By Button Poetry
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Grace Akon, performing at Icehouse in Minneapolis, MN.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:01
when I think of all I have survived I
00:04
know I am magic and what is a black girl
00:08
if not God rebranded be hot or cold or I
00:13
spit you out of my mouth it is easy to
00:16
hate what you long to be it is hard to
00:18
praise that which she saves you with a
00:20
different face so that being said here
00:23
comes out to be of dark skin is to
00:27
defend yourself against a new name every
00:29
day there’s no great metaphor for being
00:32
black as a dark-skinned girl I know this
00:35
well this skin has always felt like the
00:38
scar people couldn’t help but ask about
00:40
the skin knows outsider knows how it is
00:44
to be the black speck in your milk I’m
00:46
the girl whose beauty you can’t catch at
00:48
first glance I have not always been the
00:51
first pick I’m not the media’s ideals of
00:54
beauty with me you know what you’re
00:56
getting into with me there is no fine
00:58
print in a way you could say this is a
01:02
lashing of a held tongue of a girl and
01:05
the growing pains of a woman breaking
01:07
the silence she has grown herself in for
01:09
so long this the battle cry for those
01:12
times I was told where I wasn’t good
01:14
enough where every circumstance that set
01:16
me up to fail turned in my favor when I
01:19
stopped articulating myself in apologies
01:22
every place that lack of my voice was
01:24
filled so I shine for all those times i
01:28
dim myself for others I’ve kept my words
01:31
in the shadows for so long I forgot my
01:33
own voice
01:34
I forgot my own voice for those times
01:38
when everything around me told me I was
01:40
worthless as if trying to convince a
01:42
diamond it was dirt at times I felt like
01:46
dirt I come from humble beginnings a
01:50
line of building women women each
01:52
constructing the floorboards for me to
01:54
rise I do not need anyone’s permission
01:56
except my own to live the life I want
01:59
for myself I’m a legacy they are waiting
02:02
to see blaze the one who will the one
02:04
who will build skyscrapers with the
02:06
ashes she has been dealt in life thank
02:09
y’all
02:10
you
02:10
[Applause]
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This post was previously published on YouTube and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video