Photo courtesy of the Press-Enterprise

As a filmmaker, Saul Williams is responsible for one of the best visual lessons on staying in school and avoiding crime with Slam, his 1998 masterpiece about a young man who managed to make a way out of no way. But in his main role as hip-hop poet, Saul Williams has crafted more commentary on improving the lives of youth with his poem, Children of the Night. Watch this video, listen to his messages, and think about what you can do to save “the little girls of fire wearing pigtails of braided smoke” and the other children like them.