Speaker 1:	How is everybody? 
Audience:	Good.
Speaker 1:	It's so good to be here, especially to be in a place that I will admit, I have never heard of before. But as soon as I went to a ... I had to do a workshop at Xavier University in New Orleans and one of the professors who was responsible for bringing me there said, "Oh Swarthmore." As soon as I said, "[inaudible 00:00:24] Swarthmore." Syd Carpenter is there. [inaudible 00:00:34] She ... her and Syd Carpenter, she said, "Oh, you must go there. Syd Carpenter took me to this place and this place, this restaurant, that restaurant, we ate." Like you know, [inaudible 00:00:44]. I was trying to make it my business, then I was told that Syd Carpenter is on a sabbatical. When you see her again tell her that Xavier University sent me here with all kind of big expectation. Oh, so at any rate ... let's see y'all. 
	You can kill one human body, but I'll see 10,000 [inaudible 00:01:22]. I'll see 10,000 [inaudible 00:01:20]. They'll kill one human body, but I'll see 10,000 Martin's. I'll see 10,000 Martin's. They'll kill on human body, but I'll see 10,000 Zora's. I'll see 10,000 Zora's. They'll kill one human body, but I'll see 10,000 Harriet's. I'll see 10,000 Harriet's. They'll kill one human body, but I'll see 10,0000 Malcolm's I'll see 10,000 Malcolm's. 
	We have not always found comfort in killers. We have not always found solace being rocked in the bosoms of those who silently pray and then openly destroy. No, not always have we mistaken mimicry for [inaudible 00:02:28] or pretending from knowing or enslavement for freedom, but across my memory ... Across my memory marches millions, bold, regal, resilient, confident, unshackled feet [inaudible 00:02:44] up spirits to guide us through this [inaudible 00:02:47] material world. We like sun and moon folk. Universal souls praying our prayers and singing our songs [foreign language 00:02:54]. 
	We know all of you by name. We a people of beginnings, of culture, of strength, not always have we given into the empty threats and scare tactics of the powerless ones. No always have we allowed the blood of our son's and daughter's to color the streets, while we're walking asleep, marching to the beat of that siren song, they're still wearing their sheets, nooses in reach, showing their teeth and then smiling it seems, but I hear in the breeze, in the rustle of the tree's, and the dangling of the feet they say, "Please. Please don't let them ever forget." 
	You see not always have we suffered from amnesia. Not always have we forgotten how to conjure up spirit ancestor wisdom. Fix up a mixture, spiritual [inaudible 00:03:50], ancient traditions, we like magicians, God-like vision. We a people of sight, so no, not always have we fallen for this okie doke or inhaled the hazardous smoke of the manipulators or been satisfied with crumbs from meals our hands have prepared. [Hugh 00:04:09] said, "Life for us ain't been no crystal stair, but at least the steps are there to push us up higher. Teach us how to go beyond the destroyer's disguises. Look him in the eyes and be able to see because what's surprising when you know the nature of a beast and especially when they've shown the same face for centuries. 
	So you tell me ... What's the difference between two sisters in New Orleans shot point blank in the back of the head and two women bombed in their car in Baghdad or government sanctioned killings in Kenya and a sister held hostage in a house in Virginia or poverty in Haiti, or poverty in Jamaica, raping Rwanda or raping Somalia, a sweat shop in China or one in Guatemala or smallpox and blankets, syphilis in Tuskegee, formaldehyde and FEMA ethnic cleansing in Katrina? I recall within this speech, Dr. King made us aware, he said, "Injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere." So they can spare us that drama, huh? 
	Look we got the heart of them field working mamas. We carry the torch of that ancestor fire, so with every fiber that [inaudible 00:05:21] in our being, with every find that comes from our seeking, with every hearing that comes from our listening, and every sight that comes from our seeing, we must be faithful, strategic, victorious, and we must be free.
	[inaudible 00:05:39] Just in case. I had a bunch of stuff in my head, I just don't know what to do, where to start, whatever. All that kind of stuff. Just bear with me, huh? Yeah but we ... we're going to get somewhere. When we get there just kind of go with me. Just trust me. 
	I'm ... this is a ... this is a poem for those ... a poem for those who work 25 hours a day, for 24 cents an hour. It's for those who tried the street stress heavy, their feet strapped with anguish, backs bent with burden. It's for those who live between the lines of fear and confusion. It's for those whose eyes have witnessed the sun rising and they still question the awesome power of a supreme being. It's for those against the wall, or in the dust, or behind the bars, or on the other side of the barrel. It's for those who do not see God in the mirror, or a tree, or a blade of glass, a homeless man, a crescent moon, a drop of dew, a ray of sun, or a purple sky. 
