This image from the What Do Brothas Do All Day ‘zine includes an excerpt from “Little Brown Baby,” a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar. I’ve reprinted the text of the excerpt below.
Ajuan Mance
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Little brown baby wif spa’klin’ eyes,
Come to yo’ pappy an’ set on his knee.
What you been doin’, suh — makin’ san’ pies?
Look at dat bib — you’s es du’ty ez me.
Look at dat mouf — dat’s merlasses, I bet;
Come hyeah, Maria, an’ wipe off his han’s.
Bees gwine to ketch you an’ eat you up yit,
Bein’ so sticky an sweet — goodness lan’s!
—From “Little Brown Baby” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, in Poems of Cabin and Field (1895)
Outside Egbert Souse, Piedmont, Ave., Oakland, CA.
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My People
The night is beautiful,
So the faces of my people.
The stars are beautiful,
So the eyes of my people.
Beautiful, also, is the sun.
Beautiful, also, are the souls of my people.
—“My People” by Langston Hughes
Maggiano’s Restaurant, Perimeter area, Atlanta, GA.
XXVI
At the center of Being
Said the blackman,
All is tangential.
Even this laughter, even your tears.
–From “Twenty-Six Ways of Looking at a Black Man” by Raymond Patterson
An Online Sketchbook @8-Rock.com