{"id":27018,"date":"2023-04-02T12:58:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T19:58:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27018"},"modified":"2023-04-02T13:16:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T20:16:30","slug":"nostalgia-for-gil-scott-heron-and-afrofuturist-voices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27018","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia: For Gil Scott Heron and Afrofuturist Voices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n
Nostalgia: For Gil Scott Heron and Afrofuturist Voices<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Nostalgia isn\u2019t looking back longingly on the past
\nIt\u2019s living in the now as a shadow of who and what we once wereNo
\nNot a shadow
\nBut an echo
\nOr
\nMaybe a link in a chain of causalities<\/p>\n

I reminisce about how Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon
\nAnd I forgive our trippy President for tripping
\nFor he knew not what he did<\/p>\n

He bought America some time with low interest socio-political emotional payments decade after decade
\nCulminating in the Orange Balloon Payment who is Dolt 45
\nAnd aspires to be Retribution 47<\/p>\n

This is what we would have called \u2014 back then \u2014 an \u201ceasy credit rip-off\u201d
\nJust look out of your window and watch the asphalt grow
\nAnd think on how everything is handed down.<\/p>\n

Especially debt<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a war on woke so I guess I\u2019ll sleep
\nPerchance to dream
\nLet my Afrofuturist soul fly
\nMaybe even time travel to yesterday
\nSankofa Bird on a mission to step on the right butterfly in the past
\nTo change our present<\/p>\n

Maybe I\u2019ll sit on a park bench on Florida Avenue
\nIn Northwest Washington D.C.
\nWith Gil Scott Heron
\nWish him Happy Birthday
\nAnd ask him about all of the places he\u2019s been<\/p>\n

Or take 95 South all the way to Florida
\nAnd Zipity Do Da my way
\nTo Orlando Florida
\nTo the future site of Disney world
\nTo discover if Walt Disney actually froze himself after death
\nIn order to become a reanimated Ron DeSantis<\/p>\n

Once everybody had a pistol
\nEverybody had a 45
\nWe thought we had some problems then
\nBack in the day
\nWay back when
\nNow Balloon payment AR-15\u2019s
\nTake children\u2019s lives again<\/p>\n

I see where we went wrong
\nDemocracy teetering under the weight of compounding interest
\nNever addressing the principal
\nOr the principles
\nMy dreaming shattered for want of cash payments at the point of purchase
\nLike we did with Louisiana
\nAnd Alaska<\/p>\n

American gifts that keep on giving<\/p>\n

Fentanyl is the new heroin
\nAnd death is the new methadone
\nOpioid balloon payments for failed drug wars
\nCapitalism asks how can we get them addicted
\nBut not kill the customer<\/p>\n

I think maybe the Sacklers came in hot and overshot on this one
\nAnd while they did stick many people
\nThey did not stick the landing<\/p>\n

Never mind<\/p>\n

Why weaken the opioid
\nWhen you can sell the Naloxone over the counter<\/p>\n

But not Mifepristone<\/p>\n

Play me an Afrofuture
\nPlay me an alternative reality
\nPlay me music of the three moments \u2014 past present and future
\nAnd like the Pur\u0101\u1e47aic Celestial N\u0101rada, clarify my vision with your music
\nAnd your panoptic insight
\nWith a thermin soundtrack by Sun Ra
\nAccompanied on harp by Swami Turiay\u0101nanda Alice Coltrane
\nLyrics by Amiri Baraka and Gil Scott Heron
\nAnd the Monsters John Coltrane and Miles Davis on saxophone and trumpet respectively<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s a jazz heaven then you know they have a hell of a combo<\/p>\n

Look back Sankofa Bird
\nLook back and see the past as you\u00a0 fly forward back into the future
\nAs we keep our heads above water
\nAnd make\u00a0 a way when we can
\nAin\u2019t we lucky we had \u2018em<\/p>\n

Good times.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

(By Heidi Lindemann and Michael Perry)<\/p>\n

(Image Credit: Sankofa Bird \/ Jeffrey Waller \/ Greene County African American Museum<\/a>)<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nostalgia: For Gil Scott Heron and Afrofuturist Voices Nostalgia isn\u2019t looking back longingly on the past It\u2019s living in the now as a shadow of who and what we once wereNo Not a shadow But an echo Or Maybe a link in a chain of causalities I reminisce about how Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[6336,6337,6752,6751],"class_list":["post-27018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-heidi-lindemann","tag-michael-perry","tag-nostalgia","tag-sankofa-bird","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27018"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27021,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27018\/revisions\/27021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}