Cleromancy for June Jordan

Note: Cleromancy is a divination that uses 6 six-sided dice to invoke a poet or a poem. Out of millions of well chosen words, I chose these 36 to raise up the life of June Jordan for a limited edition Cleromancy set to be handcrafted at
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif


Die 1 Die 2 Die 3 Die 4 Die 5 Die 6

my name to save we blurred
own is editors us are with
quietly poetry who trouble ones tears
explosive 4 look publish been did
here the at this waiting not
wings people me now fight die

Order yours soon! Only six will be made!
love,
Alexis

haiku for sekou

lids dream bright pavement
now now now now now now now
grow push through ever

for sekou:

raised by jack-o-lanterns and parking tickets
dandelion eyelashes part the onyx birthstone

in weary time
sour soupy mouths form easy o’s like lake huron
lumbering towards the universal sound
the land of rocking chairs

when poets die
let their henna circle my body seven times and become a new mole

crimson neither stopwatch
nor discount metronome

when poets dielet them be carried through the streets on the lips of harmonics and
earlobes.


Kim Arrington is a singer/song writer/playwrite/poet and all around fly sista. google her and be inspired. www.kimarrington.com
please send your sekou poems to me and i will post them where ever i can.

ebony

for sekou, now!
Now!
for sekou sundiata

i know what is means to have miles davis in your skin
to speak like a weeping willow
to resist citizenship
to chew gum like a gourmet meal
now
i know how to harness a dream
right behind my belly button
and hold it there til it sprouts wings
bears fruit
blows across an ocean like a liberated spore
you asked me the question
is the american dream a dream or a program
and at that moment i knew you were a blessing in my wounds
a libretto for the revolution epic
a hinge for me to hold onto in times of extended prayer
now
i know why i love my daddy's black taffy laugh
and his eyes like an anthology of sunsets
and his one purple nail that speaks slow around his chin
a chin that drinks the moonlight
i know now sekou you drink the moonlight
let it fill your vaselined cheeks articulate your tongue reawaken your tonsils
you asked me
what is a dream with out education
you asked me what is a dream with out education
youaskedmewhatisadreamwithouteducation liberation resistance love light
youasked me me me mmeeeeeee
whatisadreamwithouteducation
maybe its gospel without mahalia
or hip hop without rakim
or jazz without john
or new orleans without the mississippi
or my grandma without the love of her life
or me without poetry
orororoororororor
you asked me
what is a dream without education
i say it aint it aint it aint a dream with out the technology of technicolor

may the spirits walk you gently down
and raise a song in your honor
may elegba grant you safe passage
asheooooo asheooooooooo ashe

in the name of the most high ~~~~~i sing

there is a way to articulate hallelujah
prayer sweated over hot rocks
spirit piercing alien vernaculars
multiplied throats hurling truth
truth hurling multiplied bodies

-ebony noelle golden

Radical Love Letters

If love is a radical force, then let your love flow.
Here are three radical love letter formats. To publish your own email a pdf or a jpg or both to brokenbeautifulpress@gmail.com.

Letter to a (Newark) Jail

This is a love letter that I wrote for the four black lesbians in Newark, New Jersey who are serving jail time for defending themselves from a homophobic attacker. As a queer black woman from New Jersey who was raised to stand up for herself, I know that they could be me.
Use this as an example in your classroom/workshop/support group. For a pdf of this letter click here

If you'd like to send your letter directly to these sistas, please follow the instructions from FIERCE below:
You can also check out http://fiercenyc.org for more upcoming info.

At the moment we are receiving mail at Human Rights Watch for the four women, until they have a permanent address in prison. Their names are Terrain Dandridge, Patreese Johnson, Venice Brown, and Renata Hill.

Please address all letters: Newark 4
care of JESSICA STERN
350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
New York, NY 10118-3299

We have also started an email group to put community members in touch with one another and to send updates.
Please accept our invitation, or ask to join.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/justice4newark4/


AND
Hi, everyone. I hope we can start a letter-writing campaign to
Governor Spitzer. Here's a template we can use, but it will be much
more powerful if we all send different letters, so please add to or
change this letter to express your own feelings about this case.

*** If you want to e-mail the governor, you should do that here:
http://161.11.121.121/govemail

*** If you'd rather call the office of the governor, here's the
number: (518) 474-8390

*** Or you might want to print your letter and mail it to:

The Honorable Eliot Spitzer
Governor of New York
State Capitol
Albany, NY 12224


Dear Governor Spitzer:

In the summer of 2006, seven young women from New Jersey, Venice
Brown, Khamysha Coates, Terrain Dandridge, Lania Daniels, Renata
Hill, Patreese Johnson, and Chenese Loyal, were spending some of
their leisure time in New York City's West Village when Dwayne
Buckle, a man selling DVDs on the street, sexually propositioned
Patreese Johnson. Refusing to take no for an answer, he followed the
young women down the street, insulting them and yelling threats. He
spat in Renata's face and threw his lit cigarette at her, then he
yanked another's hair, pulling her towards him, and then he began
strangling Renata. A fight broke out, during which Patreese Johnson,
4 feet 11 inches tall and 95 pounds, produced a small knife from her
bag to stop Buckle from choking her friend.

Two male onlookers, one of whom had a knife, ran over to physically
deal with Buckle in order to help the women. Buckle, who ended up
hospitalized for five days with stomach and liver lacerations,
initially reported on at least two occasions that the men���not the
women���had attacked him. What's more, Patreese's knife was never
tested for DNA, the men who beat Buckle were never questioned by
police, and the whole incident was documented on surveillance video.
Yet the women ended up on trial for attempted murder, throughout
which the judge, Edward J. McLaughlin, ridiculed and expressed open
contempt for the women in front of the jury. As a result, four of the
women ended up being convicted and sentenced in June 2007 to jail
terms ranging from 3 1/2 to 11 years.

It is difficult to justify these women being brought to trial for
anything, much less murder, and almost impossible to credibly explain
the sentences brought down on them. This letter is to ask you to
consider clemency for these women, who have been in jail for over a
year despite having committed no crime. Thank you for your
consideration of this matter.

Sincerely,

The Philosophical Love Letter: This letter was created by Marquetta Dupree about how a certain understanding of love can change the ways we experience life. What is love to you? How is love a social force that can respond to poverty, violence and pain? For a pdf of this letter click here
Love letter to the world:
This letter is by Diedra and states her love-learned vision for here relationship to the earth.
For a pdf of this letter click here

(poem about how much I want you)

dedicated to and presented for the attendees of the SONG and QEJ "Building A Queer Left" Pre-Forum Meeting at the United States Social Forum
and the girl on the Atlanta-Hartsfield Jackson Airport Photo Mural

i can't lie to you
atlanta done laid me down
heat painted pavement to stay

taught me
that to be alien
was to be here
so to be queer
must be hip hop
(beat beaten but beaming still)

atlanta taught me
music could war
and if drop-kicked hope
landed and landed
in Bankhead
it would bounce

atlanta remains
a city brazen enough
to kill me and keep moving
but I would STILL tattoo OutKast lyrics on my grave

what I am trying to tell you is
love is a sin
that at best trains me up
in the everyday art of not being a slave

but this is how much i want you

i would cringe into asphalt
fuck the compromise of sidewalks
if it meant you could stand in the middle and sing

i would shelter
the highest pedestrian deathrate
if it made the craziest among us
more likely immortal

would drawl down secrets
melt your sneakers
and name every pathway after what I can't afford

if it meant you would
never forget me

i would be the place
spread open
divided
for the queer and fly to multiply

because this is how much i want you
and you're here

welcome home.