	I mean it's for those who have given up on life and just wonder how they are still allowed to open their eyes real wide in the morning and [inaudible 00:07:00]. It is not yet time to die. For seekers of a better way, for speakers of new words, for creators of another day, awake from your slumber. Massive in number as brave as thunder. As courageous at hope. As audacious as [inaudible 00:07:19] I see heaven in your face. How does it feel just knowing that wherever you go the holiest of holy's is present in the form of you. 
	Okay, so now this is for you. It's for your word. It's nothing less than divine. I say this for all of those who survive. Who get up. Who scream, even when the takers try and zap their dreams, who shout, "No." Who cry, "Yes." Who feel the glory of victory boiling in their chest. For the lovers of love, for thinkers of peace, for workers of justice, field hands of freedom who voices rang high when vibrations are low. For the tillers of the earth and the seeds they sew, grow big, grow long, grow up, grow high, rise and take your stance because it is not yet time to die.
	Now this is a poem. This is also a poem. From Kevin, right? Kevin Flowers. Kevin Flowers, is a little boy. He was a little boy who was seven years old and his body was found dangling from a coat hook in his schools bathroom. Or there's a little boy named Juan. Juan, who was eight years old. Juan was forced to eat his own vomit inside a Mississippi penitentiary for juveniles. This a poem for 17 year old youth ... because 17 year old youth live in such a state of lack and limit that they give up before they even start, but you know children only do what children are taught. It's like it's three strikes against them before their feet touch the land and then they move through this life without a choice or a chance, but I ask ... I ask sincerely who? 
	Who sitting in this room can be a voice when the sticky fingers of fear have gripped the throats of the people and words [inaudible 00:08:58] as freedom, or justice, or love. Never quite make it to their tongues and they are stuck choking and gasping for breath on a could of, or a should of, till there's nothing more less. But I am here, like thousands of miles way up in the air turning clouds into flowers since the ones down bottom lie limp and watered in unsafe schoolhouses where cowards become hero's and the heartless are given power and the only thing that matters is the making of a dollar. Really? Who sitting in here is going to speak, huh? That's a real question. Who will stand in this hour? 
	Who will protect our babies against the system that devours? Can you imagine? Picture the nastiest animal mixing poison in the cauldron then we let them feed our youth and before you know it they in a coffin, or a jail. [inaudible 00:09:43] cells become open and their eyes ... It's like their eyes only begin to see destruction. Heaven help us. Please show us. May we learn how to repent for the hypocrisy and negligence we've shown to our children. Really, who sitting in here is going to serve? Who can show that there is light? Who can tell of the precious dawn that follows the onyx night and when you say it, will you feel it? Will you really believe with all your might that every flower is sacred, that every future is bright? I'm asking who ... Who in here will help? Who will prune and water the garden? Because if you're not a part of the solution then you must be ... okay. You must be a part of the problem. 
	Y'all okay? There was a song ... I have a different ... and I'm thinking of this wonder of a women who we are here in honor of, Catherine Morgan, and me not knowing her, but reading and hearing, and this unapologetic way of being, and gathering stories, and circumstances, and experiences, and turning them into these wonders. The main word that I can say is in the apologetic kind of way. I'm sure at a time when it was very easy to have to apologize for a whole bunch of things. Here comes ... here comes one, and two, and more who does this work or who did this work and through people that are here and everybody else who continue to do this work, unapologetically, and courageously, and in the face of so much ... At any rate ... 
	I'm thinking of another sister of mine who ... her job is to gather songs. Right? So you know every movement, every period, has a song. I'm sure ... It's songs that's being recorded now. I mean, you know we don't hear them. You know, we got, I don't know ... we got Shake It Fast and stuff. We not talking about them kind of songs, but sometimes ... you know sometimes you might need to get a little good shake on for the movement, but you know [inaudible 00:12:09]. So anyway, there's this one and you know, I sometimes just have to do it just to move myself around a bit. It's something very simple. We can all sing it at some point. We can gather and ... however you want to do it. Right? But, the words are very simple.
	It just says, "I'm going to move when the spirit say move. I'm going to move when the spirit say move. And when the spirit say move, I'm going to move all day. Going to move when the spirit say move." Okay, so like what's your word? You're going to what? 
Audience:	I'm going to move when the ... 
