It
Is Better To Give Than To Receive
by Kemet Mawakana
To hear this original work performed by the Seven Foot Poet, click the flash player below
{mp3}poetry/1007ft_better_2_give{/mp3}
You
gave me your name
And
I took it.
You
gave me your number
And
I took it.
You
gave me your friendship
And
I took it.
You
gave me your trust
And
I took it.
You
gave me your love
And
I took it.
You
gave me your self
And
I took it.
You
gave me the world
And
I took it.
I
finally am ready to give – and you can’t take it anymore.
By
Kemit Mawakana (aka The Seven-Foot Poet)
Peace
(when appropriate) War (when necessary)
Copyright
1996.
Kemit
Mawakana (aka “The Seven-Foot Poet”) is a highly acclaimed
spoken-word artist, and has published two books A
. . . Z . . . Infinity
and Crucifixion
of My Soul.
The collective body of his works presented weekly in BAR are in
tribute to Listervelt Middleton, Dr. John Henrik Clarke, and “For
The People”. Currently, he is a facilitator at AYA Educational
Institute (www.ayaed.com)
and can be reached at sevenfootpoet@gmail.com.
The climate movement will never be effective as long as it refuses to confront white supremacy within its own organizations and as a belief system which is unconcerned about Black and brown death.
"They Wear The Masks" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Fisk University, an HBCU, is presenting a $400 million A.I. data center as progress for the North Nashville community. In truth, it means more pollution, more surveillance, and another chapter in a…
The mass incarceration system demands thousands of Black bodies behind bars. That system is maintained by prosecutorial misconduct which goes unpunished. That impunity is integral to keeping the…
Arday was killed by the contradiction at the heart of white elite institutions: they want the appearance of racial progress without structural change, and they readily discard Black people, even…
