Natasha Hooper – The Pied Piper [Video]

By: Button Poetry

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Natasha Hooper, performing “The Pied Piper”.

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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)

00:01
a German folk tale of the Pied Piper
00:04
speaks of a man hired by the town to
00:07
lure rats away this man dressed in
00:10
multicolored coat plays his flute and
00:13
draws the rats in with magic the piper
00:15
is a hero of the people until they
00:18
decide not to pay a year later he
00:21
returns to the German town and uses his
00:23
music to lure away the children instead
00:28
our Kelly marries alia at the age of 15
00:33
and we sing along to age ain’t nothing
00:36
but a number we find out that alia met
00:39
our Kelly at the age of 12 and somehow
00:42
our opinions of him stay on the up beat
00:44
the children’s choir learns the lyrics
00:47
too I believe I can fly in a flute play
00:50
somewhere in our Kelly’s home our Kelly
00:53
our Kelly calls himself the Pied Piper
00:56
of R&B and we make the excuse before we
00:59
make the connection after the first
01:01
allegation we thought it takes at least
01:04
two notes to strike a chord after the
01:06
second allegation we gave him three
01:08
Grammys after the third and fourth
01:10
allegations we ignored them simply
01:12
because we just really liked the songs
01:14
and all we can think about is the next
01:16
family reunion and who better to sing
01:18
for our Electric Slide and how else will
01:21
we step in the name of love see a rap
01:23
sheet these days isn’t worth the price
01:25
of the playlist at the cookout in the
01:27
German folktale the piper lures the
01:30
children away while all the adults are
01:32
distracted in church
01:33
most likely singing our Kelly tells us
01:36
he is devoting his life to the Lord and
01:38
an angel drowned out the video footage
01:40
our Kelly our Kelly hands us a hint we
01:43
give him back forgiveness he hands us a
01:46
19-minute song and the melody makes us
01:49
forget the definition of a predator
01:51
makes us forget all the little girls of
01:53
color that he wrote those songs for in
01:55
the first place and again no one speaks
01:58
up when black girls are abused like the
02:00
better the songs the more invisible
02:02
black girls become but this time we know
02:05
exactly where the cult is in the city of
02:07
Atlanta and still the town prefers the
02:10
Pipers music almost as if entertainment
02:13
is more important than the
02:14
allegations almost as if all their
02:17
voices together isn’t the right type of
02:19
choir and again rape and misogyny it’s
02:22
just another part of the culture tightly
02:24
woven into harmony and again we learned
02:26
that music is the best distraction and
02:29
the worst black magic we have taught our
02:31
girls they are everything short of a
02:33
symphony tell me there’s a music really
02:38
that special when one man’s voice can
02:42
sing over them all when we can hold a
02:45
note but can’t hold a man accountable
02:49
when the piper is realer than any
02:52
folktale we know and we surrender their
02:55
bodies to pay the price
02:59
[Applause]

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This post was previously published on YouTube.

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