EBook A -10-12-20 - Black Love American Style - The Punany Poets

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Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II:

Black Love American Style

Punany: The Hip-Hop Psalms II:
Black Love American Style

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Re: This collection:
Copyright 2020 by Holter Intellectual Property, Inc

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Copyright of individual pieces in this collection of works is the intellectual property of the writer

whose name appears beneath the title. All rights are reserved by the writer.

Bed of Contents

Dedication...........................................................................................................7
Good Love - PSA..............................................................................................8
Black Love American Style.............................................................................9
Unprotected Poetry......................................................................................10
My Heart Cried for Sister...............................................................................12
Make Love, Not War......................................................................................14
The Test Date.................................................................................................16
Without Your Hat - PSA.................................................................................17
Scott Had Heard............................................................................................18
To Die For - PSA.............................................................................................19
Inside My Little Black Box.............................................................................20
Punany Manifesto..........................................................................................21
The Head Doctor II........................................................................................22
The Head Nurse.............................................................................................23
The Condom ................................................................................................27
Underneath The Apple Tree.........................................................................28
A Prison Poem................................................................................................31
Jail House Pimpin ..........................................................................................32
Mookies Girl...................................................................................................35
Why Come?....................................................................................................36
Its Raining Baby Mommas.............................................................................37
Talk to Your Children - PSA ..........................................................................39
Footwear.........................................................................................................40
Slave Mentality...............................................................................................41
Pushin’ Punany...............................................................................................42
Dazzlin Darlin.................................................................................................44
All Love...........................................................................................................46
Abstain - PSA.................................................................................................47
Punany in Academia: Urabn Erotic Activist Theater (Doctorate
Dissertation by Doctor Raquel Monroe .....................................................47
I Got It.............................................................................................................53
I Won’t Be Angry............................................................................................54
The Sounds I Make........................................................................................56

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Hot Little Schoolyard Rhyme ......................................................................60
The Whore Who Bleeds My Blood Type.....................................................61
Every Time You Think About Sex - PSA.......................................................69
Grunge Girl.....................................................................................................70
Soft Lines........................................................................................................72
Hotter Than July.............................................................................................73
The Full Moon Stage......................................................................................74
Masturbation - PSA.......................................................................................75
The Second Sin...............................................................................................76
I am More Than My Hair...............................................................................78
The Stud and the Scorpio..............................................................................80
Booty..............................................................................................................85
Triple Play.......................................................................................................87
No Babies in Babylon....................................................................................89
Women in the Field.......................................................................................92
What Part of it Didn’t You Understand.......................................................93
The Feast of Saint Hood...............................................................................97
Sunday Afternoon in Chocolate City.........................................................105
The Crossroads.............................................................................................106
Eve’s Song.....................................................................................................108
What if Don’t Nobody Come? ...................................................................110
I Can Dig It....................................................................................................111
Rap ain’t Nothin but the Blues...................................................................112
Historic Moments........................................................................................116
About the Author.........................................................................................122
Special Thanks to For’Play Productions....................................................123
Special Thanks to Contributors..................................................................126
opunany.com...............................................................................................128

6

Black Love American Style

Jessica Holter / Photo by Femi Andrades

Dedication

To Womanhood
To Motherhood
and especially,
To The Hood

Model: Jessica Holter / Photo by Femi Andrades

7

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Good Love
is Hard to find...

AIDS is Not

HIPINC.ORG

Models: Slam & Krystal Hill / Photo by Carroll T. Smith

8

Black Love American Style

Black Love
American Style

by Ghetto Girl Blue

Kizzie’s tittie milk is still on your breath, Massa’
Even as you twist your mouth with
murderous sales pitches for your oily plan sir

You think you have won
with Condoleezza at your dick and call
But what if I told you we sent her to spy
and you ain’t niggah-balling at all?

What if I said she’s gonna use your own law
to put a Black man in the White house when you fall
dismiss you with her infamous half-smile
Blow a black kiss off her thick lips
with Black Love American Style

Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking sometimes
looking at them nervous little pink fingers
pushing dead presidents at me

But then I hear the last line, of the last bar, in the last song
$50 is spent accepted and tucked in my G string
I graciously thank him
and find my place
on top of the lap
of the next diplomat

9

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Unprotected Poetry
by Larry Jaffe

i had unprotected poetry last night
it was unexpected, you know
spontaneous
and we did not use anything
we just went at it
to keep the mood

it was incredible
but not safe

and now i am worried
cause it can be infectious and dangerous

to say things without a condom
it could be disastrous to speak without protection

and a guy should not have unprotected poetry
he should take more responsibility than that

not just leave it up to the girl
what kind of guy would just go off

without some sort of protection
what are the consequences?

i’m not sure
and
now

i’m scared

it was irresponsible of me
to have unprotected poetry

to not even ask or consult
her about poetry control methods

she might be using
or (gulp) not using

what if she gets poetically pregnant
and want’s to have my poem?

