We stand of graph paper
ripped edges
break lines
confine
divide
Our separation implanted
colonial thieves
stereotyped miscalculations

I look at you and see
the option

practical is not
prejudice reaction

practical is not nuclear weapons
Got to think ahead
children not fed
medicine infected with
the illness of greed

shot from tanks

we are
woman and children
muslims and hindus
jews and christians
buddhists

standing on graph paper
confined
by religious distractions
boxes
drop money in…

priests profit…

from our sins

separation implanted
by colonial thieves

breaking stories

ten thousand years
before religious text & careers
we were practicing
not paying rent
simply to live

not building bombs
that deprive children
of pure thoughts
and the divinity within us

Death ordered
at the counter
of McDonalds
sacred is…
someone’s next meal

manipulated
mutilated
broken down
and made to believe
that somehow
by killing you
i’ll be free

cows ooooouuuing and moooing
but the words we use are hollow

militaries impermanent
lives lost

physical

All of us

bigger than this….

::EVERLUTIONARY::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvQuKkPCkuw

In case you missed it, Hugo Chavez delivered a scathing condemnation of our nation's fascist right-wing leadership (YouTube has video with audio in either Spanish or English ) at the United Nations this Wednesday.  Farrah Stockman and Rick Klein of The Boston Globe, for instance, reported that "President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela denounced President Bush yesterday as 'the devil himself' and 'a world dictator' in an impassioned speech to the UN General Assembly . . . ."  He went on to argue that "[t]he hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species."  According to U.S. Representative William D. Delahunt, "For [Chavez] to be able to say that puts into context in what low esteem the United States is held, not just in the Islamic world, but all over." 

Al-Jazeera reported that, the next day, Chavez 

told those who had flocked to see him at the Olivet Baptist church [in Harlem]: "Bush is an alcoholic, a sick man with a lot of hang-ups." He went on: "Every day I ask God, and the sooner the better, for the American people to elect a president who you can talk with, who you can work with, who you can talk with face-to-face as a brother and see each other as equals. "Not this gentleman who walks like John Wayne." He also said that Bush "doesn't know anything about politics, he got there because of Daddy," referring to Bush's father who was the US president from 1989 to 1993. The crowd lapped up his anti-Bush rhetoric, showing an appreciation that exceeded even the ovation he was given at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

Given the apparent inability of domestic opposition to offer a bona fide alternative to the American people, some guerrilla poets have decided to encourage Mr. Chavez to run for the presidency of the United States in 2008.  

Go, Hugo, go!  Gooooo, Hugo go!

If nothing else, he's doing more for the people of the northeast victimized by rising oil prices caused by our government's devious and inept machinations than anyone else, and certainly more than domestic oil & gas companies gouging and defrauding the American public.  Just ask one of the tens of thousands of people from the city formerly known as New Orleans who remain homeless over a year after the devastation wrought disaster multiplied by neglect.  By the way, Chavez single-handedly turned a Noam Chomsky book into a best-seller, so you can support him in the name of academic freedom even if resistance to unapologetic corporate rapacity doesn't float your proverbial boat.

Click on any image for larger picture.

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I wrote this for a poetry class, the style is callecd a Tercel and it is really challenging because there is a really certain patern you must follow 

People fucking screaming for NOTHING

I stand there looking at the floor sounds like rock

machine guns were fired off at 2 O’ Clock

Darkness on the edge of your town

Everything dies but some day it comes back

So put on your make up and fix your hair pretty

That looks pretty

But really it was absolutely nothing

So just go back

and throw the lit rock

Right into the center of town

Right near the clock

The clock

blew up pretty

A little bit of light hit the town
Still there was nothing

But a that little rock

that somebody threw back

Go out back

Stare at the shards of clock

and leave the rock

Leave it pretty

A pretty nothing

Darkness on the edge of your town

Blow up the town

and make sure nobody comes back

Make sure there is NOTHING

left. Wind up the clock

Make it look pretty

Then chuck that rock

Get rid of the damn rock

Get rid of the damn town

Make it a pretty 

corpse and blow it back

to the clock

or nothing

It’s a rock town

a clock is nothing here
you have a pretty back

I have a shirt store online at Zazzle and I am here to promote it. I make all of the guerrilla poet shirts (except for the old old ones with the hand sewn mic fist) I also have many other designs of a varying ideas 

