I’m Gonna Make A Change,
For Once In My Life
It’s Gonna Feel Real Good,
Gonna Make A Difference
Gonna Make It Right . . .

As I, Turn Up The
Collar On My
Favourite Winter Coat
This Wind Is Blowin’ My Mind
I See The Kids In
The Street,
With Not Enough To Eat
Who Am I, To Be Blind?
Pretending Not To See
Their Needs
A Summer’s Disregard,
A Broken Bottle Top
And A One Man’s Soul
They Follow Each Other On
The Wind Ya’ Know
‘Cause They Got Nowhere
To Go
That’s Why I Want You To
Know

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself, And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At
Yourself, And
Then Make A Change)
(Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah)

I’ve Been A Victim
Of A Selfish
Kind Of Love
It’s Time That I Realize
That There Are Some With No
Home, Not A Nickel To Loan
Could It Be Really Me,
Pretending That They’re Not
Alone?

A Willow Deeply Scarred,
Somebody’s Broken Heart
And A Washed-Out Dream
(Washed-Out Dream)
They Follow The Pattern Of
The Wind, Ya’ See
Cause They Got No Place
To Be
That’s Why I’m Starting With
Me
(Starting With Me!)

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
(Ooh!)
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
(Ooh!)
And No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change)

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror
(Ooh!)
I’m Asking Him To Change His
Ways
(Change His Ways-Ooh!)
[ Find more Lyrics on www.mp3lyrics.org/Dt ]
And No Message Could’ve
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make That . . .
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make That . . .)
Change!

I’m Starting With The Man In
The Mirror,
(Man In The Mirror-Oh
Yeah!)
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
(Better Change!)
No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make The Change)
(You Gotta Get It
Right, While
You Got The Time)
(‘Cause When You Close Your
Heart)
You Can’t Close
Your . . .Your
Mind!
(Then You Close Your . . .
Mind!)
That Man, That Man, That
Man, That Man
With That Man In The Mirror
(Man In The
Mirror, Oh Yeah!)
That Man, That Man, That Man
I’m Asking Him To Change
His Ways
(Better Change!)
You Know . . .That Man
No Message Could Have
Been Any Clearer
If You Wanna Make The World
A Better Place
(If You Wanna Make The
World A Better Place)
Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change
(Take A Look At Yourself And
Then Make A Change)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah
(Oh Yeah!)
Gonna Feel Real Good Now!
Yeah Yeah! Yeah Yeah!
Yeah Yeah!
Na Na Na, Na Na Na, Na Na,
Na Nah
(Ooooh . . .)
Oh No, No No . . .
I’m Gonna Make A Change
It’s Gonna Feel Real Good!
Come On!
(Change . . .)
Just Lift Yourself
You Know
You’ve Got To Stop It.
Yourself!
(Yeah!-Make That Change!)
I’ve Got To Make
That Change,
Today!
Hoo!
(Man In The Mirror)
You Got To
You Got To Not Let
Yourself . . .
Brother . . .
Hoo!
(Yeah!-Make That Change!)
You Know-I’ve Got To Get
That Man, That Man . . .
(Man In The Mirror)
You’ve Got To
You’ve Got To Move! Come
On! Come On!
You Got To . . .
Stand Up! Stand Up!
Stand Up!
(Yeah-Make That Change)
Stand Up And Lift
Yourself, Now!
(Man In The Mirror)
Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!
Aaow!
(Yeah-Make That Change)
Gonna Make That Change . . .
Come On!
(Man In The Mirror)
You Know It!
You Know It!
You Know It!
You Know . . .
(Change . . .)
Make That Change. . .

Written by Glen Ballard, Siedah Garrett, Produced by Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, Copyright 1988, released by permission.

Category: Healing

Without joy we sang,
without grace we danced,
our humpback rhythms colliding
with our sanity,
our beauty blanching in a hostile sun.

How should we, could we
sing our song in a strange land?

Through the door we have come
home to our kingdom, our own battleground,
not with harps, not with trumpets even,
but armed with the invincible sword and shield
of our own names and faces…..

