1. Haiku #1: Columbus, Quiet
Columbus, quiet
Heavy snow falls through the night
White, green, yellow, red
2. We Used to Dance
We used to dance, we used to sing and play
Oh, those nights on the town
Made a family you helped raise
In our modest home now a palace, we praise
I didn’t go so they would not know
A surprise in this place, this lily-white space
With his name on the lease we could live here in peace
Had no shame and shared a name
Made a family you raised
On these streets of love and pain
We lived our vows through sickness and health
The rich and poor next door
Lean years of cuts, crack dens and vials
In playgrounds, by the swings
Yet found a place we could be free
As we marched D.C. in search of a dream
Our family you helped raise
In a home down ‘round the corner
from the future we dared not see
Coro #1
Son calles de amor y dolor
Bailamos tú y yo cantamos
Antes del futuro que no vimos
Creamos una familia
Que ayudaste a crecer
En estas calles del amor y dolor
Coro #2
¿Por qué me dices tú adiós?
¿Por qué dices adiós?
¿Por qué me dices tú adiós?
3. Love Can’t Live on Nostalgia
Why the change?
Was it my age, shape or name?
You like, tall, thin, glassy and clean
New, young with glitter and bling
Should have known this would come
Gold rush waiting game for grandma’s home
And brown folks paid nothin’ to leave
Some homeless now alone to grieve
No, it’s not about race?
We can’t keep the pace?
So it IS about green!
A convenient excuse for your abuse!
I don’t care, I’m deeper than
Where you’re going
My soul is built of brownstones
Turned to song, free from it all
You only saw graffiti on walls
Won’t you miss our memories?
The dancing, love and song?
This new world’s rich but empty
Can you tell me I am wrong?
We’re the food that gave you life
Making grooves in spite of strife
Flavors we could taste and feel
I “wait without hope” that we may heal
But I know love can’t live on nostalgia
4. Haiku #2: Life of the Playground
Old red fire engine
Kindly lets children climb him
Life of the playground
5. A Walk in the Hood
Where would he walk? Who would Monk see?
Hangin’ with Fats or James P?
San Juan to Sugar Hill?
Street of Swing to the kitchen a’ Hell?
Nica was close at the Bolivar
So too the building Belafonte
Monk’s Circle, Duke’s Boulevard
Passing Miles’ on his Way
Y’all know Harlem, the Village,
here too home of dreams for many new to town
To play with kings, queens, their neighbors
like Tommy, Max and Lady Day
Between Up and Down this town had shrines
Buhainu would preach, Konitz would teach
Long gone like the Jungle Café
These temples showed us the way
West End, Birdland, Augie’s to Smoke
Hung ‘till dawn, falafel and a toke
Music was the silent soundtrack
Of the lone walk home
Raised on eighty seven
‘cross from Richard Davis, Bookie and McCLure
Alan White housed Andrew Hill for a minute
and then an alien I am sure!
Ries and Beldon played the blues
Laughed with mom in the sun on the stoop
Walked to gigs with my first group
Draggin’ my amp and payin’ my dues
*
The clave was the key to the city
Heard all night and day
Quiet sounds of solitary revelry
Now loud out my window speaking of destiny
Disappearing down the distant avenue
Pulsing cars pour montunos on the streets
Driving tumbaos like heartbeats
Waking up the night to give us life
Oh those horn lines Mario and Manny played
After hour parties roused the sun for a new day
Where Sphere would dance and Dizzy held court
And Dewey might surprise you with a sucker punch
No wonder why the boy looked straight ahead
And hoped he didn’t see his axe, he had more to shed
The pulse of those walking bass-lines gave us life and woke my mind
Waking up the night to give us life
*
We’d seek Jesus by the stables for his miraculous herb
Cardboard boxes on the sidewalk by the curb
Break and spin before hip hop had a name
Pre-‘hippitty hop don’t stop’
When it was ‘bout life and not the game of fame
Today it’s silence, anonymity
Uniformity devoid of culture
Money absolved of sin
Without it the American dream
You can’t win
Streets of song, where have you gone?
