Blues Club by Steve Underwood Too Blue by Langston Hughes I don’t know where to turn. I don’t know where to go Nobody cares about you When you sink so low. What shall I do? What shall I say? Shall I take a gun And put myself away? I wonder if One bullet would do? As hard as my head is, It would probably take two. But I ain’t got Neither bullet nor gun— And I’m too blue To look for one. It is suggested … Continue reading →
Dancing to Jazz By T. Coleman Song By Gwendolyn Bennett I am weaving a song of waters, Shaken from firm, brown limbs, Or heads thrown back in irreverent mirth. My song has the lush sweetness Of moist, dark lips Where hymns keep company With old forgotten banjo songs. Abandon tells you That I sing the heart of race While sadness whispers That I am the cry of a soul. . . . A-shoutin’ in de ole camp-meeting-place, A-strummin’ o’ de ole banjo. Singin’ in de … Continue reading →
Ma Rainey Ma Rainey By Sterling Allen Brown I When Ma Rainey Comes to town, Folks from anyplace Miles aroun’, From Cape Girardeau, Poplar Bluff, Flocks in to hear Ma do her stuff; Comes flivverin’ in, Or ridin’ mules, Or packed in trains, Picknickin’ fools. . . . That’s what it’s like, Fo’ miles on down, To New Orleans delta An’ Mobile town, When Ma hits Anywheres aroun’. II Dey comes to hear Ma Rainey from de little river settlements, From blackbottorn cornrows and from … Continue reading →
Heavenly Grass by Tennessee Williams My feet took a walk in heavenly grass. All day while the sky shone clear as glass. My feet took a walk in heavenly grass, All night while the lonesome stars rolled past. Then my feet come down to walk on earth, And my mother cried when she give me birth. Now my feet walk far and my feet walk fast, But they still got an itch for heavenly grass. But they still got an itch for heavenly grass. … Continue reading →
Innocence Oil on canvas by Arthur Hacker, (1858 – 1919) In Early Spring by Alice Meynell O Spring, I know thee! Seek for sweet surprise In the young children’s eyes. But I have learnt the years, and know the yet Leaf-folded violet. Mine ear, awake to silence, can foretell The cuckoo’s fitful bell. I wander in a grey time that encloses June and the wild hedge-roses. A year’s procession of the flowers doth pass My feet, along the grass. And all you sweet birds silent … Continue reading →
Langston Hughes, New York City I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes, But I laugh, And eat well, And grow strong. Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table When company comes. Nobody’ll dare Say to me, “Eat in the kitchen,” Then. Besides, They’ll see how beautiful I am And be ashamed– I, too, am America. Langston Hughes wrote a great deal about the genre of … Continue reading →
The Feast of the Rejoicing of The Law at the Synagogue in Leghorn, Italy. 1850. Oil on canvas. The Jewish Museum, New York, by Soloman Alexander Hart. The poem, “Life is a Journey” is recited every year at our Yom Kippur service on Kol Nidrei. It is a prayer to God to grant us atonement for our sins and pray for those who are in need of healing. It is read at funerals and services in Judaism. The author was a Rabbi in Chicago, Illinois … Continue reading →
Gil Scott-Heron stands as a towering figure of black popular music. With a masters in creative writing from Johns Hopkins, the writer, poet, composer, pianist, and modern-day griot is a true artist in an industry lacking true artistry. Scott-Heron emerged in the early 1970s with albums such as What’s Going On and There’s A Riot Goin’ On. By 1970, there was a profound shift in the struggle for equality as the fight for civil rights gave way to the demand for Black Power. The Civil … Continue reading →
Gil Scott-Heron The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (1970) by Gil Scott-Heron You will not be able to stay home, brother. You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out. You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip, Skip out for beer during commercials, Because the revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be televised. The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox In 4 parts without commercial interruptions. The revolution will not … Continue reading →
Only Breath by Jalaluddin Rumi Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu Buddhist, Sufi, or Zen. Not any religion or cultural system. I am not from the East or the West, not out of the ocean or up from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not composed of elements at all. I do not exist, am not an entity in this world or in the next, did not descend from Adam and Eve or any origin story. My place is the placeless, a trace … Continue reading →
