Chorus (16 page)

Lastly, I would like to thank Sol Guy and Dave Guenette for their expertise, hard work, and vision. You'll be hearing more about them as we move forward. Finding the right team may take years to take shape, but when it does, watch out!

And, oh yeah, Fuck You, to whomever deserves it. You ain't shit, punk. #justsayin

Saulito Bonaparte

Paris 2012

PHOTO BY ANDREW GURA

Acclaimed poet and musician
Saul Williams
's open-mic escapades with the Nuyorican Poets peaked at Sundance when
Slam
won the Grand Jury Prize, and the art world celebrated the arrival of a whole new kind of talent. He defied his genre's precious reputation and tore voraciously into the guts of life, groping after the exalted and transcendent sex sensations that make it all worth living. His early success led to collaborations with the likes of Erykah Badu, Nas, The Roots and Zack de la Rocha, and, descended as much from KRS-One and Public Enemy as Allen Ginsberg and Amiri Baraka, he was a new kind of poet. With each of Williams's great successes has come abrupt change. He has pinball-bounced from Morehouse philosophy scholar to cerebral street sermonizer to breakout indie actor, from hallucinatory hip-hop alchemist to dreadlocked mohawk rockstar, vibing Nine Inch Nails, scurrying across tones, modes, and media to defy categorization. He has read published poetry volumes to opera house audiences with full orchestral backing. He has contributed to the
New York Times
, voiced Jean-Michel Basquiat in
Downtown 81
, and cut records with Rick Rubin and Trent Reznor. Throughout all these chaotic ventures, Saul Williams has been one steady thing: an uncompromising voice determined to tap the adrenaline center of his existence with any tool he can get his hands on. Saul Williams is the author of four books of poetry. He lives in Paris. His website:
www.saulwilliams.com

Poet, actor, journalist,
Dufflyn Lammers
has brought her unique style of “page-to-stage” poetry to universities from Smith College to UC Irvine, and is a fixture on the poetry and literary scene. She worked as Arts & Entertainment journalist for
The Georgia Guardian
and Morris News Service (from 1995 to 2000). Lammers was the host and Slam Master of the Los Feliz Poetry Slam at the Formosa Café in Hollywood and competed in the National Poetry Slam from 2000 through 2004. She has appeared in
Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam
on HBO, in the film
Belly
from Artisan Films, and on ABC Television's
Eye on L.A.
She is the voice of the Baja Fresh “Spoken Word Radio” campaign and has appeared in episodes of
Criminal Minds
,
Entourage
, and more. She is anthologized in
Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry
(Manic D Press). Lammers lives in Los Angeles and is working on her first book—a memoir. For more go to:
www.dufflyn.com

Poet and lyricist from East New York, Brooklyn,
Aja Monet
—at the age of nineteen—became the youngest individual to ever win the legendary Nuyorican Poet's Cafe Grand Slam champion title (2007). Monet received a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Aja Monet's poems have appeared in
The New York Times
and in numerous international television and radio programs. Her first book,
The Black Unicorn Sings
, was independently published with Penmanship Books. She is currently living in Paris and is working on a book of science fiction. To see her work, visit:
www.ajamonet.com

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COVER DESIGN BY CHRISTOPHER SERGIO

ALSO BY SAUL WILLIAMS

The Dead Emcee Scrolls

, Said the Shotgun to the Head

She

The Seventh Octave

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Compilation copyright © 2012 by Saul Williams

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All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

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Designed by Ruth Lee-Mui

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-4516-4983-3 (print)
ISBN 978-1-4516-4984-0 (eBook)

Pages
197–198
constitute an extension of this copyright page.

The following poems are used by permission of the author:

