As the first week of the Institute comes to an end, we will write for the benefit of others and ourselves. To do this, I ask you to reflect on some experience that you can use to teach the rest of us a lesson. I offer a broadside below that captures the first time I was placed at gunpoint at age 11 (4015 days after I was born) in the Ida B. Wells housing projects. This experience and others, mostly positive, shaped my decision to become a professor. We are the change agents we need. Things will not change until... The broadside is below:
Until…
By
Professor A. Tatum
Four thousand and fifteen days from my first breath
Cornered by the brown brick fearing death
Invisible in broad daylight
The wide-opened eyes closed shut by dull beginnings
Could not see me/himself
Because of what he was (mis)taught
Confused
Distraught
Blood continues to drip
On the inner-city asphalt
Until…
Until…
Until…
Yesterday, someone wrote, "no son wants to see his mother suffer." I thought of a piece I wrote several years ago that connects to the need to support women with the unbearable burden of raising young males without the support of fathers. Men must handle their affairs to recover all that has been lost and increase that which has been gained.
Until…
By
Professor A. Tatum
Four thousand and fifteen days from my first breath
Cornered by the brown brick fearing death
Invisible in broad daylight
The wide-opened eyes closed shut by dull beginnings
Could not see me/himself
Because of what he was (mis)taught
Confused
Distraught
Blood continues to drip
On the inner-city asphalt
Until…
Until…
Until…
Yesterday, someone wrote, "no son wants to see his mother suffer." I thought of a piece I wrote several years ago that connects to the need to support women with the unbearable burden of raising young males without the support of fathers. Men must handle their affairs to recover all that has been lost and increase that which has been gained.
Men Affairs
by
Professor A. Tatum
July 1, 2010
5:54am
Spewing forth from blood-soaked sperm
Consigned to a raucous life term
I dare stand idly by
To watch another sister die
Her breasts have been scorched
Her nipples ripped away with steel
Her soul cries out to the brother
Who fails to hear her appeal
She raises another alone
It becomes the burden she bears
The dullness of her soul
Castigates men who know not their affairs
Her acidic tears that flow freely
Because of the neglect she feels inside
Shakes me at the core
My manhood once again denied
My sons will be raised by a man
This indeed I agree
My own life is a wake-up call
To be the man God wants me to be
It is important that we develop a new blueprint. The voice, missing in action, is a form of surrender. The broadside below attempts to capture this.
Missing Architects
by
Professor A. Tatum
June 30th, 2011
9:25am
More than a million speeches and conference proceedings
focused on the intersection of my Blackness and dangling manhood
They talk about me in hotel lobbies and national newspapers
I am thought about by think tanks
I am scorned in the comments section following a news article about me
I have even become profitable in the worst way
They are given vouchers and federal dollars to save me
From what, is not clear
Church leaders have profited
I have made a lot of careers at top universities by folks who “address” my need in print
without addressing me
They don’t even have my address or telephone number
No one has ever called my cell
There are too many architects at the drafting board
without a clue
without my blueprint
all leading to unintended consequences
yielding the same image
My blueprint may help to make sense of it all
One line, one scribble at a time
Today, you will write a broadside that focuses on using the energy (physics) within to change those things inside or outside of you. Sometimes the things can be as small as an atom.
Today, you will write a broadside that focuses on using the energy (physics) within to change those things inside or outside of you. Sometimes the things can be as small as an atom.
We all can Be Equal
We all can grow
We all can lead
We all Can Be Positive
We All Have Good Energy
“ That Can Not Be Destroyed”
All We Need Is Time And To
Believe In Each Other, Care For Each Other And Help Each Other Put Down The
Negative Tools And Pick Up The Positive Tools.
We all can be positive men
We all can have positive
energy
We all can be positive
leaders
We all can help our community
stay positive
We all can come together as
one.
“Energy
is never created or destroyed, it is only transferred”
RR
Transformation
The size of
an atom cannot be measured
Just like my
desire to succeed can’t be measured
We have 7
billion billion billion atoms in our body
That’s a
hundred times more than the world’s population
It takes 8
months for an acorn to develop into a tree
It takes 8
months for a baby to develop from a fertilized seed
Time isn’t
always by your side because there is a time and date that you will die
If you are
living a negative life you have to transform it to survive
Nothing is
set in stone except the place you will die
Education is
the key to give the younger ones motivation
Personal
success can have a great effect on the younger generation
Anything is
possible with a little bit of guidance and motivation
We have to
better our city to make righteous communities
It won’t be
easy with a world full of negative energy
If we want
our children to live a better life
We have to
put up a better fight.
