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Ron Kroon / Anefo Restored by Bammesk, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Nina Simone, 1965
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Nina Simone
Almost sixty years
have passed yet
it could be today
she sings murder
oppression
protest in the streets
school children
sitting in jail
still a country full of lies
still Blacks die
Emmett Till to George Floyd,
still more and more
Blacks die
desegregation
do it slow
look for justice
go slow
call for equality
go slow
everybody knows
too slow
too slow
upset about
Alabama …Tennessee
could be any state
California …Wisconsin
and of course
everybody knows
Mississippi Goddam
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by Phyllis Wax
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As The Crow Flies
…..(After Nina Simone, Sinnerman)
I ran to my young dreams, broken dreams,
a universe of broken dreams.
I ran, gifted and dreaming of Carnegie Hall.
I ran but I black – and things fall apart.
I get so sick and tired.
I ran my head against so many walls;
United Snakes, they had me blind,
and I was sick,
and I was tired.
Rallentando;
I ran to your punches,
I ran to my harm,
I ran to the names you called me;
ran to a name I never owned.
A million civil wrongs don’t make it right.
And I so sick and tired,
so tired of being bitter,
a husk of a human,
the unintended consequence of being Nina Simone.
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by Isabel White
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Social issues are a major focus of Milwaukee poet Phyllis Wax. Her poetry has appeared previously in Jerry Jazz Musician and in many other journals and anthologies online and in print. A Best of the Net and Pushcart Prize nominee, she has read in coffee houses, bars, libraries and on the radio. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
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Isabel White has performed across the UK, at Shakespeare & Co in Paris and in Rotterdam. She was twice runner up in the BBC Radio 3 Proms Competitions; a finalist in nine others and poet-in-residence for organizations working with marginalized communities. With three full collections and a pamphlet under her belt, Isabel’s poetry has been widely published – in 18 books and journals to date. Isabel founded performance collective Alarms and Excursions in 2009, www.alarmsandexcursions.com
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Listen to the 1967 recording of Nina Simone singing Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released”
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