“HARD ACT TO FOLLOW” -OBAMA
Playon Patrick: Man with a Message
Former President Barack Obama is an inspiration to many and still stands as a figure of hope in a time of crisis. Last week he paid the ultimate compliment to the young man who introduced him at a virtual town hall: “That was unbelievable and we could not be prouder. You are a hard act to follow.”
A hard act to follow indeed: Playon Patrick, recent graduate from Columbus, Ohio’s Fort Hayes High School (where he was valedictorian) had a powerful message about the impact of systemic racism on black boys.
“We have never known cities, never known comfort, never known safe street in any city,” Patrick proclaims. His poem, titled “2020 Quarantine Killings,” recalls generations of institutional oppression experienced by his ancestors and now lived by him and his peers.
“We are the farmers of every revolution. No country was built without the piling up of dead bodies. This country just happens to be where our dead were dragged and hung up.” Patrick’s words are a reminder for all those marching for black lives across the country these last two weeks. Black people built this country and the BLM movement has created the momentum needed to make a change.
The Minneapolis Police Department will disband. The NYPD has new guidelines: including no more chokeholds. The goal is never again though changes may be incremental. Patrick speaks for all those disillusioned, heartbroken, frustrated by the epidemic that is police brutality and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and far too many — because even one is too many — others.
Protests have the power to make a difference and bring real change. As rioting erupts across the nation, prompting some bad-faith actors in DC and conservative media to skewer protesters for not protesting “the right way,” Patrick dismantles this argument, ending his poem with “Tonight, the riot is the language of the unheard.”
It’s tough to leave the typically verbose President Obama speechless, but Patrick accomplished just that. 44 composed himself, then thanked the young poet and told him he’s a hard act to follow. We agree.
This fall, Patrick will be attending Ohio State University, where he plans to study criminal justice and criminology. Hopefully, while he prepares to change the world through reform, he’ll still have time to write poems like “2020 Quarantine Killings.”
Check out Playon Patrick’s full poem and President Obama’s reaction above.
