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The Story of Two America's: Joanne Chesimard or Assata Shakur

by Prison Radio
On the main stage of the Republican National Convention, Governor Chris Christie invoked the name of Joanne Chesimard and spoke of her exile in Cuba.
sm_assata-shakur.jpg
We know her as Assata Shakur. Black Liberation Army veteran, poet, liberator, and a woman committed to freedom.

We are honoring Assata Shakur and her brilliant poem "Affirmation" by opening the microphone to our prison correspondents to read, reflect and respond to her poem. Listen below.

Middle school interns at Prison Radio recording "Affirmation" read by people in prison

Jennifer Beach, the coordinator of the "Affirmation" poem project said: "For those of us walking the rough road to freedom and justice, the poem's spirit of possibility, of hope, of keeping our eyes and our hearts open at the same time renews and strengthens all of us who fight the prison system from within its walls and from without."

----------------------

"Affirmation" by Assata Shakur

I believe in living.
I believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine.

In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs.
And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.

I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.

I believe in life.
And I have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path.

I have seen the destruction of the daylight,
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.

I have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
I have walked on cut glass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.

I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.

And, if I know any thing at all,
it’s that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.

I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.

And I believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home
to port.

----------------------

Reading of "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/melvin-ra=y/affirmation-110-written-assata-shakur-read-melvin-ray
(2:07)
Melvin Ray

Response to "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/natalie-=demola-central-california-womens-facility/natalie-demola-comments-affirmat=ion
(1:10)
Natalie DeMola

Reading of "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/natalie-d=emola-central-california-womens-facility/natalie-demola-reads-affirmation
(1:50)
Natalie DeMola

Reading of "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/bryant-ar=royo/bryant-arroyo-reads-affirmation-assata-shakur-139
(1:39)
Bryant Arroyo

Reading & Response to "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audi=o/khalfani-malik-khaldun/khalfani-malik-khaldun-reads-and-comments-affirma=tion-assata
(2:58)
Khalfani Malik Khaldun

Reading & Response to "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audi=o/uhuru/uhuru-reads-and-comments-affirmation-assata-shakur-204
(2:04)
Uhuru

Reading & Response to "Affirmation"
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audi=o/kenneth-hartman/kenneth-hartman-reads-and-comments-affirmation-assata-sh=akur-351
(3:51)
Kenneth Hartman

Affirmation
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/rev-pinkney/rev-pinkne=y-reads-affirmation-assata-shakur-156
(1:56)
Reverend Edward Pinkney

Affirmation
http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/shaka-nantambu-marvin-=walker/affirmation-212-written-assata-shakur-read-shaka-nantambu
(2:12)
Shaka Nantambu

----------------------

Assata: an Autobiography by Assata Shakur
Inadmissible Evidence by Evelyn Williams

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