Reference:
Naomi Long Madgett

Category: Healing

Bring back suspenders!
Bring back, Mom!
Homemade ice cream
Picnics in the park
Flagpole sitting
Straw hats
Rent parties
Corn liquor
The banjo
Georgia quilts
Krazy Kat
Restock

The syncopation of
Fletcher Henderson
The Kiplingesque lines
Of James Weldon Johnson
Black Eagle
Mickey Mouse
The Bach Family
Sunday School
Even Mayor La Guardia
Who read the comics
Is more appealing than
Your version of
What Lies Ahead

In your world of
Tomorrow Humor
Will be locked up and
The key thrown away
The public address system
Will pound out headaches
All day
Everybody will wear the same
Funny caps
And the same funny jackets
Enchantment will be found
Expendable, charm, a
Luxury
Love and kisses
A crime against the state
Duke Ellington will be
Ordered to write more marches
“For the people,” naturally

If you are what’s coming
I must be what’s going

Make it by steamboat
I likes to take it real slow…….

By Ishmael Reed, reprinted by permission of the poet.

Reference:
Ishmael Reed

Read more

and do not even speak of oaks.
they know the game, get better
and better and better at it .
they are the rugged type, born rough
and with no tender shoots.
they stand alone, majestic, and
are of the order of warriors.

a weeping willow minces.
it draws mantles about itself
and takes small steps, ever
looking into bodies of water
Narcissus-like, to preen
for itself and no other.
it weeps, droops, wilts, and hangs
with limp branches and
leans over the shoulders of
timid types

birches are adolescent boys,

standing taller than their heights
suggest, in groups, boasting and
leaning from the hips like cowboys.
skin breaking out in spots,
set rest-looking on sharp terrain,
not complete in form or
individuality, in mode not plain.

maples are pregnant, the Madonna trees
sugary motherhood enough
splash with quick, self-denigrating leaves
which are russet and reticent.
against the enthusiastic and the rough
they stand, making nutriment.
some trees are courtesans, some
whores, some priest and nuns.
but more are men:
statesmen, sentries, chiefs
granduncles, foremen and lovers.
There are people in them.
From time out of record,
Memory, or mind…..

And unto those they held in gloom, Gave ev’ry one their right; They did disdain fell slavery’s shade, And trust in freedom’s light.

Then unto ev’ry British blood, their noble worth revere, And think them ever noble men, And like them hence appear.

And when on Britain’s isles remote We’re then in freedom’s bounds, And while we stand on British ground, “You’re free-you’re free!” resounds.

Lift ye that country’s banner high, And may it nobly wave, Until beneath the azure sky, Man shall no more a slave.

And, oh, when youth’s ecstatic hour, When winds and torrents foam, And passion’s glowing noon are past To bless that free-born home;

Then let us celebrate the day And lay the thought to heart, And teach the rising race the way That they may not depart……

Category: Freedom

Be one with mighty hosts, an armed band
Against man’s wrong to man-for such full well
They know. And from their trembling lips shall swell
A song of hope the world can understand

All this to them shall be a glorious sign,
A glimmer of that resurrection morn
When age-long faith, crowned with a grace benign,
Shall rise and from their brows cast down the thorn
Of prejudice. E’en though through blood it be,
There breaks this day their dawn of liberty…

From: an anthology of verse by American Negroes, reprinted by permission of Moore Publishing Co.

Reference:
Joseph Seamon Cotter

Category: Freedom

Lucille Clifton, “homage to my hips” from Good Woman. Copyright © 1987

Category: Celebration of Blackness

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew.
Some view our sable race with scornful eye;
“Their color is a diabolic dye.”

Remember, Christian, Negroes, black as Cain,
May be refined and join the angelic train……

From the complete works of Phillis Wheatley, copyright 1988, Oxford University Press by permission.

Reference:
Phyllis Wheatley

Category: Celebration of Blackness

Read more

Marcus Garvey, © 1924 by owner. Provided at no charge for educational purposes

Category: Freedom

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask…

Reference:
Paul Dunbar

Category: Celebration of Blackness

Read more

If God forgive me, I won’t let you make me howl no more
If God forgive me, I won’t let you make me howl no more
You want me to do like a wolf baby, drag my tracks out in the cold

Now Christmas Eve is coming, and you want me down on my bended knees
Now Christmas Eve is coming, darling, and you want the wolf on his bended knees
You made me get your shoe, darling, you wanna drive poor me…

Written by Chester Burnett, recorded in 1959.

Made famous Howlin Wo’ Wolf

Reference:
Howlin Wolf

america’s
got all kinds of
attractive distractive
colorful
freak image
clown clothed
hypnotic animal

music, games, and rides.

and you
can lose a child
at a circus,
very
easy…..

