FROM AFROS TO SHELLTOES BLOG » Dave Chappelle http://afrostoshelltoes.com/word Wed, 28 Jul 2010 13:19:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 What We Need Now Is Not Another Blues Poem http://afrostoshelltoes.com/word/2009/01/08/what-we-need-now-is-not-another-blues-poem/ http://afrostoshelltoes.com/word/2009/01/08/what-we-need-now-is-not-another-blues-poem/#comments Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:20:59 +0000 Edward M. Garnes, Jr. http://afrostoshelltoes.com/word/?p=1020
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    The following joint is an excerpt from award winning writer Edward M. Garnes, Jr’s highly anticipated poetry collection Like Sweet Tea On A Hot Summer Day.

    What We Need Now Is Not Another Blues Poem (In Memory of Oscar Grant)

    by Edward M. Garnes, Jr.

    get down Mayfield
    way down
    darker than
    the bluest blues

    brother Curtis,
    we need a luv song
    Mississippi tree hanging funk
    not too radio friendly
    something BET
    will refuse to play
    cuz it’s truth
    will ring louder
    than our IPHONE
    ring tones

    get down Pryor
    way down
    darker than
    the bluest blues

    brother Richard,
    we need to find the funny
    chitlin circuit
    slap yo mamma
    just to get over
    Mudbone stories
    bout Kunta & nem’
    youtube will ban
    cuz we may learn
    why Dave Chappelle
    did the watusi
    back to mutha Africa

    get down Davis
    way down
    darker the bluest blues

    brother Ossie,
    we need a spiritual shout out
    tax free
    sweet tea
    on a hot summer day
    good word
    more Malcolm X
    than Creflo
    squeaky wooden floor preachin
    not be televised
    cuz we chantin down babylon
    one mo gin’

    get down Hughes
    way down
    darker than
    the bluest blues

    brother Langston,
    we need a fine clothes to the Jew poem
    more reason than rhyme
    just got paid
    Friday night food stamp
    good time Sally
    sure to get us fired
    Last Poets tested
    Amiri Baraka approved joints
    so we can
    finally
    get our dreams
    out of layaway

    ed-train Award winning writer, educator, counselor, and activist Edward M. Garnes, Jr. is the founder of From Afros to Shelltoes: Art, Action, and Conversation, a nationally acclaimed series of cultural productions confronting the social divide between elders and hip hop heads, and holds a B.A. in English Writing from DePauw University and a M.A. in Counseling from Michigan State University . His seminal essay, ” Sweet Tea Ethics: Black Luv, Healthcare, and Cultural Mistrust,” currently appears in Not In My Family: AIDS in the African American Community, a 2007 NAACP Image Award nominated collection edited by Gil Robertson. (www.afrostoshelltoes.com).

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    Related posts:

    1. Her Blues Wasn’t Blue Enough
    2. Why Sol Fusion Is Tha Joint Two Step Your Blues Away

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