love poems: rivers and trees (for alton)

i think i love a ghostor a manor a man who may be ghost tomorrowthat is to sayi love he whose skin is worth its weightit is gold. it is black.or maybe his skin is the grim reaper's shadowmaybe i am in love with death's shadowand i just want to love him under the sunsometimes you are a riversometimes they make you a riversometimes they make your blood flow red, like a riverAlton, you are a river nowmaybe now they will call you by namethey will have to call you Mississippi or maybe Atchafalayathey can no longer call you felonyou, river, are mighty and vastthey cannot contain youmaybe you will take rootmaybe you will become a treeand they will eat from youthey've always liked to pick us before we are ripeor leave us, hanginghow much black flesh rots in white bellies, tonight?how much strange fruit rots in white bellies, tonight?have we not been served on silver platters, silver bulletsare they not full yet?is it a god complexthat makes them want to turn us into rivers and trees?is it not the seventh day? will they not take rest?are flowers just the ashes of forgotten gold black people?maybe this is what it means when it was writtenof earth you were made and to it you shall returnwill they turn my lover into a river or tree?will i have to learn how to swim or climb to be near him?if i sit under his shade, is it just the grim reaper following me?i just want to love him under the sun.

James Harrison: Untitled

[wpvideo yxqjg7oc] What I love most about working with the younger generation is being able to learn from their honest and earnest perspectives. Listen to James as he questions color politics and understanding history within the black community.Untitled:this is supposed to be our monthbut why do we have to celebrate our historyonce a month, once a year at one timeand that's only for the ones that noticei never wanted to come off offensivebut blacks need more than just one monthto be rememberedthis is just compensationfor the one twelfth of the yearbecause we were three fifths of a personnow is that fair?i never wanted to be national tragedyor neither a national treasuryi just want to be able to lookthrough the history books andsee what we did rightbecause February isn't justnational black history monthit's national minority montha month for confederates to say,"oops, we'll do better next time."the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juicethe darker the flesh the deeper the rootsbut how far do we date back when the blackwas forced to mix with the whiteand didn't make fifty shades of greybut the next generation of house slvesand now a hard history filled with cotton ballescovering rock spires not knowingthere's a deeper meaning behind what we saylike #lightskin #darkskin wars on social mediabut really mean #houseslave vs. #fieldslaveeven rap and hip-hop is corruptedwith images of black bodiescommitting all the bank robberiescause corporate America's scandalousthat's why they still can't handle usliquor straight to my livahignorance just might kill yahpoverty just might hit chahwhile walking home from the riverit's racismbecause we are constantly being force fed liesof how one shade of slave is better than the nextbecause after two-hundred years of overflowing hatredif we don't know our rootsthen why did we leave the plantation?

James Harrison

[wpvideo vMheZDn7]Name: JamesAge: 17Hometown: Baton Rouge, La (Scotlandville)

Love Is:

Love to me isn't really a specific, defined thing.  It's something that you actually have to get through to a connection with somebody. Love and hate, you actually have to tough it through with somebody , be with somebody, with all their quirks and actually understand and work through even if you can't stand it at [some] times. It's not just about giving up, it's also about that connection that you have to have with somebody and it's not always in a positive way. [Because] some people claim that they're in love but it's always a negative relationship. So you have to have that honesty, the understanding, that respect in the relationship and you actually have to want to be with the person, for them, instead of what they have.

Black Love Project x The Baton Rouge Youth Coalition

 I was recently asked to be the Poetry Slam Coach for the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition, a non-profit that works with high achieving, low-income high school students, preparing them to succeed in their collegiate careers. I will be working with local young poets and coaching them on their writing and performance, at the end of the season our goal is to compete in All City, a nationwide poetry slam for teen poets.Out of this opportunity also comes something I've envisioned for a while and I'm pleased to announce that  Black Love Project will be working with the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition in facilitating Griot, a creative writing workshop.  The workshop is a safe space for the kids to learn and discuss music, artists and socio-political statements of the African Diaspora. They will also be able to explore and express themselves creatively. Since a goal of Black Love Project is to gather black stories from black storytellers, these workshops will be filmed in order to give light and a voice to the young, gifted and black students of Baton Rouge.Griot will be held every Saturday morning at 460 North 11th Street. Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70816If you'd like more information or know of any youth who may benefit from the Baton Rouge Youth Coalition or Griot, please contact me directly: blackloveprjct@gmail.com