 Thank you very much and welcome to the 10th annual Baby Wadden Poetry Recital. I would like to introduce our host for the evening, a man who for 10 years has spearheaded this event and who has been an advocate for the Baby Wadden Library for many more. He's a poet in his own right and I'd like you to give a nice warm welcome to Mr. Larry Ware. Thank you and a good evening and welcome to our 10th annual. It is indeed a honor and a pleasure to once again be here this evening and I see a wonderful turnout here. It is a customary that we pay tribute to those who are not here with us this evening to share this program and I would like to dedicate this our 10th anniversary to some inspirational people over the years to us like the great blues jazz singer Joe Williams, Mel Tormey who wrote the song the Christmas song for Nat King Cole which is one of my all-time favorites, Mr. Brad Johnson who stayed down the street, a neighbor and a musician. Joe Suggs, many of you may not know him, he was a fellow council member and a strong advocate and a wonderful person. He's not here this evening and and one of our greatest athletes of all time, Will Chamberlain, all the kids coming up, all the guys they wanted to be another Will Chamberlain, a Bill Russell, you know and an inspiration to want to be like a Will Chamberlain, like there had to be a beginning like a Bill Russell, Will Chamberlain, Dr. J, Spencer Haywood on up to Michael Jordan and somebody had to start it and okay we're gonna get the show on the road but before we do I'd like to speak of a gentleman who's responsible for all of this wonderful artwork here, Malik Senefero. Senefero is a philosopher, a teacher and poet, world traveler and innate visual artist born April 7th 1971 in San Francisco California. Senefero's work has been well appreciated in museums and galleries, news articles, schools, cafes, etc. In the spring of 1997 before making his solo trip to Kenya, Senefero was commissioned for the mural entitled Mungu 9x102 in San Francisco's Macateer High School and also curated a children's exhibit called Kali Ancestors which is which was dedicated to Rosa Parks. Senefero's technique of delivering messages to the world is revolutionary in content and in consciousness. His painting consistently portrays the life and struggle of black people worldwide from youth to adults to elders to community and family matters. The coherence and conceptualization in his art has been unbroken. Senefero's work has manifested a persistent and profound concern for modern-day depression and the all-human effort towards liberalization and justice. Art and spirituality are driving forces in Senefero's life today. He is largely self-taught with a style that is uniquely his own. Senefero has a wavering fate to paint from his heart the reality of this experience and to express in a positive manner. Senefero enjoys being there of the message to everyone and to especially welcome any opportunity to carry the creativity to children. I would like to introduce Malik Senefero. He's going to come up and do some poetry and say some words. Come on, let's give him a big round of applause. Great artwork, great artwork. All right, peace, everyone. I don't know about doing no poetry, but I'm just here today because I'm glad that the community is out here. Give yourselves a hand. We really need to support more venues like this. We have so many venues here in Bayview Hunters Point and we have so many actors and poets and writers and things like that. We need to support them to keep these things running. And if none of us are here, the gatherings are supporting each other or coming up and just saying that's a great thing you did, then we lose our writers and we lose our great geniuses of our community. So I'm just going to talk a little bit about my work. I was born here in San Francisco. I was born in inner city. My work was inspired by many things like good times. I'm sure a lot of people have seen them and stuff like that. My parents were very strict with me. So if I got bad grades, I had to sit in my room and think about what I did. So during this time of sitting in my room a long time until I got good grades, I had some sketch paper hidden up underneath my bed. I had a little, or either I had a paper bag or something like that. And I would look out of my window and I would look at the images of the sky. I was always connected to the sky. If you look at maybe this piece here, you can kind of tell my connections that I have with the universe. So as I got older, I began working with actually selling candy. I started selling candy all around the Bay Area. I got to know people. I began seeing people and I became very interested in doing drawing faces and portraits and things like that. So a lot of my work is very figurative and a lot of my work says a lot and to me means a whole lot. My whole aim and purpose to do my work is to actually teach the viewer and then also kind of take the viewer on a bit of a flight. He read early here that a bit of a world traveler haven't been many places, but the places that I have been, those places have stunned me to go more. I went to Haiti and then when I went to Africa, I realized how both of them was so much the same. So it's very important. I work with children. I used to work at the Trail Hill Neighborhood House and also right now I'm working at the SFES and the Beacon Project at Gloria R. Davis I teach drawing classes and right now maybe I want to talk a little bit about my classes because I need some students. At the end of this program, if you know any child who wants to draw or anything like that, you can come and get the information from me. I was born an artist. I've never been to college for my work, but I'm very well schooled in this business or this or this profession. So I'll just say I thank you and enjoy. Okay, we're gonna get this party started. Our first poet is going to be LaShonda Smith. Come forward please. Let's give her a great round of applause. It's called Another Rhyme. Little girl grown up, little grown girl. We've cried, we've held ourselves, we've rocked to the rhythm of tears, turning pain to peace, rise, up now, woman, adore yourself. Let your light and beauty shine. Our next poet is going to be LaShonda Smith. Let's give her a great round of applause. Good evening. I'm going to read two poems. One is called Can't Get Up. While writing, while writing, can't get up. Too loud, pushing the shove, making me fall. I can't, I get up and forget everything that happened on the bus. The next one is called I Can Fly. I can fly with birds in deep blue sea. Hello, Colorful Rainbow. Goodbye, deep blue sea. There's sea. The eagles playing with friends beside me. This poem is fun. This poem is free. This poem is me. Thank you. Next poet is going to be, excuse me, Craig Kahn. My name is Craig Kahn. I've got me writing, I wrote about one, good, put it closer, okay. I wrote about one or two poems for this event. I kind of finished my second one, but here's my first one. It's called Fortune's War. War of castes cascading on my people, racist jerks hurting my people, pain and sorrow engulfing my people. As the book goes by the Great Horned Spoon, jaded sensibilities cloud my judgment. Nice guys finish last if they finish it all. The dead mummies of my people, the dreams, the dream to die in a bed of money. Oh how sad is the plight and pain of my people. Ragged carpet itching on my people's floor, death in the very air we breathe. Pollution in the soul of my people, the dark ink of hate, fear and paranoia clouded my people's sight. Or maybe the dirty air, the sewage we call water, asbestos houses, no jobs, no education, and the hate which is all in Fortune's War, which is what kills my people, body and soul, whole of vessel. I didn't finish this is my next one, but here's what I've got so far. The poem is called Pain. Pain. That wholly annoying itching burning sensibility destroying teeth marked bite at the back of my mind, a mind of loss, which looks upon us as a hungry man looks upon a rare steak. The fight that tells a man he's alive is what we see and do. Let what comes come at last. Thank you Craig. Okay our next poet is going to be uh Professor Wallace. Professor Wallace. Okay uh our next our next poet is going to be uh uh Sir William. Okay now I'm good with the program. Call us one blinded by love. It's a new one I wrote. Blinded by love. You're sweeter than honey, I wish you were mine, but you have a God, so I ran out of time. You may be, you may have a God, but he can't stop me from dreaming of us being meant to be. I won't let him get to me. I'll keep this loving side for a little while. I'll always dream of you. A tear falls from my face and I let out a sigh. My heart is broken, but not for so long, so I guess this means goodbye. Thank you. Yeah and I wonder you took a little while to get it. That's Sir William, Smokey Robinson II. A little smoke there. All right. Our next uh poet is going to be uh Donald Thomas. This is uh Professor Wallace. All right good Professor. Yes, good evening. My poem is called What's True. What's true to me, what's true to you, what's true to the game is a situated crew. We never lose because we understand who we are. We also understand that the kingdom to come is not far. Stop us please you can do that with bars. We got wars, war wounds, and scars too. What's true to me, what's true to DT is players as old and professors as new. I mean we about like to take this to a whole other level. Yeah sometimes from the left creeps the devil to the foregoes the pedal metal sparks in the dark in my city. I mean there's thugs that show no pity. Man they trying to obtain that pretty penny root of all evil. Even Knievel couldn't hang where I stand. The land of the so-called free. What's true to me is the white dream, the supreme scheme to work the no, the supreme scheme to work the prophecy for 6,000 