JN
Transforming Into…
Just Wanting to be
Like everybody
Else I Started to
Change into
Someone My Family
Didn’t Like
They Often looked
At Me As
If They Didn’t Know
Who I was Going In
and Out Of Jail
I Started to think
Late nights in My One Lighted
Cold Cell I would
Say To Myself How Did
I End Up Here
This Isn’t Me.
Trying To Impress
People Being Somebody
I was Never Meant
To Be But In On a
Road To Change Now
I See Things differently
I Cant Let People
Hype Me up to be Somebody
I am Not Supposed
to Be.
Choosing The Right
Path Now
My family Looks At
Me With The
Look Of being Proud
That I’m Not Doing What
I Used To Do And I’m
Proud of Myself
Because I am
Starting To Transform Into
A Responsible
Person And Someone My Younger Siblings
Can Look Up To.
DM
It takes 8 months for a
tree to fully deliver to a man
But it takes years for
human baby to find himself as a man because he's lost in his own mind or never
had a father to show him
Energy is never created or
destroyed, but a human can be damaged or ruin.
There are 7 billion billion
billion atoms in a human, but it takes 1 single bullet to destroy the body.
If we want our brothers to not lose their billions of atoms we gotta keep ‘em off the streets , keep ‘em in school , sports
If we want our brothers to not lose their billions of atoms we gotta keep ‘em off the streets , keep ‘em in school , sports
Bullets always comes
around but 2nd chances don’t.
For some reason we get
second chances to make the earth a better way - to
teach our sons and brothers a better path.
JC
What do I tell my people/children/myself?
Atoms 7 billion billion billion atoms in the human body.
It cannot be measured.
It be the little things in life that make you bigger and better person.
Like something u read yesterday
You want make something out of that.
The natural science that studies the laws and rules of matter and energy.
Transformation
What do my
people/children/I need to understand?
Educational Transformation
It changes by time and matter.
Education transforms you learning something every day in life
Transform your brain from learning it.
A change in form or appearance.
Educational Transformation
It changes by time and matter.
Education transforms you learning something every day in life
Transform your brain from learning it.
A change in form or appearance.
What do I tell my people/children/myself?
Atoms 7 billion billion billion atoms in the human body.
It cannot be measured.
It be the little things in life that make you bigger and better person.
Like something u read yesterday
You want make something out of that.
The natural science that studies the laws and rules of matter and energy.
Highlight
the element of time (the acorn and the oak tree)
Transformation
Spiritual acorn transforms into an oak tree
In 8 months
Transformation
Spiritual acorn transforms into an oak tree
In 8 months
LS
What do my people/children/I need to understand ?
We need to understand that transformation takes time
We need to Pace ourselves.
Nothing Has To Be Rushed.
We need to Pace ourselves.
Nothing Has To Be Rushed.
What do I tell my people/children/myself ?
That its very important that You Pace Yourself & that
You motivate yourself .
Keep Track of The Good Reasons & Never Down Yourself.
The Acorn and the oak tree came from the same thing
But it took growth & Time To Become Bigger
Keep Track of The Good Reasons & Never Down Yourself.
The Acorn and the oak tree came from the same thing
But it took growth & Time To Become Bigger
SD
The physics of self
What is the
difference between a cat and a lion? The cat is small and cute. It could be a pet. Cats sit around and eat. A lion is a big, scary, wild
animal. They go hunting to feed their kids and protect their kids from preys. Sometimes a scary and big wild animal ain't a
wild animal when it comes to family or someone they care about. Energy is never
created or destroyed, it is only transferred.
Because I have a case
I'm not a bad person
Ask my sister
From her mouth you
will hear positive comments
What makes other
people see me
Where I came from
The Case
They start to look at
me different
The energy transfers from my aunts and uncles
I don’t know what
message I want to end this with
But there is a
message
While others think
that I am the prey
I feel like I am
being preyed upon
People sometimes just
makes the wrong decisions and then people would look at them different.
OC
Transformation on Earth
Energy is not something that is made up.
But everything
changes. It depends on how you want it or what you put into it
You can transform intellectually, physically, emotionally, etc
I think changing how you work is more transformation than
changing yourself
It allows you to do things differently with more expansion
They also changing my community as well
They knocked all the row houses down in the bad communities just to build
The same one in the good ones
everything is changing
And, it's
not about what you change it into; it's about how you change
EJ
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