Speaker 1:	Oh. You're singing. She was singing. She didn't give us the word. See, that's what I like. You understand what I'm saying? When somebody [inaudible 00:12:56]. Let me get you the mic. Let me get you a mic. [inaudible 00:13:00] We can't get this [inaudible 00:13:03]. Yeah! That's what we like! Crowd participation! Yes ma'am. I don't want to stop ... Don't be shy. You ain't shy enough. [crosstalk 00:13:14]
Audience:	Can I do it with you? 
Speaker 1:	Come on! We like it! Yeah! Yes! [inaudible 00:13:26] Now we've gotten more, okay? Alright? [crosstalk 00:13:26] We got the easy part. We ... we ... moving. We got the easy part. So it's just this ... 
	I'm going to move when the spirit say move. See that's easy, right? I'm going to move when the spirit say move. There you go. Look. And when the spirit say move, I'm going to move all day. Going to move when the spirit say move. 
	There you go. Now what's your word? You're going to what when the spirit say what? 
Audience:	Move. 
Speaker 1:	We've been moving. [inaudible 00:13:59] What you doing [inaudible 00:14:00]. Come on. You thought I forgot. I know you didn't think I forgot you now. I don't forget too much. I don't forget much. 
Audience:	[inaudible 00:14:11]
Speaker 1:	Yeah, all the way back there. So we don't ... I calls on everybody [inaudible 00:14:13]. I got eyes all over the place. All of this hair is [inaudible 00:14:20]. I reach out to everybody. It's alright. We going to what? You're going to what? You're going to what? 
Audience:	[inaudible 00:14:25] breathe. 
Speaker 1:	I'm going to breathe when the spirit say breathe. We sure hope the spirit say that a lot. I'm going to breathe when the spirit say breath. And when the spirit say breathe, I'm going to breathe all day. Going to breathe when the spirit say breath?
	What's your word? You're going to what? 
Audience:	I'm going to play. 
Speaker 1:	I'm going to play when the spirit say play. I'm going to play when the spirit say play. And when the spirit say play, we going to play all day. Going to play when the spirit say play. 
	What's your word, New Orleans? 
Audience:	Dance. 
Speaker 1:	I'm going to dance when the spirit say dance. I'm going to dance when the spirit say dance. And when the spirit say dance, we going to dance all day. Going to dance when the spirit say dance.
	What's your word? 
Audience:	Sing. 
Speaker 1:	I'm going to sing when the spirit say sing. I'm going to sing when the spirit say sing. And when the spirit say sing, I'm going to sing all day. Going to sing when the spirit say sing. 
	One more. What's yours? 
Audience:	Write. 
Speaker 1:	I'm going to write when the spirit say write. That's our last one, last one. I'm going to write when the spirit say write. And when spirit say write, I'm going to write all day. Going to write when the spirit say write. 
	Yeah. We need that. We need to do all of them things. Good job. Y'all alright. Old Swarthmore. Yes. Yes. Yes. We like that. We like that. 
	How many ... how many more examples, right? How many more examples of destruction will it take for us to lift this veil of ignorance that drapes our faces? We place hands over ears, eyes closed, mouth mute, walk dead, have to because they shoot before we speak and when you know the truth of what they do to those who refuse to believe in the lies that they feed. It's either we can crawl and give in feeling helpless under the pressure, or we would remember. We would remember how to walk like warriors. Our feet are on the shoulders of giants. How we conquered chaos before. 
	We've compromised our divinity far too long and all at the hands of an oppressive entity that deliberately aims to kill and still they will use poison and steal, or cotton, and fields. Take trillions of dollars, pollute all the water, destroy everything from Phoenix to Florida, then still find time to pimp your daughter or sodomize your son, turn parents into one and one is never enough in this world of too much. Here is a classic equation. Divide up a family, multiply mommy's movements because daddy done moved where no responsibility can ever find him, add in depression and bitterness, subtract the encouragement, then watch these percentages fill up the prisons. See, we master mathematicians. Exponents of confusion. We be choosing death as if there are no other options left or right, up or down, shiftless vagabonds roaming around searching for something, seeking never finding or recognizing that space inside the soft, quiet sound that doesn't compete with the crowd of voices or the violent volume. Here ... In here is the value of you. 
	Okay, so now this is like a vowel. It's standing in the midst of [inaudible 00:18:11] consonants, it's constant. It's a kind reminder of the connection of us, when so often ... so often we have been picked apart and separate and sorted as casual as laundry. After all ... after all now they've told us, we should never mix the coloreds and the whites, right? 
