tato laviera is dead

Hispanic New York: Tato Laviera, Prominent Nuyorican Poet, Is Dead This makes me sad. When I was in college I discovered Tato Laviera's poetry and it played a big role in my thinking about what it means to be Afro-Latino. I even organized an event to bring him to campus and got to spend a chunk of time with him. He's apparently been sick for a while with diabetes and unconscious. Rest in Peace. Inna illahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

tedx ramallah - mark gonzalez: wage beauty

Poet. Scholar. Lover of Life. Mark Gonzales is an HBO Def Poet with a Master's in Education, a Mexican and a Muslim, a Khalil Gibran meets Pablo Neruda in a lyrical break dance cypher, Mark lives in the center of intersections. From Palestinian refugee camps, universities in Beirut, foster homes in Portugal, to cities across the Americas, he transcends citizenship identity to break borders and wage beauty across continents through culture. He is respected internationally for his creative approaches to suicide prevention, human rights and human development via performance, photojournalism, and narrative therapy

See also:
Planet Grenada: mark gonzalez: audio intefadeh

suheir hammad: what i will

amir sulaiman: the meccan openings

Amir Sulaiman's latest album, The Meccan Openings, is available for FREE download here. (And if you don't like downloading, most if not all of the songs are available on YouTube in some form). I haven't finished listening yet but so far the first couple of tracks have really drawn me in. I'm really curious to get a better sense of where Amir Sulaiman is at spiritually.

My lyricism is an exercise in exorcism.
But the exoteric call it eso-terrorism.
I learned jihad from Rumi.
The Sunni call me Shia.
The Shia call me Sufi.

piri thomas (1928-2011)

Piri Thomas' Official Website
NPR: Piri Thomas, Poet And Novelist, Remembered
Democracy Now!: Author Piri Thomas Dies at 83
LA Times: Latino writer Piri Thomas dies at 83

somalia: nevermind by amir sulaiman

black faces
white tongues
the smell of sea water
taunts with sarcasm
drink me


oh somalia
im sorry i couldnt be there for you
but while you were trying to to get your daughter
to drink her urine
a singer died
while your children
were falling from the tree of life
scattered bushels of rotten fruit
some whiter children were shot


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black
only if you were
gaza or
libya or
bahrain or
egypt or
norway or
england or
japan or
america
or the moon
i would mention you in a poem


only if you had
oil or
poppy or
timber or
rubber or
white people
i would mention you in my prayers


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black
the world has grown accustom to watching you die
since i was a child
somalia - synonymous with suffering
african meant adversity
an african struggling was like
a fish swimming
a dog barking
somalia meant starvation


nevermind the magic in your poetry
or
the glowing saints rising from your lands like a thousand moons


nevermind the beauty of your beaches
or
the utter perfection in the hips of your women


oh somalia
only if you didnt wear the resemblance of eve
like an ornate funeral shroud
we wouldnt see you as our sin
and avert our gazes
in shame
turn our faces
to blame
only if your lack of the worldy
didnt remind us
of our lack of the other-worldly
perhaps then we would mention you


oh somalia
only if your beautiful wasnt so black

dead poets society

I just recently learned about the passing of two poets who were a big part of their respective scenes. Will "Da Real One" Bell was based in Miami and David Blair was based in Detroit. At times I've been moved by both of them and I was sad to hear that their voices were silenced.


Blair - Being Black in America


Will "The Real One" - So I Run

New Times: Will Da Real One's murder left many questions
Detroit Metro Times: Poet and singer/songwriter David Blair passes away

gil scott-heron - Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un

Just some of my favorites from this great artist who will be missed.

His most famous (and commercialized, and copied, and parodied) piece is:

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

But some less well known pieces are:

Ghetto Code (Dot Dot Dit Dit Dot Dot Dash), an inspired meditation on the United States government's role in the world.

and:

H20-Gate Blues, on the moral aftermath of the Watergate scandal. (I'm not certain if an honest-to-goodness sample was used, but the music and some lines from this piece also inspired KMD on the piece Bananapeel Blues which has nothing to do with Nixon, but is instead a breakdown of Five Percenter theology).

Wikipedia: Gil Scott-Heron
NPR Music: Gil Scott-Heron, Poet And Musician, Has Died by Daoud Tyler-Ameen

suheir hammad at tedwomen

"What I Will" and "break (clustered)"

also libya by suheir hammad

also libya



no one tells you
if anyone does you do not listen anyway
if you do still you do not understand
no one tells you how to be free

there is fire in your neck
ocean in your ear
there is always your fear
the words you cannot even

no one is here
when the world opens upside
down you reach toward dawn
your weight on the earth changes

some of us plant deeper
others ache to fly

liberation square in egypt

Liberation Square in Egypt
by Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore

As Moses cast his staff down
so the masses are casting theirs

and their transformed and transformative
multi-million-strong serpent is swallowing

those vain wrigglings of the Pharaoh’s
police-state magicians now made

useless by the greater heartfelt

uncoiling masses of
God-sent Moses

all peace and success
be upon him (and them)

and each of his prophetic lights now
shining across every Pharaonic

tyrant’s face

______________
February 1, 2011

hip-hop for revolution

PRI's The World: Hip-Hop for Revolution

The poetic tradition in North Africa has also woven its way into more modern forms of expression. Rappers and hip-hop artists from Algiers to Cairo have been casting critical eyes on governments and dictators for years now. In the wake of unrest across the region, their rhymes have become a kind of soundtrack for revolution.

the scholarly hooligan (and kick-ass poet)

Just giving a shout out for Logic the Poet (known as The Scholarly Hooligan on my blogroll). He's been mentioned (without being named) on my blog before (see negrophobia, hope and gasoline and interesting weekend...) but between his blog and some YouTube channel's he's been appearing on the internet more often and so I thought I'd help him get his 15 minutes.... enjoy...

