A Tribute To Dudley Randall
- At the age of 9 years old I sat at my mother’s knee as she read a poem called “The Ballad of Birmingham” by Dudley Randall,
- Then something welled up deep down inside of me
- Something that at 9 years old I couldn’t quite handle.
- I remember crying, eating, sleeping and bathing in sadness
- But at the same time it awakened something inside of me and I wanted to be able to tell a heartbreaking story through rhyme,
- So I started writing poems and the more that I wrote I became better with time.
- Fast Forward several decades and I wrote a poem entitled Girl X about a young girl who lived in my old stomping grounds of Cabrini Green,
- Who endured unspeakable torture at the hands of a sick fiend.
- Then I wrote a poem called “Tales from the Hoodie” detailing the Trayvon Martin ordeal,
- It made the front page of the neighborhood newspaper because of it’s appeal.
- Then I wrote a poem called 16 Shots!
- For Laquan McDonald about a teenager
- Who was gunned down by a Chicago Police Officer
- who was arrested after a video surfaced
- showing the teen walking away and then the
- disgraced cop was sentenced to 6 years
- However, he only served 3 of them.
- 16 Shots! also made the front page
- of the local newspaper and I am sure
- It brought people to tears.