MIAMI — Trayvon Martin should’ve turned 27 on Saturday.
He should’ve been celebrating somewhere in Miami. Should’ve been receiving a flood of birthday texts from friends and family. Should’ve been worried about inching closing to 30.
But he couldn’t, his life taken not even a month after turning 17. That tragedy birthed the Trayvon Martin Foundation, created by his parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, which held their annual walk Saturday in Miami Gardens to celebrate his legacy. Featuring rousing speeches, performances and even a Jamie Foxx appearance, the festivities reminded the world that Martin’s spirit and the fiery, political consciousness it sparked will never be extinguished.
“I wish we were here on a more celebratory occasion but we have to do what we have to do,” Fulton said to the audience.
To the untrained eye, the hundreds of people packed into Ives Estates Park might’ve appeared a bit too joyful in light of the situation. It will be 10 years since Martin’s murder on Feb. 26. Families of more recent victims — including that of George Floyd and Andrew Joseph III who died in Tampa after being racially profiled by law enforcement at a fair — were in the audience.
The recent news of Amir Locke, the 22-year-old Black man killed by Minneapolis police in the week whom speakers mentioned often, hung in the air like a pungent smell in a field full of flowers. Saturday, however, offered a unique window into a key tenant of the Black experience, says Kwon Aqua Etefia, the founder of Youth Concept Gallery.
“The struggle is art,” said Aqua Etefia whose organization teaches youth about the power of art. “We coming from a culture and a demographic that knows how to turn shit into sugar. That’s art within itself.”
Etfia’s sentiment that art and struggle are one in the same could be seen on stage and among the village of vendor booths and food trucks. As Etfia spoke, kids were playing drums, learning how to spray paint and play the drums. Chire Regans and her collection of drawings of gun violence victims sat a few booths over, with activist organizations like Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter and Black Men Build building out the village.
“We still got a lot of work to do, but 10 years later we come here to figure out what we gone do about it,” Phil Agnew, the co-director of Black Men Build, said to the crowd.
On stage, artists recited spoken word and performed the Grammy-award winning song “Glory.” Even the legendary Foxx couldn’t resist sharing a few words, calling Martin a “modern-day Emmett Till” and praising Fulton and Tracy’s strength.
“I don’t know what I would’ve done if I would’ve lost my kid,” Foxx told the audience.
“I don’t know how I would continue to have this type of energy, this type of fight.”
The Trayvon Martin Foundation has hosted the annual walk since Martin’s murder in 2012 but the date has never fallen on Martin’s birthday. That it did brought a small smile to Tracy’s face.
“You have your good days and bad days but I equate this to a good day,” Martin said. “Just knowing we’re having this ceremony on his birthday means a lot to me... This is a great birthday gift for him.”
