Wind Parade - Donald Byrd
"
Learning to Swim
She was the baby of the family
curious and neon
magic unraveling her singing braids
there was music coming off of her:
violins and batas
pianos and castanetas
sounds her momma couldn’t relate to
sounds that reminded momma of sin
imagine
sienna sunflower girl
knee high
southern tinged
tangos and rumbas tickling her feet
imagine
the first time the branch of the peach tree
ripped her skin because she’d been caught
moving to some rhythm
moving to some rhythm not born of the church
it was everything-her
sound, her scent, her earthspeak-
brought the hands, the belts, the switches down
and she tried,
when she left their house,
she tried to conjure her dance again
hear the whispers under her feet
she pulled watercolors around her waist
wore amber and amethyst on wrists and shoulders
she chanted and wound her way through jazz
but no one could read the smoke signals
of her cigarettes
“death would be sweeter than any of this”
and when we met
she was 35
and I was newly born
and she was still drowning
but she gave me studios to dance in
trumpets
screaming magentas
muted blues
congas
tarot cards
modeling clay
she kept judgement in a locked box too high for me to reach
she stepped aside
my mother stepped aside
she’d evacuated her own dreams
courted death many times
when I met her
she was still drowning
but somehow
she took me to the water
and somehow
she taught me to swim
- Mariahadessa Ekere Tallie
5
Been a while
Since that first yes
The deep yes
To all the unknown
To the nights
And days beside
The guy who says he loves
My brain, my soul
My body…
The yes to this man
That said he’ll stand
No matter where and when
Beside me, he said ‘til the end…
Zap Mama - Sweet Melodie
I dance
‘cause I don’t care
‘cause it feels like it
in my body
every cell
is asking me to move
I dance
‘cause sometimes it’s all I can do
to release the tensions
and let myself loose
free from theses leeches
I dance
‘cause I don’t drown
my legs are light
and my chest is open
my heart shining
I dance
‘cause I don’t give a shit
dancing on the bones
of the gray days I had
burry them down deep
Come on feet
I dance
Why do you dance?
"Bag lady you gone hurt your back
Dragging all them bags like that
I guess nobody ever told you
All you must hold on to
Is you, is you, is you"
- Badu
I can’t help it - Michael Jackson
KENLO CRAQNUQUES_”STMLIGNEMAUVE” ET ”TIDAL HERBS”
FROM CAILLOUX GERMÉS (2010)
FROM ORANGE (2009)
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