A Place Inside of Me tells the story of an unnamed black boy, who has a place inside of him that houses all of his emotions - both positive and negative. While the boy oftentimes uses his positive emotions, when he hears that a young black girl has been killed by the police, he begins to utilize his negative emotions. Then, when he hears police sirens outside of his home and the police facing off against protestors holding "Black Lives Matter" signs, his tension and other negative emotions ratchet up a notch.
Fundamentally, author, activist, and avowed feminist Zetta Elliott intended A Place Inside of Me to be an accessible book through which children could understand complex topics like the Black Lives Matter movement and police brutality (among a number of other important topics). She initially wrote the poem that would later become A Place Inside of Me nearly twenty years prior to the book's release in 2020, but it was never published.
She was inspired to rework her poem and release it as a children's book after the death of two young black men at the hands of the police in July 2016: Alton Sterling and Philando Castle. Fundamentally, though, Elliott intended for A Place Inside of Me a poem of affirmation. And the final product certainly reflects that.
