Moving to Baltimore at an early age instilled a thorough understanding of valuing family and sticking together. No matter what location they were in, Danica recalls her family bonding through cooking together throughout the year, but especially on holidays. As a result of this shared time together and her acquiring cooking skills from multiple family members, she’s taken on some of their traits and characteristics.

When discussing her twin sister especially, Danica’s smile lights up a room. Her twin, Lauren, acknowledges that Danica is the “natural born leader” out of the family. She describes Danica as “an adventurous and bold person who enjoys writing poems and incorporating her favorite color, pink, into her daily activities.” On the other hand, Danica describes Lauren as “a shy, smart and confident person who enjoys drawing and dancing.”

Danica admits that their “artistic inspiration and natural abilities” likely comes from their Dad, who is a longtime poet that shared many of those family meals with them. His poetic journey began in high school when he yearned for an outlet to express the feelings he experienced through different stages in life. Although these three share some differences, they possess more similarities in how they creatively express themselves as artists. For every blank piece of paper, another opportunity arose for Danica and her Dad to create a new, poetic recipe.

NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving has called basketball an “art form.” Some of Danica’s cooking and poetic artistry indeed translates to the court, and in her off-court leadership and teambuilding activities with PeacePlayers. Ideas turned reality has been the story of Danica’s life as it relates to her realizing her creative ideas. 

According to Baltimore Director, LaToya Fisher “It was Danica who initiated the idea of having an informal, virtual ‘Chat and Chew’ meeting on Thursdays where they bring snacks and play games.” During one of these “Chat and Chew” sessions, the idea of reciting a poem in front of peers during the Cultural Twinning came about. After learning about the poetic genes and history of poetry in Danica’s family, LaToya and Baltimore Program Manager, Chineze Nwagbo,
encouraged her to construct a poem centered around her experience with PeacePlayers. After the idea was formulated and the support was put in place, the rest was history.

Danica loved the idea of reading a poem because she found prior success in reciting poems at elementary school competitions. The first poem she recited was in 3rd grade at a “college-bound” contest. The judges of the contest provided the beginning of a sentence and the contestants were tasked with finishing the sentence with a poem. Danica recalled the judges asking her to finish the sentence, “With college, I can..” She went on to win the contest two years consecutively. This poem with PeacePlayers, in front of nearly 100 peers, would be a bit different in being virtual and amongst a global network of young people. When asked about her feelings before reading the poem, Danica says she “was nervous, yet eager for this moment.” She wanted peers to see PeacePlayers through her lens as a participant in Baltimore.

Toward the end of Northern Ireland’s Twinning with 20 participants from each global site in attendance, Danica recited the poem she prepared. Northern Ireland LDP participant Jayden provided an introductory welcome for Danica.

Take a look at the video of the poem and transcript below: