Hey Black Child

Black History Month

Staff recommendations, guest essays, and curated reading lists.

Six-time Coretta Scott King Award winner and four-time Caldecott Honor recipient Bryan Collier brings this classic, inspirational poem to life, written by poet Useni Eugene Perkins.

Hey black child,

Do you know who you are?

Who really are? Do you know you can be

What you want to be

If you try to be

What you can be?

This lyrical, empowering poem celebrates black children and seeks to inspire all young people to dream big and achieve their goals.

“With a compelling rhythm that begs for recitation, the verse celebrates the power and potential of black children...A rousing celebration and call to action...” School Library Journal (Starred Review)

"Perkins's poem has always made for a stirring recitation; new and old fans will find that Collier's images do full justice to it." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"This book dazzles in every way...All black children need to know Perkins' prideful poem, possibly by heart, because it's really that doggone good." Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Useni Eugene Perkins (born 1932) is a distinguished and long-time authors, poet, playwright, social worker, and civil rights activist who worked extensively during the Chicago Black Arts Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Bryan Collier is the author and illustrator of Uptown, winner of the Coretta Scott King Award and the Ezra Jack Keats Book Award. He is also the illustrator of Martin’s Big Words by Doreen Rappaport and Rosa by Nikki Giovanni, both of which are Caldecott Honor Books. The Chicago Sun-Times has called Collier’s art “breathtakingly beautiful.” Mr. Collier lives with his family in Harlem in New York City.