Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

It Is Better To Give Than To Receive
Bill Quigley
10 Sep 2008
🖨️ Print Article

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.

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • International Decade of People of African Descent
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Cuban Conference Against Racism and Racial Discrimination
    10 Jan 2025
    The National Program against racism and racial discrimination conference was held in Cuba as part of the UN declared International Decade of People of African Descent.
  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Ghost of Jimmy Carter
    08 Jan 2025
    Hagiography is inevitable when presidents and other prominent people die. The unwillingness to ‘speak ill of the dead’ and the propaganda that would have us believe in American exceptionalism must be…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Unconscionable Costs, Ronald V. Dellums, 1983
    08 Jan 2025
    The late Ronald V. Dellums shows us how to fight against the Pentagon-inspired madness of military spending and nuclear proliferation.
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Remembering Jamaica in the East/West Crossfire
    08 Jan 2025
    Jamaicans still remember their visionary leaders, Norman and Michael Manley, and the bloody general election of 1980.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    NYC’s Congestion Pricing Program Comes with the Cost of Sacrificing Constitutionally Mandated Human Rights of NYC’s Environmental Justice Communities
    08 Jan 2025
    NYC's new congestion pricing program has grave environmental justice implications for poor, working class, and Black communities which will be subjected to increased pollution and poor air quality.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us