… students experience language as power, curiosity, playfulness and agency replace what might have been standoffishness and uncertainty. Tapping African American Intellectual, Spiritual, and Artistic Voices: Informed by their distinct history, … artists and spiritual leaders. Umoja sees individuals like Phyllis Wheatley, David Walker, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells Barnett, Robert Johnson, W.E.B. Dubois, James Baldwin, Maya Angelou, Alan Locke, Thelonious Monk, Malcolm X, Romaire … in the spirit of dual commitment-" I commit to you, you commit to me." When we embrace our posit ion, Umoja becomes more than a program; it is a privilege that will be leveraged, a power base from which action and commitment to success for …