 Leroy interviews Keith Jones, disabled Hip-Hop artist running for Senate seat in MA
Read the Article Here!
"Writer speaks on disabled musicians: At his music workshop, Leroy Moore examined the history and lack of representation" - the Oregon Daily Emerald
Read the Article Here!
Season of Sharing
December, the month of sharing
Sharing the good & the bad
Remembering the past
Ringing in the new
Sharing our love and anger
Caring about family and community
Thinking about people on the streets
Crying & prying for a more sensitive society
Learning from yesterday and
Planning for tomorrow
Sharing the spoken word
Listening to poets speaking their minds & their hearts
Tis the season for sharing
Looking towards the future
Closing the door on last year
Standing still & thinking
Shocking what we've been through
Rejoicing what we have and
Striving for something better
Sharing what is not welcome
Writing what has not been written
Voicing what has been censored
Displaying our dark side
Reveling & exploring our fears
Seeing the truth & fearing nothing
Yeah! Tis the season for sharing
Making it last, please make it last!
By Leroy F. Moore Jr
Have A Good One!
- After skimming through Deric Gilliard's book, Unsung Heroes and Sheroes who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King and internet research this poem was written
The King & His Unsung Heroes & Sheroes
Tho' I'm blind I can see the injustice here - Al Hibbler
Happy birthday
Not only you but to the movement
To the Unsung Heroes & Sheroes
Who marched with the King
Ordinary people with extraordinary faith and talents
Over shadowed by names like Jackson and Young
No time to fight for the spotlight
Like then today's police dogs don't care about a name
Deric Gilliard's pen erased the shadow over the masses
Penned them onto paper and into a book
Kept mothers, union workers, musicians and community activists alive
For us to read today
Oh what I found in those pages
My Black disabled elders
Key in organizing and implementing
Demonstrations all over the south
Hard choices for Black musicians
From Ray Charles, Nina Simone Stevie Wonder to Al Hibbler
Some protest on stage others marched in demonstrations
All felt the sting and bullets of racism
Hard to be an artist\activist in the 60's
Not IMPOSSIBE Paul Robeson gave an example a decade earlier
Read about the dual life of Al Hibbler
A blind jazz singer turned civil rights activist
Blacklisted by record labels
Kept on singing on protest lines
Arrested in New Jersey and Alabama
Kept on coming back to the frontlines along side of MLK
Al use to say "Thou I'm Blind I Can See the Injustice Here!"
The name Hosea Williams stirred up fires
Of freedom and equality throughout the South
"A man without fear because God was his armor"
His motto "unboss and unbought"
A son of Blind parents and was a caretaker
Disabled in WW11
Almost died in a racist attack
Jumped back to fight for the Civil Rights Act
Masses surrounded the King
On Bloody Sunday
Many lives gone
MLK answered the question
Why We Can't Wait
Hate in the face of Non-violence
Didn't crack under pleasure
Made the people stronger
MLK preached to turn the other cheek
"You shall reek what you sew!"
His answer to police brutality
Another Black Blind Brother
One of MLK key organizer
In Birmingham
Pulled all the strings behind the scenes
The youth filled up the streets
Elders boycotted the stores, buses and the workplace
The Black Masses halted everything to a stand still
Study the terms Black Masses and Black Revolution
They are inclusive one leader but many stories
January Black Hero and Sheros Month
Before MLK's birthday is Rev. Hosea William B.day
After is the birth of a sister who lead us to freedom
I'm talking about Harriet Tubman
The Civil Rights era lasted more than a month
Look down to your hands
Black people we built this land
The next Generation of Unsung Heroes & Sheroes
Standing on MLK's foundation that many helped built
By Leroy F. Moore Jr.
For the Unsung Heroes & Sheroes of the Civil Rights Movement Era
Sister Rosa Shut it Down
The word public is disappearing
Welcome to Coke-a-Cola America
It is a different time Sister Rosa
Your tactics are still appropriate
Everybody sit down, sit down where you are
No business, no click clock on Wall Street
Stop the system
From Death Row to the White House
Rosa sat down
We take a stand
Ludacris says stand, up stand up
Muni & AC Transit fairs go up
Services cut back
Lifts broken
Out of compliance
Our transportation looks like our school system
No child lift behind
Just like no passenger lift behind
"Ha, ha, ha right!"
Corporations swept in while we were weak
PAC BELL Ball Park, Wall Mart Health Clinic
Board Donald Trump's city buses
Stops at casinos, Nike Town and Sony Theater
No thank you, we will walk
Car pool
Rent out church & school buses
Hell, Spike Lee has a bus
Going to the Million People's March
From city to city
Destination DC
Limos for Presidents, Governors, Mayors & School Board Pres
Cut the real fat at the top
Rosa flashing a red light
But politicians won't stop
So lets take this moment of silence
for Rosa & Osie Davis
Rosa Parks passed away on October 24th, 2005. I heard that people are talking about a statue of her but I say we want a holiday celebrating her life and the spirit of her work. If you look at a calendar, you will notice that we don't celebrate our women leaders. So keep the statue I want to shut down business on Rosa Parks birthday!!!!!!
By Leroy F. Moore Jr.
|
