I am fortunate and humbled to have accomplished Choreographer & Dancer Natalia Duong (Stanford/NYU Tisch School for the Arts) be inspired by my contribution to the As Us Literary Journal in observance of One Billion Rising, All Nations Rising in Indian Country, and the Save Wiyabi Project. Thank you for this piece of art, Natalia, it is beautiful when one person’s art touches another person’s art. - hb
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to be frank
is a return and a departure
a mourning created in night
a soliloquy of absence
complete unto itself.
It is a celebration of embodied memory
Inspired by hakim bellamy’s poem
When Love Gets Home.
for those who never find Home.
It is for the words left unsaid.
An exploration of old truths in a changed body.
It is not intended to be melancholic in nature
[though there may always be something missing]
but instead a celebration of agency
and things that feel good.
It is a movement for the moment
When the blizzard coats the ground
so we paint our presence in the snow.
And it melts.
Natalia Duong
February 14, 2013
Visit the As Us Journal #VDay edition here.
Written for TEDxABQED and premiered on Friday, January 11th, 2013. Look forward to the video of the entire day of talks at www.tedxabq.com, coming soon…
Stand – hakim bellamy
You stand
Somewhere between
Who they are
And what they could be
Not an obstacle
Quite the contrary
But they can’t tell
Their only hint
Is the way you stand
You appear ready to fight
And dammit if sometimes…
They do not know it is for them
You are hands down
While they are hands up
In front of you
You take their best shot
And every morrow
Come back for more
Please
You are the space between
The end of every question
And good manners
Between a demand
And a smile
Between please and thank you
Between boredom
And the bathroom
Between bathroom and sh…
‘tuff we let pass for education in this country
You stand between pass
And fail
Between pass
And learn
Between pass
And future
You stood between Dr. Maya Angelou
And her degree
Her traumatic muteness at 8
And her ability to speak at 13
Between Anne Sullivan
And Helen Keller’s ability to speak what she sees
You stand between every single student
And their “Story of Me”
Stood with Mary Duncan in Nashville, Tennessee
Between a 4th grade Oprah Winfrey
And THE Oprah
And in 1989 you stood on her show
As she said thank you
I thank you
For standing between the spike
And the punch bowl
Between the wallflower
And the wall
Between the two kids
Getting a little too Lambada on the dance floor
Between the black board
And the clean slate
Between a paycheck
And a living
Between social promotion
And social skills
Between high stakes testing
And a high stakes life
You stand
With a backpack
More camouflage
Than campus
Always at attention
Even in a room full of pupils that lack it
You are a frontline
Of lessonplans waving sayonara from flagpoles
At half mast
You are marching orders
That have accepted
to stand
Between our lil’ angels
And the gunmen who have come
To give them wings
Between neck
And bedroom closet
Between bully
And believer
You stand between a sensible work week
And beyond the call of duty
Between the drugs
And our children’s self-esteem
Between banned books
And burnt out
And sometimes…
Between the bar
And the weekend you desperately needed
Like two days ago, already!
You are a Monday through Friday
Stand in parent for ME
And for every moment you surrogate life
I am away on my knees
Begging for you
And my child
To succeed
For as long
As you’ve been on your feet for me
I will stand for you.
© Hakim Bellamy December 31st, 2012