years. Our ears to open are open to what's true. The spear 360 degrees of gain. The year 2g quote on quote hereafter after here what's true to me is building slash engineer. It's all crystal clear my career to shift and gear. Me a master architect for God the supreme creator of the hemisphere. My atmosphere, everybody trying to be a cashier. We're trying to get a glimpse of this premiere situated frontier but they're really in sincere so they fall to the scriptures wayside. The silent cries due to the worldwide unsatisfied Jekyll and Hyde. The devil switches and disguises himself too. What's true? What's true? What's true? Okay my second one is about a man who was a sled. I was born to save parents in 1759. No no 1795. As you can see some people think that I became the most famous slave of my time. I was born from sub master to master more than one time because around this era of slavery being black was a crime. I'm sure they didn't know that around 1784 I was sent to the north which became a fatal freedom blow. Face to face would be crazy when in this case is the devil but I mean that's the only way to reach the free level but not with metal with my brains because I file suits and suits and to break my physical chains. Nothing change because he's the god of all lies. Man he even misspelled names to keep me in ties. Now look at me can't you see the fire in my eyes? I want to be free but I want my freedom legalized. No need to apologize even though that would be right because if you don't give it I'm going to take my birth right that around 1859 1857 me and my family became free overnight. Yeah I became the property of a dear friend but this is where my slavery just had to end. Now I don't think I'm some superman. I just did what was right and this I recommend Dress Scott 18 no no yeah 1795 to 1858 thank you. Okay our next poet is going to be Ed Herring he's published Ed's going to come up and do some poetry for you so it's his first time let's give him a great round of applause. Thank you very much I do have a book of poetry published called Pruning to Shape. A great deal of it is Garden and Landscaping Imagery. The first poem I'll read is called Clouds it's very simplistic I hope it says something to you. I cannot see it out there on a chilling cloud no direction to ever get there again but as science is this too a mighty image that dissipates like a child almost touching cotton candy. It's out there but I can't see it ruminating sexually active but ruining my first night performance applause but applause for nothing resounds through the distance up to the clouds fondling me with cactus like understanding I just can't see it. Thank you the next one's called The Exception. This is a true story I grew up in Missouri Fulton Missouri Winston Churchill gave the Aaron Curtin speech there that's our claim to fame other than my novel which is now out called that fine inability to speak and there was a deaf school there and they was in the Baptist church and they would come to the Baptist church and we would sign the sermon for them and they had a man named Mr. Bach he was about 17 or 16 and he was an epileptic he suffered from epilepsy and so that'll help give a little background The Exception. There were the usual jokes and bad tastes but the athletic fact remained when the team of deaf school basketballers were scheduled to play as the waves parted they didn't really have a team those days just old mule Murphy at the fulcrum and it was a sight to see him wheeling down court an incubate of sorts with a seven foot one spastic frame trying desperately to coordinate his oversized gams and arms comprised of ladder like extensions from out in the gym he always looked confused and although we knew he couldn't hear us we would cheer him on in spite of our school spirits they say the scouts came from all corners of the state and that great things lay ahead for mule as a sort of one man team he'd gain momentum as some midget would feed in the ball and nothing impeded his forward motion of wet cowlick and cloud hoppers he'd see the wall mat coming and dunk the plaything into the miniature hook and predictably plow into the wall like one punch drunk these necessary collisions weren't good for mule's head didn't need any adversity we love mule's sad eyes and ways and as with any lover we'd forget his flaw once we entered mule's rib cage it came upon us like lightning and our guts split and searing pain reed through our collective heads we would fall to the well swept court of varnish and flail about and the ref would try and vain to hold our giant self down and conquer conquerors specialists had been paid by the school to correct the uncorrectable those who were fortunate enough though to stand over him had the bad's best seats they claimed that mule's math mule's mouth became a vortex of grunting as though the first words might come his tongue would take the worst of the beating and the school kept on a one man team 24 hour duty simply to shove that special tongue back in once it would be over his mammoth buttocks and soaking wet green gym shorts rolled gently with his breathing on the floor he was again a baby who had been allowed his tantrum which we all grew up envying and as we grew older and our parents explained the nature of epilepsy and our limitations we just bite our tongue and see our blood spill onto the only home the court we knew we saw those city men's promises sell out the window when he died at 18 they hung giant black reese on every fence post around the giant foreign complex the the obituary red quote here was a Caesar when comes such another and we died a bit with the school a lot of old women who never attended a game gossiped he was better off out of his klutzy misery thank you very much thank you ed all right okay our next port is going to be um uh donald thomas let's give up another time around the park the poem i chose to write is called life social commentators label us in dangerous species homicide rates increases of divine places needed i realized that we've been cheated and i hate to be defeated and deleted and i hate to be defeated and deleted from existence visualizing my position transformation taking place the younger souls was made the rule so your potential is a tool so baby boo don't be a fool consequences shaped in anger putting hot ones in the chamber now you on the run from danger from some strangers trying to hang you so don't attempt to be a g if you can't handle all the heat bring an ammo when i speak so like the candle as i creep to my destination with the motivation to perfection true confection true confessions of my sin as i begin to get connected with god thank you okay our next port is going to be uh ed mccray all right first of all my poems are very short so i'd like to do a couple the first one is entitled back it up give me back my back street step aside when i'm on my side street unless you're on my side i will help you navigate your dark and dangerous back alleys if you will help me navigate my highways and byways then together we will cross over all the avenues of mistrust and intolerance and groove on down the boulevard of respect and understanding the second one is entitled god is god is so ethereal so surreal so far so near god is so super mundane so metaphysical god is so cyclical so linear so sunshine so total god is so atypical so uncategorical so super so natural god is our next poet uh is going to be uh aliyah the galloway uh this sister's heavy let's give her a great round of applause i'm gonna do two pieces and um the first piece is called uh still black it's about a beautiful people separated within itself ultimately it's about uh what's inside our hearts we be black in many shades we be black in many many shades we be black in many shades yet we still be black why i gotta feel your superior vibe just because you're black on the light side why we gotta be splitting up our people when we should be unifying undenying our brothers and our sisters it ain't easy being of color they say the term people of color covers a wide spectrum of beings but these beings don't want to be down with us they're too busy looking down on us and the people of color line saying at least we're not negro at least we're not colored at least we're not black at least we're not african-american and don't you know all those references are kind politically correct in their mind yet they still don't want to claim us in the people of color line and because life ain't easy some of us want to do the skin color slide afraid of a shade a race they want to run and hide but you see i never could pass never thought of passing just wanting my black to be in while society kept telling me it was out not in style not in fashion and all the while i was growing into myself learning to accept myself my big lips my sometimes kinky hair and my soulful style is what makes me and that's okay because people pay to achieve attributes that are naturally mine though some may deny the cosmetic surgery that manipulates theirs to look more like mine and don't you know they still don't want to claim us in the people of color line there is no ethnic group that wants to be mistaken for black but we sure will try and mix ourselves and other ethnic lines in an attempt to get by thinking it will raise our self-worth from low to high don't mind having a piece of their culture because some of us don't want to be ain't proud to be but we better be down unifying proud and undeniated instead of sliding to the lighter side because in the end with one drop we still be black in the end with one drop we still be black in the end with one drop we still be black and i'd be proud and i am proud out loud unifying and undeniated ain't no shame in a people's pride what we are is inside our hearts in our minds inside our hearts in our minds okay my next piece is i'm called um looking out for little man girlfriend