnaround school on the South Side of Providence. Over the course of the 2011-2012 school year I taught a course called The Identity Project to a group of 8th graders in an ELL (English Language Learners) class. The Identity Project is a long form arts integration course that aims to enhance literacy through documentary performance, poetry and photography assignments. The following photographs are part of the Identity Project's final portrait project series in which my students conceptualized a self portrait, I photographed them, and then they layered their poetry on top of the final print. This course proved to be a powerful outlet for my students. Not only did it give them the opportunity to investigate their lives and selves in a safe place, but they also found that their voices were worthy of being heard, worthy of the ultimate ear, worthy of a stage. Ultimately, my work as a teaching artist is about building a creative family, teaching my students how to take risks, how to become proud, how to surprise themselves, and how to awaken a practice of daily affirmation through self-expression.