WEBVTT

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She really did that.

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She got up-- she
was at the Apollo.

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And she got up when she was
going to do a dance routine.

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And she forgot
the dance routine.

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And she-- she had
to do something,

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so she started singing.

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So since we're on the--
thankfully, this thing happens.

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Poems.

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I'm going to now
read another poem.

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And I had a grandfather who
was in one of the early classes

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at Tuskegee Institute.

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And he was a tailor.

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And he never let me
really learn how to sew.

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So now I have a tailor.

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And he always directly or
indirectly gave this rationale

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behind not doing so.

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The title of the
poem, "Vo-Tech",

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is an abbreviation of
vocational technology,

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which is the kind of training
that you received at Tuskegee

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in those days.

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"Vo-Tech".

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"Everything we wore that
needed rescue, pants we'd torn,

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and shirts with ripped-off
buttons, went to our grandpa

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when we visited.

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We modeled while he
adjusted our hands.

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Because he loved us, he tried
to save us, my sister and me,

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by rescuing clothes
we'd lately damaged.

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'You should teach the girls
how this is done,' mother once

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suggested.

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Her arms delivering, mending.

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Her eyes collecting
grandpa's hands.

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The snapped tight box
that housed his machine.

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His needles.

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He ripped her words
as he told us never

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to do to a hanging thread.

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'Let them save their time.'

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He took the clothes.

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'Let them do useful things.'"

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