girl of your child he's outside late night running wild the boy were growing to a man at some time or other unless he meets his demands living that street life like his brother who died an untimely death in the arms of a stranger you better recognize your issues girl and quickly become a rearranger of your life i thought you would have learned something from the magnitude of that loss this is a re-enactment of the same drama are you sure you have the instinct to be a mama my son told me that your son was packing carrying a gun standing on a corner with his pants sagging and you knew all the time what little man was doing i feel like i'm losing a child because he's closer to me now than he is to you and you don't even recognize your cries for his cries for your love he says you don't care girl little man needs a hug instead of loving your cousin little man i'm telling him to go on and go just leave his keys and close your door that's some crazy stuff to say to your only living son especially if you're trying to steer him away from the life to take the other one you tell him to get out of your sight you want some privacy you're having company tonight so you send him to my house for something to eat you send him to my house to go to sleep you send him to my house for the duration of your vacation that you say is for a peace of mind but what kind of peace of mind do you think you deserve when your first priority is the last word to ever leave your lips and that usually happens when you say i'm disrespecting your mother with you say mind your own business this is my child so damn what if he's running wild you better get your own business in order to stay out of mind this ain't the 70s and this ain't no tribe but i thought we were family and i thought we were friends i remember when you were evicted i took you in let you treat my house just as if it were yours you didn't even respect that you didn't understand it was a tribal sisterhood that moved me to let you in i go to work every day yet i found the time to find you a place to stay went to the u hall to move you in now your son tells me you're close to eviction again you see little man's working because his mama don't it ain't cuz she can't it's cuz she won't well girl i thought it was bad luck they brought you down but it's laziness and ignorance that crowns you the clown of clowns and i don't know what more i can do so i decided i laid a truth on you and maybe we'll never be friends again but i'll always look out for little man thank you told you that sister was heavy okay our next poet is gonna be uh carlos Ramirez i'd like to share some songs i've said to poems by langston hughes and first one is called dreams hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly hold fast to dreams go life is a barren field frozen with snow hold fast to dreams for if dreams die life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly hold fast to dreams for when dreams go life is a barren field frozen with snow some years ago i guess in the early 70s i came upon langston hughes's poetry in the san jose public library and that first poem i read out of an anthology of his of his poems was called i'm still here and it's coming to me right now very short and such a profound and beautiful poem and i've set some music to the poem and so here's the sung version of it with the little preamble goes appreciate the effort appreciate the struggle appreciate everything you've been through langston hughes once wrote it down i've been scarred and battered my hopes the wind unscattered snow has frizzed me sun has baked me looks like a twin and they didn't try to make me stop laughing stop loving stop living but i don't care i'm still here i've been scarred and battered my hopes the wind unscattered snow has frizzed me sun has baked me looks like between them they didn't try to make me stop laughing stop loving stop living but i don't care i'm still here i don't care i'm still here i don't care so many beautiful poems um here's what i'm inspired to sing right now it's called daybreak in alabama who knows you know that poem when i get to be a composer i'm gonna write me some music about daybreak in alabama and i'm gonna put the prettiest songs in it rising out of the ground like a swamp mist and falling out of heaven like soft dew i'm gonna put some tall trees in it and the sun and the smell of red clay after rain and long red necks and poppy color faces and big brown in the field daisy eyes of black and white black white black people and i'm gonna pull hands and black hands and brown and yellow hands and red clay earth hands in it touching everybody with kind fingers and touching everything as natural as do in that dawn who's it when i get to be a composer and write about daybreak in alabama okay all right let's give him another great round of applause all right okay our next poet is gonna be um this is a gifted young brother here let's give him a great round of applause uh jesse this first poem i'm gonna read to you is called as i'm in love words flow from the tip of my pen like ejaculatory juices in my moments of spiritual climax great words of birth many sentences of growth knowing paragraphs of wisdom spread all over like fairy dust preparing the sensation of a passionate kiss with the creation of a few letters alphabetically aligned joining my thoughts together with written communication like marrying my heart to my soul mates innocent nouns subjects predicates and verbs combined to express my divinity painting my confusions i'm Picasso Matisse Da Vinci forgotten songs of a lover are remembered with the unforgettable sound of heartbeats put to a page and la la la vibes produce the short story of intense love making above a tiny river in italy visions of the estimated sands of time are exacted with statements of infinity prolonged and guitar licks provide my jazz pen with the opportunity to cry out melodies of powerful life brought forth through faith spirit and imagination and i have battled with self to provide the atmosphere with many breathing words and life words and love sentences and intimate portraits of divine intervention and adventurous passions have safeguarded my heart allowed me words of prepared places in heaven and an elegant chair next to god and i express specifically hope and self and an eternal message of never giving up always realizing one's divineness and so my ejaculatory juices in my moments of climax or as my flowing words of magic as they exit my pen thank you this uh final piece i uh i read it last week and uh it was requested that i read it again so i'll go and do that now uh it's called my son's name is compromise slam slam i am contaminated i made it through the wastelands wasting time waiting through the sands quick pollution of the mind exhaust my intellectual resources and i resort to mental violence ejaculate to the thought of hate and have intercourse with silence got her pregnant since my jimmy was loud but proud of the compromise we quietly provided never tried to hide it the light was lighted always knew was there because of how bright it was how bright it was black night and opening eye lashes painting the sky i captured the wind and feed it to my child so we can fly and his mother would breastfeed him with patience he will suckle her nipple and gain wisdom of the moon stars and suns for compromise is related to the magnificent art of constellations creations of stellar concentration i his father will take place in his maturation his teacher will be god my child will dwell in the midst of love itself himself love picking mind fruit of the tree of knowledge reading the universe dreaming himself to the fifth dimension adding and subtracting sweet and sour my son is power the sum of screams and peace my son is p is for peace slamming misconceptions down into the gutter full of the clutter tattered lies and deception which evil discovered and brought to the forefront but my son is a forerunner for light years ahead of the others i am a proud doting daddy dearest forward to a negro thought who inherited deep thoughts of fierceness he will be the fiercest prophet of fearless prophetic hope in the midst of mind stormed with daily wind gusts of insanity and stress and as he grows older he will undress slowly the body of a great thought of his lonesome and pour endless amounts of life into her bosom and my kid will make love and fill her body up with abstract sperm relaxing her womb with with his miraculous miraculous workflow exercising his need for freedom he won't have to take the route that i took compromise will reach into his thoughts grab hold of the universe and fly because i and his mother have instilled in my son the wisdom and knowledge of the moons the stars the suns and the skies my son's name is compromise now it's time to break off into a little bit of eddy house less mccann trying to make it real compared to what i told your young brother's heavy okay um this is another gifted uh poet here this gentleman here i heard him a couple of times uh this is really gifted uh poet let's give a great round of applause to uh charles uh curtis blackwell let's give it up for brother charles all right while attending a corporate party after the funeral aroused by quiver silver thin to the golden touch sliding about the crowded room with other faces full of facades words that echo from mine to steal from heart to dirt let me harangue you with bone cutting words of poetry that seek to jolt your wretched insides and slice your emotions in half until they bleed through the skin of your forbidden facade a mask less broken penetrate your concrete spirit and face you into a place where you have no other alternative other than to become real our next poet uh in the sister we go way back uh so let's give she's also gifted she can do it all so lady here's a quadruple threat uh gifted gifted lady uh let's give a merry book a great