1 poem, 1 video, 1 artwork
circa 1986
[out wes(t)]
basement was november
compare(d) to de august
in de res(t) of de house
basement smell(t) like a raccoon
chewin on a banana laffy taffy
inside de furnace
cussin mary’s baby
& erything else
no worry to us
yo mama upstair(s)
wif gospel radio blastin
but i know her heard
u whisper god
so did de tree(s)
tree(s) always hear a god
layin on de cool of a basement flo(or)
a letter to when we were alive together blk!
Interdisciplinary artist and educator avery r. young is a 3Arts Awardee and one of four executives for The Floating Museum. His works are featured in several anthologies, periodicals and photographer Cecil McDonald Jr’s In The Company of Black. Young’s latest full length recording tubman. (FPE Records) is the soundtrack to his first collection of poems, neckbone: visual verses (Northwestern University Press).