Black residents of Charleston, 1865

*On this date in 1865, former Black slaves started Memorial Day in America.

This occurred at The Charleston Racetrack (below), in Charleston, South Carolina, after the American Civil War. It was to honor about 257 dead Union soldiers buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for two weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. With teachers and missionaries, Black residents of Charleston organized a May Day ceremony that year, which was covered by the New York Tribune and other national papers.

The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped the burial ground, building an enclosure and an arch labeled “Martyrs of the Race Course.” Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen, gathered on May 1st to commemorate the war dead. About 3,000 Black schoolchildren were newly enrolled in Freedmen’s schools, mutual aid societies, Union troops, Black ministers, and white northern missionaries. Most brought flowers to be placed in the burial field. Years later, the celebration would be called the “First Decoration Day” in the North.

David W. Blight of the New York Tribune described the day: “This was the first Memorial Day. African Americans invented Memorial Day in Charleston, South Carolina. What you have there is black Americans recently freed from slavery announcing to the world with their flowers, their feet, and their songs what the war had been about. What they basically were creating was the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.”

Today, the site is used as Hampton Park.

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History.com

AVCC Homecare.com

My heart grew faint to see him thus,
His dark brown face so full of pain,
I wondered if the mother’s eyes
Were looking for her boy in vain.
I bent to catch his feeble’s words:
“I am so ill and far from home.
I feel so strange and lonely here;
You seem a friend, I’m glad you’ve come.

“I want to tell you how our boys
Went charging on the enemy.
‘Twas when we climbed up Juan’s hill;
And there we got the victory.
“The Spaniards poured a heavy fire;
We met it with a right good will.

We saw the Seventy-first fall back,
And then our boys went up the hill.
“Yes, up the hill, and gained it, too;
Not one brave boy was seen to lag.
Old Glory o’er us floating free,
We’d gladly died for that old flag.”

His dim eye brightened as he spoke;
He seemed unconscious of his pain;
In fancy on the battlefield
He lived that victory o’er again.
And I; I seemed to grasp it, too,
The stalwart form, the dusky face
Of those black heroes, climbing up
To win fair glory for their race.

The Spaniards said that phalanx seemed
To move like one black, solid wall;
They flung defiance back at Death,
And, answering to that thrilling call,
They fought for Cuban liberty.
On Juan’s hill, those bloody stains
Mark how these heroes won the day
And added honor to their names.

March on, dark sons of Afric’s race,
Naught can be gained by standing still;
Retreat not, ‘quit yourselves like men
And, like these heroes, climb the hill,
Till pride and prejudice shall cease;
Till racial barriers are unknown.
Attain the heights where over all,
Equality shall sit enthroned.

Reference:
Olivia Ward Bush

*On May 17, 1957, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “Give Us the Ballot” speech. Dr. King addresses 25,000 people in Washington, D.C. at the Lincoln Memorial for the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom. He suggested that all politicians’ “betrayal” of disenfranchised Americans offered the ultimate argument for why the struggle for voting rights is essential to the fight for social justice, environmental protection, and peace. Dr. King (in part) went on to say:

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.

Give us the ballot, and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an anti-lynching law; we will, by the power of our vote, write the law on the statute books of the South and bring an end to the dastardly acts of the hooded perpetrators of violence.

Give us the ballot, and we will transform the salient misdeeds of bloodthirsty mobs into the calculated good deeds of orderly citizens.

Give us the ballot, and we will fill our legislative halls with men of goodwill and send to the sacred halls of Congress men who will not sign a “Southern Manifesto” because of their devotion to the manifesto of justice.

Give us the ballot, and we will place judges on the benches of the south who will do justly and love mercy, and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the Divine.

His speech coincided with the third anniversary of the desegregation of public schools in the United States. Dr. King was only 28 years old then and noted the “open defiance” preventing Brown v. B.O.E. from proceeding.

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Reference:

MLK Online

The Nation.com

gold from God in plain sight

No one had picked you up,

wiped the muck from the landscape of your face.

Gold, I tell you, left for me to find,

to polish. I won’t say to own—

we’ve had enough of that.

I’m no colonizer of your shores,

no conqueror to whom you must submit,

rather, a mirror that reflects what it sees—

the you that was me, the background that was your time

the spaces surrounding you, where I’d rummage

and find my own things.

Only grace could have offered

this circumstance to me:

the overlooked coin of the realm, a prize

for the one who picks it up,