“Strugglers Quarry”
©
2012 Beau Sia; “Thank Goodness”
©
2012 Andrea Gibson; “I'll Tell You the Truth That Hasn't Happened”
©
2012 Bekah Dinnerstein; “Rivers”
©
2012 Biafra Guillory; “Silent Jericho”
©
2012 Molly Jones; “Hold”
©
2012 Kristiana Rae Colón; “Portrait”
©
2012 Def Sound; “White Art”
©
2012 Kevin Coval; “Bloody Lilith”
©
2012 Ciara Miller; “A Bus with Wings”
©
2012 Jessica Care Moore; “For Erykah”
©
2012 Keisha Monique Simpson; “The Surrendering”
©
2012 Meghann Plunkett; “Libya”
©
2012 Suheir Hammad; “Lilith-Abi”
©
2012 Rhiannon Reyes; “For Those We Haven't Lost”
©
2012 Alex Jones; “The Ocean and the Sky”
©
2012 Rebecca Rushbrook; “Just Another Bump in the Road”
©
2012 Jennifer McBroom; “Rubble”
©
2012 Mirlande Jean-Gilles; “Bone Black Bones”
©
2012 Porschia L. Baker; “Whips”
©
2012 Heli Slunga; “Girl Bands”
©
2012 Jesus Garay; “Shug Avery”
©
2012 Chas Jackson; “My Perfect Silence”
©
2012 Regie Cabico; “Bridgette Anderson”
©
2012 Amber Tamblyn; “Truth Blooms”
©
2012 Kelly Baker; “Non-Verbal Learning Disorder”
©
2012 Bree Rolfe; “Love”
©
2012 Staceyann Chin; “Gender”
©
2012 Se7en; “No Homo Gazal”
©
2012 Geoff Kagan Trenchard; “I Hope You Know This Makes You a Fag”
©
2012 Jude Bower; “Fruit”
©
2012 Adam Lowe; “Talkin' with My Mother”
©
2012 Gala Mukomolov; “Gorgeous Disaster”
©
2012 Amir Sulaiman; “Finals”
©
2012 Justin Long-Moton; “The Salvation We Greet with Horror”
©
2012 Jussi Jaakola; “To Be Brought to Water”
©
2012 Rickey Laurentiis; “God over Lunch”
©
2012 Mike Ladd; “2 Truths and a Lie”
©
2012 Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory; “Lunar Flora”
©
2012 Sarah Martin; “Science Says”
©
2012 Erica Miriam Fabri; “When It Matters”
©
2012 Adam Falkner; “Bayuk”
©
2012 Rio Cortez; “India Trio”
©
2012 Sarah Kay; “Ramadan Reflection”
©
2012 Ainee Fatima; “Woman Friend”
©
2012 C. L. McFadyen; “His Portable Pale”
©
2012 Amber Reskey; “It Could Be Words”
©
2012 Taylor Mali; “The Crow Flies Straight”
©
2012 Quinn Patrick Kelly; “Sidewalk Neighbor”
©
2012 Taijhet Nyobi; “Apuckerlipse Now”
©
2012 Joan o' fArt, aka Kali Liberick; “Of His Bones Are Coral Made”
©
2012 Jacob Rakovan; “Disclaimer/In Case of Emergency Don't”
©
2012 Kwan Booth; “The Rose Has Teeth”
©
2012 Terrance Hayes; “A Note Bent in Amber”
©
2012 Peter Carlaftes; “Wiping Up the Dance Floor in Alphabet City”
©
2012 Patricia Smith; “Yolk”
©
2012 Corey Zeller; “A History of Violence”
©
2012 April Jones; “Air Max”
©
2012 Barry Grass; “My July”
©
2012 Rachel Trignano; “I'll Leave This Where You'll Find It” © 2012 Lauren Kaminski; “Leeches”
©
2012; “As I Enter the Night”
©
2012 Etaïnn Zwer; “Across the Street From the Whitmore Home For Girls, 1949”
©
2012 Rachel McKibbens; “Oh Ladies of the Light”
©
2012 Shanita Bigelow; “Rules of Engagement”
©
2012 Jennifer Falu; “End of Book Poem”
©
2012 Jasper Faolan; “Into Darkness”
©
2012 Connor Pierce; “The Whiskey Trail”
©
2012 Glen Byford; “Breathe Slow My Parent”
©
2012 Brett Bevell; “Seated by the Well of Limpid Joys”
©
2012 Sibylla Barthes; “Scavenged Tongues and Buried Whispers”
©
2012 Eden Jeffries; Kissing Caits Meissner; “Something Beautiful”
©
2012 Abiodun Oyewole; “KinShip”
©
2012 Queen Godis; “July IV”
©
2012 Sharlie Messinger; “7 Moments of Revolution”
©
2012 Kathleen McLeod; “Notes of The Ghostlike”
©
2012 Bonafide Rojas; “Handstitch”
©
2012 Carlos Andrés Goméz; “A Trigger Down”
©
2012 Dominic Viti; “Breakfast in Blame” © 2012 Emily Rose Larsen; “Transient”
©
2012 Joshua Kleinberg; “Connections”
©
2012 Matt Mason; “Mombassa”
©
2012 David Cairns; “Guerilla Garden Writing Poem”
©
2012 Inua Ellams; “Franklin Ave. & Anthony St., Newark”
©
2012 Tara Betts; “The Circadian Enigma”
©
2012 Ricky Ray; “Because”
©
2012 Ila Mira Kavanagh; “We Have the Right to”
©
2012 Vincent Toro; “Happiness”
©
2012 Victorio Reyes; “Sierra Nevada”
©
2012 Major Jackson; “Almost Certainly”
©
2012 Bohdan Piasecki; “Yolk” by Corey Zeller first appeared in
Redactions: Poetry & Poetics
. “No Homo Gazal” was originally published in
Birdsong
. “To Be Brought to Water” by Ricky Laurentiis originally appeared in
Callaloo
, Volume 34, Number 4.