2008 Portland African-American Read-In

Today I went to an event I've been looking forward to all week, the African-American Read-In at the North Portland Library.

Presented in part by the Portland chapter of the International Reading Association, the event encourages and highlights literacy by bringing works by Black authors to life during and afternoon of readings by prominent locals who come out and read their favorite works during the afternoon event.

I will readily admit that a great deal of my motivation to leave the house (a rarity on my few days off) was to see J. California Cooper again. She's such a delightful person that I wouldn't miss a chance to see her, and I'll confess that I got a bit spoiled seeing her all the time last year and miss it. Since I no longer am in a situations where I'm going to cross paths with her, I made a point of coming out and see her do her celebrity bit. She's such an amazingly lovely person in real life (kinda like Gertrude), I really miss having the privilege of having her come in my door brighten up my whole afternoon. The fact that she was an author I discovered later, when I found out by accident, glancing over at the fiction shelves at the library one afternoon. There was one of her books sitting there, right at eye level. Of course I checked it out, I'm nosy, after all.

It was a nice afternoon, and wrapped up in the familiar cadences I learned as an 8th grader in an old wooden desk in Ms. Delk's room, I listened to folks read both familiar and unfamiliar beloved stores, poems, and essays. One of the PTP folks read a poem by Sonia Sanchez that should probably be read at the induction ceremony of teachers everywhere. I didn't even know about it, but I'm going to reprint it here for your convenience. Everyday at the Humboldt, we say the Humboldt Pledge, which I happen to like, but I think teachers need a daily pledge as well, and for us, I think this poem is as good as any I have ever heard. If you need to refocus about why you're doing it, go ahead get together with some colleagues, hold hands and all that jazz, and read this baby out loud. You can thank me later.

I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield til I die.

I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield til I die.

i had come into the city carrying life in my eyes
amid rumors of death,
calling out to everyone who would listen
it is time to move us all into another century
time for freedom and racial and sexual justice
time for women and children and men time for hands unbound
i had come into the city wearing peaceful breasts
and the spaces between us smiled
i had come into the city carrying life in my eyes.
i had come into the city carrying life in my eyes.

And they followed us in their cars with their computers
and their tongues crawled with caterpillars
and they bumped us off the road turned over our cars,
and they bombed our buildings killed our babies,
and they shot our doctors maintaining our bodies,
and their courts changed into confessionals
but we kept on organizing we kept on teaching believing
loving doing what was holy moving to a higher ground
even though our hands were full of slaughtered teeth
but we held out our eyes delirious with grace.
but we held out our eyes delirious with grace.

I'm gonna treat everybody right
I'm gonna treat everybody right
I'm gonna treat everybody right til I die.

I'm gonna treat everybody right
I'm gonna treat everybody right
I'm gonna treat everybody right til I die.

come. i say come, you sitting still in domestic bacteria
come. i say come, you standing still in double-breasted mornings
come. i say come, and return to the fight.
this fight for the earth
this fight for our children
this fight for our life
we need your hurricane voices
we need your sacred hands

i say, come, sister, brother to the battlefield
come into the rain forests
come into the hood
come into the barrio
come into the schools
come into the abortion clinics
come into the prisons
come and caress our spines

i say come, wrap your feet around justice
i say come, wrap your tongues around truth
i say come, wrap your hands with deeds and prayer
you brown ones
you yellow ones
you black ones
you gay ones
you white ones
you lesbian ones

Comecomecomecomecome to this battlefield
called life, called life, called life. . . .

I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield til I die.

I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield
I'm gonna stay on the battlefield til I die.

Sonia Sanchez
Shake loose my skin: New and Selected Poems
Beacon Press
(c) 1999 by Sonia Sanchez