WEBVTT

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So saying a little
bit on that note,

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the next piece I'm going to
perform doesn't have a title.

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All these, I don't have titles.

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If you think of something
cool, please tell me.

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I am horrible at titling.

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It's sad.

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I don't ever title my poetry.

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I need help.

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Anyway, yeah, so if you think
of a good title, please tell me.

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This one doesn't have a title.

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It was inspired by just--

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I don't have cable.

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And when I turned on the
news, I just wasn't watching.

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People just dying.

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It seemed like any time I
got a glimpse of the media,

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someone was dying at
the expense of fear

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and the expense of not
being like human enough.

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So this is looking from that.

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And Erin, my friend, asking
why I wear long sleeves

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in the middle of summer.

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"We are standing on 9th
Street and 4th Avenue.

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I am looking at hair, the
color of a golden fool

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and eyes as blue
as a perfect day.

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And they ask me, hey,
Teré, why do you always

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wear those long sleeves and ties
on the hottest summer nights?

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The underpass is
crying of speeding cars

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and a violinist who can't
sleep and a homeless man that's

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begging, hey, I deserve
to see tomorrow too.

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And I believe him.

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So I give him some
change, knowing

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that it's not the kind of change
that him and I are begging for.

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I see we fight the same fight.

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Because when I'm
standing next to my lover

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and they ask me what part
of Africa do I call home,

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I want to remind them
of African-Americans.

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I want to remind them
of our continent.

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How it rests at the bottom
of the Atlantic Ocean,

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flush with slaves
with decayed weights

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still hugging their ankles.

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The lifeless body
is still dancing

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through the currents of the
sea and they tell me, Teré,

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you are afraid of
your own country.

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And it's true.

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I'm afraid of the
things that the ocean

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has seen because as
I'm reading this poem,

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my boy is still trying to
make a bell after being caught

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speeding down
Speedway Boulevard.

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As I'm reading
this poem, a child

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was killed while carrying
a Skittles and iced tea.

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As I'm reading this
poem, Marissa Alexander

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is walking back to her jail
cell performing a warning sign

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at her aggressor.

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And when we took
that fear and let

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it be placed at the
chest of a child

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and the trigger was pulled,
the man was set free.

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See, as I'm reading tonight,
Derrion Albert is dead,

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a biracial boy is
serving a lesser sentence

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after admitting that he
was the one that killed

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the man because he was bored.

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A three-year-old was shot in
the face at a basketball court,

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and then there's my brother.

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There's my brother who after
playing the marimbas for Barack

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Obama would change
his three-piece suit

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for a backwards hat and
chain at the end of the night

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and all I got to offer, all of
his spirit's just a few poems.

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See, my grandfather told
us that the house Negro

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turned into a
well-dressed Black man

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in a suit that could play
the hell out of a banjo,

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so look good, keep your
eyes straight, and learn

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how to play.

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This pen has become my strings.

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See, I know in some
venues, I don't

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look like I should be a poet.

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My fact if I had
dollar for every time

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I was called a rapper,
I would be rich off

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of one of my writings.

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It's true.

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But we are just standing here
at 9th Street and 4th Avenue.

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And I'm looking at hair,
the color of a golden fool

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and eyes as blue
as a perfect day.

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And they ask me, hey,
Teré, why do you always

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wear those long sleeves and ties
on the hottest summer nights?

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I'm dressed to impress the
bullet in the shaking hands."

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