Your melodies linger on
Black divas sang of love and loss
Brother Warfield Sister Price bade farewell
An omen like a sound of a warning knell
Hearts ached as the lady sang the blues
Another West Side story down the block
God Bless the child we couldn’t bear to lose
Been sixty years of goodbye
More and more forced to fly
Lucky few survived destiny
They’re the breath of history
Been sixty years of goodbye
More and more forced to fly
Lucky few survived destiny
They’re the breath of history
Talk to me, take me back
Let me walk with you
Through the hood.
Talk to me, bring me back
My only dream
is that you could
Talk to me, take me back
Let me walk with you
Through the hood.
Talk to me, bring me back
My only dream
Is that you could
Talk to me, take me back
Let me walk with you
Through the hood.
Talk to me, bring me back
My only dream
Is that you could
Is that you could
Is that you could
Is that you could
6. Haiku #3: Lost MJ LP
Broadway bus from school
Eight years old comes home alone
Lost MJ LP
7. My Home Sings
Hot breeze, heavy air, sweet sweat beads, we don’t care
Old folks take their time as we run just for fun
From open windows songs fly like butterflies
to flowers drinking tunes to bloom
All the while my home sings
Lullabies as we swing
All the while my home sings
Lullabies as we swing
Melodies drift from block to block
Through alleys and courtyards
Day by day a year has passed
by summer’s end, unknown we’ve grown
With songs our own
Melodies drift from block to block
Through alleys and courtyards
Day by day a year has passed
by summer’s end, unknown we’ve grown
With songs our own
All the while my home sings
Lullabies as we swing
All the while my home sings
Lullabies as we swing
8. Haiku #4: High-rise Kiss
First love, high-rise kiss
Twenty-seven flights above
Ballgame brawl below
9. Kid’z Rhymes: Remember This?
Remember that? Back in the day
Remember that? Did it our way
Kids on the street made a crew
And had a world only we knew
All before ten, runnin’ the block
From Amsterdam up to the park
All by ourselves, no mom, no pop
From the window they’d yell “stop!”
“You’ve gone too far, it’s time to eat
Don’t go ‘round the block
Get yo’ behind off the street”
Remember that? Back in the day
Remember that? Did it our way
Kids on the street made a crew
And had a world only we knew
Stick ball and double dutch
Hand ball and Bootie’s up
Cops and Robbers, Ring and Run
I’m the Indian brave, don’t play with guns!
Cadillac wheels in seventy-two
Down suicide hill oh please ride true!
8 cent stamp, dime for a bar
30 cent slice and ride in’a car
Hey, what’s a token?
This turnstile is broken!
Remember that? Back in the day
Remember that? Did it our way
Kids on the street made a crew
And had a world only we knew
(Spoken) What about this?
High waters, high waters can’t be beat
Fifty feet above the street…
Banana bikes, 8-track tape
Mugger’s money in a scrape
“Bike or your watch, you decide”
Run home to your mommy, you can’t ride!
Stepzies on my new white Keds
Some o’ those hoods got caught by the Feds
Home-made mix by Grand Master Flash
If I still had those I’d have some cash
Walk with an attitude, try an’ look cool
Think you gangsta’ or do you look the fool?
Hot days, hydrants with Coke can power
Better close your window or get a drive-by shower!
Late for dinner, dirty as rank
Take a shower, you know you stank!
Do your work and go to bed
Best behave! Said mom to Fred
But under covers checkin’ my tunes
Groovin’ all night in dreamland soon
Remember that? back in the day
Remember that? We did it our way
Kids on the street made a crew
And lived in a world only we knew
Kids on the street made a crew
And lived in a world only we knew
Kids on the street made a crew
And lived in a world only we knew
INTERMISSION
10. Haiku #5: Always Be Aware
After gig walks home
Guitar on back, dragging amp
Always be aware
11. Roses and Rubies:
The Cost of What We Lost
I saw roses, not junkies hooked on smack
Head down to knees or those jacked on crack
Dealers, hookers on the corner
Dollar joints through key holes
Dark empty streets, not a soul
But the ones that won’t mourn her
What was the cost of what we lost?
