“Hey, Black Child” Mural
Mural of 3-year-old Peyton Jackson performing a poem by Useni Eugene Perkins called “Hey, Black Child”. I paused a video of her when she struck a pose reminiscent of an iconic photo of Malcolm X. The mural is on a shipping container beneath a Black Lives Matter mural by PHYBR and adjacent to some custom text I did at the base of the wall. It is located at Toledo Spirits in Toledo, Ohio.
“Here are the words to “Hey Black Child” by Useni Eugene Perkins for you to share with your children:
Hey Black Child
Do you know who you are?
Who you really are
Do you know you can be?
What you want to be.
If you try to be
What you can be
Hey Black Child!
Do you know where you are going?
Where you’re really going.
Do you know you can learn
What you want to learn
If you try to learn
What you can learn
Hey Black Child!
Do you know you are strong?
I mean really strong
Do you know you can do
What you want to do
If you try to do
What you can do.
Hey Black Child?
Be what you can be
Learn what you must learn
Do what you can do
And tomorrow your nation
Will be what you what it to be”