Ebony Stewart – Punk Noir [Video]

By Button Poetry

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Ebony Stewart, performing at the Historic Victory Grill in Austin, TX.

About Button:

Button Poetry is committed to developing a coherent and effective system of production, distribution, promotion and fundraising for spoken word and performance poetry.

We seek to showcase the power and diversity of voices in our community. By encouraging and broadcasting the best and brightest performance poets of today, we hope to broaden poetry’s audience, to expand its reach and develop a greater level of cultural appreciation for the art form.

Transcript provided by YouTube (unedited)

0:04
(wind blowing)
0:07
– So me and all my bad ass walk into a bar,
0:10
a club, a runway, or just any day,
0:12
and I got my grunge turned up.
0:13
Got on all black everything, including my skin.
0:15
But make no mistake, I look good in anything.
0:17
‘Cause all my amazing popped into Bantu, or bald,
0:20
a Mohawk, I’m so punk rock, I got dreads for the dreaded.
0:23
Sis the curls on swirl,
0:24
but underneath it all, my nature be natural,
0:26
star-studded spiked, and a boss bitch
0:27
for anybody who wanna try me, I’m just saying.
0:29
I’m so hardcore,
0:30
I get to be a Black woman marching
0:33
through this life, swimming through all this pain.
0:34
Even while restrained, I reclaim.
0:36
Hold me down long enough,
0:37
and I figure out how to turn these chains into a crown.
0:40
Bust it down, and make sure it fit a Black woman aesthetic.
0:42
Magic be my heritage
0:43
with an unabashed identity call me,
0:45
“The Middle Passage Guru.”
0:47
DIY queen, yes honey,
0:48
no matter if it be fashion, music, art, or this body,
0:51
there ain’t a idea you could have without me.
0:53
Bush and tribe, the hive, the way we move, and keep moving,
0:56
non-conforming, proper, and hood.
0:58
It’s a dichotomy but, you the only one that’s confused.
1:01
Made a way outta no way,
1:02
broke the glass, not a ceiling gone.
1:04
You wanna act like a Black woman didn’t do it,
1:06
haven’t done it, and won’t continue to school you?
1:08
I made a subject out of myself.
1:10
So even when they try and stop me, copy, or erase me,
1:12
I reboot a futuristic somebody,
1:14
and still stay the same, touched and untouchable,
1:16
boxed, and bothered, persistent, punk,
1:18
pierced, and resisting, I got all this power I can’t use.
1:20
Made all these impressions,
1:21
but somehow my bank account got reduced.
1:23
My culture be endangered,
1:25
’cause mainstream get to try on my face,
1:27
steal my attitude, and make all my Black women trendy
1:29
without having to give a Black woman credit.
1:31
But I showed up.
1:32
(audience clapping)
1:34
Like I been doing.
1:36
Allow me to reintroduce myself
1:38
to the anti-establishment,
1:39
AKA, “Black women been, always will be, lit.”
1:43
(audience cheering)

—

This post was previously published on YouTube.

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