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"You Ain't from 'Round Here, Are You?"
By A. Anderson
You wonder about me/everything i might be
Latina/Indian/bi-racial/Greek/Pawnee
But one thing you always fail to see
My Africaness/My heritage/
My history/
ME.
Do you flinch when you think our skin might touch?
Is it the movement of my hips/
or are my lips just a little TOO MUCH?!
Do i make you shiver when i open my mouth to speak/
all southern American African/
with its highs/lows/and peaks?
Do i remind you of some "other" world melting pot/
or do i remind you of clandestine meetings/
with rapes in solitary spots?
"We should be color blind!"/you say/
So does it bother you when i pray/
"Thank God you can't wash color away!"/?
No matter what you say/
i do love my indigenousness/
and my Europeaness/
anyway/
So please/oh please/
oh PUH-LEEZE/
don't you dare think/
you can wash my Africaness away!
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(c) 1995
"Education"
By Michelle Jones
Education is my number one priority even though they classify
me as a minority brainwashing me to belive that i will never hold a postion of
authority.
In reply to such a negative statement i ask did you make me are you the creator
or an imatator trying to rule in thier favor please stop me if you believe that
i am an exagerator for i know who is my LORD AND SAVIOR.
If I allowed you to step all over me and not stand and defend my identity would
i be excepted by you then and have the honor of you calling me your friend?
I realize any any situation that God has my back and continusly thank him for
that.
For education is my number one priority and in any situation let it stay your
priority.
So as young African-Americans we can and will hold positions of AUTHORITY.
"Torn"
By Raphael Hinton
Where do I turn when I have know were to go
Who can I call when my soul is torn?
Struggling with world and its demons
Trying to make amines of what's right
400 years of pain
Still they same I'm free
Nothing has changed
The rich rule the world
The poor lie and what
Tonight I'll cry and ask the Lord
To take me from this place
Latorial Faison
"Just Be a Man"
By Latorial Faison
To be a man is to show this world
that you can . . . be a man.
I never thought I'd see it
the day you'd pack up and give in
I never thought there'd be a time
when you didn't want to be a man.
It takes a man to be a man
to lead a man to read a man
to bring a man to train a man
to tame a man to be a man.
Take care of business and have a plan
work hard, stay honest and be a man.
It's independence and leadership
the success of having planned
it's ideas and creativity
simply put, just be a man.
It is a man who grooms a man
to be a man to challenge a man
to stay a man to serve a man
to complete a man to be a man.
It's visitation and restoration
revolution and salvation
it's principle and where you stand my brother
so go ahead . . . be a man.
They think they'll never see it
the day you stay and weigh in
they think there'll never be a time
when you will be a man.
It's in you, outside of you,
all about you . . . understand
the essence of your life requires that you
just be a man.
To be a man is to show this world
that you can . . . be a man.
Stagnant
By Damion Wilks
moving forward
moving backward
moving
belies purpose and goals
recklessness or control
seeking to define life's
structured images of right, wrong
trying to be black
trying to be me
trying to be
i have known the fate worse than death
worse yet even than the loss of your soul
is the feeling of, i do not know
what to do or where to go
which road to happiness or which to pain
an absense even of which road to take
of wanting to do
of maybe tommorows
or of even feeling the greatest of sorrows
or flying through the gates of loves happiness lying down as life slowly
undresses
or roughly
of these things i can only dream
i do not know
more education gave less education
gave no direction
a permanent vacation
maybe a miscalculation
but woe for even a seconds elation
but i do not know
mayhaps backward is the way forward
mayhaps to unleanrn education
to fight aginst discrimination
lies, injustice and rape
the american way
mayhaps.
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