Brother Authors,
As the first week of the Institute comes to an end, we will write for the benefit of others and ourselves. To do this, I ask you to reflect on some experience that you can use to teach the rest of us a lesson. I offer a broadside below that captures the first time I was placed at gunpoint at age 11 (4015 days after I was born) in the Ida B. Wells housing projects. This experience and others, mostly positive, shaped my decision to become a teacher. We are the change agents we need. Things will not change until... The broadside is below:
Until…
By
Alfred W. Tatum
Four thousand and fifteen days from my first breath
Cornered by the brown brick fearing death
Invisible in broad daylight
The wide-opened eyes closed shut by dull beginnings
Could not see me/himself
Because of what he was (mis)taught
Confused
Distraught
Blood continues to drip
On the inner-city asphalt
Until…
Until…
Until…
I also wrote the following deathbed broadside that connects to the need to support women with the unbearable burden of raising young brothers without the support of fathers. Men must handle their affairs to recover all that has been lost and increase that which has been gained.
Men Affairs
by
Alfred W. Tatum
July 1, 2010
5:54am
Spewing forth from blood-soaked sperm
Consigned to a raucous life term
I dare stand idly by
To watch another sister die
Her breasts have been scorched
Her nipples ripped away with steel
Her soul cries out to the brother
Who fails to hear her appeal
She raises another alone
It becomes the burden she bears
The dullness of her soul
Castigates men who know not their affairs
Her acidic tears that flow freely
Because of the neglect she feels inside
Shakes me at the core
My manhood once again denied
My sons will be raised by a man
This indeed I agree
My own life is a wake-up call
To be the man God wants me to be
Lastly,
I want Brothers to write, write, and write. Writing is a tool of revolution! I never heard of a brother being murdered by another brother who had a pen in his hand and his mind on the revolution. You are this generation's and next generation's socially conscious writers. Your first week's writings proved that.
Writers on Dis(play)
by
Alfred W. Tatum
full-court PRESS
the spectators
sitting on the sidelines
watching our pens move
Keys Tick
Minds Click
dripping with verbs, adverbs
punctuated with nerves
that fascinate the onlookers
with our truth
with the images, sounds & fury
of our hell(o)s
but they only find grace
in a place
where we write
and write, and write
because we want to
our pens will have it no other way
