Hide and Go Seek

They run barefoot through the yard, laughter spilling into the air like a familiar song. The grass bends beneath quick steps, the trees hold secrets, and the world feels wide enough for every dream. A hand covers counting eyes — “five, ten, fifteen, twenty” — and in that moment, childhood is alive again.
 
In Hide and Go Seek, LaKeem returns to the essence of play that shaped so many Black childhoods, especially in the South. It is a memory of joy that existed in spite of struggle, a reminder of how imagination became freedom when access to it was limited. Behind the lines and gestures is a story of community, innocence, and survival — of children learning early how to move between visibility and safety.
 
Through ink, LaKeem captures more than a game. He preserves a ritual of connection, where laughter becomes legacy and the land itself becomes a playground of hope. This piece is a reflection on the sacredness of youth and the way Black joy has always found a way to bloom, even when the world was not looking