Khary Jackson - 'Tamir' - The Good Men Project

By Button Poetry

Transcript provided by YouTube:

00:01
he’s dead now memory is the only room in
00:06
which we can hold him this was made
00:09
possible by the physics of puncture of
00:12
blood of oxygen seeking freedom from his
00:16
lungs as if his open mouth were a
00:19
gateway to God before the bullet he was
00:22
known to his family and friends as a boy
00:24
named Tamir after the bullet we know him
00:29
as dead one the story of hip hop is an
00:33
essence a story of the dead with the
00:37
help of the DJ dancers became breakers
00:39
breakers were dancers in love with the
00:42
breakbeat before the DJ the break beat
00:44
only happened once
00:45
after the DJ the break beat could repeat
00:48
and repeat as if a horn player with the
00:50
longest circular breath of all time the
00:53
story of murder is in essence the story
00:56
of a vinyl record with the gash on your
00:58
favorite song the moments of the murder
01:01
is the vinyl record preparing for the
01:03
gas his mother may or may not have felt
01:06
it coming the gash is more than scar
01:08
from caesarean section the gash is the
01:10
arrival of the squad car the gash is a
01:13
12 year old being to 12 for his own
01:15
breath the moment before the murder is
01:17
the longest circular breath of all time
01:21
he’s dead now and it is so easy to
01:24
forget that there was a life that
01:26
preceded all of this there were to those
01:29
lives merged in a rising of sweat skin
01:32
and want then conception then two lives
01:35
were three there are moments when we are
01:39
so used to miracles we forget when they
01:42
happen there was a time when all of us
01:44
were nothing but possibility a glimmer
01:47
of music leaked through an ultrasound
01:49
there was a moment a slow one when it
01:52
was natural to breathe within water this
01:56
moment was not a promise that we would
01:58
complete it alive somehow we made it we
02:01
did not slip away in a trail of red we
02:04
did not exit the water body with the
02:06
heart unplugged before blaring when the
02:09
bullet stills the heart and closes the
02:11
eyes how far does the eraser go to his
02:14
herons wake up each morning seeing
02:17
another hole where his cheeks had been
02:19
his eyebrows his neck does the memory of
02:22
his birth now address as torment is it
02:25
now impossible to bless the conception
02:28
the story of hip hop is a story of death
02:32
because death is only bone and scar when
02:35
it forgets how to dance when we forget
02:37
the power of the record the breakbeat
02:39
defined the gash what could a breaker
02:41
dance who if nothing was worth repeating
02:44
the beginning of the record has no
02:46
knowledge of the end the middle of the
02:48
record has no knowledge of the end
02:50
what could a breaker dance to if the
02:51
beat could not break bullets are made to
02:54
make things break so break break be the
02:57
water break somewhere right now a
03:00
swollen belly is slowly swaying to
03:03
D’Angelo’s black messiah the belly
03:06
compresses the sound and the baby inside
03:09
does not know the difference between
03:10
groove and swamp does not know what love
03:13
should sound like now black messiah is
03:16
angry black messiah carries too many
03:19
bodies the baby does not know the dead
03:21
names carried in every note of the album
03:23
the baby does not know when the music
03:25
will end or who will end it or who will
03:27
grieve it who will dance to wood who
03:29
will kiss it like vinyl and name it
03:32
death to mir I do not believe in the
03:37
eraser do you see us here now dancing
03:42
for you we are here right now we do not
03:49
grieve ourselves we do not lie still we
03:55
do not know we are dead
03:59
[Applause]
04:02
you
04:03
[Applause]