on the necessity of speaking

dedicated to the SPEAK! fam, inspired by keith boykin's "a poem for the millennium march" (must read) and "why do you speak?" by adele (coming out to you soon) i speak because overgeneralizing analogies silence my people used by folks promoting their struggle our lives our histories are reduced to lines in keynote speeches our bodies to checkmarks on your discriminatory policies our votes taken for granted and forgotten in your campaign and we should be thankful? where are you getting this from? this week another young black man was shot in the back by a cop they called him k-roc kenmara davis was supposed to graduate in may be a teacher now he’s dead this is in *our* town i didn’t see you at the vigil… i don’t believe a person of color sitting on tv reading the news is a victory how am i going to celebrate them when the stories they are telling criminalize us divide us allow us to be killed and then laughed at or hated? hell no i speak because i am more than that we are more than that i speak because eli says we are still wandering the streets, caps in hand & alice assures me that if we mapped the web of friendship, this is how we’d find each other i speak because sydette is asking how i stay tethered to community & mia says it is through a multi-issue politic that does not require us to sell ourselves short i speak because nadia is speaking naomi is speaking adele is speaking hillary is speaking lex is speaking moya is speaking mike is speaking ryan is speaking… our leaders will always claim to speak for us while ignoring us and we know the only way we will be heard is by typing into our speechboards signing fiercely opening our lips liberating our tongues speaking speaking...

4 comments.

  1. YES! yes yes! speak it

  2. Hi cripchip, I just wanted to let you know that I love your poetry and your energy and your blog. I have been visiting your blog regularly for several months – so I guess I am a bit overdue in mentioning that its awesome. Thanks for speaking! :)

  3. jenn, thanks!! that’s so sweet. i hope we will get a chance to connect, thank you for stopping by : )

  4. And I’m listening!

    Love you (mi familia),

    Adele

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