Blog Archive

WHY BOTHER  by Sean Thomas Dougherty.

Why Bother? Because right now, there is          someone out there with a wound                                           in the exact shape                              […]

White Man’s Burden by Rudyard Kipling

Take up the White Man’s burden— Send forth the best ye breed— Go send your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild— Your new-caught, sullen peoples, Half devil and half child Take up the White Man’s burden In patience to abide To veil the […]

Theme For English by Langston Hughes

The instructor said,       Go home and write       a page tonight.       And let that page come out of you—       Then, it will be true. I wonder if it’s that simple? I am twenty-two, colored, born in Winston-Salem.    I went to school there, then Durham, then here    to this college on the hill above Harlem.    I am […]

Hail! United States of Africa, by Marcus Garvey

Hail! United States of Africa-free!Hail! Motherland most bright, divinely fair!State in perfect sisterhood united,Born of truth; mighty thou shalt ever be. Hail! Sweet land of our father’s noble kin!Let joy within thy bounds be ever known;Friend of the wandering poor, and helpless, thou,Light to all, such as freedom’s reigns within. From Liberia’s peaceful western coastTo […]

FOR THE WHITE PERSON WHO WANTS TO KNOW HOW TO BE MY FRIEND by Pat Parker

The first thing you do is to forget that i’m Black.Second, you must never forget that i’m Black. You should be able to dig Aretha,but don’t play her every time i come over.And if you decide to play Beethoven – don’t tell mehis life story. They made us take music appreciation too. Eat soul food […]

The Star-Spangled Banner by Francis Scott Key

Oh, say! can you see by the dawn’s early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming; Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there: Oh, […]

The Good Life by Tracy K. Smith

When some people talk about money They speak as if it were a mysterious lover Who went out to buy milk and never Came back, and it makes me nostalgic For the years I lived on coffee and bread, Hungry all the time, walking to work on payday Like a woman journeying for water From […]

FIRE by Wallace Thurman

FIRE . . . flaming, burning, searing,  and penetrating far beneath the superficial items of the flesh to boil the  sluggish blood. FIRE . . . a cry of conquest in the  night, warning those who sleep and revitalizing those who linger in the quiet places dozing. FIRE . . . melting steel and iron bars, […]

THEY CANNOT TAKE CARE OF THEMSELVES by Rev. John Pierpoint

Our tobacco they plant, and out cotton they pick, and our rice they can harvest and thrash;

They feed us in health, and they nurse us when sick, and they earn-while we pocket our cash.

They lead us when young and they help us when old, and their toil loads our tables and shelves;

But they’re “niggers”; and therefore (the truth must be told) They cannot take care of themselves. . .

Reference: The Freedmen’s Book, Lydia Mary Francis Child

Vivian & James by Clive James

What a day it was on June 11, 1963
I stared at challenges that would set me free
Saw others do something I never thought would be
Did it so the whole world could see

A young Black woman and a young Black man
Set into motion a brand new educational plan
That was taboo before their cradle’s hand
But time ripened so they took a revolutionary stand

Laid bare an old way and made it new
Without the spill of blood just mental abuse
Showing to others like me what we could pursue
Demonstrating the stance that must continue

Open the door we are coming in!