Up From Slavery

I’m going to throw it back to 2019 when I started reading Booker T. Washington's second autobiography Up from Slavery. Up from Slavery was seminal reading for me. It chronicles more than forty years of Washington's life: from being into slavery to rector to adviser for several presidents of the United States. In the text, Washington climbs the social ladder through grinding, manual labor, education, and relationships with great people. His autobiography moved me.

At the time, I was interested in sourcing sounds with my zoom h4n recorder. If you listen to the intro you hear me sampling Lucus Song, who is a cellist in the Paul and Susanne Weaver chair at the Dayton, Ohio Philharmonic Orchestra. I used my recorder to create the reverbs and drums.

The first verse about my personal genealogical history in contrast to the second verse about the stories I was hearing from young black men in my neighborhood from the West End of Cincinnati, OH. I bring these two narratives together through a powerful chorus that evokes the importance of education for the black population as a tactic to fight racism in America.

Up from slavery
Went from A to B
Teach me the alphabet
I want to go from A to Z
Now, I’m in modernity
Drinking the finest tea
Reading Booker T.
On my property

One of the oldest known ancestors in my family is Jesse Jackson. My great great great grandfather was born around 1825. Our oral history states that he was split from his sister upon arriving in America.

It wasn’t long ago when my family was in chains,
In 1825, we were in our mother’s land,
Now we are in a new land,
Built on our back, made with our hands,
No resentment here
If we did it then, we can do it again,
Buy some land,
Build a town,
Educate and elevate

Nick nack patty wack
Give a dog, Give a dog a bone
Pity that silly black
Tell that boy to go home
Until he double that, flip that, rinse that, hide that,
Dug that under two stones
Flip that run down, bust down building
The West End need new homes
We don’t own no land no more
Renting since we been born
Town from our pops,
We never had no time to mourn
Stuffing our soul with watching porn,
Thinking about my first born,
holes in my socks
I got holes in my condoms
Loving thots, loving thots
Tell me what you’re been through
Tell me what you’re gone through
Get up out of slavery
Get from A to Z
You can cross the sea
Plant a tree
and get free, get free, get free