Sick and Tired... (Poetry)

Poet Shihan poem on the things he is sick and tired about.... See if you are sick and tired of any of these same things... Leave comments.

YEBies Birthday: Gil Scott Heron

On this date in 1949 Gil Scott Heron was born in Chicago, Illinois. Heron, a Lincoln University alum, is one of my favorite poets and musicians. You can see the influence  he had on hip-hop with is poetic and musical styles. Last year Gil released his first new album in 16 years, entitled I'm New Here.

This Week's Trivia Question

This week's question is "Who is your favorite writer of the Harlem Renaissance & why?" For details on how to win go HERE. Below are some writers and poets to think about.

I’m will be giving away a ticket EVERY FRIDAY from now until the event to loyal YEBIES readers and supports via twitter. To win free tickets this is what you'll have to do:

1. Follow @yebies and @yebiesonline on Twitter.

2. Retweet this either the old or new way.

3. Send your best answer to the question of the week toinfo@yebies.com 

The winner will be picked by the end of each friday, and will be notified via twitter and then by email with details. 

YEBies Birthday: Amiri Baraka

On this date 1934 Amiri Baraka was born Everett LeRoy Jones in Newark, New Jersey. Baraka is arguably one of the greatest American poetics. He has always been controversial because of his content and unwillingness to tone down his stance on many taboo issues. He was named poet Laureate of New Jersey, but was later made to resign because of his poem "Somebody Blow Up America". Over the years he has changed his stance on many topics but one thing has remained the same with Baraka, he will always let you know how he feels regardless of how the masses and mainstream media portray him.

M.K. Asante on Zimbabwe TV

The brother M.K. Asante went back to visit Zimbabwe, his place of birth over the summer. While there he was fortunate enough to be interviewed on TV and was able to discuss his work and life as an author, filmmaker, and professor.

Previous: YEBies You Should Know....

Throwback Thursday: The Louis Vuitton Don on Def Poetry

I'm still waiting for the real and full version of this poem turned track. I'm not sure if John Mayer will still be on it if it ever sees the day of light. Kanye has never been a shy or modest guy.

"Ralph Lauren was boring before I wore him"- Kanye West

Jay Electronica's Love Poem/Verse...

Finally some new Jay Electronica even if it is old and he was holding on to it. Apparently this song was inspired my the mother of his child Ms. Badu, which makes this even better. I hope we get that CD this summer that he promised us. If we can't get that, can we at least get a track biweekly??? I guess slow motion better than no motion.

Listen/Download:

Jay Electronica- Ode To Badu

Documentary of Fela Kuti: Music Is the Weapon [Video]

This documentary which profiles the life of composer, Afro-beat pioneer, and human rights activist Fela Kuti was shown at The National Museum of African Art this past Saturday. The film is a mixture of footage from Fela performing as well as glimpses of his life and interviews. The piece is a little under a hour and will be well worth your time.

Peace and ENJOY!!!!!

Daydreaming (WAKE UP)...

I dream of the day when black fathers will be free
to pursue the American dream and take care of their responsibilities!
I dream of the day when black mothers will believe
that their children deserve a fighting chance at life’s greatest possibilities!


I dream of the day when grade school education will be universally equal,
and even the kids of Barak Obama would go to D.C. Public Schools;
of the day when we truly believe that this City’s children are our future
and adequately enrich them with the necessary tools.


I dream of the day when men will truly be judged
by the content of their character, and not the color of their skin;
I dream of the day when a woman will choose her mate, based on more than just his “genes” or the depths of the pockets within.


I dream of a day when I find true love,
deeper than most people have ever known;
a timeless connection with a soul-mate that God made just for me
to have and to hold and forever call my own.


I dream of the day when justice will prevail,
Truth will unveil, and Love will concur all;
when crime will end, there will be no need for lawyers to defend,
and all will be peaceful and well!


I dream of the day when my city will truly be clean, of trash and debris,
drugs, homelessness, and disease; of dirty politics and even dirtier inequity.

I dream of the day when I can do what I love the most,
get these school loans off my back, and still earn a livable wage;
the day when I can maintain a rooftop loft overlooking the Nation’s Capital, 
in exchange for writing meaningful words on a page.