round of applause she's going to come up and support her good evening i shall read a poem i wrote called voices in the wind voices voices i hear voices in the wind of time whirling twirling invading every corner of my mind our ancestors speak in voices loud and clear so that we would be sure to hear listen listen listen please they speak of how it used to be of our people proud and free i hear voices i hear voices on the wind of time the middle passage listen i hear them many are dying all how they wish to be free some are planting their bodies in the deep blue sea so their spirits again can roam free voices voices in the wind of time anguish voices in troubled mind voices voices whisper in my ear trying to veil the consuming fear voices voices don't you hear listen listen as the wind blows listen this poem i entitled heritage africans africans who arrived on these shores african africans where did all the black blood go when more than 40 millions were dragged from africa's shores are you trying to tell me that they simply disappeared and that you are a new breed produced by the irish the english and the people who were already here why are so many of you are ashamed to say my blood crushed through your veins you can't hide the features of my face by giving yourself another name the next time you look into the mirror tell me what do you see is there just a trace of africa there showing you the image of me it boggles my mind how can you accept the indian the irish english and cast me aside what did i ever do to you i only wanted to nurture you it was by their hands the irish the english your and ficken ancestors were brutalized i do not ask you to hate or deny your indian irish an english background but simply answer me this question where would you be today had i not been around that's what i'm talking about you're right again oh yeah our next poet is going to be uh anita bird let's give her a great round of applause after saying some delphonics did not blow your mind this time good evening um this is a biography on uh mary cloud vathewn and i put this together after reading poetry of mayangelo phenomenal woman her poem and also still i rise when i read mayangelo's poem phenomenal woman or still i rise i think of mary mccloud vathewn who was an activist a visionary a teacher a phenomenal black american woman she was born july 10th in 1875 as mayangelo states out of the huts of history's shame i rise up from a past that's rooted in pain i rise i'm a black ocean leaping and wide welling and swelling i bear the tide i rise i rise and rise she did in spite of the limitations that history imposed on mary mccloud vathewn because of her physical african characteristics her kinky textured hair her full lips her black complexion and her wide nose that even black middle class americans disinsteemed she saw herself as god's very own precious child equal to any other in the human family mary mccloud vathewn lived believed in herself and in god she was the 15th of 17 children she graduated from a presbyterian boarding school in 1894 the school prepared the majority of its students to teach other black americans whose slave heritage left them desperate for schooling a teacher she was she promoted opportunities for young people to obtain an education and employment she taught them to assert their personal and organizational equality she lifted service to the she's lifted service to others to an exalted high mary mccloud vathewn did not wait to exhale she exhaled in 1898 she married albertus vathewn they had one child a son responding to black community's need for education in 1904 she rented a house to launch the datona educational and industrial institute she had an understanding of people and persuasive powers but in spite of her talents it was more difficult for her to establish a school than it was for booker t washington when he began a tuskegee institute a private school in tuskegee alabama an entrepreneur she sold sweet potato pies to raise money for her school she had a vision determination and initiative the school began with five little girls a dollar and a half and faith in god according to tradition she used dry good boxes for benches and charred splinters of burnt logs for pens and elderberry juice for ink as time passed bathewn school grew to a student body of several hundred students with three assistant teachers the school became an important community resource and involved into what is now known as bathewn cook college an invisible woman she was not her essence was exhibited as an extraordinary public figure with the glaring shortcomings of the 1937s administration civil rights record she flatly stated time and time again that black citizens could not be satisfied or complacent in 1935 bathewn founded and served as the first president to the national council of negro women an organization still in existence today from 1936 to 1944 she was the director of the national youth administration and served as a special advisor to franklin roosevelt and had a highly visible friendship with mrs elinor roosevelt bathewn fine-tuned her leadership to the racial climate in which she lived recently she along with frederick douglas wb devoyce and martin luther king were deemed as one of the most influential black americans in american history mary bell cloud bathewn passed away in 1955 as maya angelo states in her poem phenomenal woman now you understand just why my head is not bowed i don't shout or jump about or have to talk real loud when you see me passing it ought to make you proud i say because i'm a woman phenomenally phenomenal woman that's me i'll probably notice i've been smiling and i keep looking over here yeah we got a treasure our children yeah there's this um you got a little son uh he's almost uh two uh but well no if answer but but like well when my daughter was born like um you know she uh i'll never forget is forever etched in my mind in my heart she crossed her arms and smiled at me i'll never forget that like i mean i i'd never been in no delivery room you know and like uh they taught him out cutting the cord and i say cut what cord cut out of here but uh but i stayed uh i would like to uh my wife they on the way up on my son well i count my blessings i'm uh first time married and the last time too uh forever married and then to be a first and second time father to have come full circle have a son and daughter you know that's a wonderful feeling and like uh we have to treasure our families and we have to come back in touch with our feelings emotions and affections and we have to um uh it's like the izzy brothers say jasper izzy izzy jasper izzy joined the caravan of love we got to get it together i would like to dedicate this poem to my wife and my daughter my son and it's uh simply just the way i love to say i love you if i always seem to want to hold your hands it's only because i love you love walking together side by side with you my love if i hold you close to me it's only because i want to stay warm as beautiful thoughts of the love we share keeps my heart smiling if i whisper sweet things in your ears it's only because i want to share my innermost treasured thoughts with you only you and you alone it's just the way i love to say i love you if my heart sends you roses and daffodils tenderly picked straight from the gardens of love just for you if my eyes seem to be dreamy i'm spellbound and so in love with you if i whisper your name sweet and low it's only because the warmth i feel in my heart for you just a sincere and honest figure of expression as i visualize all of the many beautiful and real qualities in you lovely lady lovely one my only one true love reigns with tears of joy so let me kiss yours forever and always so straight from my heart let your love shine straight at my heart and you'll see it's just the way i love to say i love you do you want to say that do you want to say something huh they don't want to say that okay that's all right okay our next poet uh uh oh you want to take it okay we're going to take a five-minute intermission and come back with you with some heavy slamming poetry okay all right y'all come back now go away all right he's on down the road okay come on in sit down oh that's okay we're gonna start we've only got a little while to go we've got a few more points to get through to enjoy yes come on over we haven't started yet come on precious stand up baby but we shall is everybody having a good time so far before we start the second half i wanted to take this opportunity to present a little certificate of appreciation to mr larry weir who has been doing this event for 10 years it's a labor of love he always comes through for us he does he gets all the poets together he ranges the food and this is a special time every year for us here in the bayview hunter's point to get our poets together and share the art of the spoken word so i this is a certificate for him and at the end of this recital we're going to have a nice spread of food and a nice cake that's also honoring the 10th annual poetry recital and larry weir so on the certificate of appreciation this is presented to larry weir in appreciation for your decade of work on the poetry recitals at the baby one library from linda brooksburden and the staff of the baby baby one library i thank you it's indeed an honor and a pleasure to receive this award this recognition i greatly appreciate it and i thank you and i thank you it's about us like you all we all make this what it is you know and and that's the beauty of it and to see so many of you out tonight like uh it's uh it deeply touches me so we're gonna again thank you and we're gonna continue with the program um i'm gonna call up um our next poet um gail michael let's give her a great round of applause a poem for my daughter she's making bread using a recipe from a cookbook that used to belong to her great grandmother washing greens