A piece on New Orleans and Katrina called "Purpose Poetry"

"it doesn't end with a period, it ends with a comma"

Heru: The Epic African Drama

hialeah haikus

For a while now I've been wrestling with the idea of writing poems about Miami and by a happy coincidence I found out that a local bookstore was having an event tonight to promote a short volume of poetry called Hialeah Haikus. For the moment, these are a few of my favorite.






1.
left side of face hurts
big mistake at Mami's house
Che Guevara shirt










2.
we buried pancho
now, like Cuban Highlander
gramps is the last one










3.
"el de la barba
quien carajo es, primo?"
Citizenship Test.




University of Wynwood: Hialeah Haiku, 2nd Printing Book Release and Reading

more than one way to break a fast

Your lips are dark, my love,
and fleshy, like a date
And night is honeyslow
in coming, long to wait

I have fasted, darling,
daylong all Ramadan
but your mouth -- so sweet,
so near -- the hours long!

Grant but one taste -- one kiss!
You know what good reward
feeders of fasters gain
from our clement Lord

See how the fruits are ripe
and ready, O servant of God
Kiss me -- it's time, it's time!
And let us earn reward

By Mohja Kahf

saladin ahmed

Continuing my Detroit/Michigan state of mind I just thought to look up Saladin Ahmed, I didn't really know him but when I lived in Michigan I'd seen him perform his poetry at an event or two and we had some friends in common. Apparently since the last time I'd seen him he's gotten married, has two kids, and has been nominated for a Nebula Award. From his blog you can find links to his biography and bibliography. I honestly don't know if he identifies as Muslim per se but some of his fantasy stories deal with Muslim identity in interesting ways. Its worth checking out.

haki madhubuti forced from chicago state university

Chicago Sun-Times: Infighting, injustice at Chicago State by Mary Mitchell.

Based on what I've read above and elsewhere there is more than meets the eye in this particular conflict so I'm not taking sides except to say that it is sad that someone of Haki Madhubuti's status is leaving Chicago State. I used to work there myself many moons ago and have thought about going back. But reading about the above situation is making me feel a little less positive about the climate on campus.

where i'm from / the county of kings

The above is a clip of Nuyorican spoken word artist Lemon doing a piece called "Where I'm From" on Def Poetry Jam. These days he is performing in a one-man show called The County of Kings at the Public Theater in NY, NY.

Featured last year as part of The Public Theater's Under The Radar Festival, Lemon Andersen's County of Kings gives a tough, yet poignant biographical account of a good kid growing up in an unforgiving environment in this one man journey. Weaving hard-edged drama with urban poetry, the Brooklyn hip-hop artist spins his own coming-of-age memoir in this jarring and poignant solo performance. A true story of finding passion and purpose against all odds, Lemon paints a vivid portrait of his difficult and sometimes humorous experiences growing up during the most influential cultural movement of our time, the birth of hip-hop.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Lemon Andersen has been featured as a regular on HBO's "Def Poetry" presented by Russell Simmons and was also an original cast member and writer of Russell Simmons Tony Award winning Def Poetry Jam on Broadway. On screen Lemon has appeared opposite Denzel Washington in Spike Lee's Inside Man and The Soloist starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.

maya angelou: we had him

(written by Maya Angelou on the occasion of Michael Jackson's death)

We had him

Beloveds, now we know that we know nothing,
now that our bright and shining star can slip away from our fingertips
like a puff of summer wind.

Without notice, our dear love can escape our doting embrace.
Sing our songs among the stars and walk our dances across the face of the moon.
In the instant that Michael is gone, we know nothing. No clocks can tell time.
No oceans can rush our tides with the abrupt absence of our treasure.

Though we are many, each of us is achingly alone, piercingly alone.
Only when we confess our confusion can we remember
that he was a gift to us and we did have him.

He came to us from the creator, trailing creativity in abundance.
Despite the anguish, his life was sheathed in mother love, family love,
and survived and did more than that.
He thrived with passion and compassion, humor and style.
We had him whether we know who he was or did not know,
he was ours and we were his.
We had him, beautiful, delighting our eyes.

His hat, aslant over his brow, and took a pose on his toes for all of us.
And we laughed and stomped our feet for him.
We were enchanted with his passion because he held nothing.
He gave us all he had been given.

Today in Tokyo, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in Ghana's Black Star Square.
In Johannesburg and Pittsburgh, in Birmingham, Alabama, and Birmingham, England

We are missing Michael.
But we do know we had him, and we are the world.