Hope Captured in Pictures

Black History Month 2022: February 17 – A Poem & A Picture

In celebration of Black History Month, this week I’m sharing stories behind some of my favorite pictures of the Black experience that encourage me to keep practicing hope. 

Peace & Blessings,
Marcie Alvis-Walker

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Gordon Parks: Boy with June Bug, Fort Scott, Kansas, 1963 

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Knoxville, Tennesse

by Nikki Giovanni

I always like summer
best
you can eat fresh corn
from daddy's garden
and okra
and greens
and cabbage
and lots of
barbecue
and buttermilk
and homemade ice-cream
at the church picnic
and listen to
gospel music
outside
at the church
homecoming
and go to the mountains with
your grandmother
and go barefooted
and be warm
all the time
not only when you go to bed
and sleep

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Song of Praise

O She Who Birthed The Earth,

We thank you for the tall green grass
and for tendril-green innocence

We thank your for the wide-blue-yonder sky
and for five-pocket blue overalls 

We thank you for the soft golden sunlight
and for gilded wishes 

We thank you for our begotten hope
sprung in fields of Black-Boy-Joy
and Black-Girl-Magic.

Amen