As a young teenager, Zoey Roy left home and lived on the streets. She was angry and defiant. She was full of emotions she didn't know how to express. But this was also the period of time that led her to hip hop, which she discovered could work as a release and which became instrumental to her career as a poet and activist.

Now, she's steadily building a large audience and considerable acclaim — and taking her spoken word poetry on tour.

In the above video, you'll see Roy at work in the classroom, where she empowers kids with her message and her poetry-writing tools. And you'll find out that her soft and humble offstage demeanour quite quickly translates into onstage power and emotion.