The Last Poets Quotes

I always liked jazz. My folks had a lot of albums. My mother liked gospel. Mahalia Jackson was, without doubt, the crown jewel. I heard a lot of her. Ella Fitzgerald was in the house too and Sarah Vaughn and Count Basie and Duke Elligton. We were definitely glued to the tube when Sammy Davis was singing. When the Twist came out with Chubby Checker, that was a big deal. My mother was twisting, my father was twisting. I was trying to twist. Music was a part of everything. My first transistor had a little extension that I could put in my ear and listen to when I went to sleep. I listened to Curtis Mayfield and the Temptations and that whole Motown thing. I was in love with all of that. And I liked Johnny Mathis. I won talent shows imitating Johnny Mathis and Nat King Cole. Mathis was one of my favorites: I used to sing 'Twelfth of Never' to death, trying to pick up girls! All of that, I'm sure, help nurture the poetry in me.
Abiodun Oyewole 

Cognac because I do know how to weave the metaphors together into a journey and intoxicate you, to a degree. Just to make you so drunk that you can't drive. It's strong, I know it. Some people may need to drink some juice or water afterwards.
Abiodun Oyewole 

We were born May 19, 1968, Malcolm X day. We were dealing with Malcolm's ideas and his whole concept of self-determination and black nationalism. We wanted to be the voice of that. That was the impetus of our existance. I really could not buy Martin Luther King's program. The idea that we wanted to sit next to them in a luncheonette or a bathroom. You got to built your own toilet. Don't beg anybody for your friendship. You be who you are. You be respectful onto yourself and every living thing around you. You let them know that you're not having that and you do not include them in the category of respect. That goes for any race, sex or religion.
Abiodun Oyewole