This summer I attended a political poetry workshop which was facilitated by Amanda Johnston, an amazingly gifted and insightful poet and a Cave Canem Fellow.  This was my outcome from that experience, and I was recently given the opportunity to present this prose to Bree Newsome , while she was visiting my Alma Mater. What an honor indeed

For Bree Newsome:

The symbol that provokes angst, fear, hatred and oppression

to MANy,

A banner of historical significance, honoring  “ confederate forefathers”

met an unlikely opponent.

A petite, black woman , climbed up - not danced or gyrated on that pole,

risking danger, and jail, removed something  probably better suited

in a museum along with a dead, dry cotton boil.

Than to unfurl and glide weightlessly- bearing the painful weight of subjugation,

misery, and injustice

In front and above a government building.

Just as Maya Angelou proclaimed. “ And Still I Rise...”

comes to mind, inch by inch as she made this historical ascent.

Fully aware, moving purposefully higher,knowing that upon her descent she could face scrutiny,incarceration, indignation.

Thighs squeezing, heart pounding, breath quickening.

Up, up, muscles tighten, reaching up,

she snatched it down.

She snatched Mammy nem from Massa’s kitchen and washroom,

She snatched Uncle nem from the cotton fields,

She snatched Sista nem from the Massa’s bed…

Degradation replaced by  deliverance from oppressive dispensation

An Original Macawa Creative Expression