With many feeling the heaviness of demonstrations calling for justice in the Black community, singer Alicia Keys offered the world a glimmer of hope in the form of a poem.
Penned for her youngest son Genesis, whom she shares with husband Swizz Beatz, Keys wrote that she hoped the 5-year-old would remain unstoppable throughout his life.
“My beautiful baby boy, so curious and pure. Yet SO clear about what you don’t want “NO!” you say with vigor when you don’t like something going on in your small but powerful 5-year-old world. I hope that never changes. I hope that inner strength and fire never extinguishes, and you never feel the sway to fit in or be silenced,” reads an excerpt of the poem posted to Instagram on June 4.
She accompanied the words with photos of her son that showed him as both happy and determined.
The singer’s followers on social left a multitude of comments, some even sharing the same hopes as Keys.
“GEN❤️❤️❤️ strongest little guy I know. Never loose you’re fire my love. We love u so much,” wrote one person.
“Good to see a post like this. A beautiful innocent child laughing and smiling. 🙏🙏❤️❤️.”
“We need this unstoppable boy! Our future depends on it! No pressure! 💗🙏❤️🤗!”
“Sweet boy! May he see peace in his lifetime! ❤️😘”
“He‘s shining so bright. Beautiful boy💜✨,” wrote another.
Keys and her mega-producer husband have been married for nine years. They share another son, 9-year-old Egypt, as well as Dean’s son and daughter from previous relationships.
Keys says motherhood has provided her the most guidance of her life.
“Motherhood gave me a stronger sense of clarity. I used to be less aware of how I wanted to spend my time and more influenced by other people. After I had my kids, I felt like I had found my North Star. I was less wasteful; I worked more effectively,” Keys told Harper’s Bazaar in 2019.
No stranger to the pen, Keys also wrote her first book, “More Myself,” last year. In it she shares, well, more of herself. She details what it was like to accept her role as a mother, pitfalls of her career, and the influence her parents’ dynamic had on her while growing up in New York.
For her longtime fans it is the first time the singer is truly being seen.
“I’m more open than I’ve ever been,” Keys said to Rolling Stone in April.
