places and spaces
(
for my niece Ghana Imani Hylton, who rescues culture*)
to
Donald Byrd’s Places And Spaces…
come
let’s
go…
let’s
get away from this…
even
if just for a moment
or
for an hour…
let’s
just get away
away
from this worry
away
from this stress
away
from this madness
away
from this mess…
come
let
us go to that place and space
that
beckons us
over
oceans
over
mountains
over
time…
to
places and spaces
detailed
and precise
like
saturated rhyme…
for
that astral sequined season…
let
us go to that place
hydrating
hopes and dreams
and
cradling long memory…
to
that timetravelling transcending place
to
that braided glorious and seeded place
to
that prayerful candlelit calm place
to
that place
trumping
oppression
alienation and negation
to
that place
of
birth rebirth
life
love and ancient affirmation…
that
electromagnetic place that draws us in
this
witnessing sea of faces place
that
just might inspire us to win!
come
let’s
go even if just for a moment
or
for an hour…
come
let’s
go and be touched by its power
come
let’s
wet our dry and empty eyes
with
this wonderous art
come
let’s
be washed and rinsed
by
this ankh-oiled art
by
this wood warm welcoming art
by
this spheric soulful art
by
this concentric polyrhythmic circular art
by
this temple tight and towering art
by
this Hannibal Barca big and bold art
by
this pyramid prominent poppin art
by
this saxophonic soaring
melting
toxic ice art
by
this kingcrossed simba sure art
this
falcon full flying art
this
hurt hood rescuing art
by
this art beading our sour and sore eyes
back
to great places and spaces
where
we once were
this
art that clothespins our hearts
to
the rhythms of the wind
this
art that put back together
what
oppression took apart…
so
come
let
us take heart
come
let
us take part
come
let
us answer the invitings
of
these ancestral whispers…
these
whispers
chronicling
this wabembe
this
3 eyed medium
this
mathematically precise brushstroker…
come
let
us be held
come
let
us be taken
come
let
us be lifted
come
let
us be reawakened…
come
come come
and
let Wabembe’s
brushes
stroke
our
starving eyes
blue
sky high…
*Jersey based poet Ghana Hylton is the daughter of Newark wordsmith Sandra West and the late master artist Carl ‘Wabembe’ Whiteurs. Upon Wabembe’s untimely recent passing, Ghana was faced with the enormous task of saving her father’s lifetime collection of original works ‘inside a weekend’ from an indifferent California landlord who would have simply trashed them. Somehow Ghana was able to put aside her differences with her father disengagement, sojourn all the way from Jersey, and salvage a collection that will cement a place in their family’s legacy for generations to come…She is also the curator and owner of Akwaaba, a hugely respected showcase for visual and performing art in Montclair NJ...
(c)2017
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