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The Belonging poetry anthology is the culmination of the Rising Voices Poetry Project (2025–2026), a year-long, grant-funded creative writing and social futuring workshop series for fifth-grade students of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools. Designed and led by @corter_pounder, 2023–2024 Chapel Hill Poet Laureate, with support from Prism Design Lab and Executive Director @heather_lena, this project invited students to reflect on the meaning of belonging through both independent and collaborative poem-writing sessions. Every student wrote their own personal poem about what belonging means to them, then selected a favorite line to help collectively construct a classroom poem. The poems in this collection are those final classroom poems. Each line a distinct voice, quilted together. This work was made possible through the support of the Town of Chapel Hill’s Division of Community Arts & Culture and the Frances R. Dewing Foundation. We are so grateful to the incredible educators, teachers, and administrators of Northside Elementary, Ephesus Elementary, Frank Porter Graham Elementary, Estes Hills Elementary, and Rashkis Elementary. And finally, thank you to the brilliant and visionary fifth graders. Your creativity, honesty, imagination, and willingness to share your voices made this poetry collection possible. We hope you continue to speak up, share your voice, and create a world where everyone can find belonging. 💛 #PrismDesignLab #RisingVoicesPoetryProject #Belonging #YouthVoices #CreativeWriting