	Okay. I don't know. Now on the other hand ... On the other hand now there was this time, there was a time when mister ...  mister always preferred [mammy 00:18:34] over the mis'ess. Forced crinkled fingers in crevices too sacred to mention and though this has happened time and time again, she still flinches at the scent and sight, but not this time now. This time she placed something inside where by twilight on the third night of the fourth week, he would be gone and no one would miss him. Not even his children. Herein is the power of the medicine men. This is the [inaudible 00:18:58] of the [inaudible 00:18:56] women them. Them whom make charms that water our farm, them. Them fighters forming freedom around their feet so that wherever they walk their souls will know that liberation lives wherever they go and wherever they go the spirit of God is them, who see the pattern of God in the stars. Whether that be in the sky or in your eyes, them. 
	Light bodied beings speaking love in an atmosphere filled with fear. Here they come. Lips laced with prayer. Bearing gifts giving by the great one who gives the best gifts. They lift their hands in gratitude, bidding us to rise. They call us to our higher selves, they remind us we could fry or just feel what it's like to live with no holds, no holes, no halves, just wholes because lord knows, it only takes one reason for the biggest believer to become the most unfaithful, but ain't that how the world go? Creating a slither of doubt and soon it turns out to be a mountain of madness. This is hell in a hand basket. It's bastard children playing hide and seek between dilapidated buildings and shards of concrete. There are no playgrounds in these towns. No jungle gyms for them. No green space dedicated for relaxation, or shelter when the sky rains bombs or the breeze blows bullets, or the earth can't stop her shake. 
	Take a moment. Let us reflect on this mess we have made. We have rejected natures voice, all in search of material gain. [inaudible 00:20:25] the rags of the disastrously insane, my God ... not this again. Not the different name, same situation again. Not that they plan a war all in the name of peace again, and again, and again, and again, and again, but then again, thanks be to God [inaudible 00:20:43] who can rouse us from our drowsiness. Who save us from our haphazardness. Who assist in realigning our energies with heavenly elements that there are skeptics who will bark. Oh, now there she go with that dreamer talk. As if every masterpiece didn't first start from just a thought. If only we could see through the eyes of our heart and go straight to the matter, eliminate the rhetoric, strip everything down to it's natural essence and it is there we will find the answer. The greatest, the only example and by far the most revolutionary weapon we all have and that family, is love. 
	Okay. Where y'all going? I'm just messing with you. I get cheeky. [inaudible 00:21:40] Philadelphia word. I don't know if that's a "where you from" word, but cheeky is a word. This is a lesson. Cheeky ... cheeky means you just want your way, right? That's cheeky. I don't know why it's cheeky, but that's just how it ... That's a ... That's New Orleans vocabulary. A foreign language. Foreign language [inaudible 00:22:00]. New Orleans boot camp 101. So it's a few words you have to know. Speaking of New Orleans, I'll do a ... [inaudible 00:22:18] For some reason people ask ... this is not the poem. For some reason though, people ask are these made up stories. You know, is this fiction and I can say that everything is non-fiction and sometimes things do sound so farfetched that it should be fiction, but the reality is that these are stories that we have to deal with on an every day basis and things that go on in our communities on a ... way too often basis. So these are ... [inaudible 00:22:56] stories. 
	It is 12:22 AM and I am remembering children. [inaudible 00:23:07] in my brain for some metaphorically put together phrase and then it hit me. It's like the troop don't care about no beautiful rhyme or some poetic line. It's only concern is taking us far beyond mere space and time, so now the only phrase that comes to mind I guess is, everything going to be alright. Because really it's like what do you say when a 14 year old girl lay naked on the floor with a noose around her neck. Her life poured out like imitation grape juice and cheap communion cups. Oh, this is my blood. It has been shed for you and for all. Do this is memory of me, but now my memory takes me to this little six year old girl who was shot in the head. Smart enough to know that if she wanted to live, she would have to play dead and all of this is right before her kindergarten graduation. The doctor said the only thing that stopped the penetration of the bullets were the rollers in her hair. Look all ain't fair in love and war. 
	It's a bizarre type of thinking when our babies are the targets of these senseless shootings and I think about a funeral because I can't imagine how it feels for a kid to see her mama, grandmother, and her brother all slain. Three caskets in one day and a thousand seasons of feeling the pain and the million and one reasons to wish for the rain or something to come and wash away the hurt that remains. Of the dirt that stains, leaving imprints on the [inaudible 00:24:26] that makes me never forget, but it is just [inaudible 00:24:28]. Through the eyes of our children, that finally we are able to see. 
