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Entry for July 04, 2007
Entry for July 04, 2007

The Poet's Bench

Volume 3, Issue 7 July 2007

Welcome to the Poet’s Bench by Craig 17X

Hello Readers and welcome once again to the Poet’s Bench. Summer has begun and there is plenty going on. This month we’re going to offer some features that should add to your reading pleasure. One of the features is “Kin Folk Cooking and the Repast Meal” by correspondent Michelle LeChaux, who will also be doing restaurant and Night Spot reviews in this and other issues. What we hope to do is add Michelle’s input to the “Where it is and How to Get it” segment we have previously run.Where and how...” will continue to be the place where you can find event listings to stay up on the Slams, Bashes and Readings throughout the Bay Area.

We are also adding a special section devoted to music revue called The Muze. The writer of this section may change from time to time but the articles will be written by a knowledgeable musician, entertainer or producer who will bring us to or point us toward the best musical choices. We’ll want to revue at least one new release of recorded music per issue and hope to add and artist interview along with that section as the need arises.

Yes we will still do timely news stories and op-ed pieces, but what you will see are more photos, more community input and a lot more poetry from new, up and coming writers. The feature “Questions & Answers appears here as usual with an interview this time with a sister that has kept it moving for so long that you are probably aware of her – The Wordslanger Ayo Dele Nzinga MA, MFA. This sister is one of your more prolific writers – I mean she has tomes and tomes of stuff- hence the name Wordslanger. This strong sister is in the community making a change with the youth of West Oakland through her “Theater in the Yard” and “Shakespeare in the Yard” series which she has been doing for a number of years. An accomplished writer, she is also an actress but I must say I was truly impressed upon my return to California recently to find that she has ventured into the arena of music with several new recordings. It must run in the family. Her children are members of one of the Bay Area’s newest hit recording successes. Read more about her in these pages.

The “Letters to the Editor” section will now be a permanent feature; Send all correspondence to The Poet’s Bench, P.O. Box 421324, San Francisco, CA 94142. We can be reached by phone at 415. 861.3024 Or on the net at www.poetbench@yahoo.com. The Poet’s Bench has been in existence since the summer of 2005. In 2007, we want to increase our service by going bi-weekly (scheduled for October 2007), and coordinating the activity of the website (www.geocities.com/poetbench) with the hard copy version. Our mission is simple and clear: To provide critical information, essays, poems, reviews, interviews, and a showcase for advertisers in an effort to facilitate dialogue, entertain, encourage and enlighten, all toward the aim of fulfilling “The Cultural Imperative”. We will continue to try to facilitate free expression of opinions which may not get through the mainstream filter. We can always use donor support. Make a much needed donation of any amount to the address mentioned above. ---- Craig 17X

Immigration Reform – An Editorial by Ali Baba the Oaktown Griot

In my reading of “The American Government”, a text book by James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr., in Chapter 6 on civil rights, the statement was made that civil rights for Black people was initially resisted by whites as whites felt especially threatened by the possibility of blacks obtaining power in areas where blacks were the majority of the population. Do these same sentiments fuel the animosity blacks many hold for Mexicans attempting to gain citizenship in America? I believe that there is a backlash among blacks when it comes to immigration reform in America.

During the struggle for black civil rights “the politically dominant white minority felt keenly the potential competition for jobs, land, public services and living space posed by large numbers of people of another race” (Wilson and Dilulio 126). Our opinion is that most blacks feel the same pressure from the constant and steadily increasing influx of Mexicans into this country. When I grew up in Brookfield Village, East Oakland, there was only one Mexican family in the entire neighborhood. My mom and Dad are now just one of two Black families left on our entire block.

In the city of Oakland, CA, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s reportage of the years 2000 and 2005, there was a two percent increase in Hispanic population at the same time that there was a four percent decrease in African Americans in Oakland. When I have asked Blacks why they are leaving Oakland they cite crime and lack of opportunity as the main reasons for their departure. It is generally accepted that lack of jobs and opportunity is a contributor to crime.

There is a compilation of essays from some of the world’s leading experts on immigration entitled “Debating Immigration” of which Carol Swain is an editor and contributor. It is said to be the first of its kind in examining the issues of race and religion as they apply to contemporary immigration. Swain says that African Americans are losing more jobs to illegal immigrants than other racial or ethnic groups, yet low income black workers don’t have political input in the debate

