aka "The Seven-Foot Poet"
"FARE"
Our resident poet contemplates the "Fare" that Black folks are required to pay. When you read and hear this week's offering from Kemit Mawakana, you'll get his meaning.
To experience the written or audio versions of FARE, click the link below.
Poetry from Kemit Mawakana
aka "The Seven-Foot Poet"
To listen to FARE, click the flash player below
{mp3}poetry/072Fare{/mp3}
Fare
1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . . 14 . . . 15 . . . 16
A pariah!
Leprosy radiates my skin;
serving as a warning to natives and foreigners alike.
17 . . . 18 . . . 19 . . . 21 . . . 22 . . . 23
Death unto those that dare acknowledge my presence!
My invisibility clear to all who would dare look with a naked eye.
24 . . . 25 . . . 26 . . . 37 . . . 38 . . . 39
Hate, anger and vengeance swell up within,
breaking fences of common sense.
None of them - not one of them - None of them are bound by decency!
41 . . . 42 . . . 47 . . . 48 . . . 49
They hate the fact that me they only loathe and not despise.
They anxiously accelerate to save a business suit from my pursuit,
And the unspeakable acts that I perpetrate.
. . . 51.
Exhausted. I'm home, no longer mad.
Clearly it's not fair - that I was passed up by 51 taxicabs.
Copyright 1996
Peace (when appropriate) War (when necessary)
Kemit Mawakana (aka "The Seven-Foot Poet") is a highly acclaimed spoken-word artist, and has published two books A . . . Z . . . Infinity and Crucifixion of My Soul. The collective body of his works presented weekly in BAR are in tribute to Listervelt Middleton, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, and "For The People." Currently, he is a facilitator at AYA Educational Institute (www.ayaed.com) and can be reached at sevenfootpoet@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
A respected investigative journalist explains how the U.S. sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines. But corporate media working in service to the state ignore the story and endanger the world.
A 1971 interview with the late Charlene Mitchell reminds us of both the need for Black radical struggle against capitalism, militarism, and racism, and the contradictions of inter-racial organizing…
Ajamu Baraka representing BAP’s Haiti/Americas Team was invited to serve as part of an international delegation on a historic “humanitarian Caravan” between January 17 and the 21st to the Indigenous…
The US is like a drug dealer getting high on his own supply. It believes in its hype of exceptionalism and endangers the world when it is thwarted in any way.
The narrative of famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia was repeated uncritically by the media and was amplified by people who were on board with the U.S. regime change plot against the…
