Picket Fences

By Knowa Know (he/him/his), Yale Divinity School, Class of 2023

The following is a transcript of the video, "Picket Fences."

Picket Fences (Remastered) by Knowa Know

I’m near a picket fence that describes my color and looks to destroy it

I am at wits ends to determine the cause of this rage

This anger, this hatred from the man behind the gate

Does he see me as a person

Does he see my race as an eyesore

What propaganda pushed him to be like this

What caused this anger Injustice, Injustice, Injustice

I cry out for an answer for their causes

-     -     -

I question why would a fellow man attack a race and burn the churches?

Why a man based off hate would shoot a church? Why would a group persecute fellow human beings?

Why is a war needed?

Why a man would amass these imaginations that minorities are the inferior

Why a man would amass that the people next to them are not in need of love and understanding

What gave him this decision, this mission to purge

To hate, to plunder the liberties of those wanting to live freely

What did they do to become like this?

-     -     -

As I sat back on the white picket fence, I took a paintbrush and painted it black

The man behind the fence went around to hug me

He said that he didn’t see me as a person before

He said he didn’t need me as a person before

From the color I placed beyond my own boundary he saw my narrative Supremacy dies when you know everyone’s story

Ignorance dies when you know everyone's story

Hatred dies when you know everyone's story

Color every picket fence

Description

My project is based on my poetry of the experiences I had this year through grad school, finishing undergrad through the pandemic, and living it all as an African American man in these times of racial unrest. 

IG: @knowaknow

Mirakee: knowaknow

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/knowaknow

This project was begun in March 2020 and completed April 19, 2021.

About the artist

My name is Noah Humphrey but I go by the stage name Knowa Know. My pronouns are he-series. I am in a Masters of Divinity Program at Yale virtually from my home in Honolulu, Hawaii. I recently graduated from Whittier College my B.A in Religious Studies and a minor in Holistic Care. I use poetry as my second voice infusing all my experiences from South Central LA, being a black neospirtualist Christian, and my environment(s) to perceive my soul speaking into my poetry. Overall I see that my words move me and others forward with the more I know and vice versa. Thus the more you know(Knowa Know!).

Return to the Virtual Gallery foyer.