	Now no longer at ease with pretending because no longer can we play dead to survive. So let us live to hear the sunshine. Let us live to speak the silence of breath. Let us live to see the voices and the wind and let us be, huh? Let us be what it is we speak and speak what we yearn to be. Yes. This is a message for all of our messengers who stand all the shoulders of our ancestors that make us tall like trees, so we can write in the sky the dreams of those yet born. I say this for all of our poets, where the life on their tongues who understand that to speak a true word, is to transform the entire world. One where we can wake up and face the sun and say, "If you can use anything, huh? How about you use me? Grant me words with which to teach and the humility to learn and the wisdom to clearly decern between right and wrong. I swear this is more than a poem. It is my plea, that we may forever walk in the light of life and love to the highest degree. 
	Two. 
	Niggas don't join the military because it's patriotic. Niggas join the military for money because they don't got it. So what started out as easy money for college, it ended on the front lines in Iraq and some call it freedom. Say that's what them fighting for. Some call it justice. Say that's what them fighting for. Some even call it revolution. Say that's what them fighting for. I'll tell you what them fighting for, so I listen. I listen as he justified his position. He said he made his decision because he needed the discipline. He said since it was just him and his mama, then the Army could provide him with the type of family he needed and I can still see him. He's trying to convince me like this was the right thing. Oh, you know how it go. It's GI Bills plus college courses. It ain't too many other options for a poor person. I shake my head because there was nothing I could say that would make him change his mind. He sees the question in my eyes, denied it. Oh yeah, I'm sure. 
	So now before we knew it, little brother was shipped overseas and while there he kept a journal and in it he wrote ... he wrote birthday's is the worst days. So today, while driving through the sands in a 130 degree heat I saw all these hands reaching for the truck and one of them was a woman who touched my shoulder and said, she said, "Oh, I feel sorry for you because you are us. We both suffer from the [Robin 00:27:15] of our culture and to work for the same vultures that peck at your [inaudible 00:27:17]. Like taking a seed, planting it in concrete, and then expecting it to grow. It's a slow death at a fast paced and that's serious because that woman never parted her lips. Those were just the words he saw on her face. 
	Immediately he felt out of place at 21. You got yourself a gun and some instructions. Kill anything walking and you hear them talking, "Assalamualaikum." Little young American boy shaking with fear, eyes full of tears, because never once in 21 years did you think you'd kill and I hear the elders in my ear, "You don't train warriors on the battlefield." Poor American boy. Fighting a war he knows nothing about, but can you tell me while your there, give me an answer aside from the one your supervisors urge you to memorize when you're asked. He thinks for a moment then tells me, "Gas, and oil, and Bin Laden, and the freedom of Iraqi people." I closed my eyes, because if only we took the same pride in Africa, and ancestors, and family, and the dreams we dreamt when we were kids, we thought we'd live to see forever. Never just two decades and one plus year and so it goes. The Red Cross gave a call to his mama's home confirming his death. 
	We guess it was true that the information that somehow leaked out over the internet, she tried to pay it no attention. Naw, that ain't my son. It's just kind of ironic how a couple days ago in a letter he wrote, he expressed how badly he wanted to soar through the sky and maybe fly them airplanes like his granddaddy did. A new school Tuskegee Airmen, his mama said that was always a dream of his but now she holds her heart. Now hardened like the one in her hand and the color is purple. It was one it was her favorites until this, because now never will she receive that night-night kiss or that glad I'm home hug she dreamt of so often when he was gone and now he is gone and his dream ... his dream is one of her greatest memories and I think ... You know I think that maybe this was written for the dreamer in me and all those other people who doodle dreams in black and white composition pads, or one subject notebooks, or napkins, or anything they can get they hands on. 
	All they know is that they hope for the day those dreams can leap off those pages. Even if it got to happen phrase by phrase, or word by word, or letter by letter, just let every P and E, let every A, let every C, every E be the perfect peace that pushes you to the perfect place in your process in order to reach that perfect goal. You got to go ahead and dream, huh? Go for the gold. We need no silver spoons, for wealth is not determined by material goods. Instead, stack knowledge up high enough to climb past the past. Dig deep enough to pull up the last you. You had to overcome just to remember where you came from and where you going. Man, go ahead and dream. No matter what the circumstances may be, they say it takes faith the size of a mustard seed, so that means even the smallest amount of light is enough to permeate the darkness. Just allow that spark that's within to touch every aspect in your insides, besides, God gives visions not just for us to see them, but for us to be them. So no, we don't need to fight for your armed forces. We work with greater forces unseen and powerfully armed enough to fight for us. 
