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TaneshaNicole, performing at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul, MN.
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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)
0:01
this morning I contemplate calling into
0:05
work have the number dialed all I need
0:08
to do is press send but I do not know
0:11
what to give is my reason when I call
0:14
into a job it’s usually because I have a
0:16
fever
0:17
cold the flu feel so fatigued it hurts
0:20
to move I cannot tell my boss that I am
0:24
sick of being black can’t tell her I
0:27
won’t be in today because there’s
0:28
another Trayvon Charleston Ferguson in
0:31
my newsfeed I can’t tell her that I
0:33
didn’t sleep well last night because
0:35
while I was on my rounds as an RA a good
0:38
cat user on my campus posts are going to
0:40
quote shoot every black person they see
0:42
and I still have to walk across the
0:44
courtyard to clock in and then it
0:47
happens an unknown man is spotted
0:51
trenchcoat and mask with a briefcase and
0:54
it’s my boss this isn’t a family
0:57
emergency the migraine I have from
1:00
crying because I know that my survival
1:03
depends on my ability to assimilate is
1:04
not a fever rising body counts and news
1:07
headlines doesn’t constitute as doctors
1:09
know Rachel fatigue is not viewed as an
1:12
acceptable reason to need a shift
1:13
covered but I do not know how to tell
1:18
someone that all of me is hurting so bad
1:21
I need to call in black there is no
1:24
acceptable data take the acceptable way
1:26
to take the day off to mourn and grieve
1:28
with the rest of my community when
1:31
everyone else
1:32
these black is his pre-existing
1:34
condition with no cure for the pain
1:41
you
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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