Kea-lo is a student at Ballou Senior High School in Southeast DC. He lost his father, best friend, and the sight in his left eye to violence... but hope still pervades his poetry.
This film expresses the exchange of ideas between two worlds that one day will be one, and blurs the lines between teacher and student. I'm grateful for my experience teaching in this "under siege" community.
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LYRICS:
***Kea-lo Verse***
Sick and tired of my soul crying before I go to sleep
I look back, take a peek to see my shoes on they feet.
Wanna believe I can just sit and let my pen bleed,
no one understands me, doubt me, things they say about me
Down in Southeast the real tragic;
my people got shot up in the middle of the traffic.
Lost-an-eye-to-this life, you can get gone real savage...
His boy got hit in the chest and face—close casket.
Still waiting patient but we suffer from retaliation
that's why we blow smoke-in-the-air, it's ventilating.
Still suffer segregation because we isolated.
Chalupe baby, it's fluke, it's just a gamble that we waging.
***Diatribe***
ONE:
No one can blame you for what you think or the things you feel. You have the right to tell the world who you are. There is power in your voice.
FOUR:
Your privacy is not absolute, but it is protected. What you keep in your home, is yours alone unless the authorities have cause to seek it.
FIVE:
Your right to remain silent is unconditional. And the police have to follow the law, if ever you're arrested.
SIX:
You have the right to an attorney. You're an American, and if your freedom is to be deprived, you needn't face the music alone.
***Jesse Verse***
When I walked into class I could barely relate to the fates of the kids who was trappin' on the street.
Just tryin' to get by comin' to my class high and at times I got pissed cause I didn't know why...
But now I think I got it and ya need to know too that these little black kids is just like you;
they feel forgotten, and in fact they are, but beneath they front is a shining star.
Got a mom and dad at home and some money in the bank, and I teach these kids cause I wanna give thanks
for all that god has given me, namely freedom and liberty.
Rights on a bill like pearls on a string and a king in a class learns to make them all sing.
And if you fail then I fail too, but you stand for your rights than I'ma stand with you.
Never woulda given you the digits to my phone if you weren't supposed to call when you feel alone.
You my student and my client too, and no matter what ya do Ima believe in you.
I feel your status, feel your pain, you my child cause we all the same.
Keep your chin up, hold your head high, cause the world can't take away your rights.
***Diatribe***
It's not gonna be your teachers.
It's not gonna be the administrators.
It won't be your parents or your friends, the politicians or the priests.
It's not gonna be the media.
It won't be the arresting officer, nor the judge, and it may not even be your court-appointed attorney.
Only you can know and stand up for your rights.
They are yours forever, and they are your responsibility!
***O-Tae Verse***
Constitutional law teach me all about the finer things.
Wanna be a lawyer, and that's just one of my dreams.
Music is my stadium, my rights is my game,
one day we'll make a change, O-Tae is my name.
Life is an experience, I'm trying to make history;
born with the rock so when I ball it's to proficiency.
Cause it's not about me, lift everyone in DC--
niggas don't need heat, it's they mind that they really need.
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LINKS:
The Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project
www.wcl.american.edu/marshallbrennan
Channel 38:
www.channelthirtyeight.org
www.JesseSommer.org
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