	Okay. I'm trying to go fast because I know the driver is coming back at a certain time. I'm trying to look at this [inaudible 00:30:41]. Trying to keep my word and everything. You know, people say, "You got to be gone at such and such time." And it got to be ... you know? And I know I can run my mouth a little bit, so I'm trying to hurry up and go fast. Trying to talk fast. Okay. Y'all okay, huh? Y'all don't have no ... We got announcements or something? I'm just [crosstalk 00:31:04] I'm trying to ease all this in at the same time. If you got to ... Okay. Don't hesitate. If you got something to say, you can ... you know ... this is interactive. We can ... yeah. 
	What was I getting ready to do? Oh. Oh. Oh. I was getting ready ... about you know? So that ... We know this place, right, is a poem ... I have a [inaudible 00:31:29] teachers name was Doctor Morris [inaudible 00:31:33] Junior and we were in Ghana and he would always say we ... Had this deep James Earl Jones voice. "We know this place. We know this place." He would always say, right? So, he transitioned. He made his transition some years ago, but I always wanted to write a poem for him and I could never do it and I would ... I just had at the top of the page, we know this place, right? And I could never do it. I would ... We would be in Ghana and other cities and you know walking through the slave dungeons and everything else and I wanted so much to write something and I couldn't ... I couldn't get it out. Okay. Fast forward, years later, he transitioned [inaudible 00:32:28] a time after that. 
	A few years after that was when hurricane Katrina hit and so this was the only time I was able to finish the poem. I don't always explain this particular piece, but this poem came out of imagining one, with everything that was happening it reminded me so much of this triangle trade. With all of this going on, all of these people being moved to this one space in the Super Dome and things like this, with no food and all of this kind of stuff, but just the conditions, so it reminded me of a ship. It reminded me of a slave ship and I kept seeing or imagining this ... these bodies. Knowing how we were ... knowing how our ancestors were laid out on these ships and the very intricate sardine-like way of this lay and what was on top and so forth and so on. Whether it was a person or whatever it was on top. So my ... It came from these blank stares imaging that a person had a died on top of another and to imagine the stare that goes into the eye of a person who's soul has already left. And knowing ... and seeing people walk through the streets of New Orleans in the same fashion. So, it came from that particular space. So anyway, we know this place. 
	We have glanced more times than we'd like to share into eyes that stare with nothing there behind them but an unfilled wish or an unconscious yearning for life. Though death rests comfortably beside us at night, their moans are louder. They come to visit the Gods at the gate and they stay until morning, torching their guilt ridden insides. The silent cries of the keepers are louder than the booms that come from the guns they used to occupy the space and we know this place. Because we have seen more time than we'd like to imagine. Bloated cadavers, floating through waters of a city gone savage. Forging the land for what can be salvaged, but what can be saved when all is lost? It happened in August, 29 days in. We are now five days out of the only place we knew to call a house and home. 
	Few things are certain. One, we have no food. Two, there are more bodies lying at the roadside than hot plates being distributed or first aid being administered. Or recognition as a citizens 14th amendment. X, refugee. Check, and we know this place. It's ever changing yet forever the same. Money, and power, and greed, the game, they suck and devour the souls of the slain. What a feast for the beast at their table of shame. With napkins around necks to catch the blood that drains from the flesh they chew. It's hell to gain and we know this place, huh? All too well. Dank with the smell of death and doom, it hovers, it smother, no growth, no room, no pretty, no please, just gray, just gloom, just [inaudible 00:36:17] and it died too soon. Just [inaudible 00:36:19], just jiving, just living ... we just [inaudible 00:36:24] and we know this place. It's death, and [inaudible 00:36:27] it's a ray and splendor. Golden streets with good intentions. Capture our attention that gadgets and inventions, pesticide the food supply, flu-like symptoms. Diabetic condition, a cancer in the system. Help on hold is a pistol to the temple. Go run to your church's. Tell reverend it's simple. Good works and good deeds is what equals redemption, but tell me please, Jesus never mentioned how the church men get extensions on freedom while children are being fondled from the alter to the streets, then back to the sanctuaries? 