I dream of the day when all these dreams
will become my reality,
Of a day when all my people will find the courage
to live FREE: boldly and transparently!


I dream of the day when I will become the change that I claim I want to see,
But the only way that day will come, is if I STOP DREAMING, WAKE UP, & BE!


- Shwanda T. Harris aka SdotGoodlife

Generation Undetermined (REBEL!!!!!)

Killing each other not for the pursuit of happiness but the pursuit of dead old white men
So we will turn on our brother and sisters and closest friend
Forced to live in the world’s capital with capitalist without any capital
So as I watch the world change before my eyes
It makes me realize that sometimes the truth is made
out of lies
People twist facts and put on acts just to see what they can pull in and attract
Forced feed bullshit through a narrow tube that often clogs our passive of hope
Told to measure a yard with only a couple inches of rope
See we are given dreams but only get one night to see it
And then often get even less time to achieve it
See for many of us, one lifetime isn't enough
Especially when you have it rough and are told "suck it up and just be tough"
In this world we are sold Rockwells and wedding bells
Told to take our daughters to ride the carousels
But for many of us to get this others have to end up in jail cells
Trying so hard to get their acceptation
Not seeing that we lose our need affection
Got us heading in the wrong direction
While all these actions scream out for attention
All these things make me want to ask questions
Has our generation's dream been deferred? Or are we on a detour,
That leads to seashore, where we all will drown?
Have we accepted or turned our backs on our purpose as a generation?
Where have we gone since the end of the old segregation?
Do we even know what the purpose is? Sometimes I wonder if we even care
Each race that comes here, raises to another level so why have we been here longer then most but have nothing to show for it?
We say we don’t have plains or boats or even the Spanish connections
But we do have the choice to say no and make huge corrections
They don’t make us use the drugs or sell them to our neighbors next door
They not making us shop and buy everything from their stores
We need to stop pointing the finger and take a long look in the mirror
A lot of us would hate what we see and would be filled with terror
But that is you and if you don’t like that image, stop what the hell you doing and make a change
As a people there is nothing that we can’t accomplish so don’t ever think your goals are out of range
We have to start by being the true masters of our own destiny or we will continue to raise the mass destruction of our race and nation of people
They say no man is an island but as a people we are often isolated
So we must continue to fight the power so we don’t end up stagnated
If you don’t like the laws, rebel, it’s our right
If you don’t agree with the government, rebel, we are allowed to fight
Their forefathers gave us this option when wrong is being presented as right
So REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, REBEL, from sun up
until the coming of the night

- D.F. Kawah

YEBies Birthday: Haki Madhubuti

On this date in 1942 Haki Madhubuti was born Donald Luther Lee in Little Rock, Arkansas. Madhubuti is the author of more than twenty books and has been a major contributor to the Black literary. He is currently a professor of English and Director of the Gwendolyn Brooks Center at Chicago State University. As a huge proponent of independent Black institutions, Madhubuti is the founder, publisher, and chairman of the board of Third World Press which he founded in 1967. He is also co-founder of the Institute of Positive Education/New Concept School, and co-founder of Betty Shabazz International Charter School in Chicago, Illinois. He is also a founder and board member of the National Association of Black Book Publishers, a founder and chairman of the board of The International Literary Hall of Fame for Writers of African Descent, founder and director of the National Black Writers Retreat.

Some Saul Williams For Your Soul...

For those on the east coast who are in the mist of our next snow storm, here's some old Saul Williams from the movie "Slam".

Gil Scott-Heron – I’m New Here [Album Stream]

The album comes out next week but you can hear the entire LP right here. Please still go out and support this great artist. After listening go check out GilScottHeron.

The Birth Of The Poetic Voice Of The People: Langston Hughes

On this date in 1902 James Mercer Langston Hughes was born in Joplin, Missouri. While he worked as a busboy in Washington, D.C. in 1925, his literary skills were discovered after he left three of his poems beside the plate of American poet Vachel Lindsay, who recognized Hughes's abilities and helped publicize his work. Hughes is known by many as the "father of the Harlem Renaissance". His writings during that time period not only spoke as a voice for a large number of African Americans, but it also shaped the way many of them viewed themselves in America. Like all great artist, Hughes used his poetry as a vehicle for cultural protest against social and political problems.

