Hope

I have had my hope in Black youth restored once again. The first time was back in March. I went to The Black Writers Workshop that is held at Medger Evers College in Brooklyn every two years. I had a wonderful time. Now the restoration of hope was at a spoken word presentation they had on the first day. I was privileged to witness a number of young poets and spoken word artists present work that was socially relevant, emotionally engaging, thought provoking, and all around phenomenal. They were all under twenty years old. Like H.S. juniors and seniors, some maybe younger. Two stood out. One was a young lady that performs under the moniker, Eloquence, and if you ever get to hear her spit you'll see why that name is so apt. I wish I had an audio eidetic memory but I don't so I only remember one really good part of her piece. As best as I remember it goes: ...fighting a war for peace is like having sex to gain virginity, it makes no fucking sense!!! I was enraptured with the piece already but when she spit that line I damn near lost my mind, along with the rest of the audience. Naturally, if you can't tell from that little tidbit, the focus of that piece was our current global climate and the u.s. as the perpetrators of the current misery. The next impressive piece was from a young man, whose name escapes me. However if I remember correctly, the title of his piece was, 'Cuts'. The premise being he'll give the youth pain now while they're young so it'll be easier to deal with when they're older, "so, where do you want your cuts?!" This young man put SO MUCH emotion into this piece you KNOW he had seen and endured way too much at his age. Yet, instead of succumbing negatively to the negative energy he's been privy to, he turned it into something positive through words. I was positively amazed that day and have been ever since. I remember thinking that day that the propaganda that this country's various media outlets promote about young Black people is exactly that: PROPAGANDA. We, and I mean ALL people when I say we, but especially Black people need to see that shit for what it is and stop believing and perpetuating through belief this slanderous propaganda about OUR youth. They are NOT all criminals or on their way to becoming criminals. Fuck anybody who believes otherwise. Get the fuck out of the hole you live in and pay attention to the real world of these children and maybe lend a hand in helping them to better and positive paths instead of ignoring them then complaining about them. Okay,enough soapboxing. Anyways, I once again witnessed the wonder of youth spitting some thought-provoking and rather HIGHLY INTELLIGENT words yesterday. As I mentioned in a previous post, my friend Wisdom put on a little showcase of performers. One of them happened to be a 10 year old young lady by the name of Ashanti. The title of her piece was 'Tel-Lie-Vision. Get it? This young lady spit for like 5 minutes straight on this one piece. And before she even spit she felt the need to give the piece a little intro/explanation, just to let you know what she was about to do and make sure you were on the beginning of the right path she was about to take you on. This is a room full of adults. She's TEN! She attends a small private school at which she also teaches various subjects to the 1st thru 3rd grades. Did I mention that she's TEN YEARS OLD!!!! And the piece was just off the chain, stupendously intelligent AND good that some of the adults in that room probably DID need that little intro. Which is sad. For those adults. I mean I KNOW I could have had a really good, intelligent and better conversation with Ashanti about the current political landscape than with some of those 'adults' in there. Extremely intelligent young lady. I hope Wisdom got a video capture of her. If so, I'll link it later so you can enjoy the experience. MAN was I impressed! Here's part of the intro: Most people say that their home is drug free. But did you know that the telievision, and x-boxes, and playstations are drugs. They're mental crack." MENTAL CRACK!!!! This young lady is on FIRE! She's TEN!!!! Can you just imagine what she's going to be like when she hits puberty? Adulthood? Shit, she's already more grown than most adults I know! She's renewed my hope for the future. She damn near shut the showcase down and we were only half way through. Damn. Wonderful. Just simply wonderful. Pay attention people. You feed positive info you get positive results, especially when it comes to children! I'm done.