'AGT' contestant performs 'powerful' Black Lives Matter poem

During the last round of quarter finals on 'America's Got Talent' Tuesday night, poet Brandon Leake, the competition's first-ever spoken word artist who received a golden buzzer during auditions, once again moved the judges and viewers, this time with a powerful Black Lives Matter poem. "There is something so different about Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, and the countless others as I stared at that screen, I couldn't help but think I was looking at a mirror image of myself being choked out for merely existing," said Leake. While Black Lives Matter protests continue across the country following the recent shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, viewers praised Leake for using his platform on AGT for something profound. One person tweeted: "Brandon Leake deserves to win this whole thing. The world needs to hear his words." Judge Heidi Klum also praised Leake for using the show's platform to talk about something so important, while Howie Mandel, who had previously hit the golden buzzer for Leake, stated that, in his heart, Leake "won the night."