in the sink for sunday dinner she's building a bridge asking her ancestors for guidance learning the old ways she wears all suits from the 40s that her grandmother wore in college and shirts from the 70s she's mixing it up cross pollinating find in her own way moving within herself she has closed the door on childhood and reached for an apple on the highest branch i watch from a distance the beginning of a new adventure and a new dawn awaits her footsteps she has begun to change form gracefully rising like the bread in the bowl filling the room she stands at the foot of my bed looks at me and i at her we are seeing each other with new eyes she is studying my gaze i am moving within my skin shifting the position of my legs telling her what i know to be truth she is growing beyond the frame moving in another orbit i am stepping back taking in the dimensions not telling not asking listening hearing feeling air takes shape find a new form she is pushing gently trying to find the way to tell me she is moving in new ways feeling the smallness of her room wanting to stretch and move beyond the limits she has lived in she's trying to find the way to say i need space this is like a small cage and i've grown beyond the confines of your hopes and dreams i've moved beyond your struggles and agreements i've imagined a different future the bread rises in the bowl and she is ready to need it again ready to leave ready to flow ready to rise ready to go that's for nova wilson my daughter in this poem i truly believe was a gift it's called sightings of angels there have been sightings of angels often glimpsed in the half dark rescuing some soul when he's cashed in all his chips and is just blowing that one note that threatens to break into something special there are moments when michael the archangel has been seen wings back tap in his fingers lingering over bill street lingering over someone with a clarinet who's playing dragon tunes and he's there to urge him on to encourage him to the edge and on into ecstasy lost in the glory of just blowing because it feels so damn good and every christmas and often in the fall when it would get cold and crisp outside mahalia jackson could be heard closing up the stud down on fulsome singing and shouting hallelujah singing and shouting hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah and those boys soon to be men heard it and felt it as last call was heard one more time angels have been seen at midday in the film war when it was all black no it hadn't stopped being colored yet men with their straw hats and fine tan leather shoes and suits so crisp they almost shouted at you the creases were that sharp there was an angel down there jack sometimes she'd be coming out the beauty parlor hair all done up in a press and curl ready for saturday night or maybe just go into the bowling alley where she'd meet the girls hanging out for the evening and many is the night that some poor fool spent his rent money at the club long island down on third street there's angels have often been seen in broad daylight wearing red lipstick red nails and dressed to licking the lines girl knew she was looking good and billy used to sing right over there on philmore street at the plantation club and lord oh she could make it break down there were clubs up and down the street house parties with chili and crackers and home brew dip and potato chips and a little girl who watched the grown-ups get silly they throw a nickel a dime or a quarter her way and a quarter in those days with some big money it could buy you five candy bars or a coke and a bag of chips these angel sightings got less and less but sometime when the music was well you know it could take you higher than weed higher than booze higher than well the music could take you there there'd be carless santana head back eyes closed just playing the hell out of that guitar everything is coming my way everything is coming my way and you'd look up and there'd be tears or janice would shout baby baby baby baby welcome back home or jimmy would play your spine as voodoo child would cook then there was the day harvey milk and moscone got shot so many of us took to the streets that night we marched from castro street to city hall jone baez sang and i could swear over my shoulder away to the rear a bit of wing just the other day i was listening to mini ripperton and i felt a tear escape down my cheek as i reached up to wipe it away if not six feet at the foot of the dining room table an angel seemed to blur on the edge of my vision as my head hit the pillow just before i said good night to my children i heard a voice as clear as day must have been someone or something reminding me to pray thank you thank you our next poet is going to be uh bill toller let's give bill toller a great round of applause good evening i am a medical examiner's investigator here in san francisco also known as the coroner and i find myself in situations that are extremely um painful for people who experience sudden death people who are walking pools of grief i have to put that grief somewhere else i have to put that identification somewhere else i have to put that empathy somewhere else so that i can do my job and as i read newspapers and i look about the city and i look about the other cities and i've traveled places where i have somehow identified with pain because something in me wants to heal that so i have written things about kosovo i've written things about the tenderloin i've written things about sixth street i've written things about cold war and i'd like to read a couple of things that i've written these are my first writings i just had to just take it out of here and put it over here and i'd like to read kosovo because i think war is one of the most selfish things a human being can do to another this is kosovo garden of eden spirit walking naked no one knew forbidden places not hidden why not go there i see myself naked i see myself before i see you i am that you're not i know i'm not supposed to voices in my head my heart my soul a voice one voice not mine frantic leaving nothing to take save her her mine not hers mine begat begot cane able where they come from voices voices one voice in my soul kill him kill him i'm dying i think kill me kill her kill everything i'm dying leave nothing for them begat begot kill kill time now disciples said he was he is crossed my heart hope to die kill kill hanging on a cross hanging crosswise on a stick holy holy make a sign rubber tell me have a war holy holy voices voices in my head in my soul no way no way my way anyway no mine mine mine give me that land give me that country give me that mind let go it's mine let go get out it's mine get out that's mine get out your mind begat begot cane able kill kill careful don't track blood in the garden of eden god will kill you these are real experiences meeting john coltrane it was as if he were a portal between here and the universe that he traveled there and come back as a testament one could see the depth of the universe in his eyes if he let you in you'd see galaxies timeless limitless galaxies within such a gentle soul having the place from which it came and brought with it from that place the quiet power of affirmation doubts should now no longer in you reside once you've met his eye you meet silence in you that which is kin to all just before birth just after death that place where you begin to hear again the only real sound creation this is uh for a young man that it wasn't one of my cases but i happened to read where a young black man went down in on haze street i believe was chased down and gun down and as i read the history i uh i felt this and as we're all children we're all running around and playing and having a good time and everything is like fast and we're moving and going and i wrote mama i ain't supposed to be running like this i rounded second base that's what we called it just a garbage can top on the dirt a brick for third and tom he's jacket for home base mostly we use tommy's foot for first we could all run yelling screaming screaming yelling running running through the streets chasing being chased good times school days feeling good running the streets the streets fast cars fast money girls gonna get me some gonna get me some we bad we cool smoking shooting doomsday all day green potential likens jefferson's grants right on you i know you know me it's all about me all about me i take what i want bitch tramp hoe i've been running the streets to game beat you down threw down on your ass punk i take what's my punk chump don't let me catch your punk ass out of pocket no man no man ain't got to go down like this i'm sorry man look check this out no man no man you ain't got to do this check wait what you want here man this is all i got all shit man police report number one two three four five six seven eight nine the victim was seen running south on maple street with three subjects in pursuit the victim was was witnessed previously at the corner of elman maple streets apparently pleading for his life before trying to escape his assailants the three subjects running with weapons in hand out ran the subject caught him and threw him to the ground the subject on his back hands together in prayer like fashion according to witnesses was pleading for mercy the assailants fired their weapons point blank at the victim then ran from the scene after the assailants ran from the scene the witness approached the subject who though mortally wounded was talking as if in conversation it was reported by the witness that the subject said mama i ain't supposed to be around like this then died of multiple gunshot wounds i call this helter sculptor tenderloin usa blood slick streets footprints leading to every door across sidewalks littered with dreams eaten by nightmares demon like gargoyles posing as human in street clothes proffering their wares skeleton like hands