la la waka Toso Mallorca that is we look
within before we name our children for
they will bear our bones precious that
is what my mother at a tender fourteen
named her unborn child not knowing who
would come first
boy or girl just knowing they would be
precious but that is just one name
embedded like a pillow to cushion the
blows from the bullets that fly from the
pistols that are my names
Tolu on in me precious Ulua Familia a
lodge macare Arawa Tolu enemy is a
lightning bolt means to God I belong
because my mother labor nearly a month
shooting prayers like arrows at the
demons whom she would not allow to have
her child Ulua Familia is honey in your
mouth means God has given me joy the
kind of joy that has the strength to
endure two miscarriages and come home
after a 12-hour shifts to breastfeed a
baby whom she hopes will grow up to
speak English like the best of them even
now when she cannot express herself she
will sigh and say I once knew how to
speak that language I don’t know where
it went and I long to wrap her in the
womb of my arms tell her mama
who needs English when you speak the
language of heavenly love or lodge mocha
is a family heirloom means wealth value
together like a fighting prize but I
hide it behind my teeth so no one gets
too comfortable with me herua is a
legacy to beautiful daughter of the
beautiful one because my mother’s first
name is a runaway slave she shed the
chains of Kristiana for the royal
history of a dirty lassie she knew
she was a queen so she could not bear a
name that would mean one thing to her
colonizers and nothing to her tribe but
I used to hate my name once I gave it to
a boy and he returned it to me broken
mangled and ugly so I ran home begging
my mother to exchange it for something
he could love ice cream call me Anna
call me Sarah call me anything but this
I was choking on the cup of poison that
I had drunk from a society that told me
adaptation means renaming yourself
reinvent yourself in America two neat
slaps across the face was all the CPR I
needed she said to Lu WA do not reject
gifts from God your name may not be
refined like sugar that slips through
the cracks of your fingers but it is in
fact the sugar king that men must break
their teeth on before being rewarded
with the sweetness your name holds
weight every syllable is a drop as a
beat from the talking drum that your
ancestors dance to and though you are so
much more than your name it is your
crown so wear it
you
[Music]
[Applause]
within before we name our children for
they will bear our bones precious that
is what my mother at a tender fourteen
named her unborn child not knowing who
would come first
boy or girl just knowing they would be
precious but that is just one name
embedded like a pillow to cushion the
blows from the bullets that fly from the
pistols that are my names
Tolu on in me precious Ulua Familia a
lodge macare Arawa Tolu enemy is a
lightning bolt means to God I belong
because my mother labor nearly a month
shooting prayers like arrows at the
demons whom she would not allow to have
her child Ulua Familia is honey in your
mouth means God has given me joy the
kind of joy that has the strength to
endure two miscarriages and come home
after a 12-hour shifts to breastfeed a
baby whom she hopes will grow up to
speak English like the best of them even
now when she cannot express herself she
will sigh and say I once knew how to
speak that language I don’t know where
it went and I long to wrap her in the
womb of my arms tell her mama
who needs English when you speak the
language of heavenly love or lodge mocha
is a family heirloom means wealth value
together like a fighting prize but I
hide it behind my teeth so no one gets
too comfortable with me herua is a
legacy to beautiful daughter of the
beautiful one because my mother’s first
name is a runaway slave she shed the
chains of Kristiana for the royal
history of a dirty lassie she knew
she was a queen so she could not bear a
name that would mean one thing to her
colonizers and nothing to her tribe but
I used to hate my name once I gave it to
a boy and he returned it to me broken
mangled and ugly so I ran home begging
my mother to exchange it for something
he could love ice cream call me Anna
call me Sarah call me anything but this
I was choking on the cup of poison that
I had drunk from a society that told me
adaptation means renaming yourself
reinvent yourself in America two neat
slaps across the face was all the CPR I
needed she said to Lu WA do not reject
gifts from God your name may not be
refined like sugar that slips through
the cracks of your fingers but it is in
fact the sugar king that men must break
their teeth on before being rewarded
with the sweetness your name holds
weight every syllable is a drop as a
beat from the talking drum that your
ancestors dance to and though you are so
much more than your name it is your
crown so wear it
you
[Music]
[Applause]
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