By Button Poetry
.
.
Xavier Alexander, performing at the Black Arts Matter Festival.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:03
when I walk down the street I am looked
00:06
at like a myth like a legend you heard
00:10
of as a child that you thought was just
00:12
some your parents told you when
00:13
they wanted you to behave this is my
00:17
experience as an afro Latino queer man
00:20
living in Tampa Florida
00:22
I walk freely on the land that was taken
00:25
from people that look just like my
00:26
ancestors and I’m often in securing the
00:29
fact that I am American like my mom
00:32
wasn’t born here like I wasn’t born here
00:35
but papi came to this country when he
00:37
was only 16 migrated over from a land
00:40
that often mistakes palm trees for
00:42
mirages but poverty see that’s exactly
00:44
what I’m talking about people see me and
00:47
see I ain’t pure see that I’m too mixed
00:50
I’m too stirred up to see what my
00:53
ingredients were in the first place like
00:54
what is you I’d be feeling like a
00:58
walking math problem
01:00
I don’t know how exhausted I am of being
01:03
tired of explaining to people that my
01:05
existence is nothing to be figured out
01:07
and you make me mad cuz I don’t
01:09
even know myself sometimes like what is
01:12
you is you black plus is Uchiko
01:15
parentheses a is your Fagor is you not
01:18
squared when x equals y is you wearing
01:21
plus why are you doing that dog over why
01:24
you act like that you’re so gay saw for
01:27
what the is this
01:29
23 years of living in this body and I
01:32
realized that I ain’t good at math and I
01:35
don’t give a enough to study yet
01:37
I’m constantly being studied from the
01:40
moment that I walked into a classroom a
01:42
Liberian my job a restaurant a gas
01:46
station the airport my own house
01:49
made this poem be the Cornell notes for
01:52
every nerd consi questioning my
01:54
identities my name is Xavier Alexander
01:57
geun-young
01:58
my mother taught me when I was younger
02:00
there’s a hyphen over the also tell them
02:03
to pronounce the Jang in
02:05
elementary school they used to pronounce
02:07
my last name as Grillin that is because
02:09
my body is a walking math problem and my
02:11
name is vocabulary that they have never
02:13
seen in their textbooks
02:15
I am Puerto Rican
02:16
and dominican and yes i am black no i’m
02:20
not she go but latino my sexuality is
02:24
completely fluid and it’s none of your
02:27
business to know who I’m or not
02:30
the way that I dress is how I
02:33
speak without opening my mouth I talk
02:36
with my hands because I am conducting
02:38
spells without you batting an eye so
02:40
stop asking me why I act like that and
02:43
if you must really know what the I
02:45
am the answer is quite simple I am me J
02:50
an unexplainable walking phenomenon that
02:53
just wants to exist in peace
02:58
[Applause]
—
This post was previously published on YouTube.
***
If you believe in the work we are doing here at The Good Men Project and want a deeper connection with our community, please join us as a Premium Member today.
Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS. Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: Screenshot from video