holding fair exchange reach out to buy an hour of life a vacation staring hollow eyes last hope's dying spark people mere coat racks moving about this garment district detached for sale any price free soul spilling over from refuse cans discarded scavengers sorting through them to find someone to wear every place downhill a mall where no spirit should go okay our next port is going to be september rolls what a beautiful man let's give her a great round of applause how y'all doing i'ma do a poem that doesn't have a title in fact i'ma do two poems i feel like dying and crying any emotional sensation breaking down from the highest elevation i can't concentrate i need my second person i missed me i jump into that invisible door inside the ocean stars and become the beautiful planet called mars making love to the space around me i'm lost i feel like i'm falling off of a mountain of a thousand echoes of darkness scream me black honey of yellow moons collide as we grow with mellow tunes collide as we grow with mellow tunes let me dark shadows bloom overlapping my mind statement taking your mind out of this state called misplacement i quickly glance at my shadow behind me i'ma do a short short run i hope i get it right this one has no title either i can see you you can't see me me i see through you you're like plastic to me synthetic genetic pathetic and weak plastic people melt when life turns up the heat i feel you lurking in my shadows possessed with hate and jealousy waiting for the chance to get the best of me but you see you need you're not even a threat to me you're a joke in my comedy which always leads to tragedy clueless clueless lou clueless and lame useless to yourself and damn that's a shame this next poet here me and this brother we go way back way back and he's going to be leaving the bay area so uh we're going to miss him but uh it's been a great pleasure uh he's been in uh all but one of the recitals here and uh that's my buddy here uh uh can't go wrong with a name like rudolf valentino brilliant so let's give it up for rudolf valentino the original he's gone off to see the wizard you the man yeah i've been privileged to be part of this for the 10 years and i really gonna miss it i'm going back to kansas city kansas and it's been 25 great years and inspirational years of learning a lot of things here in the bay area and i mean a lot of inspirational people um first poem i'm going to read is uh really from one of the groups that i got involved with at city college and which really taught me how to begin to share my poetry by reading which is called poetry for the people poetry for the people hunger lies within the eyes from deep inside the body cries there's a need to be free some words of nourishment to give the meaning of life encouragement poetry for the people is healthy and legal energy which harmonize the heart vokes with sparks and awaken the mind it's long overdue and about time is poetry for the people words to hear the words of truth to let the mind are loose eat on the time to be taste and feel the poetry of you and me and all the people uh next poem i'm going to read it's uh called save the wells which is also the name of uh this uh printmaking project which i did about four or five years ago and also i will be giving away this in the poem and they random drawing later on uh save the wells save the wells in the sky save the well save the wells mirrors upon the wall call out listen people save the wells don't let them die wells cry for survival well for right to live they have a right to live too save the wells wells come to the shores of america hoping there are some humanity and for some care in the heart all spills that are deadly thrilled poison water taking the well from their home wells coming to shore because they cannot breathe no more save the wells as you save yourself save the wells well high in the sky they want to survive make a fearful cry save the wells as well as save the children and save yourself what goes around comes around what goes down will later come and pour up on you and surround you save the well as well as save your life um this is uh a favorite of many people on the top have read several times and also i framed this and going to also give this way in the uh random drawing zip in zip out zip in zip out zip in zip out people moving about zip in zip out zip in zip about people communicating relating drops of mail to the slot move on to the next box entering receiving delivering and receiving zip in zip out zip out zip in zip in zip out down the street through the hallway answering questions giving out directions in and out of doors and down the hallway mail to many sides and form samples in magazines partials and letters zip in zip out zip out zip in names places and numbers move up and down and all about no such number no one living here anymore that dressy unknown move left no address vacation home resume delivery zip in zip out zip out zip in cod postage do special delivery expect delivery zip in zip out zip out zip in zip in zip out zip out zip in zipping through the zip zone zipping zipping zipping through building zipping through hallway zipping through house zipping till i'm all zipped out okay i like to uh end with this from here uh we we a family tree we are us and you are me because we are a family tree keeping the roots growing outward and outward letting the trunk expand out letting us express what we're all about we are a family tree branching out as a family branching out as a vessel of existing in the streams of life keeping touch from all direction mother father and children keeping affection alive desires burning and weak inside lifting our self esteem to our main goals and dreams keeping the foundation and break to earth up from the past and to the present and to the future from generation to generation letting us know what we are all about and where we can be and where we are headed letting the spirit in our hearts shine out as they like everlasting we a family we are a neighbor of blood nursing us together as a community we turn the key to touch and to open the door to reach out into a hole to not to let go we are a family tree of unity we are a monument of living that we are one and we are all we are family a house that has now become a home we are a tree together we stand and apart we can fall in our strength is our character by seeing with our heart and feeling what I saw and being a family tree thank you mother little one with me is larry junior here okay hi junior okay uh Stella she's right over there she was there uh just prepared the food uh uh Malik uh son of fairy fair he's gonna come up and do a poem so let's give the brother a great round of applause there peace i'm gonna just do a little poem that I wrote when I was in Kenya and uh it was kind of I was involved in a riot there and uh me and some friends I went there by myself and I met some friends and we were walking down the street and the army just came and then it flashed in my head it flashed in my head a lot of the wars you know my stepfather he was in the war and I've been affected by wars all my life and now we stand here today with wars on our streets so I'm gonna come with this one this one is called America's Ingredient I don't really read poetry that much I just write but here we go words objects names letters high price sweaters mink feathers genuine lovers 38 breaders top notches gold watches rock diamonds judges lying mind blinding kids crying a white house market on the white house carpet street drugs sold out of ghetto supermarkets liquor stores wicked whores glorifying crime wasting time lacking sense neighborhood jacking prints because being a negro is just a cinch a people killed a nation built a father's guilt from the white man's field for being black death is immediate yes this is america cuz ingredient thank you again as I said like the most important thing to me is that everybody gets on this videotape so we have about 15 minutes to go so I want to make sure everybody's covered so it's important to me and it's that everybody's on here it's a family here um let me see joseph jackall jaco excuse me brother let's give it up for joseph jaco this is gonna take a little time I don't know whether I should wait until everybody else finishes or not but with what I have to read I have music also to go along with it without it it would really be incomplete so if the music gets a little heavy listen to the words I speak don't you remember the moments you had when your thoughts were so beautiful you could have drawn a picture I wrote a poem lyrics to a song that would have influenced society for centuries to come the value of your mind is as large as life allow your heart to control your direction and explore the beauty if you like what you see I'm here share that with me the multitude of life means we yes I want to know how deep your thoughts and visions go open your mind let me in this mix is destined to begin your inner and outer beauty I know your thoughts are plenty I believe our years of union will and should be many how many is many in my journal for you and I that is eternal you are what I see that is destined I want you to become a part of me there is so much about life to be thankful for when we cross communicate our ideas the blessing is the action combined with vision we begin to create our senses is a mechanism to the brain which is connected to energy like what scientists call matter in the vast universe that continues to expand which we are all so much a part of how can we not react to such a powerful mix of elements and not feel compelled to contribute to the very existence of life I find this impossible and if you find yourself wondering why you have moments of stress it is because you have not allowed yourself to keep up with the energy of your brain this sometimes can be influenced by the pace of your surroundings and that