Black history talk

JACQUELINE TURNER

Artist/Vendor

James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama. These are four of my heroes and sheroes. They influenced the world with their work. The first in all categories. The first to win a Pulitzer Prize and be a woman. The first to be secretary of state. The first African American president. But these are just tidbits of the people who worked, designed, planned, studied, created, and died to make this country great. We built the economy. We made the architecture and developed the science behind open heart procedure. That's why I am grateful to all who work so hard, people of color or otherwise.

Skate or die

RON DUDLEY Artist/Vendor

I was just a Black kid that wanted to be a skater but my Black friends said they ain't wanna see no skater. They say Black kids either dance or play sports ain't know skate or die, we play hoops on these courts. He wanted to be like magic, he wanted to be like Mike. I wanted to be like Tony Hawk and do the right thing like spike. I had been saving up for a skateboard when I saved enough I bought my first board I tried to hide it from my aunty. She found it and then called me a Black honkey, she said “Boy you better learn how to sing like Martin Luther King, you better learn how to dream,” then chopped it up with an ax, missed my head by an inch I almost had a heart attack. I was just a Black kid that loved Airwalks and Vans. I love Chuck Taylor — they make me the man. I was just a Black kid that always stayed out of trouble but my aunty still beat me with bats and shovels. I was just a Black kid that had a lot of dreams. Ritalin made me slow and had me hearing crazy things. I was just a Black kid that always got abused mentally and physically, they thought I would lose. I was just a Black kid that wanted to be a skater but my Black friends they ain't wanna see no skater. They say Black kids either dance or play sports ain't know skate or die we play hoops on these courts.