ACLU of Maryland presents a commissioned poem by Lady Brion

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ACLU of Maryland commissioned Lady Brion to write and perform a poem for Constitution Day 2021. Lady Brion is an international spoken word artist, cultural curator for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and director of the Baltimore Black Arts District.

Lady Brion performed and recorded her poem in front of Fort McHenry National Park in Baltimore, Maryland. For McHenry is known for its role in the War of 1812 that inspired the Star Spangled Banner, the controversial U.S. national anthem that originally contained racist and white supremacist lyrics.

LYRICS:

People of brown skin
Have travelled within these lands
Since before America could say her own name
Before America was her only name
But when her forefathers
Sign adoption papers
And birthed a nation
This skin was forever orphaned
That’s why I know, I will never truly be a citizen
I’m just an inhabitant
A body to count
A place to hold
That holds no merit
Holds no bearing
especially not the right to bear arms
But held in choke holds, often
By officers who police, no holds barred
We hold no water
Except the Atlantic Ocean
That holds a burial ground for the un-enslaved
Perhaps they knew the horrors these shores hold
That knows no bounds
This republic don’t reflect me

See the strongest thing a man can build is a social construct
No metal
Or material alloy
Can match matters of the mind
Manipulated
Men drew lines and called it colonies
Mastered race and crafted white-y
Created constitution and made a federacy
With their agendas organized politically
But My rights aint written in the bill of rights
No provisions for the non white
Took 19 amendments to even consider women outside of property of their husbands
And you can’t ratify equity
slavery is the foundation of this nation
So Aint no revisions just reparations
If you pay attention
You can see the black appendages
Still Dangling in the appendix
So to be clear this construct
Was meant to constrain me but does not pertain to me
No protections for the children of the 3/5ths
The constitution aint nothing but a prison
Word to the 13th amendment
This construct
Calls us to cast ballots
As if the selected will ever truly reflect my perspective
The elections rigged because the government always wins
The people are just willing participants
To be African-American
Or anything other than the  privileged
Who have never questioned their own existance in this nation
Is not as citizen
Is to be interruption  
this pen be resistance
Make gun of this tongue
And my intelligence be a full clip
They ask about all this rage
As if we're not walking explosions
And the constitution
The laws
The legislations
Aint nothing but fodder to the fire
And I promise you don’t want this smoke.
This system isn’t broken
It's workin’
Just to the benefit of white supremacist
The constitution has always been living
Able to changed and rewritten
So I've made a few amendments
All PEOPLE are created equal
This includes the entire spectrum of gender expression and sexual orientation
As such we all now have the privilege of white men in this country
Amendment three is for atonement
For the aboriginals who lost their land
For black hands who were made to pick cotton, for sharecropping, or made to survive in Jim crow south
For the casualties of the war on drugs and poverty
For the children of broken families
For the sins of this nation there must be a reckoning
Amendment four is for  the distribution of wealth and power.
It cannot only be held in the hands of a few
And finally we must amend the way we implement the laws that are written.
Cuz well written legislation can’t change moral corruption
So this is a call to us a  l to uphold the standards of what this country could be
A place where we could all exist freely
Because don’t we all deserve that?

LEARN MORE ABOUT LADY BRION:

www.ladybrion.com
www.blackartsdistrict.org
@ladybspeaks on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram