Smart big awards and prize money
\nIs killing off black poetry
\nIt\u2019s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
\nThe lure of meeting royalty
\nAnd touching high society
\nIs damping creativity and eating at our heart.<\/p>\n
The ancestors would turn in graves Don\u2019t take my word, go check the verse Take your prize, now write more, What happened to the verse of fire We keep getting this beating Taken from Too Black, Too Strong<\/cite>. Published by Bloodaxe Books (2001)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Smart big awards and prize money Is killing off black poetry It\u2019s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art. The lure of meeting royalty And touching high society Is damping creativity and eating at our heart. The ancestors would turn in graves Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[234],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emancipation-liberation","category-issue-14","tag-author-benjamin-zephaniah"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":5404,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2635,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions\/2635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThose poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
\nHow our souls were sold
\nAnd check our strategies,
\nThe empire strikes back and waves
\nTamed warriors bow on parades
\nWhen they have done what they\u2019ve been told
\nThey get their OBE<\/acronym>s.<\/p>\n
\nCause every laureate gets worse
\nA family that you cannot fault as muse will mess your mind,
\nAnd yeah, you may fatten your purse
\nAnd surely they will check you first when subjects need to be amused
\nWith paid for prose and rhymes.<\/p>\n
\nFaster,
\nFuck the truth
\nNow you\u2019re an actor do not fault your benefactor
\nWrite, publish and review,
\nYou look like a dreadlocks Rasta,
\nYou look like a ghetto blaster,
\nBut you can\u2019t diss your paymaster
\nAnd bite the hand that feeds you.<\/p>\n
\nCursing cool the empire
\nWhat happened to the soul rebel that Marley had in mind,
\nThis bloodstained, stolen empire rewards you and you conspire,
\n(Yes Marley said that time will tell)
\nNow look they\u2019ve gone and joined.<\/p>\n
\nIt\u2019s bad history repeating
\nIt reminds me of those capitalists that say
\n\u2018Look you have a choice,\u2019
\nIt\u2019s sick and self-defeating if our dispossessed keep weeping
\nAnd we give these awards meaning
\nBut we end up with no voice.<\/p>\n