The cost of what we lost
What was the cost of what we lost?
Kids got jacked or sent to juvie
Drinkin’ Champale or smokin’ doobies
School cuts and gangs abound
Despite, some turned to rubies
In paradise, our bubble
Was a stage for future trouble
If you were blind you’d see
That story is not we
One made for news ‘n TV
A play for the bourgeoisie
Who see a glass half empty
Not the struggle to be free
In this beautiful community
What was the cost of what we lost?
The cost of what we lost
What was the cost of what we lost?
Roses and rubies were there all the time
With the trash, new homeless and the grime
Is life now clean? Like a glossy magazine
That they were victims is obscene
Run down by the money machine
What was the cost of what we lost?
The cost of what we lost
What was the cost of what we lost?
12. Haiku #6: His Bed is a Box
His bed is a box
Old folks, children wander by
Our neighbor again
13. Moses the Pharaoh:
Who will stay and Who will go?
Moses was a pharaoh, a prophet for profit
His eminence led the exodus, unholy domain
Freedom fled by edict from tenement to projects
Poor folk rode the ghetto train, unholy domain
Moses was a pharaoh, a prophet for profit
His eminence led the exodus, unholy domain
Freedom fled by edict from tenement to projects
Poor folk rode the ghetto train, unholy domain
But music, song and dance
Grew on the bones of San Juan Hill
Coops, co-opted and complicit, followed his commandments
Thou shalt worship at the altar made of bread, unholy domain
While we sang “let my people go,” his ears were deaf to the burning bush
Cranes came with the curse of Cain, unholy domain
But music, song and dance
Grew on the bones of San Juan Hill
Good street, bad street who lived where?
Doorman, brownstone, rent control
Mitchell-Lama, SRO
Side by side in segregated integration
On the banks of the Hudson River
Manhattantown called a slum
Vision of black paragons
Stolen, dreams are all but gone
But memories live like ghosts at a family reunion
For this hood within a hood
Who can stay and who will go?
The ones who danced the Charleston,
The remnants of the past, the lucky few
Heirs on time and those that pay to play
Mom and pop have left the shop replaced by another café
Moses was a pharaoh, a prophet for profit
His eminence led the exodus, unholy domain
Freedom fled by edict from tenement to projects
Poor folk rode the ghetto train, unholy domain
We wander in the wilderness
In search of the promised land
14. Haiku #7: Central Park Life
Central Park Life is?
Trees, birds, weed, love and beauty
For six it was hell
15. Finale – Spoken Word, Haiku #8
Spoken word
Like Sand is to Coral:
At the end of each summer, it all seemed smaller
No longer looking up at the sink
Seeing myself in the mirror
With no fear ‘go forth unafraid’
Life’s lessons made clear
Having faith that home is always near
I still recognize that neighborhood, home for many
Old, but mostly new, dissolving daily
Like sand is to coral, slipping through hands
A fading picture
Memories dim and disappear
But love shines through year after year
My father, mother and even gran
Died at home, loved ones nearby
Now I leave with no folk to say goodbye
These people who knew me from birth
Have gone or no longer on this earth
I’ll find a new life of equal worth
So, out of place I look forward
In the past I’d turn northward
But now I look within
My heart is the hood I must live in
Haiku #8
A box of pictures
Empty room once full of books
Dust flies free my love
16. Last Song: It’s Time to Say Goodbye
You’ve gone and left me now
Memories more beautiful each passing day
Our life was a vow
That faded as we turned to grey
A bygone time
Where love consumed all pain
And every crime
Washed away in the rain
We tried to go back
To those times that crowd my mind
But there’s no track
That keeps us from turning blind
You’ve gone and left me now
Will you think twice or bother to cry
We both know somehow
It’s time to say goodbye