Abalones for L.I.S.A.

April Rain Song

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:52:16 -0500

Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

Langston Hughes

Words like freedom

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:48:33 -0500

There are words like Freedom
Sweet and wonderful to say.
On my heart-strings freedom sings
All day everyday.

There are words like Liberty
That almost make me cry.
If you had known what I knew
You would know why.

by Langston Hughes

"The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a cultural icon on New York’s Lower East Side since..."

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:52:26 -0500

“

The Nuyorican Poets Cafe,
a cultural icon on New York’s Lower East Side since 1973.

“The Cafe is the most integrated place on the planet”- Allen Ginsberg

”

- Nuyorican Poets Cafe website

Tracie Morris

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:49:52 -0500

Tracie Morris

"iii and me angel i’m tryin to write this in honor of your divinity but i keep thinkin bout how..."

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:42:48 -0500

“

iii
and me angel
i’m tryin to write this
in honor of your divinity
but i keep thinkin
bout how lonely
it is to write bout
someone instead of
bein with someone

and i miss your…

”

- by suheir hammad from Angles got no maps in Listen Up! ed. zoe anglesey

Doubtless by Steve Ericson

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:37:23 -0500

When I was seven,

I looked to heaven

and dreamed

of going to the moon

but pretty soon

somebody came along

to change my tune.

They put me down.

Bang! There my dream lay

on the ground.

Thank God, eventually

I came around

and dreamed another dream.

At first it seemed

a good idea to hide it,

confide it

to absolutely no one.

But that was no fun,

besides, I realized

I couldn’t. The joy it gave me

just wouldn’t

be stopped up. It popped up

at the most

inconvenient times,

offervesced in all my rhymes.

-from Hip Hop Speaks to Children

Latin Night at the Pawnshop

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 01:18:00 -0500

The apparition of a salsa band
gleaming in the Liberty Loan
pawnshop window:

Golden trumpet,
silver trombone,
congas, maracas, tambourine,
all with price tags dangling

like the city morgue ticket
on a dead man’s toe

-Martin Espada

from Aloud Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe

"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then..."

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 01:55:03 -0500

“If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don’t write, because our culture has no use for it.”

- Anais Nin (via mikefrawley)

Brave New Voices - Group Slam by Denver High School Quartet -...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:02:59 -0500

Brave New Voices - Group Slam by Denver High School Quartet - Angst, Place, Purpose and Meaning in Life

Kaona Cut - Slam Duet on the tie between the Survival of...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:54:06 -0500

Kaona Cut - Slam Duet on the tie between the Survival of Language and Identity

Brave New Voices 2011- Duet Poem: This world doesn’t need...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:50:00 -0500

Brave New Voices 2011- Duet Poem: This world doesn’t need any more dead sons.

Brave New Voices Youth Speaks Poetry Slam - Amazing Grace (Duet)...

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:46:40 -0500

Brave New Voices Youth Speaks Poetry Slam - Amazing Grace (Duet) Poem

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:27:00 -0500

by Nikkie Giovanni

Reading to accompany the piece [link].

“Don’t look now
I’m fading away
Into the gray of my mornings
Or the blues of every night

Is it that my nails
keep breaking
Or maybe the corn
on my second little piggy
Things keep popping out
on my face
or
of my life

It seems no matter how
I try I become more difficult
to hold
I am not an easy woman
to want

They have asked
the psychiatrists psychologists social workers and
politicians
What this decade will be
known for
There is no doubt it is
loneliness

cont./source

Kidnap Poem

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:01:00 -0500

by Nikkie Giovanni
read by her here.

ever been kidnapped
by a poet
if i were a poet
i’d kidnap you
put you in my phrases and meter
you to jones beach
or maybe coney island
or maybe just to my house
lyric you in lilacs
dash you in the rain
blend into the beach
to complement my see
play the lyre for you
ode you with my love song
anything to win you
wrap you in the red Black green
show you off to mama
yeah if i were a poet i’d kid
nap you

"yeah if i were a poet i’d kid nap you"

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 01:00:00 -0500

“yeah if i were a poet i’d kid
nap you”

- Nikkie Giovanni

More on her from the Penn State African Research Center

People Equal by James Berry

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:58:33 -0500

Some people shoot up tall.

Some hardly leave the ground at all.

Yet-people equal. Equal.

One voice is a sweet mango.

Another is a nonsugar tomato.

Yet-people equal. Equal.

Some people rush to the front.

Others hang back, feeling they can’t.

Yet-people equal. Equal.

Continued

Source: Hip Hop Speaks to Children, Nikki Giovanni, Ed.

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:37:46 -0500

marionblank:

© Bruce Davidson
Untitled
N.d

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:31:45 -0500

marionblank:

© Pascal Grimaud
Untitled
N.d

[From his series Maiden in Africa]

Hip Hop

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:32:20 -0500

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic subculture that originated in African-American and Hispanic-American communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx.

Since its emergence in the South Bronx, hip hop culture has spread to both urban and suburban communities throughout the world.^[9]Hip hop music first emerged with disc jockeys creating rhythmic beats by looping breaks (small portions of songs emphasizing a percussive pattern) on two turntables, more commonly referred to as sampling.

This was later accompanied by “rap”, a rhythmic style of chanting or poetry presented in 16 bar measures or time frames, and beatboxing, a vocal technique mainly used to imitate percussive elements of the music…

source/cont. Wikipedia

Beats from music for poetry

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:37:52 -0500

Beats from music for poetry:

Nikki Giovanni on Cadence in poetry and song

Abalones for L.I.S.A.

April Rain Song

Words like freedom

"The Nuyorican Poets Cafe, a cultural icon on New York’s Lower East Side since..."

Tracie Morris

"iii and me angel i’m tryin to write this in honor of your divinity but i keep thinkin bout how..."

Doubtless by Steve Ericson

Latin Night at the Pawnshop

"If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then..."

Brave New Voices - Group Slam by Denver High School Quartet -...

Kaona Cut - Slam Duet on the tie between the Survival of...

Brave New Voices 2011- Duet Poem: This world doesn’t need...

Brave New Voices 2011- Duet Poem: This world doesn’t need any more dead sons.

Brave New Voices Youth Speaks Poetry Slam - Amazing Grace (Duet)...

Brave New Voices Youth Speaks Poetry Slam - Amazing Grace (Duet) Poem

Cotton Candy on a Rainy Day

Kidnap Poem

"yeah if i were a poet i’d kid nap you"

People Equal by James Berry

marionblank: © Bruce DavidsonUntitledN.d

marionblank: © Pascal GrimaudUntitledN.d[From his series Maiden...

Hip Hop

Beats from music for poetry