	It's kind of scary ain't it? To know that both the prophet and the priest practice deceit and come to the people and claim, "Peace. Peace." They come to the people and claim, "Love. Love." But where is the peace, huh? Where is the love? Where is that [inaudible 00:37:18] that can heal the wounded sole or make the half man whole. I swear, we know this place because we have vowed before never again to return, but here we are. We back in the desert, dry mouthed and thirsting for waters from heaven, but come, come children, rally around and maybe together we can sound that'll shake the tree's or rattle the ground, make strong our knees, we's freedom bound and we know this place. Reclaim the crown. Hold on to the prize, never put it down. Be firm in the stance, no break, no bow. Got to forward our mamas. Make your move now. Forward on [inaudible 00:37:59] make your move now. Forwarded children because freedom is right now. 
	Okay. [inaudible 00:38:04]. Is that your phone cameraman? This is your phone? I'm making sure ... You know I kind of do that. I got [inaudible 00:38:23] OCD. This is not interrupting, this scarf, huh? For your recording? Okay. I try to follow directions, when I can. Part one. I sometimes tend to forget part one of this. [inaudible 00:39:02] Part one. It says ... 
	Let us ... Let us be mindful. Cautious ... cautious not to be caught up in appearance. You know things, things are not always as they seem. It's like wolves dressed in clothing of sheep. They say beauty ... Okay, they say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what happens when the beholder views violence and destruction as pretty or the continued oppression of a people as extravagant or the outright act of genocide as lavish? Pieced together a plan to make an entire race vanish from the face of the planet. How pretty? Famished children paraded for pennies. Peep game, just because our eyes don't see no chains, it don't mean the chains ain't swinging. It don't mean the bodies ain't hanging [inaudible 00:39:45] a few months ago, no pants, no shirt, just a rope and a stare, some hope and prayer. Careful, because the glare can blind you or hog tie you to the bag of a truck and watch fingers, and feces, urine and toes, leave trails for curious onlookers. Oh, how beautiful. All dressed up with no where to go, but downtown there is a club called Some Like It Hot and Hell is the street that it's on. There is no need for the lights because the fire stays burning and then they say they need more space. 
	Oh, it gets kind of tight when you stuck between a rock and a hard place or one cop banging a baton at your back and the other one click clacking a Glock in your face. Really, how pretty is it? When all them spirits come to pay you a visit and all that blood can't be washed off of your hands and all that money just can't be spent for it is written, "When the wicked spring is grass and workers of iniquity flourish, it is so that they may be destroyed forever." That's what my mama say. Now, back to us. To us, that's what's beautiful. To the people who find pretty in the laughter of babies, or a growth of a garden, or the gaze in mama's eyes or in daddy's diligence. Beauty ... beauty is the goodness of God and the magnificence of his works and the perfection of her word. Within real beauty, there is no deceit, only wisdom and prosperity, serenity and peace, and certainly there are no wolves making a mockery of the sheep. 
	Part two. Part two says ... 
	I'm from the stock that pitch cocktail bombs and hand grenades. We pour cayenne pepper around the perimeter of a building to keep the police dogs at bay. I'm the panther party in a [inaudible 00:41:15] housing projects in New Orleans. I'm a nigga turning the gun on the National Guards, take a long, long, look. I'm a cook in the kitchen asking the mis'ess to taste the dinner. Take a long, long sip, because death ain't always this good. Oh, it's eyes popping out they sockets. It's a lifeless body rocking backwards and forwards. It's a boy stabbed 47 times in front of the church house. It's a man 43 years old stuffing his penis in a 9 year old girl mouth. Naw, death don't always taste good. Just don't sound like something I want to eat often. 
	Often I hear them say, "It was like a train came through the room." Left mama so depressed she was unable to move until this one day. It was like a few months after the hurricane. Husband and child found the trinity bloody in bed, his wife, his son, his other daughter was dead, and on the end table there was a letter that read, it said, "I couldn't stay here. Not for one minute longer and it made no sense for me to leave here alone because who would take care of my babies with they mama gone?" I'm telling you, death ain't always good. It'll leave you fending for water and food. It'll riddle up your body in the Audubon Ballroom. They'll Al-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz you. Crown you king then de thrown you in a Lorraine Hotel. They'll disfigure your body to where folk can't tell if you Emmett Till or not. Tell them mama, keep that casket open. Let all the world see it ain't just burning in Mississippi. Hell is hot wherever you be. From the rooftop to the cell block, oh step on up to the auction block and bend over, touch your toes, show your teeth, lift her titties, examine his balls, now this can damn near sound like a hip hop song, but it's slavery at it's peak, huh? It's the circus for all the freaks. They'll warn you, "Caution when you speak." 
