By Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman

Write a poem

Write a poem about Black achievement
Black excellence
But don’t mention reprisals
The rage that burns buildings
Knots ropes
Grows fruit
Strange

Write a poem

Write a poem about Black excellence
Black people
That doesn’t mention uneven pavement
and concrete ceilings
A poem empty of kerchiefs and chain clinks
rows of cotton and water fountains
for only pink lips

Write a poem they say

And be sure to wear a smile
Peel the pain off the past and
Shove it sharply out of sight
Cast out the ghosts 
that may mumble and call you Negro on the sly

Write a poem 

Write a poem they say
and celebrate Langston and Zora 
but don’t remember the rough parts
the real parts
the honest parts

just the jazz parts without the horns and piano
take out the blues and the drum 
Wring it out and leave the bass by the wayside
Write a poem

that speaks the language of colorblindness
and knows how to dance and snap its fingers
That is jaunty and capable and has a strong back
That doesn’t yell or cry or expect reparations

Write a poem that sings in red, white and blue
and doesn’t celebrate Kwanzaa
doesn’t believe Juneteenth is really necessary
Write a poem about Black history that starts at 2010

when we have had a Black president 
and there is no longer a need for affirmative action
Or museums or libraries or anything that remembers
Don’t remember

Write a poem that doesn’t remember, that doesn’t ask questions
Write a poem that is silent and stupid and happy and content
that believes in white jesus and can quote scripture

Write a poem
Write a poem
Write a poem
Write a poem

Write a poem that doesn’t know why the caged bird sings
or why a raisin is in the sun
A poem that is empty of everything and all that is 
A poem that is nothing

Write a poem that is nothing
That is nothing
Write a poem about nothing at all

Khadijah Z. Ali-Coleman is a visionary leader and community organizer, nationally recognized speaker, and writer. A playwright, she has had more than a dozen of her plays presented publicly in venues throughout the country, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Theater Alliance, and Baltimore Theater Project.  Dr. Ali-Coleman is the author of the poetry collections For the Girls Who Do Too Much (2024) and The Summoning of Black Joy (2023), the children’s book Mariah’s Maracas and co-editor of the book Homeschooling Black Children in the US: Theory, Practice, and Popular Culture.  Her work is featured in multiple publications, including Clarion, The Skinny Journal, two volumes of the book anthology The Fire Inside: Collected Stories and Poems from Zora’s Den, and the academic text Afro-Futurism in Black Panther: Gender, Identity, and the Remaking of Blackness (Rowan & Littlefield, 2021).  Dr. Ali-Coleman is a professional member of The Dramatists Guild, The Recording Academy, and the Association of African American Museums.  Dr. Ali-Coleman has received numerous grants and fellowships for her writing, performance, and teaching, including awards from the Maryland State Arts Council, PGCC Foundation, NVCC, and Poets & Writers.  She is a recipient of a 2024 and 2025 Prince George's Arts and Humanities Council Artist Fellowship. In addition, she was selected as a 2024 Outstanding UMBC Alumni and 2023 Watering Hole Poetry Fellow, becoming the 3rd recipient of the Tribe Sankofa full scholarship in 2024. An associate professor in the Humanities department at Coppin State University, she is the current poet laureate of Prince George's County, MD.