Although I didn't make it to Chicago, I want to share some poems and why I decided to write these poems. One for the late Johnnie Mae Dunson, the other for the late Wesley Willis and Paraplegic MC. I had a multimedia presentation set up with my reading oh well at least you can read some of my poems. ENJOY
Leroy F. Moore Jr. aka The Black Kripple’s Love & Dedications gives my heart through my poetry to my Black disabled community and to Black Chicagoans with disabilities who have lit up the mic from Boogie Woogie Blues to romantic Soul to head banging Rock to Dance Hall House to Hip-Hop on May 18th 6pm @ Poetry Foundation in the Windy City as part of Bodies of Work Festival. Love & Dedications was suppose to give dedication and shout outs through poetry including song and PowerPoint that will mention Johnnie Mae Dunson, Cripple Clarence Lofton, Walter Jackson, Paul Johnson, Paraplegic MC, Wesley Willis disabled musicians who had/have some kind of ties to Chicago. Leroy’s Love & Dedication was planned to be more than a poetry reading, it was going to be a chance to display not only the love but recognize and honor some Black disabled musicians from yesterday to today.
OWED To Johnnie Ma Dunson
How can I write about you
Am I too young need to learn more
I hear you “let it go son, speak the truth!”
Now I’m ready just like Langston Hughes
I’ll talk my blues song on stages
Big Boss Lady still rattling cages
Chicago’s wind blows
Your lyrics through Maxwell street
Where you use to be
From cane to wheelchair
Doctors said you had a weak heart
Wouldn’t survive pass fourteen
First Blues lady on the drums
Making every heart beat
Raw & gritty people got up on their feat
Record business cheated
Gave no respect
Just take take take
Was collecting cans from the streets
Listen & you’ll feel her in your gut
She wolf kicking your butt
Howling & moaning can’t shut her up
Obama who is your momma
She sang “I’m a Whole Lotta of Woman”
Muddy Walters couldn’t swim in her ocean
Books and books of songs
Men begging her to write
But never copyright
Got rip off blind
Just like blind Bluesmen
Should have worked together but didn’t happen
Hold it Johnnie I got to get down dirty
So evil evil can be
Got the Blues
Cause that shit was evil so evil
Jonnie wrote for Jimmy Reed
Women always behind the scenes
Pulling the strings
In 2000 Big Boss Lady appeared
Her first and only from her stomach to your ear
Deep dark Blues 60 plus years made up her career
Back then men controlled everything
Sexism in the music industry
Force to be Big Boss Lady
Was that or nothing
Forget about the bling bling
Just write the true Blues Herstory
With the Black women & disability community
How Am I doing Big Boss Lady
She told me, “son bring it back home”
Ok ok for you out there and everywhere
Johnnie Mae told me to say
She’s the mother & Grandmother of the Blues
Chicago, you got to know you hear me Chicago you got to know
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The Meeting of Music
In a different time & place
They would of met face to face
Being proud of their identities
Giving a middle finger to the music industry
Why didn’t they met years ago
Heads hang down low
As they share the same streets
In the windy city
Both on stages
Writing lyrics on pages
Hard Rock to Hip-Hop
They shared so much but its not enough
Two Black disabled men did their thing
From Hip-Hop Church to The Empty Bottle
Their music was inside and outside
Filling up record stores in Chicago
He needed a ramp
He needed his medicine
Society sometime don’t provide
Just give them a mic & everything will be fine
Both on the streets
Displaying their talents
In disability pride parade and on the corner
Both trying to pay the rent
Like Blues artists on Maxwell Street
How much thing change
A lot stays the same
So sad
both still don’t know each other’s names
Hope this poem solves that today
Believe me Paraplegic MC
The whistle of the wind is
The spirit of Wesley Willis
Telling us that it’s time to blend
Rock & Rap and to comprehend
No more audience its time we sing to each other
Stepping in footprints realizing we r brothers
Wesley Willis screamed Chronic Schizophrenia
Now Paraplegic MC asking Feel That
Both want you to see open your mind right back atcha
The meeting of music without cooperate media
Chi-town has a long disabled music history
I’m here to speak some of these stories
Its time we get on down to their rhythms
Leroy Moore
2013