Our Color, Our Gender, Our Creed
(2025 Chicago poetry tour edit)
Janet Kuypers
8/12/25 (from the 1/21/19 poem written on Martin Luther King, Jr. day)
There is a house inside of me.
It’s a house with a rich heritage
brimming with the knowledge
of how our souls have flourished,
and about how it all can be so quickly taken away.
There is a house inside of me
that has had to shut down
to hide everything away, because
those who didn’t look like me
decided that I was nothing, and treated me accordingly.
There is a house inside of me.
I’ve hidden it away, I’ve sealed it up
and placed it deep within, brimming
with my history and my future, and I
don’t let it out when people can’t think of me as human.
There is a house inside of me.
I’ve put boards over the windows
to save myself from your storm.
And this house will stand strong
even after you have raped me,
beaten me, tortured me, tried to
kill me, treated me as nothing. But you were so wrong.
There is a house inside of me.
And what you don’t realize is that
this house will outlast yours. Trust me.
If your house was built on distrust
and such blatant disrespect, your house is bound to collapse.
Because after all this time, and after
my wanting to fight, I have learned
that passive resistance is only part of
my story. Because in these struggles
I have gained a wisdom and a connection that is beyond
this house inside of me...
So I want you to remember, this house
is a symbol for all like me, and for those
not like me too. Because, I have a dream that everyone
who has suffered like this — and even
those who have not — should share
their stories with all of the world,
no matter our color, our gender, our creed.
This is my dream. Because this is how we truly grow.
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