Much of what has bubbled to the forefront of the debate on immigration indicates that African Americans feel threatened by surges of immigrants to the United States because of the immigrants’ potential impact on affirmative action. Swain said any parallel between immigrant issues and the black civil rights movement is weak. Yet we see those struggling for immigration status using some of the same direct action tactics that blacks used during their suffrage movement. During the Black Power movement there also a Chicano or Brown Power movement, the goals of which have disappeared from the aspirations of most Mexicans. In fact, since the classification of “Hispanic” was created to describe Mexican people, most Spanish speaking people refer to themselves as “white” when it comes to color of skin. To witness Mexicans use the tactics that Blacks have used to gain equality, such as marches and days of refusal of participation, is almost like a slap in the face. “Most illegal immigrants have willingly left their homelands to seek their fortunes in a more prosperous nation. They were not brought in chains,” says Swain. Many of the gains Blacks have made are almost antithetical to the very things Mexicans need in order to prosper in this country. If one looks at landmark cases such as Brown vs. The Board of Education which is one of the pillars in the struggle for Black equality, how should the historical plight be viewed when the incumbent administration seems bent on pushing the issue of amnesty for illegal immigrants to the forefront of today’s political debate without any real thought or debate given to the educational problem of English First?

What happens to the doctrine established in Plessy v. Ferguson which ostensibly was to empower Blacks to stratify via education if schools are dumbed down to allow non-English speaking students access into a system that English speaking blacks fought for years to obtain entry into?

When we look at civil rights which is “the rights of people to be treated without unreasonable or unconstitutional differences” and consider all of the present trends, isn’t it unfair to simply allow non-English speakers access into the system to profit from their cheap labor when their existence here is essentially the result of a criminal act? How should blacks feel when they are here as the result of a criminal act that was perpetrated against them through their enslavement and the stealing of their labor and Mexicans come here through a criminal act and are rewarded with jobs? My analysis is that the wholesale vetting of Mexicans as proposed in current immigration reform legislation, obviously serves the compelling state interest of economic advantage by creating a pool of cheap labor, but that this seems in fact to be creating unreasonable and unconstitutional differences for African American.

There has been no vivid input on the part of the so-called African American leadership on this issue. Even the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) seems to be ignoring their constituency on this matter. The CBC does not list immigration reform as a legislative priority and the CBC only mentioned immigration in one press release out of almost a hundred on its web site. What may be at work here again are economic and fiduciary considerations. According to Swain, some of the lawmakers in the CBC “have large numbers of Hispanic constituents in their districts, which may lead to a conflict of interest”.

Alas, this may all be moot since, in accordance with Marxist theory, “those who control the economic system will control the political one”.

And unless there are big changes within the “black leadership” there probably will not be official black representation on the immigration issue and I believe that this is a potential powder keg that may cause deep rifts in American society in the years to come.

--ABOG

Letters to the Editor

William Greenwell wrote:

I realize that this incident (The Yoshi’s CD snub of Black Jazz Musicians) has created a lot of dialogue but I'd like to purpose a little action. I see among you some talented and well known performers and music mavens. Let me purpose some action for you. Why don't u tap your resources and contact some of the acts that you know that have played Yoshi's and let them know what is going on and ask them would they willing to work with Yoshi's to put out a comprehensive CD of what really has been happening for the last ten years. You have to admit that Yoshi’s has presented more African American and Latino jazz musician in the past ten years than any other club in the Bay Area. I think they just tried to put out a cheap CD and went with the people they already had in their library instead of negotiating with the best they have had over the years. Trust me Japanese hate to embarrass themselves and will do anything to save face. Work your network and find Yoshi's some acts for their CD. Amen Mr. Bill

Editor Replies

Mr. Bill, You just don't get it do you? It's been so long since Yoshi's booking was actually run by Japanese people that your statement that "Japanese hate to embarrass themselves and will do anything to save face" would be laughable to those who are in the know if it weren't so pitifully ironic. Would it be saving face or white face if African or Latin artists would now go and ask The Good White Folks (who were actually in charge of the album’s production in the first place): "Massa, let us do a real good album for you Sir, 'cause we don't want no trouble! " There is no turning the other cheek in this because if you turn the one cheek, soon they'll be between both of them -without Vaseline! Mr. Bill, this isn’t about Yoshi's, this is about US. One of the best things that has happened in this locale in a long time is this slap in face that has possibly awakened us to this simple fact: FUBU! I want to quote from my brother regarding this issue, who is the epitome of the "jazz" musician you refer to when you say you see "talented and well known performers and music mavens": "All [of] them...complaining about Yoshi's Nite Spot… the majority of 'em are among the jivest, frontinest, most backstabbin, backwards lookin and backwards thinkin [people] in America...bar none bro, that's why they do nothing that really advances the music and they have some romantic notions of "jazz" from a time that ain't here anymore. [M]ost of what is called "jazz" today IS white music. Where the hell do people think "All The Things You Are"..."Green Dolphin Street" etc. ad infinitum ad nauseum...where do they think that stuff comes from? And that stuff is all these cats wanna play nowadays to prove they are Jazz cats! Man these prevaricators don't wanna take the music to the next level...hell they can't take it there.” The way I see things, any further overtures toward Yoshi's, as you suggest, would be similar to that of the blues man Hodie Ledbetter (Lead belly) trying to play for his freedom, or Lionel Hampton playing "jazz" on the White House lawn. You might get to entertain the master but it does nothing to advance the interest of the slaves.

