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Hakeem Furious, performing at IWPS 2019 in San Diego, CA.
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Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.
We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.
After leaving the hyper-masculine
stay woke hotep think tank [inaudible] lecture,
we go to the after party Because what is a meeting
of the black minds Without an after party,
get down, groove session, A little shuck and jive
to balance out the fight Against white supremacy. Smoke and hot air billows
from everyone's mouth And rises to the ceiling. The room is filled with variations
of the hotep male template. O, Rasta hotep,
revolutionary but gansta' hotep. I don't use my slave name,
hotep misogynoir. No, no, massage me, hoteps. Hoteps disguised as revolutionaries
more Malcolm than Martin, The black stars on a quest for a tribe
of misogyny and third eyes. Subtlety [inaudible] lynch chips
have managed to divide the room. Who has mass-produced dashiki print Versus hand sewn [inaudible]. Doctorates versus do-rags, Two different corners
for the blunts and papers, The only thing they can agree on
is no one trust [inaudible]. The men talk with their hands
like they're dancing, Seeing who knows the most about black, Black power, black struggle, black problems. Knowledge is power, power is a binary, those who have it and those who don't. It is a mating call for the girls
with locks down to their femur, They're here, kinky-haired,
thick-thighed, The darker, the higher pedestal,
marginalized as the queens Conscious black men have assimilated
into a colorism cult following. I am there to observe but no one believes My innocent society drone I try to project. I am the stoically Carmichael, James Baldwin, ODB sitting on the couch. I am clever in my arguments But they never sound
like the way they do in my head,
Caught in the paradox of trying to unplug someone out the Matrix That believes that they'd been unplugged out the Matrix. When a woman, who is not my partner,
flirts with me, The OGs tell me,
"There ain't nothing wrong with looking. When there's a black panther on the prowl,
you need to handle that. We are naturally polyamorous. If the universe didn't want us
to be with other women, Why did they create more women than men?" They claim that when the race war happens, They'll be on the front line
making whitey pay, Automatic rifle arm extension
copulating them out of existence, Fuck a peaceful route, A lot of brothers and sisters are going to die But they won't be one of them. They think the movement
is just guns and glory, Gender class and sexuality falls
under the trample to the march to freedom. The patriarchy and the black community Has monochrome the revolution
and black experience. Oppression much like religion
is becoming self-perpetuating, Hoteps are turning into a hate group
and brought Stockholm-syndrome Back in style with a ankh and kufi. [inaudible] wasn't the only great nation
and our [inaudible]. And liberation isn't just for the ones
who identify like you. Freedom is a party
that we're all invited to. (cheering and applause)