can have a devastating effect on your balance of content which leads to strain and stress so harness your thoughts and vision and dedicate your efforts towards your destiny to be able to express my thoughts it sometimes intoxicates me to a point of exhaustion our contentment satisfaction in either case my motivation comes from within when realizing the things I know I must do to survive don't let life pass you back without fulfilling your destiny even though we don't know to what point we will cease the key is to keep yourself up to date and then you will always exist that is called living life at a premium sometimes we all feel that we have been crossed by someone but we must allow for the individualism of everyone that is where our fortitude of understanding lets us continue to communicate and perhaps create together that's how important it is to have to be able to succeed in so many things we pursue two people is very rare that they are ready made for each other you know what I mean to accept all of each of our actions is impossible it seems and sometimes familiarity breeds contempt you may be familiar but not understand without communication being at hand so don't be overexposed in this affair that exists leaves mystery so contempt will be a risk don't be afraid to examine a clue that has anything to do with me loving you and when we can realize the time it takes to complete the kind of love our dreams make us seek and then by chance you have that dream in sight make sure you are determined in spite of some indifference you want to make it right a fresh and rested mind is to the brain like a lubricant of oil to a machine so take care and do not abuse your body with all the foreign substance provided by the devil and we will prevail the connection of the universal solitude and so that's right how beautiful way out here but where what we are is a part of something so big we can't even say how big is big so we know it's a lot have I got that much for you every time we open our eyes we never see the same thing twice how nice how much in our minds married for life the time when that time is yours to share evaluate it and it will tell you time is not it is fast fast forever it will last so keep on moving but where out here is so nice we never see the same thing twice all living life of this planet is within a system can't you see how the reproduction of life brings about the evolution of change nothing stays the same the elements that feed our lives is distributed in dimensions so as such as fish live in water but must have oxygen to survive we live on land and must have water to live and when we cease we all go back into the mass of our seas which is the earth which will be consumed by the universe so allow yourself to expand because there is no escape okay all right jessie uh wiley's gonna introduce his sister here so let's give her a great round of applause uh kathy wiley okay i know y'all tired but open them eyes back up all y'all out there come out the door my sister about to get on the microphone wake up everybody all right how y'all doing how y'all doing this my sister right here kathy wiley give it up y'all kathy wiley reality many say i'm too young to understand anyway but i can understand and comprehend any day i can understand the height just like i can understand the pipe i know what the sweet things are just like i know what the street things are i've always loved a piece of paper and a pen so it's my writing to the end i've always loved god and my mother and together they created my brother and they must all know that there will never ever ever be another i know who my sisters are nevertheless i know who to despise never the best i realize reality um thank you okay um the second one is called wondering sitting here wondering why we was put on this earth i guess we was born to cry or just born to die don't you understand we are torn so why must we live to die we've only suffered so much pain in solo time maybe life is a lesson or a mission or a confession either way we're still left stressing is it to see how stupid we are can you see far it's like a battle we can't win it's like a war we can't fight it's like we can see but there is no sight can you see the light of course not because there is none only night join me and take the flight where to who knows but i got love for all my peoples and it shows thank you the next part is going to be uh kakanda let's give kakanda a great round of applause good evening so uh keep it relatively brief first thing i want to say all the folks of african descent please make going to the motherland a priority in your life before a brand new vcr get a used one before a brand new car get a used one the ticket to africa will be round trip don't panic you won't have to stay there if you don't want to which i want you yourself to go to the motherland believe me this is untitled how could we the original humans the noble race that brought civilization to planet earth how could we have become so full of self-hate that we view ourselves as people of little worth you say it was the crazy white arrow and the dirty european you shout yeah the white thing is a beast no doubt but we must be painfully true we must be on the level like my grandmother used to say to me boy tell the truth and shame the devil long before the european beasts emerged from their caves we black africans among ourselves had already begun to misbehave as one people we african started as one people we african stood we obeyed god's laws yeah it was all good african women and men worked and played hand in hand no kings no slaves you see that was the regional plan cooperation and respect guided all that we did and the matriarchal matrilineal time women showed men the way they taught us the peaceful way to raise children and of course they taught us how to pray yes the goddess was a female because all of us could see that life comes through the woman no one in their right mind would say that god was a he yes in the days of iration we lived in harmony men listened to and protected the female no hierarchy no kings no slaves all of us were free but something went wrong how or why do not know but we men stole power from our women and that allowed the disease of greed and power to grow you are either in a harmony or out of harmony that is how the science flows what goes around comes around you must reap what you sow you are either being righteous or not there is no middle ground no matter what you have been programmed to think bad things will surely happen to you when you believe your own shit doesn't stink yes the first mother father and family mathematics medicine music pyramid building all the sciences created through our deep understanding of spirit all this black men and women to mankind gave but our own man-made power and glory made us arrogant and set us up for what the creator had growing in those caucus mountain caves thank you uh who hasn't done some poetry yet that was on the program okay um let's see got enough to like each one of them to do one poem okay uh we have enough time for each one of you to do one poem so um georgina and then k k l hill okay so come up uh and uh darlin roberts too like uh come on up yeah georgina four minutes the power of the skin hello sorry i missed your call i'm at the black rep for the poetic call for justice in support of new mea awareness week but if you leave your name and your number i return your call as soon as i get black i'll be black to the power of the skin i'm going black in time to remember when we was oppressed negro's hungry to be free when bobby and hui used to be panthers when stokely and h-wrap brown was snick when the bygots thought they were slick when jesse was the articulate rainbow coalition when racism against pofolk like me was the condition back then the power of the skin gave us unity and love was our ammunition that's why i'm going black in time to remember when the urban league and the n-w-a-c-p lobbied for me to be black educated employed and free black when third good was the marshal and dr martin Luther king was the supreme drum major for justice for just us for just us who suffered from being black not now i'm african american but i'm turning black because i remember the power of the skin i'll be black because the bygotry is a sin i'll be black because i remember when james and his famous flame say said loud i'm black and i'm proud so i'll be black in a crowd of colored folks because i died for the right to vote and i do declare my constitutional rights so i'll be black in time for my 40 acres and a meal i'll be black because i ain't no fool i'll be black to claim the victory i'll be black enough to succeed i'll be black to collect my wealth i'll be black to suit myself i'll be black in time to set me near free and i'll be black because i want to be thank you for calling look for me because i'll be black okay our next poet is going to be uh again like we want to make sure everybody gets covered so uh uh we're going to have to limit to one poem also the branch has to close so uh our next poet is going to be a darling robert so let's give her a round of applause sweet mr war to their witness to bella statement hardships the rules learning ship that testifies musically we call it when folk try to steal or destroy our musical legacy chosen and it'd be witnessing us way down kind of america's negro musical legend on when the first of them now for my dear pair they do now i hope learn getting up they have to say and then and they destroy to the beat of that and to the beat of them wagon wheels token colorful to the cotton fields the blues reveals the whips next poet is going to be uh k l hill let's give k l hill's first time round of applause girl thank i'm glad to be here tonight and especially to hear the young people enjoy that very much i'll read uh a piece called blues for jeff last time i saw jeff was back in 