Jacqueline Woodson - Bushwick history lesson lyrics

Before German mothers wrapped scarves around their heads, kissed their own mothers good-bye and headed across the world to Bushwick- Before the Italian fathers sailed across the ocean for the dream of America and found themselves in Bushwick- Before Dominican daughters donned quinceanera dresses and walked proudly down Bushwick Avenue- Before young brown boys in cutoff shorts spun their first tops and played their first games of skelly on Bushwick Streets- Before any of that, this place was called Boswijck settled by the Dutch and Franciscus the Negro, a former slave who bought his freedom. And all of New York was called New Amsterdam, run by a man named Peter Stuyvesant. There were slaves here. Those who could afford to own their freedom lived on the other side of the wall. And now that place is called Wall Street. When my teacher says, So write down what all of this means to you, our heads bend over out notebooks, the whole cla** silent. The whole cla** belonging somewhere: Bushwick. I didn't just appear one day. I didn't just wake up and know how to write my name. I keep writing, knowing now that I was a long time coming.