About The Super Power of Me

Our Background

In 2020, following the death of George Floyd, Karen Zusman rode with a Black Lives Matter bicycle protest group for several months taking part in and documenting the weekly Justice Rides that swept through every borough of NYC. Compelled by the responses of children for whom this moment of social reckoning would matter most, Zusman began a series of portraits to celebrate these youth and find out more about what they think and who they are.

The Super Power of Me name came from the Ghanian American father whose children Zusman photographed at Coney Island that first pandemic summer. When he received the images, he emailed to thank her for “giving my children the living proof they really are the super powers they believe themselves to be.”

After receiving The Leica Women’s Foto Project Award for this portrait series, the project expanded to include free poetry workshops and zoom sessions for the children to better collaborate with them and to provide a creative learning experience at the same time.

The result of that first series of photographs and poems became a large-scale outdoor exhibit that showcased the children’s poems and portraits. The celebratory opening ceremony was covered by ABC News and gave the children an opportunity to read their work in front of a large audience, with musical guests and refreshments. In partnership with the NYC Parks Dept, the exhibit was installed for 3 months in the Dr. Ronald McNair Park, located next to The Brooklyn Museum in 2022. Both the outdoor exhibit and the free poetry workshops were featured in The New York Times.

Soon thereafter, Zusman was invited to present The Super Power of Me project as a keynote speaker at the prestigious Xposure Photography Festival in The United Arab Emirates. Emboldened by the overwhelmingly positive reception it received from an international audience, the project quickly evolved into a larger platform. Multiple educators and local volunteers now help with its mission to celebrate and empower youth around the world, providing young people a rich, creative journey to explore their inner strengths and to express themselves and see their own evolution come to life in a work of public art. It gives them an experience that, in the words of one of its young participants, “Lets you see yourself from your eyes and not from someone else’s eyes.”

The Super Power of Me now focuses on young people who have recently immigrated to the USA, youth in Africa, and is planning on a program for refugees in Southeast Asia. It includes multiple educators, local volunteers, and has been invited into the public school system in New Jersey.  

Our Team

  • Karen Zusman

    CREATOR and PHOTOGRAPHER

    While self-taught in photography, Karen Zusman has a Master of Fine Art in poetry from Columbia University’s School of the Arts Graduate Writing Program. Her photographic work is a mix of documentary, street, and portraiture and is recognized for its intimacy, warmth and a lyrical sensibility that comes from seeing the world through a poet’s eyes. She is a Leica Women’s Foto Project Awardee; a Pulitzer Center for Crisis Reporting Grantee for her stories documenting human trafficking in Southeast Asia; and was a guest speaker at UNESCO’s international training program in Bangkok for young human rights leaders coming from conflict regions around the world. In 2014, Ms Zusman co-founded a free mobile education project along with Burmese human rights advocate, Tim Aye Hardy, and others. Under Mr. Hardy’s direction, the program provides non-formal education (NFE) to child laborers in Myanmar by bringing the classroom and teachers to their place of work. Before the coup in 2021, myME: Mobile Education Project served over 20,000 working and out-of-school youth inside Myanmar. The Super Power of Me platform brings together Karen’s loves and skills as a photographer, poet, and non-formal education advocate for youth everywhere.

    Her work has been broadcast on PBS, NPR, ABC News and NY1 and published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, L’Oeil de la Photographie, Boston Magazine and others. Her photography has been exhibited at Fotografiska NY, The Museum for the City of NY, The International Photography Center, NY, The Leica Galleries Los Angeles and Boston, Casilhaus and at Xposure 2023, UAE.

  • Julie Kelman

    EDUCATOR (New Americans)

    Julie Kelman is an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher at Bayonne (NJ) High School. She holds a Masters of Science in Education from The University of Pennsylvania. She has been teaching ESL to high school, middle school and adult students for more than 20 years combined. Julie strongly believes that the desire to communicate drives second language development, and provides her students with opportunities for exploration and self-discovery to enhance and enrich their English acquisition. The last semester of each school year, Julie focuses on reading, responding to and reciting poetry. The Super Power of Me deepened this unit, as each student wrote an original poem through weekly Super Power of Me zoom sessions, and class discussions. “Working with Super Power of Me gave me the opportunity to be the kind of teacher I value most: One who facilitates learning by following students’ interests.”

  • Kellie Diodato

    EDUCATOR (NYC Youth)

    Kellie Diodato is a native New Yorker currently residing in Brooklyn. Kellie is currently a middle school educator at an independent school in Spanish Harlem. She has earned a Bachelor of Arts in English and Theater at Marymount Manhattan College, and is currently a Master of Fine Art in Poetry candidate at Columbia University School of The Arts.

  • Hudhaymat Soud

    PROJECT ASSISTANT  (Global Youth, Zanzibar)

    My name is Hudhaymat Said Soud, and I’m 22 years old.  My study and passion is in the medical field. I've participated in an exchange program in the USA from the KL-YES (Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange) program where I spent a year learning about several things including how I could grow as a person for both me and my community. I spend most of my free time volunteering in my society and I love exploring the world by learning new things. For me, Super Power of Me is a necessary Project for the young African kids as well as all the kids across the globe because the project inspires people to express themselves, an issue that is still a challenge for the African people. I also love this project because it's full of positive energy.

  • Abuu Sharif

    PROJECT ASSISTANT  (Global Youth, Zanzibar)

    My name is Abubakar Mohamed Sharif, I’m 22 years old and live in Stonetown, Zanzibar in Tanzania. My degree is in geography and history from Mwalimu Nyrere Memorian Academy. I also am a business entrepreneur with my own tailoring shop, creating custom clothing with my employees. I liked working with Super Power of Me because in order to build suitable future for our generation we need to see and embrace the power of our children. Super Power of Me is the first project to come to Zanzibar that gives our children a chance to speak for themselves. That’s why I’m so passionate about this project.