‘Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what do you see? The new Vice President looks like me!’ ‘The Kamala Project’ rhyme | Opinion

While women of color throughout America were celebrating the election of Kamala Harris as America’s first female/woman of color vice president by wearing our pearls and flaunting them on election day, Femi Folami-Browne had other thoughts. Being the poet that she is, Folami-Brown sat down and wrote a simple jump rope rhyme to celebrate the occasion:

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what do you see? The new Vice President looks like me!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what is her name? Her name is Kamala, and mine is the same!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what can she do? She can do anything that she puts her mind to!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, where did she school? Howard University, a mighty HBCU!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what else do you know? Her words are truthful,

Her mind is sharp and that is not even the absolute best part!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what else do you know? Gonna follow in her footsteps when I grow!

Baby Girl, Baby Girl, what you say? I pray Kamala Becomes President of the USA!

Folami-Browne, who also is a film producer and the mother of three grown daughters said from that poem she envisioned a short film of young girls of color jumping rope to the rhyme. “But the long pandemic and input of friends and supporters gave birth to “The Kamala Project,” she said.

The plight of young girls of color has long been something that Folami-Browne has been interested in. And the primary purpose of The Kamala Project is to “… unite girls of color globally through arts, culture and media,” Folami-Browne said. “The target age is 7-15. But we do not exclude girls who want to become Project Ambassadors. We will provide the training.”

While The Kamala Project is Folami-Browne’s idea, it has grown to become a collaborative initiative, partnering with organizations whose primary audience is girls of color. The project is designed to encourage self-esteem, and connection among a global community by sharing community-building opportunities and strategies and creating safe spaces for girls to speak, learn, explore and express their thoughts, feelings and ideas,” Folami-Browne said.

“We must think globally,” she said. Current events indicate that this is the perfect time to rally as many as possible to the plight of girls globally. The uprising of women in Iran, climate change, food deserts and its impact on women and girls in Africa, our sisters in Haiti and in Cuba, all cause concern and deserve the attention of empowered women like those who have pledged support to our ad hoc efforts.”

Folami-Brown said that while the focus might be on girls in the immediate communities, the hope is that by providing information and connections, the project will spread throughout the world.

“The world isn’t a safe place for women and girls. That is why we at The Kamala Project believe that we should create a safe environment for girls to express themselves. We know that girls throughout the world need to be able to express anger and grief. They may need someone to talk to. Or maybe they just need a place where they can simply be quiet,” Folami-Browne said. “We [The Kamala Project] have pledged to hold space for them to explore and become. By doing so, we believe that we are offering to be a container for the overwhelming feelings they may be encountering.”

It is a big order. But Folami-Browne and the people working with her are forging ahead. Already, the Kamala Jump Rope rhyme has been distributed to far-off places like Nigeria, for example; Folami-Browne proudly shows off a video of Nigerian girls singing the rhyme as they jump rope.

“I was able to get my Nigerian friend Akindele Akinde, an award-winning film director, to produce the short film of the girls jumping rope to the rhyme. The rhyme became the lyrics of an Afropop song sung by Silverine Okolocha,” Folami-Browne said.

Cheryl-Zawadi Kendrick is a project volunteer. She said she met Folami-Browne via Facebook and “shared” friends: “I realized from her positive posts that we had similar life experiences during our childhood. I had been bullied and teased during my formative years; teased for my love of reading and had my hair pulled.

“I was considered a nerd, and I would have loved having an organization like The Kamala Project to support, guide and include me. Back then I felt excluded to the extent that I did not attend my prom or grad night events.”

Now, Kendricks serves the project as its social media liaison, posting information about the project on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

“I post educational, entertaining and relevant content,” she said. “I enjoy sharing uplifting quotes and information to inspire young girls and women of color. I also share the accomplishments, the achievements and the hopes and dreams of girls and women of color.”

Said Folami-Browne: “Because grant funding is scarce and is competitive in Miami-Dade, the project has reached out to individuals who connected with the project’s mission and invited others to donate.”

This past summer, those funds helped the project to support four summer day camps and 120 children under the Miami Youth Garden umbrella, by providing arts and crafts supplies to the camps. The project also supported a summer dance program in South Dade.

In addition, The Kamala Project volunteers donated more than 50 hours of hands-on time with the camp attendees, teaching crafts, reading to the youngsters, and helping support camp staff. The project also paid the tuition for a family with six children to attend summer camp so that the eldest child would not have to babysit the younger siblings.

“Because rhymes are an easy way to help children remember, my idea of writing the rhymes is really my method of sneaking our history into a fun way of teaching our girls about the history-making women of color in our country,” Folami-Browne said. “Our next series will include Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Serena and Venus Williams, and Michele Obama. We have already created a beautiful poster of Justice Brown Jackson with an accompanying rhyme to be unveiled at her investiture, which is yet to be announced.”

While the name of the project honors Vice President Kamala Harris, Folami-Browne said, “No matter the name of the project, our mission is to provide a link that allows us to connect and help wherever we can.”

Bea L. HInes can be reached at bea.hines@gmail.com