Wake Up Call

By Howard Dukes*

Party call. Bootie call. Last call for alcohol. Fun clubbin’,

Bar hoppin’, hob nobbin’. Those workin’ 9 to 5 arrive at the spot. Ladies HOT! Bros hawkin, seein’ who down to get that bed a rockin’.

Use a condom? Girl that ain’t me. I ain’t worried ‘bout STD, HIV or pregnancy. Playa got play! Get my point? Now come on girl and hit this joint.

You better leave them drugs alone. Girl, you got me wrong. This only occasional. Just recreational. Definitely not vocational.

Wake up call…

Designated driver. Manhood tested. Keys wrested. Left bar. Fast car. Lost control. Wrapped around pole. Late phone call.

Wake up y’all! Bad news. Bad news.

Late night. Barroom fight. Shits ring out. Hit in head. Innocent bystander. Doorknob dead. Police house call.

Wake up y’all. Come downtown. ID this clown.

STD. Burn when you pee. Night sweats. Cold you can’t shake. Keeps you awake. T-cells down for count. Doctor bills mount. Microbes attack. Gone to hospital. Not coming back.

No support. Girl, take him to court! Still won’t pay. Low skilled job. No child care. Trapped. Welfare. Late night feedin’. Sleep interrupted. Dreams disrupted. Childhood ended. Future suspended.

Wake up call.

Wake up call.

Wake up call.

Wake up…

Wake up y’all.

-- Howard Dukes ©8/2006*

Howard Dukes is a features writer and columnist for the South Bend (IN) Tribune.

Questions and Answers

An interview with the Wordslanger- Ayo Dele Nzinga, MA, MFA

The way me and Ayo talked during this “interview” is like we’ve always talked. Word be slung and we don’t be taking no dummies. I started my questions off by saying: “Sister Ayo, where you coming from?” Her reply?

This one is for the struggle BaBa

I will not build what kills

I serve your higher will

If they buy from me

I'm serving pieces of we

I be The North Star that fell

from your hand

Serving on sale and free

and back by popular demand:

dreams from a place many

thought gone, hope

from a place still strong

in the souls of those

who choose life

even in the valley of shadow”.

As I recall, I first became acquainted with Ayo Dele Nzinga about 25 years ago. I was a shy, want-to-be actor more of a writer, coming through the Black Repertory Theater. Nzinga was

there when I started, already with Ms. Nora Vaughn doing her thing. I think I had a crush on her. Beautiful, black and about her craft. We actually hooked up 10 or 15 years later at Laney College Theater under the tutelage of our dear friend and mentor Dr. Marvin X (El Muhajir), one of the founders of the revered “Black Arts West”, foundation of the Black Arts Movement . The BAM provided the framework and environment for Black consciousness, thought and action. Nzinga was a part of a theater class taught by Dr. Marvin that produced a quite remarkable “theater of reality”. The play perfomed that semester became a ritual. The lives of everyone involved with the play and the class was catharted in some way. I still have a copy of a critique that was written in 1982 from one of the local newspapers about that play from. Nzinga had a lead roll in the play and was the Assistant Director. Fifteen years later she speaks of all that was learned through her experience thusly:

“Black Ape walking, lyrical vandal

capering in broad day lite

I stay concerned about justice

this and just this

here and now

not now and then

I who own the nite

took it cuz here

that's what I been given

Standing strong wrestling wrong

Paying juba to the ancestors struggle

Keeping this big up freedom song

hot on the rails underground

until they rectify we check and

certify the way we living” .

Thus, you have the thrust and aim of her work as an artist. But more than that, what comes through is the teacher. Ask her what the purpose of her work is and you’re likely to get:

“No I will not write beer jingles

or let AT&T sample my singles

I have no feeling for the flavor

of their Pringles

I will not carry bricks

for a crooked house

I sell incendiary wordz

images of freedom

I am a sound bite for

the movement of the movement

town crier slangin truth to

pay the rent, armed

with a mic slangin lite,

so many aliases they never get it right”. Ask what motivates her macro view and you might hear : “Stolen from the continent

of diamonds and gold

a jewel in the hold

bartered and sold… I know its Common

to see us slanging

Gin, sin, and hoodies

in the Hood, even Scarface

reversed and pushed some

of Rebok's goods,

Need a toll booth in the hood...