Laurie sent out the official word that our small, portable sound system has died. There has been the expected outpouring of grief.  It inspired me to write the following:

Which of us would not give the same? How many must make such a sacrifice before we may lower our voices to a hush of elation and joy? Small Sound System was known to us all. Always helping us push ourselves. Always selflessly making sure we knew we could be heard.

Rather than mourn Small Sound System, we should take solace that she died doing what she loved. Instead, let us now aspire to be as shewas. Through her service, she empowered and touched countless others. Sometimes with a nervous grief that made the words stumble, othertimes, her voice shook with rage and indignation. The emotion she carried went far beyond herself, carrying over the din from the drums of war, rippling to the back of the room and into the streets. Hermany voices eddy about us, creating a shimmer of both joy andresistance. We must seek the same selflessness to empower others, and strengthen that current. Together, we can build in her memory,amplifying more voices, healing more wounds.

So, please, join me in celebrating her life, her influence, her accomplishments. Leave mourning to those whose mores she has helped disrupt.

If you feel so inclined, share an experience with Small Sound System in the comments.  It will help us reflect on our growth. 

The guerrillas rocked the spot during the Adams-Morgan day festival, turning the front portch of the Belmont House into a fourth"stage" with live music.  The house hosted a garage sale, and with a series of arts booths lining one side of Belmont Street, a small army of folks rolled through over the course of the afternoon.  Check out video  of pieces by Shahid and Kristen, as well as a fabulous exchange with Josh, recorded and produced by video blogger Sini Vlaisavljevic.

We dropped a drumming set with poets rotating on the mic, amplifying with our mobile wireless system before bringing out the big daddy behemoth system later in the afternoon.  We also came inside for a short meeting that included Kristen, Mo, Fadi, Jeff, Juliana, Damian, Shahid, Josh, Ken, and John.  Read on for the notes….

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Written by Kristen Arant

The evening of Monday September 4's gray sky threatened rain; the GPI sound system had  been kidnapped to Camp Democracy; and several of the guerrillas were playing in the dust at Burning Man — yet 5 committed guerrilla poets who happened to hang around rocked it out with immense team spirit!

The organizing crew involved Kristen, Henry, Andrew, Jeff and Chris, who all stepped up to the plate to help with logistics and MCing. Kristen got a chance to show off little known MC skills, while Andrew and Chris, not often bold in sharing their art, stepped up to the mic to diversify the VOICE of the GPI. In addition, She Poet of the Rising Moon Nancy Umanzor came through and wowed the croud.

We got the sound system up and running and began with a piece written by the Goddesses Of Rhythm – the new crew of young women from the Young Women's Drumming Empowerment Project (YWDEP), who are preparing for four upcoming performances at the DC Arts Center. The piece, which focusses on Education Reform, was rocked by Kristen and Nancy – a 17-year-old YWDEP member who showed up and moved us with her bravery and sincerity, later sharing poems including one about young women who think it's their job to be young lovers.

After a few intros, we began to gather a crowd of radical cheerleaders and the like, along with dupont residents not partaking in Labor Day BBQs, and the police even showed up twice, pulled their car upright to the fountain, and watched!

Highlights include: Nancy drumming with Kristen, Henry, and Rhythm Worker James Handley (a true showing of gender/age/racial diversity!); Lyndi Borne and Chris Otten's freestyling / contest on who could throw out the best bush quip; Kristen taking on Shahid's "Baghdad Blues;" the Radical Cheerleaders bush-bashing cheer; Andrew sharing his poem with us (sorry we forgot the drums, Andrew!); Cherie's last-minute appearance and performance of the requested song/rap: "you wanna keepme numb because you wanna keep me dumb"; and falafel shop after-party with nancy, cherie, and andrew.