57 or it could have been 58 i can't remember anymore he was sitting in his dusty gray 51 Chevy two-door streamline parked in the red zone crossed the street from the jazz workshop with his alto sax in his lap a gig bag and a roughed up paperback copy of finnegan's wake on the dash and a bottle of mountain red between his feet just because it's cheap don't mean it ain't no good he'd say then he'd smile like he was smiling to himself then he'd pass the bottle jeff was sucking on a new read fingering some kind of figure around the circle of fifths on his alto without blowing in it so he could play it in any key he said so his fingers would learn what to do and then he wouldn't have to think about it and the keypads would open and close against the keyholes in a rhythm with a soft percussive sound making their own kind of music sometimes they'd call a tune in some weird key he said just to throw you off just to see if you can wing it and you got to blow or else go right on back to the woodshed then he said he was just hanging around killing time resting up for a jam session at bop city i might be blowing all night he said maybe i could line up a nice gig or maybe something else you know what i mean i don't know if i'll get to sit in though he said there's too many names in town i just caught rollins at the workshop he sure sounds rough man like playing half an idea and then just leave it hanging like taking fours with himself like he ought to quit playing in public he said till he gets it together that was like before he found himself on the bridge just that jeff asked if i'd ever read finnegan's wake i said i started reading at once but then i put it down i got a hard time reading stuff i don't understand i said jeff said i should just read it and don't try to understand it just read it man he said absorb the words like the way you listen to music and then he passed the bottle and then reached back into the back seat with crap piled up to the windows started digging through the clothes and books and old newspapers and downbeat magazines and fake books and manuscript paper old broken reeds tiktok hamburger wrappers empty beer bottles empty wine bottles and he pulled out a brand new brew more record you know the one with a weird purple snakey elephant trunk looking thing on the cover then he said keep it man because brew was an old friend to his and he had a whole box of them i got to get my tenor back he said i should have hooked this alto instead i guess i should have known better you get more gigs with a tenor you know what i mean and i just got busted from this job across the bay like i'm trying to show the piano man the right changes to this tune and he gets all pissed off because he's the leader and he don't like to look stupid so i tell him man like you know some tunes got more than three chords in him and he says if i'm such a great genius what am i doing playing in his band for and i should take my axe go find another job so i might be going down the coast he said there's more jobs down in LA i gotta get a good gig man like maybe a nice studio job like i'm getting tired of just playing rock and roll blues you know what i mean don't knock it though if that's all you can get if you don't mind getting paid for taking your solos all on one note we laughed sang a few one note choruses and then jeff said he had to get some sleep and then we finished off the wine i got a rest up for the session he said i might be blowing all night that was the last time i saw jeff but then about a year later i heard they found him in his Chevy down the coast with his head bashed in all the windows busted his horns were missing and there was an empty gig bag and a book on the dash and a bloody wine bottle in the sand next to the car that's the last i heard and that's the last excuse me that's the last i heard and that's all i know that was back in 57 or it could have been 58 i can't remember anymore but sometimes even now i feel like i want to get a jug of mountain red listen to that brew more record he gave me you know the one with the weird purple snaky elephant trunk looking thing on the cover and i want to try once again to start reading finnigan's wake the way he said just read it man absorb the words like the way you listen to music and sometimes i just find myself singing a few one note choruses like a blues for jeff thank you our next poet is going to be uh this another talented brother here uh been involved in several recitals here uh let's give a great round of applause for uh patrick johnson hello just want to read one point it's called do you read me over not long after the death sentence i received was lifted and i was exonerated my spirit was revived i decided that a change would be necessary in order for me not to fall victim to the same circumstances that had impaired me before not allowing anything to persuade my thinking or to intrude upon my concentration the first thing i would have to do is to develop my thought perception to a strongest possible degree this would enable me to block out any and all irrevolent unuseful conversation that only served to diminish my mental state of well-being this would also shield me from the unwanted pain and misery that people tend to impose upon you when they fail to communicate their thoughts properly no no longer shall i be drawn into meaningless chit chat that's based on gossip or that he says she says shit spare me the pain i would not serve as interpreter of senseless illogical words that's inflicted by ignorance and stupidity you must know what you're saying and say what you know all but should decide be aware all information not intelligently thought out before transmitted will be locked out to ensure against misunderstandings all clear signals containing valuable information will be properly interpreted and responded to in the same fashion that is it that it is and that it is transmitted dust eliminating all forms of miscommunication do you read me over thank you how many ports are left okay uh you're uh livala brandon okay livala brandon and bob bucker okay okay uh our next port is going to be bob bucker bob bucker is going to come up and do a poem let's give a great round of applause let's give it up for larry and linda for putting all this together in the branch here what a show power of the word power of the word this is a poem um i was going to read a gwendoline brooks poem is everybody heard of gwendoline brooks the great she was the first woman to one win the polter prize black american poet beautiful spirit anyway she's inspired a poem uh a few years ago and this is called mama made for gwendoline mama made nine kids in her lifetimes and it got crowded and crazy almost every night on a different couch in a different bed with brothers and mothers and neighbors spilling in spilling out never knowing why or when or where tomorrow or what to eat and one future but we all managed to scrape by looking ahead across the street around the corner behind the tree reading our bible and thinking straight as an old owl that goes back for centuries and by morning school meant survival is a blessing if you make it to the first grade and it is a real life after all thank you okay uh our last poet is gonna be love veller brandon okay let's give her a great round of applause thank you um i think i came here last year i have one poem i would like to read i want to read others but i'll just read one um i think it has a title um no it doesn't have a title life is beautiful love is wonderful hope is peaceful patient is hopeful humbleness is love learning is life black women everywhere i know the cry very well for i am a black woman who has shared part of the burdens that we bear when our men don't seem to care for i've shared that feeling of despair black women everywhere when our families seem to vanish in the air i seem to hold on to this family affair when our jobs seem all helpless hopeless and for our away dream and a for our wave dream i've shared that scene on many things black women everywhere my faith religion and believe seems to fit so neat that i feel i need a heart so meek to keep these things i feel in me allowing me my musical beat we are strong but these things must not be prolonged black women everywhere these things say these things i say and do care may bring comfort in the strangest way but i'm sure that will cry for years to come for the rainbow that only burdens can overcome thank you that's uh all the poets uh well once again uh hey it's been real uh oh one more okay uh well once again i would like to you you are the ones who made this a success because you showed up uh you uh parlayed the spoken word into our 10th anniversary and once again this uh is a smash in success and this just shows that um um look at look at all the people out here they missed they missed a really wonderful program like this place uh it was packed with you you made a success but um once again one of the most positive programs in the entire bay area in fact in the country we have just witnessed tonight and uh it's unfortunate that the powers to be are not here to see this because i think this is something that people throughout the country should be able to uh witness like this was really a wonderful celebration here of some uh really uh gifted poets and and then we have the beautiful artwork here um malik uh give the brother a great round of applause give yourself a round of applause and we look forward to celebrating our 11th anniversary uh next year so come and join us again next year as we celebrate our uh the millennium and our 11th uh anti-wadden baby anti-wadden uh national poetry recital so again thank you and good evening and let's give our camera and dave a great round of applause and uh also our branch manager let's give uh linda bricks bird uh wonderful round of applause and her staff they always do a wonderful job and thank you and good evening