WEBVTT

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I'd like to read some poems
from those three books,

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and also a few new poems.

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And I'd like to
start with a poem

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that I'd like to start with.

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The poem that I wrote
for my blood sister,

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it's called "Sisters," and
it's from An Ordinary Woman.

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It appeared in an
Essence magazine.

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Do you know Essence?

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Some of you know Essence.

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And my sister was very happy
when it appeared in Essence.

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The poem title is "Sisters
for Elaine Philip

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on Her Birthday."

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And Elaine's name had
been in a magazine.

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She was very thrilled.

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She carried copies of the
magazine around with her,

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she had them open
on her coffee table,

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and she was very, very,
happy, that made me happy.

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She said that she
stayed out all night

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for the first time in her life,
because she was a celebrity now

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and that's what you do.

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Something that you should know
is that my sister is a singer.

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She is very good but like
a lot of Black people

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of her generation,
of our generation,

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she was never able
to do anything really

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with her talent.

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I wrote the poem because she
and I are only six months apart

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in age.

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And like a lot of people
who have siblings,

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she always wonders why I'm like
I am when she's like she is.

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Do you know what I mean?

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A lot of people wonder that.

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So "Sisters for Elaine
Philip on Her Birthday."

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Me and you be sisters.

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We be the same.

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Me and you come in
from the same place.

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Me and you be greasing our
legs, touching up our edges.

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Me and you be scared of
rats be stepping on roaches.

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Me and you come running
high down Purdy street one

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time and mama laugh and
shake her head at me and you.

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Me and you got babies,
got 35, got black,

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let our hair go back, be loving
ourselves, be loving ourselves,

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be sisters.

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Only where you sing, I poet.

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[APPLAUSE]

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