My book is coming along well, I'm getting some people to do the art and now I'm trying to find the best printer. The brother who is going to do the cover, Marlon, is a great artist...check him out at www.marloningram.com
I have a cousin who is an amazing painter and he is going to do some work for the book too. In the meantime, I have to keep editing and writing. I have almost all of the pieces written, but I keep finding new ones to put in or wanting to change something. As soon as I reach that magic number, 144, I'm done, it's a wrap.
WORK-or "I am all that I am, not all that I seem!"
It's hard to call it work. I love what I do for money. I teach a life skills class to kids from my community at an adult school. My students come to our program after school and stay in our classrooms until 6pm. It's great. We get the kids that are failing, are kind of wierd misfits, or just fell behind. Whatever. They are brilliant and I love working with them. All this week these two young women have been coming in and doing a class on sexual assault-getting the kids to define it, talking about the effects of sexual assault, the social aspects of it. It's great and they negotiate a very difficult topic exceedingly well. I wouldn't want to do it. Now my kids for the most part are some ghetto ass young people. I expect greatness from them, no I demand that they be great when they are around me, but hey, they're still teens and wadareyagonnadew? Teens are prone to act up if they think they can or if they feel uncomfortable. It's "Oh this is making me uncomfortable, so I am going to act up in here, normalize this situation so I do know how to handle it.." Well, this week I have seen my kids really engage in intelligent, thoughtful conversation and anaysis. I wish that their regular teachers could see the way that they attacked that really difficult topic this week. Boys and Girls, I was really impressed. It's not just that, I mean I know that a lot of them have crazy situations at home, but they persevere. We offer them a lot of support, but the light and the love that we get from them, that's priceless.
They've labeled our babies-generation X,Y, Z AKA Smiling Happy Fools, but I know that they are nothing less than Shining Diamonds and Precious Jewels.
It kills me that my kids are not getting the best education. Every day, when they come to class, as part of the check in, i get them to tell me something that they learned in school. If they have nothing to say, I tell them drop out now and go get a GED. You are wasting your time if you're just showing up and sitting in class. I try to teach them that they have to be active in their own educations. Teachers have to sometimes be reminded that we are there for our students, not ourselves. Getting them to talk about what they learned in school is also a good self reflective excercise. I can remember going home from school some days and feeling like I didn't learn anything. Not because the teachers were not attempting to teach, I was just not a cooperative learner.
Many of my kids come from immigrant families-Tongan and Mexican. It's very good for me to work with Poly and Mex people because I am learning a lot from the kids about their cultures. Everyone is not the same. Hip Hop has done a great job of uniting the youth, but it has not made everyone the same. Even if they do all call each other Nigga...
Whatever I am tired. Goodnight Moon.
For my students. I posted this poem last year, but ima post it again, because I like it so much.
Freedom Fighter
The little brothers and sisters they call upon when they need some battles fought
When someone's got to get gassed or shot
And whether you believe it or not
They are training, mining and finding our children in these inner city schools
They’ve labeled them generation “XYZ” aka Shining Happy Fools
But I know that they are nothing less than Shining Diamonds and Precious Jewels
The masters tools?
We are going to take them and remake them.
Lawmakers creating all these new laws to control our lives
While we steady innovatin on how to break them..
And when I see my people I’m yelling “As Salaam Alaikum”
Whether you’re Muslim or not
Because for you, my brother? Peace. Love. Happiness.
Your back is all I got.
In case you forgot, you wanted to know what I thought, what I was thinking
Is that you’re beautiful. You are beautiful.
The most amazing thing I have ever seen is the smile of an African child with uninterrupted dreams.
One who can say “I am all that I am! Not all that I seem!”
And I am going to continue along these themes
They say that “Freedom is a road seldom traveled by the multitudes”
but who among the masses wants to remain a slave?
Raise your hand if you want to be listened to and raise a fist if you’re willing to be brave.
As for myself, I will only march and parade behind the flag that Freedom and Justice wave.
They want to control your soul, so they say its only Jesus, but I know its only Gods' loving Grace that saves.
But sometimes I have questions, so I bend my knees and raise my head and hands to the sky.
I get down, I beg, I plead and I ask God “Why?”
But I already know the answer, I always have.
The truth lies right before me,
And so I pledge to walk this walk
To Fight this fight
To live this life
Of a Freedom Fighter
Until the day I die.
Reading this for the umpteenth time. I should write another poem to go along with this one. okay now I really am going to sleep.
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