Capstone2

 

Now Cole Porter said

Everybody’s got a job

Everybody’s got a dream

And my dream is to spread

This knowledge that I have obtained through

Reading and writing

Reading and writing

Reading and writing

But enough about that

Bring it back to the beginning

A man named Marc Smith

Old school Chicago

With a lot to say

Sat down and picked up his pen one day

Wrote to all his buddies

And he said ‘Hey’

Let’s get together and talk

And from those beginnings

Something was born

A poetry forum

With no one ignored

And we call it Slam, and truth be told

It was started by a man

Who wanted to be known

But he couldn’t keep it forever

And soon we see

That the Nuyoricans

Up in NYC

Led by a man

Named Tato Laveria

Took Spanish and English

And made them all mix up

Changed the game

Living in the barrio

Told people about

The struggles he saw ya know

Made us look, say are we really the best

The creators surpassed and may I suggest

That these men knew more, wrote more

Than we ever could

Took the personal poetry

Made it all good

And from there it exploded

Affecting everybody

Especialy a guy named

Amiri Baraka

Looked around

Said man I’m beat

Jack Kerouac said

Come, follow me

Learned how to uplift

People through his writing

A new Black nation

Made the world so exciting

Wrote about the struggle

Made us all understand

That our world can’t advance

When we’re putting down our fellow man

Time went by and they kept writing

Made it into hip hop

main stream, big timin’

Caught the eye

Of a man named Russell Simmons

Took slam

Made it into a way of livin

Named it Def Jam

Put it on HBO

Ran for five whole years

Man a hell of a show

Introduced us to the greats

Of our time

Like Shihan, Ivy, Mali

All in a line

They took this idea

Brought it out to the masses

Everyone started taking

These poetry classes

So that leads me here,

2014, and Scott Shipp 216

Learned about Shakespeare, Beats

And the American Dream

And as I stand before you

Bearing my soul

Just remember it all started

All began in Chicago

Continues today

With one man, a dream

Just want to be known.