Thursday, May 07, 2009

Trying to Get My Soul Back; Ousmane Sembene: Moolaadé; Marge Piercy: The Low Road; Blackalicious: Day One

[You know sometimes you really struggle to keep it together, to keep on track, and/or to be positive, in Blackalicious words, to get "your soul back"... three inspirational texts from three different mediums helped me out this very stressful week. The first was Ousmane Sembane's film Moolaadé (Senegal/France/Burkina Faso/Cameroon/Morocco/Tunisia: Ousmane Sembene, 2004). The other two:)

(Quoted in We Are Everywhere)

The Low Road

What can they do to you?
Whatever they want..

They can set you up, bust you,
they can break your fingers,
burn your brain with electricity,
blur you with drugs till you
can’t walk, can’t remember.
they can take away your children,
wall up your lover;
they can do anything you can’t stop them doing.

How can you stop them?
Alone you can fight, you can refuse.
You can take whatever revenge you can
But they roll right over you.
But two people fighting back to back
can cut through a mob
a snake-dancing fire
can break a cordon,
termites can bring down a mansion

Two people can keep each other sane
can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.

Three people are a delegation
a cell, a wedge.
With four you can play games
and start a collective.
With six you can rent a whole house
have pie for dinner with no seconds
and make your own music.

Thirteen makes a circle,
a hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity
and your own newsletter;
ten thousand community
and your own papers;
a hundred thousand,
a network of communities;
a million our own world.

It goes one at a time.
It starts when you care to act.
It starts when you do it again
after they say no.
It starts when you say we
and know who you mean;
and each day you mean
one more.

- Marge Piercy
--------------------------------------------------
(Courtesy of Michael Marchman)

"Day One" by Blackalicious

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