I think I got to stand on

overstanding overstood

refusing to buy or sell

anything that don't feed the

Hood, remembering

all sweetness ain't good

Some will rot you

at the core

leave ya minstrel stepping

on the market floor

off the plantation but

just a pace, it's a matter

of allusion, you stuck in place

I can't be the puppet

cuz I done seen the puppeteer

I can still remember how

my folks got here

Going, going, gone: Sold American!

You could ask Wordslanger what sort of things she writes in her poems, songs, short stories or screenplays and she’ll just as often wax poetic summing her thoughts up in little gemlets like:

I survived in the past

when I served caps of madness

chunked and dumped on looking glass

In a straight head it feel crooked the same

hocking illusion, a band-aid for the pain…”

She has a treasure trove of deep moving thoughts. She knows how to share what she has earned and her commitment to doing so is what makes the experience of having her in your life special. It is with honor and solemn love and respect that I present to you this month’s featured poet, Ayo Dele Nzinga, The Wordslanger.

C. Erving ©7/1/07

Inverse Morpheus

By Wordslanger ©7/1/07

Today I believe in miracles

so I’m get out my own way

and flow like water its easier

that way, The road is rocky

and I got to get through

so I’m do what I got to do

uphill in storm

and its always that way,

Ain’t a damn thang easy

I just make it look like it

come stand in the shoes

if ya think ya can do the shit,

Nurse the bruises of

dodging bullets shot from the hip

the scars from the times they didn’t miss,

I got paying back to do

I took some wrong turns its true

but the war ain’t over,

I don’t lose

I’m a cross roads solider

no weapon formed against me

can fold me, I walk with the Most High

I do like he told me

So see me, Smashing

in seven league boots,

Me, I wreck a mic,

Radiate light,

Slang truth from the gutter to the roof,

Blood hundred proof

certified roots,

From the cradle to the grave

rather die than live a slave

I won’t behave

Down pressers: Stay afraid,

I live for the day when

the tears are washed away,

I got an Armageddon frame of mind

been half past revolution time,

Said that shit in 50 rhymes

out loud, not between the lines

Yall say yall the choir…

Why the hell don’t ya sing

Call me Morpheous I minister to the dead

Cuz ain’t nobody listening

Eyes sewn shut:

ya life wuz a joke

now you the butt,

Open eyes: salt tears glisten

the Ghetto cries at night are you listening?

We shoot em down

they get carried away

rollers rolling we ain’t got nothing to say,

balloons and bottles mark the spots

and the block stay hot

13 year olds with Glocks

mac 11’s, and AR 15s, a ghetto travesty

played out in tragic majesty

on mtv for domestic entertainment,

do I blame ya ,when you groomed for this shit,

Naw, I blame ya cuz ya excel at blindness,

Bling bling yall we got dollar bills for souls

no science to fill the gaping souls

industrial prison complex chains us by the boat load

we over flow and still don’t stand and explode

the myths, we start to subscribe to the statistics,

With so little in the yard to keep us lifted,

we live for spaces where consciousness can be shifted Here we live in the inverse,

Nation in the Nation

be universe,

I play Morpheus in reverse

open ya eyes and slake your thrist

third eye open;

Wake up and fill ya cup

with truth and rise with the righteous,

Stand like you blessed to survive

to struggle another day,

Every time the sun rise, its another chance

to have it your way,

Made in the image of God

I n I no slave

don’t sell soul for wage,

Remember the story

don’t let em change the page,

Get ya ass free

not just paid,

If you think its about dollars

you being played

you sucking rinds

while they drink lemonade

You die over turf

ain’t got no real estate

While we play at helter skelter

they dissolving hoods like Alka Seltzer;

We can’t provide food and shelter

But we balling…

They just own the team,

got us on the track

slinging triple beam dreams

shackled in dead end petty schemes,

We keep drifting,

Fat cats keep grifting,

The ghetto keeps crying

and I can’t sleep for listening

to silly cats popping collars

over trinkets and dollars,

No label deals for ghetto scholars

underground independent

its for the love that I’m in this

inverse morpheus shit,

Spitting in a dead mans ear

sparks of the divine

hoping it hit like the

dope that killed ya buddy

Times are bloody

its time for the test

too late to study;

No weapon formed against you

can fold you if ya walk with the Most High

do like he tell ya to do.

So see me,

See me smashing

in seven league boots,

Me, I wreck a mic,

Radiate light,

Slang truth from the gutter to the roof,

Blood hundred proof

certified roots,

From the cradle to the grave

rather die than live a slave

I won’t behave

Down pressers: Stay afraid,

I live for the day when

the tears are washed away,

I got an Armageddon frame of mind

been half past revolution time,

Said that shit in 50 rhymes

out loud, not between the lines

Yall say yall the choir…

Why the hell don’t ya sing

Call me Morpheous I minister to the dead

Cuz ain’t nobody listening

One,

Word -- ©7/1/07

2007-07-04 09:49:59 GMT


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