I saw Cornell West speak yesterday and was blown away. As a result I wrote a little spoken word piece. It’s called New Direction. The words themselves are below the video.

 

New direction
The breath, the breath

The very vessel that leads towards death

Boundaries and Borders

Like old tape recorders

If you Stock up and reorder

Then you continue the disorder

Repeat, then rewind, then repeat

Round and round leading to our collective defeat

Dare you delete, the very elite

That knocked you down off your shoeless feet?

Out In the cold, your whole life, nothing but bought and sold

Learning is bold because It’s not everything you know, it’s everything you’re told

So it doesn’t matter in which school you are enrolled

Or the size of your household, or however well controlled

Look again, and again, and breathe some more

Travel Down Darkened Alleys, Open some locked doors

I implore you to explore despite the ever present war

For your mind, it always wants more, is always willing to ignore

That all of civilization is built on the bones of the poor

Stop for a sec, just breath, don’t leave, there is a little more

The doctor must diagnose the illness before there’s a cure.

Listen, just listen to your own self-deception

When you meet a new idea, don’t go with your preconception

Shift your perception, make a correction, see the connections

If you listen to your discomfort you can make an interception

At the very core of your apperception

But be careful not to start a different kind of collection

Of knowledge and perception, That route leads to even more powerful deception

Know that, True education is liberation

It ends the incarceration of entire minds and entire nations

Participate in a celebration Of your personal annexation

Because aligning with your minds death and a little contemplation

Frees your soul and creates some space for a state of jubilation