	Can't afford the truth to leak, but we'll say, "Blessed are the meek and all the ones who make peace, and all the ones that are persecuted for the sake of righteousness." For we say theirs is the kingdom. Earth is their inheritance, so no matter how treacherous, they'll try to trap us in them trenches. They'll dig deeper ditches, but all that matters is this, it's like which side will we pick or which path will we choose? It's either win or lose, because death don't come in vain. Not for us to remain enslaved or our spirits to remain in cages that come so we might be courageous. To fulfill our obligations, to our God, and all creation. To stand in determination able to look death straight in the face and say, "We made it. We made it. We made it. We made it."
	Alright. We made it. I don't know ... tell me about the time or tell me what I need to ... what I need to do. 
Audience:	[inaudible 00:44:07]
Speaker 1:	I'm your servant. I'm here to do what you need me to ... I'm just trying to make sure because I don't want people to come back and say, "She went over time. We got to pay [inaudible 00:44:21]. The door's going to lock. We had to get the janitor to come out. It's $100,000 for the janitor to come and lock the door." You know how we get at universities sometimes. 
Audience:	[inaudible 00:44:37]
Speaker 1:	Okay. That sounds like a plan to me. I'm thinking of my mother and father who are a very interesting bunch, but ... yeah, they are something else. So I'm thinking of them. This is a blues poem for my mama. 
	So faith ain't got no eyes, but she got long legs, and that's probably why my mama stand proud. But faith ain't got no eyes, but she got long legs. That got to be why my mama don't cry. Look, even when daddy beat her, even when daddy cheated, poor old mama don't shed no tear and even though he come home, smelling like alcohol, poor old mama don't have no fear. She take the keys to the car, then hide them in the backyard and that's when all the fussing start. Look, he'd say, "Babe where the keys because I'm ready to leave?" And that's when all old mama got caught. Look, she'd look into his eyes, it wasn't no surprise he took the anger out on her face. Right? A right jab to the nose and then a couple more blows and there was blood all over the place. 
	And so we sat on the bed because I was truly amazed. Look, my daddy left us that day. Right? He cared more about his liquor than me and my sister, but I really wanted daddy to stay. And so we prayed and we prayed, and then my poor mama said, look, "That daddy had to go away." Right? But after months he came home, he was sober and strong and mama took him back again. He never raised his hand because if he did he would land in a grave that's what mama said. But how you stay there that long when you know he was wrong? She said, "You have to have a little faith." Right. Because faith ain't got no eyes, but she got long legs. That's probably why my mama stand proud. Because faith ain't got no eyes, but she got long legs. That got to be why mama don't cry. It's got to be why my mama don't cry. 
	And he speaks of his dreams as if no one is listening. [inaudible 00:47:31] whisperings in the wind, but I hear them. I see them. I see them searching the air for a piece of peace or at least something [inaudible 00:47:41] hold on to, when what we hold on to are the same attitudes that allow our visions to slip through the slits between our fingers and I guess that brings us back to that question of old. Like what is a dream deferred. I guess it's something like faith without works or a truthful word left unspoken or unheard or unheated or forgotten about to rot in the corner and by the time we realized this is what we had been wanting all along, it's too late. 
	But I'm here to say, it ain't never too late because while truth may change it's clothes, it never changes it's worth. It just wants us to come closer, but keep your hopes up. I know it's difficult and especially when you feel you've given all you can give and they say, "Live and let live." But even that gets hard when dead men walk and darkness fills the and the only light that's allowed to penetrate is the flame from a match to a joint laced with crack and I can't rack my brain on how to bring you back. Daddy I just pray that you sane enough to pick up your slack in wherever you lacking. Let divine remembrance fill those gaps like ... like don't you recall that thrown you sat upon king? Or don't you recall that queen you left behind before all these feathers invaded your mind. Before this [inaudible 00:48:54] took over your life. You were divine. Remember? 
	I still bring offerings to your temple. I still bear sacred food for you, because I know that you are much greater than obstacles you go through and I will tell them who may not believe, "Please. Oh please, don't weep." I will tell them not to moan because I know you'll be home, transformed, reborn, like a bright and lustrous sun rising on the eastern horizon as intense as the noontime and you will shine like forever in my eyes. But daddy, your eyes, mm, your eyes. Be ye not blinded by the vices that reside. Be ye not blinded by the voices that lie, for you have been endowed with the power of the most high. Papa regain your glory. Let shine your light. Let love lead you and remember your plight, for divine remembrance is heavenly sight and you are a god. Don't you remember? 
	Okay. Old mama and daddy. [inaudible 00:49:55] Oh, I guess so huh?