Jay Ward - 'Gentrification' - The Good Men Project

By Button Poetry

Jay Ward, performing at the Individual World Poetry Slam in San Diego, CA.

Transcript provided by YouTube:

00:01
in the beginning was the word and the
00:05
word begats amen and amen begats
00:09
paradise paradise begat a flaming sword
00:12
we get eviction begat you don’t belong
00:14
here
00:15
we got redlining but yeah you don’t
00:16
belong here either we got give us this
00:18
land back
00:19
we got urban renewal but get my
00:21
neighbor’s got a deal on the house I
00:22
can’t afford anymore Brooke Hill village
00:25
is one of the last areas of affordable
00:26
housing left in Charlotte Noda
00:28
used to be our Arts District we see
00:30
North Park and Lincoln Park and 4th Ward
00:32
is Chicago and Atlanta and San Diego
00:34
picture a house single-story 3 adults to
00:38
children’s 700 square feet shotgun style
00:40
meaning if you open the front door in
00:41
the back door a bullet would go right
00:43
through the house without touching
00:44
anything except here the bullet is a
00:46
minimum-wage paycheck the bullet says to
00:48
the shotgun they laid off and I’m
00:50
already fired the shotgun says to the
00:52
Baker yeah that’s the money shot the
00:54
banker says to the investor don’t fail
00:56
me now I got rent baby
00:57
the investor says the City Council don’t
00:59
fail me now I got ripped baby the baby
01:01
says well bitch I’m a baby but here’s
01:04
the point the baby plays with blocks too
01:07
they all play with blocks the gentrified
01:10
blocked the only block that can’t Milly
01:12
Rock block 8 hots block is guts block
01:14
don’t want you to live here because it
01:16
decreases the value but they want you to
01:18
shop here to increase the value the
01:20
block don’t want you but it wants you
01:22
the block is guarded like a flaming
01:24
sword like a word from a banker says
01:27
things like happy are the poor and maybe
01:29
the poor are happy because we still
01:31
understand what it means to pay last
01:33
month’s rent with this month’s check or
01:35
next week’s light bill with last week’s
01:36
grocery money or go to a job we hate
01:38
just saw a family we love can have
01:40
enough to eat buy but we still
01:41
understand what it means to have a
01:43
family worth it can buy for really it’s
01:46
happier other banks for they shall
01:48
inherit the land if happy are the poor
01:50
when does the child give way to the
01:52
pipeline when does the house give way to
01:54
the Starbucks when is your grandma I
01:56
have to move clear across town just to
01:57
make way for the new Kroger I took a
01:59
walk through the Arts District you know
02:01
before they raise the rent so artists
02:02
couldn’t live there anymore
02:03
and I was sitting at a bar and they were
02:05
playing underground hip hop music this
02:06
basketball players painted on the walls
02:08
I walked past the karaoke party where
02:10
college kids were singing the words to
02:11
Kanye’s gold digger except they only
02:13
knew the words to the
02:14
course she messin wit no broke niggas
02:17
and I’m responded right a lot of folk
02:20
love to be surrounded by black culture
02:22
but not necessarily black people let the
02:25
church say but here’s the point the bank
02:29
ain’t never been our God money ain’t
02:31
never been our Messiah we got too much
02:33
faith built up in family to convince us
02:35
losing a building could ever touch an
02:37
everlasting foundation work Hill says to
02:40
the bullet no the bullet says to the
02:42
shotgun no the bullet says to the banker
02:44
and to the investor to the City Council
02:46
this is my block we will not allow
02:48
another note on century Heights says no
02:52
paradise says no the word says ain’t you
02:55
the Paradise and ain’t you God’s
02:57
children and ain’t you been resurrected
02:59
before and ain’t this black and brown go
03:02
last forever forever ever forever ever
03:05
yes and ain’t this poem just a prayer in
03:08
the beginning was the word and the word
03:11
was a men
03:19
you