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Chris Lilley, performing “Tell Them”.
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Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)
0:01
after carvings listened after I am laid
0:06
in the earth and before my bones get
0:08
drunk off the dry of the dirt before my
0:10
skin grows pale and pallid and my body
0:12
grows cold before my gravestone roads
0:15
like a tongue for getting a language and
0:17
my blood finishes watering the ground
0:18
tell them about me tell them that I
0:21
loved mangoes but I hate a grapefruit
0:23
tell them that I loved good coffee and
0:24
bad coffee and just coffee and when you
0:27
tell them about my love for coffee
0:28
tiptoe around the word addiction like a
0:30
minefield tell them tell them that I had
0:32
this dog yugioh card collection and that
0:34
technically mama didn’t want me
0:36
collecting them so they were hidden
0:37
under my bed next to Forgotten boogeyman
0:38
and dirty socks just another black boy
0:40
hiding things he has no business
0:42
collecting tell them tell them that I
0:44
sang gospel like Jesus was lord saying
0:46
opera like Mozart was president sang
0:47
spirituals like being dark-skinned was
0:49
safe saying soul music like Jill Scott
0:51
was BAE and always was day and always
0:53
will be BAE tell them tell them that I
0:55
sang duets with Fetty WAP loudly on the
0:58
subway you should even tell Fetty WAP he
1:00
would never see it coming tell them tell
1:02
them that I made bad jokes and laugh by
1:04
God Himself was giggling tell them I
1:06
knew what gods laugh sounded like well
1:08
God’s voice sounded like tell them God’s
1:10
voice sounded like Nana’s callaloo and
1:12
mamma’s oxtail and Papa’s rice and peas
1:14
and auntie’s curry goat and tell him say
1:15
that my god him speak Jamaican Patois
1:17
and him speaking raw but he also tied
1:19
his speech in a bowtie or got his words
1:21
wrote gulley whenever it was appropriate
1:23
tell them that God and I spoke often
1:25
that he said I was fearfully and
1:26
wonderfully made that that he don’t like
1:28
ugly but he don’t make ugly bus ain’t
1:31
nothing about this body this skin this
1:33
blackness melanin that he would call
1:34
ugly tell them he called me beautiful
1:36
tell them I started calling myself
1:38
beautiful and I began to love myself
1:39
tell them I loved myself tell them I
1:41
loved others tell them I love like Jesus
1:43
invented salvation just to meet me tell
1:46
them I loved hard tell them I love so
1:48
hard a hug for me it was like being
1:50
stuck between a rock and a hard place
1:51
and it was this kind of love that always
1:53
made it hard to let go tell them tell
1:55
them that I loved Legos but I hated
1:57
stepping on them I used to tiptoe around
1:59
them like a minefield and I was a big
2:02
kid who loved playing games like
2:03
Scrabble or Monopoly or life tell them
2:06
that I loved life I loved living but
2:09
living was a gift like living was a
2:12
birthright like dying prematurely is
2:13
unnatural like
2:14
crackling bullets to black bodies be
2:16
unnatural like melanin be magnet like
2:18
this body be hiding-place for nine
2:20
millimeter just another black boy hiding
2:22
things he has no business collecting
2:24
tell them I was black tell them I was
2:26
proud tell him I was hella black and
2:28
hella proud tell him I was a gospel song
2:29
a rap lyric a Negro spiritual a Baptist
2:32
him coconut oil shea butter cocoa butter
2:34
kenta oil a black fist afro pick in the
2:36
hands of a black fist raised in the air
2:37
but most importantly before they sully
2:39
my name with stories that don’t belong
2:41
to me before they put my shadow on trial
2:43
long after I am gone my name is
2:44
Christopher Sean Michael Lilly and you
2:46
be sure to tell them Who I am
2:49
[Applause]
2:50
[Music]
2:53
[Applause]
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
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