WEBVTT

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It's a lot more y'all in
here than when I sat down.

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First of all, thank you
all for coming out tonight.

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Thank you to Tyler, to
Diana, to the entire team

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at U of A and Haymarket,
to Vanessa and Roque,

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and all of the poets that I got
to be in this anthology with.

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It is a huge honor.

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It's a great honor of my life
to be here with you all today.

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And timing-- timing
is always divine.

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Oh, I also want to thank Amy and
Jean, directors and producers

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of those films that we just saw.

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They were great people to
work with, I loved them.

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I had all this stuff
that I wanted to say,

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and all these things
are just on my mind.

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This project, like Diana
said, it's always been close,

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but it seems to be
getting closer and closer

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as time goes on.

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It's like living in me.

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A close brother of mine
has been incarcerated

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for 17 years, almost 18
years now, for a crime

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that he couldn't even have
been in the place to commit--

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prosecutorial misconduct.

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We all know how that goes,
but I want to take this moment

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to lift up Ricky Slaughter--

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free Ricky Slaughter.

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May he find justice.

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And I also am, today,
thinking about Big U,

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who's been in the news?

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I don't know, some of
you might have seen,

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but as a person who
is just being alive

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has made me a fugitive, right?

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Black people in this country
have always been illegal,

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in some way or another.

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And it's very clear that
Black and Brown folks alike,

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as we try to collect each
other and protect each other,

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there will always be forces
to intervene and to try

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to disrupt that effort.

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And so I lift up Big
U's name, as well as

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a person who has done nothing
but try to lift the community

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and stop the cycle of gang
violence in Los Angeles,

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and try to educate people
about how the Crips came to be.

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They were born because
the Black Panthers

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were killed on national TV.

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Malcolm X and Martin
were taken from us,

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and so a group of people
decided that we should protect

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ourselves, and that
the people here

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would never protect us if we
didn't stand up for each other.

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And if y'all don't know, that's
actually how the Crips came

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to be.

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So I'm going to read
this poem first.

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It's not actually
in the collection.

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On Crip.

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On certain corners, cars
circle ceremoniously,

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And couriers carry cake
to circumvent cases.

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Classics and coupes consulate
crenshaw carry Compton.

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Cobalt, chrysanthemums,
candles and champagne

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Celebrate cherished companions.

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Because comrades collaborated
to counter crooked cops

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And corrupt civic commanders
cannibalizing our cities,

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Coloring us cancers.

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Courts, Congress,
and CEOs conspired

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To confine citizens
in coffins and cells

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Like crack was contagious.

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Churches cried,
considering their children,

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The condition of
their classrooms.

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Caught in a cruel,
ceaseless cycle of crisis

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Crip clenched circumstance,

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Crip cracked the cement,
chasing chicken and change

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in California,

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That concert of calamities.

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Crip cultivated the concrete,

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Co-created a
community of cousins,

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Coalition cum covenant,

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Connected by the crimson
chronicle of cotton.

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The collective choice
to chase control

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coverless in the
center of chaos.

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Curiously, commentary censors
constructive critiques,

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Challenging common conversations
about the culture of Crippin,

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Contrary to
contextless caricatures

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of combat and consumption.

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See notes-- Chucks and
chunky Cuban chains,

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Cartoonish canards of Capo.

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See Joaquin and Cortez's
cognac, cocaine, and caskets.

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The cold calls for care,
coordination, courage.

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Character is critical.

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It's criminal how Crip been
criminalized and commodified.

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Caliban of Calabasas, conscious
of the cosmos's complexity,

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Capitalism's chokehold
and its charter,

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The clock's cold,
constant counting,

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and the cramped
capaciousness of county.

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Crip crafted a coastline,

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A cartography of chances for the
chronically cut off credit list,

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Convicted and concurrent,
constrained like chattel,

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Clamoring for a
cathartic conflict,

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Coupled to a calm chapter,

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A clean crib to chill in,
consistent checks, compassion

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A cure for the
cancer of civility.

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Cause came correct.

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Clutch Curry,
chorus and champion,

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Clear-sighted Caesar with
cloth, Cerulean crown,

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Confident, cunning, cutthroat
for the conclusion of combat.

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Crumpled a Constitution
Crip cremate this colony.

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Thank you.

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