WEBVTT

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Thank you, Diana.

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And thank you to the
University of Arizona.

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And it's just amazing to be here
with Michael, Peter, and Luis,

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who I have all read with
before, but this is still

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an amazing honor to
be in your presence.

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And to actually call you friends
is pretty phenomenal for me.

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So keeping this in mind
regarding language.

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I've been thinking a lot
about these cultural academic

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grifters that are going around.

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I mean, they've been living
among us for quite some time,

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but we've been hearing
they're unearthing

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themselves more and more.

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And so there was one particular
grifter whose name shall not

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be named because I
refuse to give any more

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attention to that
person, but it really

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bothered me claiming
to be from the Bronx

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and to being a Bronx
Boricua even on top of that.

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And so I didn't realize
how offended I was.

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And the more and more I kept
reading about the grifter,

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I just took it to the page.

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And so this is what
I have come up with.

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And it's called BX
All Day Every Day.

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"The Bronx isn't
a resume builder.

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You don't get a Girl Scout
badge because you live

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there today or 20 years ago.

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You don't come from the Bronx.

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The Bronx comes from you.

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And you don't survive coming
from the Bronx either.

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It isn't trying to kill you
so you can justify leaving it

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behind, abandoning it like one
of the buildings in the '80s

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with painted flower
pots on the windows,

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more aesthetically pleasing
for Jersey commuters

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as they crawl on the Cross Bronx
Expressway, which is always

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under construction.

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The Bronx is more
than switching your Ts

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for Ds when you say water.

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The accent isn't part of your
audition for the next Spike Lee

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movie.

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The Bronx is more than
dancing to hip hop and bomba,

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it's Lisa Lisa and
the Cult Jam, and TKA

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in the community center basement
at your cousin's sweet 16.

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It's having enough spray cans
and D batteries for the boom

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box.

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The Bronx is in the
side eye when someone

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says something suspicious.

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It is in the amount of yos and
dead asses used in the story

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because yo, I'm dead ass
when I tell you that shit

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happened like I said it did.

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But in the end, we good.

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The Bronx is the original Yankee
Stadium and hating on the Mets

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in perpetuity.

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The Bronx is witnessing
love triangles

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at the park unravel
like a telenovela.

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The Bronx is the
ineptitude of the 2 train

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and cursing Robert
Moses when you surface.

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The Bronx is knowing bodega
aisles like treasure maps.

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It is getting ready
for a night out

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and searching for my
favorite hoop earrings,

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and borico red lipstick.

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The Bronx is willing to
roll without hesitation

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when your compadre hits you up.

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The Bronx is
sitting at a meeting

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and asking the
questions no one is

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willing to ask because in the
BX, there is no sugarcoating."

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So that was my
homage to the Bronx.

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I have many of those, but
yes, that's for the grifters.

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