STRANGER FRUIT (2023)
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
Compact spaces
Contain a stranger fruit,
Dark bodies crammed together
Like grapes with no roots.
Mass incarceration
Razor wire plantations,
Confining people
Of oppressed nations,
Chicano AmerIndian
New Afrikan Haitian.
A process of… Read the rest
By Kevin “Rashid” Johnson
There’s a hidden contract,
In you’re black.
Looking to make a debut
Hollywood ain’t gonna take you,
Unless you let ’em
Make you.
A cop soldier or spy on the silver screen… Read the rest
Others exalted him
But Mao was a modest fella,
Saw himself like a monk
Wandering with a leaky umbrella.
Devoted to the people
Never grew tired,
To be a good teacher
Is all he aspired.
Rejected opportunism on the right … Read the rest
Joma
Short for Jose Maria Sison,
A Union leader
When very young.
He’d later become,
One of the the greatest revolutionary
Leaders the world has known.
Founded the revolutionary party
Of the Philippines,
And the New People’s Army
To empower … Read the rest
Put on display
Like an animal in a zoo
You’ve been recognized as
“The first Black to…”
What does it mean
Some sort of progress?
That you’ve proven
Yourself a success?
That you’re
Better than the rest?
No, all it … Read the rest
Yesterday a Black guard
puttin’ on for white pigs
Helped beat a young Black prisoner,
And cover up what they did.
Today she talkin’,
“Yet another unarmed kid”
“The only thing he did,
Walking home being Black”
“Was targeted by … Read the rest
We need a proper assessment
What is education?
Passing the torch of things learned
To the next generation.
Which makes our elders
Priceless jewels,
Indispensable to our liberation schools.
But the young
Can’t be confined,
To what was developed
In … Read the rest
Hubert Harrison
His name is a mystery
Written out of history
Because he left no stone unturned
From every source he learned
All exploiters he spurned
From Booker T. Washington to Marcus Garvey
He boldly exposed the pawns of racist … Read the rest
Comrade Jonathan Jackson
Our communist Black son
Your name be still ringing
Your praises we still singing
Took courage in hand
And ran wild
Across the history
Page
Took on the capitalist system
Dared to resist them
With righteous rage… Read the rest
Why do we like
To proclaim,
That we are kings and queens
From royalty we came?
It was a response to
White supremacist lies,
That compared to Europeans
Afrikans were never civilized.
To counter these claims
The insult and despair,… Read the rest
