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Tahani Salah performs Hate at the Urban Word NYC 2006 Teen Poetry Slam.
For More Info:
www.urbanwordnyc.org
www.mythofthemotherland.com
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This masterpiece of slam poetry is, quite simply put, Scintillating.
MSA 2009 Slam Poetry: 16 year old Taylor Phillips performing her brilliant slam “Well, Thank You”.
Well, Thank You-by Taylor Phillips
When I found out there was going to be a slam,
I went straight to my dorm room, pen in hand
Ready to compose the next grand
Word symphony
To give a worldwide audience a personal epiphany
To write a poem for everyone,
I had censored before I’d even begun.
In a world where only 25% of adolescents read outside of class
How many are going to listen to a 16 year old slam
And know enough to give a damn.
I wanna write a poem
that only the worthy can understand
I wanna write a poem for smart people.
For true knowledge comes from the heart people,
For the search for that truth is an art people
For finish what you start people.
I wanna write a poem for gifted kids
Teens with minds like Pringles lids,
Once you pop, the fun don’t stop,
I wanna speak for the cream of the crop
Geniuses of the 21st Century, this is for you
Because you know “Live long and prosper” was first said on Vulcan
And when you solve a rubix cube too slowly,
You don’t stop sulkin until you win yet another chess match
In 17 moves flat
Or dip a tennis ball in a 3 liter vat of
Liquid nitrogen
Which we all know,
Is atomic #7.
I wanna write a poem for the scholastically driven
Who use their cerebellums to better the world we live in
And who don’t have to look up cerebellum to know
That they’re seeing this all thanks to their occipital lobe.
I wanna be the poet for the know-it-alls
Making metaphors from the trajectory of ping pong balls
Who knows that density is M over V
And the decimal of one third is point repeating three
I wanna write a poem for the literarily inclined
Who turn to Frost and Dickinson to find
The same drama as Desperate Housewives
Who make Styrofoam and saxophones pertain somehow to their lives
For those who say scintillati ng instead of doubleplusgood
And irked instead of irritated
Enthralled instead of fascinated
Proclaimed in lieu of simply “stated”
Deplorable instead of hated
Opaque instead of shaded
The brilliant and jaded
And seldom celebrated for the selves that they’ve created
And the many,
No,
The PLETHORA,
Of lives that they will change.
I wanna write a poem for kids with good grammar.
Who know that if someone asks how you’re doing
How Y-O-U apostrophe to the R-E doing.
You say WELL, thank you
And can differentiate between whom and who
And lie and lay
And which and that
Who never ask the question “where are you AT?”
Because at’s a preposition, we don’t end sentences like that
I wanna write a poem for the kids at MSA
Who when I say BOOMBA
Respond with HEY!
We’re going to rule the freaking world someday
It’s FUN to be brilliant
But schools make it a chore
And I don’t quite know
Who’s being left behind anymore
So here is a poem of appreciation
To the future doctors and teachers and shrinks of our nation
And actors and authors
And computer technicians
And judges and journalists
And pediatricians
Moms dads and professional musicians
Reading is sexy and don’t you forget it
Mediocrity consumes, but not us, we won’t let it.
We’re nerds because we strive
Moving this world forward with our inner drive
So I wrote this poem, out of my own fierce pride
For the youth, the world’s future, personified
because it’s scary, but it’s true
The future’s us, you guys
-Written for the 2009 Academy
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
KISSED AGAIN AND AGAIN
BY LIPS OF DECEIT
LEAVING MY MOUTH DRY
…POWDERED WITH SOUR CANDY.
Written By: (Teri Dorsey) www.teriswavelength.com
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Liza Garza on HBO Def Poetry Performs “My Everything” without what has been referred to as “edits”…
My Everything
they said we’d become victim to the streets
as if the concrete could creep up and catch us
in the midst of walking lift up and grab us
cock back and blast us
backhanded slap us
and we believed em
did everything to create some sort of distance
in between em
the souls of our sneaks and the hot pavement beneath
anything just to bring us a lil closer to heaven
as if 18 inches was the next best thing to ascension
in a life full of question
with answers camouflaged in every look of lust
never knowing who to really trust
so we stay strapped and we stay trapped
cycles full of sin
they trying to sift out our backs
or compromise our integrity
and in every choice there awaits a greater casualty
black Jesus pieces and pinkie rings
over sized white tees
and r.i.p.’s
the streets is calling me
or they might as well be
I’m a single mother raising two sons
who could potentially be toting two guns
in less then five years from where i stand today
and in less then four years my delivery would change in pace
cause I’m trying to catch up with 3 years fast forward in time
when in just two they height will match mine
zoom in focus to my life right now
smack dead in the face to what i write right now
if i could only make the streets seem less sweet
if i could only place a tear at their feet for every victim at least id have the hopes to sway them
with currents that run deep enough
sweep them with stories of misplaced trust
waves of lost love
and seasons that my body wont forget
how every year in late September, October the breeze can blow and
i forced to remember when
i loved him
and i lost him
all i got to give is the sweat off my brow
is the tears when they fall
all i got to give
is my everything, knowing i still could lose my everything.
==
Liza Garza on HBO Def Poetry Performs “My Everything” without what has been referred to as “edits”…
Liza Garza is a rare soul. As a poet and vocalist, she possesses the uncommon ability to keep listeners captivated while provoking social change and action in the community. Her words simultaneously whisper power and strength; peace and grace. A graduate of the University of Michigan, where she formulated her own degree in Performance Activism, Liza published her first book of poetry, You Never Knew Until I Spoke in 2005 and started 2006 with an Emmy Award nomination for a piece she wrote promoting university enrollment.
During that same year, Liza caught the attention of HBO producers and was invited to perform on ‘Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry’. Born and raised in Flint, Michigan—a city most famous for its murder rate—Liza, a single mother of two young boys, used her experiences to pen her debut album ‘BloomBeautiful’. The release, a tapestry of poems, ballads and songs reminiscent of Mexican folk tunes, is gracefully infused with the spirit of hip-hop, a culture she claims whole-heartedly. Showing no signs of surrender in an art form overrun with machismo, Liza has remained humble and resolute in using her gift to teach, learn, inspire and be inspired. It is this determining spirit that influenced Rev.
Jesse L. Jackson to invite her to perform along side Stevie Wonder and Roberta Flack at the Rainbow/ PUSH Coalition’s national march. When asked about what she has accomplished, Liza is genuinely puzzled. “There is so much work to be done for the people,” she replies.
“I haven’t even begun.”
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Artwork by Yolanda Botelho
Mother Witch fed her three sons potions
mixed with prayers and herbs that were
collected from the forest of her childhood in Oz
Her son Scarecrow hung for all to see
Mother witches pride turned into crows that picked his brain away
Oz is where Scarecrow lives to follow Dorothy down the yellow brick road
There is no spell in Mother witches book to give scarecrow back his brain
Her son Tin-man was locked in time
Mother witches hope birthed many voices that crushed his heart
Oz is where Tin-man escaped from by following the munch-kin truth
There is no spell in Mother witches book that can give Tin-man back his heart
Her son Lion is hiding in the forest of Oz
Mother witches wisdom became a tornado that scared him to run in fear
Oz is where Lion holds onto his beautiful tail because it is real and he thinks his roar is invisible
There is no spell in Mother witches book that can give lion back his courage
Mother witch melted away by her tears flowing down her face and over her body
leaving only her bones to remind her sons what her sin had taken
Oz is where mother witch left her sons with dreams and prayers to watch over them
Written By: (Teri Dorsey) www.teriswavelength.com
Republished by Blog Post Promoter
