Inglewood first-grader steals the show with poem on Zoom

She's only 6, but she's stealing the show on her school district's Zoom calls.

FOX 11 unintentionally stumbled upon this superstar Century Park Elementary School first-grader after LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner finished his weekly address, which he provides every Monday.

During the month of February, Beutner highlighted the students' Black History Month projects. I was covering last week's update. Just when I thought it was over, people waved goodbye in the video call, the screen faded to black, and without introduction, there was Makayla McCullough.

"Hey black child!" Makayla exclaimed, reciting Useni Eugene Perkins' Hey Black Child. "Do you know who you are?"

It was that moment when I needed to find out who she was.

The first-grader is an aspiring poet. Makayla says Perkins' iconic poem makes her happy.

"Makayla, when you popped up, I'm like who is this superstar?" asked FOX 11's Marla Tellez.

"She's talking about you," Jera Henderson, Makayla's mother, told her 6-year-old daughter with a laugh.

Makayla chose the poem for a Black History Month assignment at school. She has heard of Hey Black Child since she was a kindergartener.

"It shows you can be what you want to be and it shows you can learn what you want to learn," Makayla said.

Makayla's teacher Vanessa Dotson says her "little go-to girl" was inspired by fellow Angeleno turned famed poet laureate, Amanda Gorman.

"We watched the inauguration so she was like, 'Oh I like her. She did a good job.' She said I did a poem before," Dotson said.

"And what is it that you want to do when you grow up," Marla asked.

"I want to be anything I want to be," Makayla responded.

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