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New Revolution
By Querido Arias
Seventeen-year-old Querido Arias, who goes by "Q," is a senior at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). Arias brings us his spoken word poem, New Revolution. (Please note that this poem contains content that may not be appropriate for young listeners.)
I removed that rope from my neck
I stood forward through hard times, not treated fairly, and I demanded my respect
From the people around me who neglect my mind from who I was
Yet to become
I stood forward during segregation and I was trenched by hate waters but I
We did not run
I protested, marched, preached, “I have a dream speeches” and I got rid of those Jim Crow Law
Leaches
But was it enough
Where are we now, wrapped in stereotypical, drug dealing to lazy to do nothing standards
But I, once remember times of militant souls who rose out of black gloved hands in the air like
Black Panthers
Who fought for us to be able to be who we are today
But why are we living in the now, dreaming of a yesterday, when we should be thinking of
tomorrow
All we do is borrow
The main stream music things, here's proof
17-year-old father has a baby, he doesn’t feed him nor take care of his business,
But I like them Tim boots
Lost mother, then he was killed in gun fight, but dieing he’s still like...I like them Tim boots
Dies buried in his own hip-hop mind, but is still in heaven like I like them Tim Boots
Now who u tryna get fitted up and cute for
Cause these politicians and TV influenced you to think you “shive” but your undefined
Like dat song your a pimp in your own mind
And us men still degrading women, “like girl give me dat”
Girl give you what...a tic tac?
Cause your breath smells like no sense and lies
Like something crawled up in your platinum plated, fake diamond grill, and died
You the reason why they think we can’t get political
Cause the way they screwed us over after Katrina was critical
How are you going to abandon thousands, watch them die, watch them cry, watch them hold on to their lives
or even try, President we make your country
How you gonna fight a war, spend billions on rebuilding somewhere else for oil,
You bent us over and raped your country
And I’m proud Kanye said what he said at the time cause every word he spoke was the truth,
I could see his soul through a peephole
Look at the government, it’s kinda evident, they don’t like...pigmented people
And were the broke ones, choking, choking...on the waterless ocean called life
Naw Mayor Nagan, we not a chocolate city...we like Neapolitan ice cream...we got all types
I watched the school board steal money, corrupted, it’s a terror
I watch them hide it like the relationship of Bow Wow and Ciara
And they One, Two, Three stepped on a city, along with no where to go, no where to lead to
Numbers changing, frustrating, playing us like a PS2 was F.E.M.A.
Putting everything together and in New Orleans...we still ain’t in rotation
F.E.M.A. stands for freeloading-existence-of-a–Mindless-Association
Helping others they’ll pass
How about F.E.M.A. in lights like Broadway
F-E-M-A! Fix-Everything-My-Ass
I’m done, I’m done with feeling fenced in with everything going on around me
Soundly at night I prey and I ask God...what does MLK see? What does Malcom X see?
What does that strange fruit hanging from the tree see? THEY SEE US
We’re one of the growing powers in the world
Acting like little girls...twiddling our hands through our hands through our haid doing nothing
We need to do something
Cause this world ain’t gon change itself
These streets ain’t going to change there self
Whether you in the 9th Ward in New Orleans to Queens in New York
The militant race we once were feels like we aren’t anymore...we nee help
We need to stand forward, like those in the past did, and stop talking Corporate America’s lashes
That developed into whelps
WE DIE, WE STRIVE, WE LIVE,AND WE STILL ALIVE...WE SURVIVED THE PAST
AND WE NEED TO SURVIVE THE NOW
But after time poem you gone be like...naw son that ain’t my style
But soon after a while your style...well...ain’t gon be none
Cause you gon be six feet deep in the ground...now is that your style son
WE BLEED THE SAME BLOOD, WE ALL BREATH THE SAME AIR
GOD CREATED US ALL EQUAL, WE ARE ONE
And if you feel me join me by raising your black fist in the air...let's be one
Witness us...our generation...the new black beautiful revolution
©2007 Youth Radio, Berkeley, California, USA
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