Today In Black History - Claude McKay

On this date in 1890 Claude McKay was born in Jamaica. The "Harlem Renaissance" novelist and poet would become the first Black to write a best seller in fiction with his book Home to Harlem in 1928.

Today In Black History - Georgia Douglas Johnson

On this date in 1880 Georgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Johnson was a great poet who is best known for her role during the Harlem Renaissance. Her poems often suggested a feminine sensibility and a feminist awareness, and took up challenges and aspirations of the African-American community. Her weekly "Saturday Salons", for friends and authors, including Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Anne Spencer, Richard Bruce Nugent, Alain Locke, Jessie Redmon Fauset,Mary P. Burrill, Countee Cullen, Angelina Weld Grimke and Eulalie Spence. At these open forums, these prominent writers of the Harlem Renaissance would introduce new material and get feed back from the other great writers.

I Want to Die While You Love Me

I WANT to die while you love me,
While yet you hold me fair,
While laughter lies upon my lips
And lights are in my hair.

I want to die while you love me,
And bear to that still bed,
Your kisses turbulent, unspent
To warm me when I’m dead.

I want to die while you love me
Oh, who would care to live
Till love has nothing more to ask
And nothing more to give!

I want to die while you love me
And never, never see
The glory of this perfect day
Grow dim or cease to be.

- Georgia Douglas Johnson

YEBies Birthday... Sonia Sanchez

On this date in 1934 Sonia Sanchez was born Wilsonia Benita Driver in Birmingham, Alabama. Sanchez is a poet most often associated with the Black Arts Movement. Her poems have always depicted the struggles between black people and white people, between men and women, and between cultures. She was innovative in her use of language and structure while sometimes using Black speech in her poetry.

Saul Williams @ Afro Punk '09

Here are some clips from of the great Saul Williams at The Brooklyn Afro Punk Festival last weekend. If you don't know who Saul Williams is, please get caught on the guy.

The Father of Russian Literature...

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born on this date in 1799 in Moscow, Russian Empire. He was a Black Russian writer of the Romantic era and the great-grandson of Abraham Hannibal, an African general and friend of Peter the Great. Pushkin eventually became Russia's poet laureate. Political freedom was the subject of two of his most famous poems, Noel and Ode to Freedom. A continuous theme throughout his works was his obvious pride in his African heritage. He left unfinished a tribute novel, The Moor of Peter the Great, in honor of his grandfather. In 1837 at the age of 38, Pushkin died in a duel over the woman he married. Pushkin is considered to be the greatest Russian poet and the founder of modern Russian literature.

The Death of "The Voice of Black America"

On this day in 1967 Langston Hughes died from complications after abdominal surgery, related to prostate cancer at the age of 65. Nobody before or after Hughes has been able to capture the black experience like he did. With each poem, novel, play, and short story he wrote, a sense of pride was rekindled within black minds across the country and eventually the world.

"Let America Be America Again"

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed--
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.

(It never was America to me.)

O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.

(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")

Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?

I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek--
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.

I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!

I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean--
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today--O, Pioneers!
I am the man who never got ahead,
The poorest worker bartered through the years.

Yet I'm the one who dreamt our basic dream
In the Old World while still a serf of kings,
Who dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
That even yet its mighty daring sings
In every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
That's made America the land it has become.
O, I'm the man who sailed those early seas
In search of what I meant to be my home--
For I'm the one who left dark Ireland's shore,
And Poland's plain, and England's grassy lea,
And torn from Black Africa's strand I came
To build a "homeland of the free."

The free?

Who said the free? Not me?
Surely not me? The millions on relief today?
The millions shot down when we strike?
The millions who have nothing for our pay?
For all the dreams we've dreamed
And all the songs we've sung
And all the hopes we've held
And all the flags we've hung,
The millions who have nothing for our pay--
Except the dream that's almost dead today.

O, let America be America again--
The land that never has been yet--
And yet must be--the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine--the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME--
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.

Sure, call me any ugly name you choose--
The steel of freedom does not stain.
From those who live like leeches on the people's lives,
We must take back our land again,
America!

O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath--
America will be!

Out of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
The rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain--
All, all the stretch of these great green states--
And make America again!

-Langston Hughes