AntPearson  

Written Against Cultural Stagnation: The Poem

My work is a written orientation with few feelings evaded
for the sake of my sanity some feelings are not debated
They say “how can you have so much love, you don’t seem elated”
as if they know me inside and somehow they’re related
It’s safe to say when I found love I upgraded
and that the ego in my heart got inflated
But at the end of the day, I hope people are persuaded
to focus on the problem of why we are so degraded when depicted
becoming the victims who willingly participated
The demeaning of our culture is being celebrated
The nation’s ignorance is being congratulated
That may be why my soft side is gated
All along they told me my thoughts were outdated
They say it’s no more power in the people and my words are wasted
on a generation where ignorance is not only bliss, but emulated.                                    

The youth are doubted
Old ideas need to be re-routed
Onto a path
Where the generation’s gap
Becomes crowded

The youth are eager
To be treated as equal
Until difference is found
While through common understanding
We all come around

The youth are bitter
From being shown less
Than the casual respect
While struggling to progress
Amid an environment of stress

The youth are present
Etching stones
Carving grooves into the road
Rattling the pavement
Letting it be known

We value cars more than sons
clothes more than daughters
We devalue morals
placing them in the category of the least important.

When they flash that screen everybody’s up close
Attention fully paid to the jaws of confusion
using us as the gas to fuel them
Those outlets pose more of a threat to us
than ever did music.

We value guns more than family
gold more than humanity
We devalue legacy, leaving behind red trails of sweat and tears in the community
Blasting through the waves is the perpetual motion of stereotypes
We promote competition but call it “beef”
We promote dysfunctional families but call it “drama”
We value fame over honor
ego over karma
vice over virtue
In the meantime time is not cooperating
We are stagnated
searching for the gas to fuel us                 
We’ve been siphoned out of even the fumes
that would lead us to the station of moral salvation
Instead we are driven by the few
to the situation room of nothing new

It ain’t no new thing
Black man shot down
50 bullets sound
and they blame 50 Cent for making the crime go round
It ain’t no new thing
Blame music for keeping the crime on the block
in Texas a cop got shot
they blamed Tupac
It ain’t no new thing
It’s just more of the same thing on different days

Indeed we must value sons more than cars and daughters more than clothes
Re-evaluate our morals, placing them in the category of most important
Value family more than guns and humanity more than gold
Re-evaluating our view on legacy and the greatness which we hold
Where we came from is certainly not where we are going                                            
Times change and with time we adapt
but some things have to be maintained for us to last
That tradition of progressing through pain
That mission to raise these kids so they don’t breed the same
That perseverance through pressure
that tried to put us to shame
Rise as a flame
ignited by the passion for change
when we lose materials and values are gained.

The next phase of artistic expression has begun. WACS presents the opening installment of WACS Radio with the Raised Curtain. Your host will be none other than Ant Pearson, Founder of WACS Inc. WACS takes the freedom expression to another level. The substance and style contained within WACS proves that the pen is truly mightier than the sword, music calms the savage beast, and art is life. In these times of change and growth, WACS is here to provide a constant production of dialogue provoking material from a generation who rejects the myth of its generation’s apathy.

"With inspiration slain and they people drained
Times as they knew them would change".

These lines summed up my point of view on how times changed after the loss of both Malcolm and Martin. It became open season on any progressive movement within the Black community for J. Edgar Hoover and his Federal Bureau of Investigations. They were bent on dismantling any organization who decided to carry on the legacies left by these two great leaders. The people were aware and active during these times and that posed a threat to the government to the point they deemed the BPP, “the greatest threat to the internal security of the nation” These movements were suppressed through a government solution of death, division, and counter-intelligence. More and more political prisoners were being taken off the streets and served with sentences based on trumped up charges and outright fallacies.

If they weren’t serving sentences they were serving up service. The draft into Vietnam is a major turning point of our history. Lyndon Johnson was practically forced into Vietnam after JFK was assassinated. And there is where you see why John and Bobby Kennedy are mentioned within the piece. This war bought back many amputees and addicts. To this day, I  run into Vietnam Vets Downtown Newark who will express themselves to you about how they’ve been treated since returning from the war all for a dollar. I have studied enough history to form the opinion that Richard Nixon exploited that war, bought the drugs from Vietnam over to the U.S. (if Frank Lucas was importing keys, imagine how much the Fed was packing in those coffins), all to later form the DEA. The DEA’s first action was to further criminalize weed and other drugs the “hippies” were into at the time and push their product on the people, and of course their product was and still is highly accessible.  

This piece is about carrying on the legacies left before us while recognizing how the past has impacted today. This piece was written to shed light on 2 great leaders whose mere presence changed the course of history. The title was chosen after creation. The working title was Echoes of a Dream. I will admit that I chose Lorraine Audubon as the title for the sake of mystique. The title is linked to the Lorraine Motel and the Audubon Theater. Anyone who knows the basics of Black History understands the significance of these two locations. I figured that if you catch it immediately you would be interested in reading the piece, which remains ultimately a work in progress. Thank You for reading. Be well. OneLove OneNation!  

Anthony Pearson

 

 

 

Lorraine Audubon Phase I

Echoes of a dream left unfulfilled
When sounds of this magnitude ring no one is healed
This is what it sounds like when time stands still
This is what it looks like when hate turns real
John, Malcolm, Martin, and Bobby in 5 years
where did we go from here?

With inspiration slain and the people drained
times as they knew it would change
Ms. Lorraine Audubon
has affected our hearts with global pain
Our spirit is in question
Amid the depression
future revolutionaries are arrested
The unity of the community is tested
Add government drug sales that flooded the streets
Subtract multiple brothers who flooded cells in fleets
The revolution was being quelled
No means necessary would be dispelled
The movement suppressed through solutions
of death, division, and Counter Intel
That grandstanding Hoover plan
to disarm hands which rebel
Resistance led to sentences
indented into our consciousness
Deception with the perception of truth
staining the glass ceiling of a nation
embroiled in looting and raw feelings
Picture the watts when the lights went off
then the lights went off over in Newark
Now the city is charred
and filled with the national guard
armed with a curfew to create control
of an uncontrollable force
forcing the nation into regression of its thoughts
While the draftees return from the big V
to spend their days chemically imbalanced
under V A bed sheets
The balance of power greatly shifted
toward the Watergate Right’s hook
At the podium stands a crook
After Johnson’s failed Great Society attempt
the country was the hostage Nixon took
Passed bills from the latter years made it appear
as if progress was imminent through the shadows of fear
Who was to know what was near?

To be continued…