Photo, compliments of For’Play Productions

10

Black Love American Style

or worse,
what if she has some kind of poetically transmitted disease
you know, PTD
or what if I do?
and we have to wait and see what happens
taking regular poetry tests to see if we’ve got it

but wow, we actually did it last night
we had poetry!

how many people in this day and age
have pure unprotected poetry?

we should be thankful for that,
after all it was good poetry

we both really enjoyed it
we soared like angels with wings
never coming down,
just coming
poetically that is
what a high to hit that climax and feel
like you will never be mortal again
now that you have had
unprotected poetry
who can protect you?

now that you’ve had unsafe poetry
you want to do it again and again and again
cause you know it just don’t feel the same
with a poetic condom

it blocks off all feeling and the flow
and the words
the words
are stopped short
with safe, protected poetry
and i personally,
will never write that way again

11

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

My Heart Cried
for Sister

by Ghetto Girl Blue

“Givin’ up”,
she sang,
“is hard to do
when you really
love someone...”

Photo, compliments of For’Play Productions

12

Black Love American Style

I wasn’t even old enough
to be in that 99 cent theater

watching
her crawl

I wasn’t even old enough
to be responsible for my sins

still my heart cried for Sister

Now, on the poetic battlefield
I fight the fight with words

I hope will light a path to make a difference
for women who struggle with
male indifference

I fight the fight with my pen
for women who would sooner
give their pussies away for moments of ecstacy,
than look at themselves in a mirror

Who wants to look at dead people?

She was beautiful
even in that casket,
making room for her sister to Sparkle

Perhaps my own Punany Experience will kill me
like it has so many, who have given it up
too soon and to the wrong one

But, I implore you, when I die
do not put flowers on my grave,
just have these words engraved

Here lies GGB,
a mother, a poet and a minister

for all my life
my heart cried for Sister

13

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Make Love
Not War
by Ghetto Girl Blue

Brothers & Sisters
a change has come and we are at war

A change in the way
we look at people and at politics
A change in the way we feel
are felt
see and are seen

To feel beautiful, we must become beautiful inside
Loving ourselves more than we love the lie
You know, the one you tell yourself to feel secure?

Photo, compliments of For’Play Productions

14

Black Love American Style

(Everybody has one)

...Or the one you told,
just the other day to spare his feelings...
Yeah, that’s it
(It didn’t have a thing to do with
not wanting to compromise your security)

...Or the lie that bought
a nation’s loyalty with terror
You know, the one they sold us
to pimp our fear
to fuel their tanks
to buy and to spill oil

...Or the one that bought and lost your house

...Or the one that sent your man to jail
and made him a slave
Because the constitution did not abolish slavery,
not for convicted criminals or prisoners of war
There is a war on drugs and one on terror
Pick one
or fall in line for the massacre of human rights

To feel beautiful we must become beautiful
as a nation,
a nation within a nation,
and as family
and community
As human beings being better than we were
Rising above our greed and fear to Godliness
becoming Goddesses
not given to fight
until we know and believe in
what we are fighting for
As lovers & friends we must choose to
make love, not war
Only then, will we be soldiers

15

The Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Test Date

There was no point in asking him if he has or has ever had a sexually trans-
mitted disease I thought to myself as he rinsed a dish, placed it in the sink
and looked up hopefully at me like a puppy.

We had met only a few days before at the grocery store, but the physical
attraction between us was primal; undeniable. So when he asked me out,
I asked him over for a “Test Date”. Not sure what I meant, he agreed. I
cooked and served dinner. He lead me in an erotic conversation about
fantasies and fetishes; our likes and dislikes. Our compatibility was estab-
lished by desert.

He was handsome, well-groomed, world traveled, witty, educated and
single; He was almost too good to be true.

“You are the perfect man to take my test,” I said, watching him rinse and
dry his hands.

“Oh? I thought I had passed your test already,” He responded with a boy-
ish pout. A naughty grin stretched across his face as he got down on one
knee and reached his hand out to me. “It’s probably too soon for a pro-
posal, but I’ll beg if you want me to. I just want to make you feel good.
What do you want me to do?

“You don’t have to beg. Just finish the dishes. I handed him a small lab
cup, smiled, and tried not to sound insecure, as I explained the instruc-
tions to him. Without hesitation, he returned from the bathroom with his
specimen. I sealed it and my own in envelopes, to be mailed to the lab.

He was not only willing to take the test, he said, but he also respected me
for thinking of “The Test Date”. We spent the night in mental exploration
and I struggled to steer free of falling in love.

I was looking forward to seeing an “A” grade on his bill of health. If his
sexual skill was anything close to his talented conversation, we would be
graduating on our very next date.

Photo, compliments of For’Play Productions 16

Black Love American Style
17

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Scott Had Heard
by Ghetto Girl Blue

Scott had heard that men didn’t get AIDS from women
So he went inside Joi raw

He would probably never see her again anyhow

Joey had heard that you got more tricks as a woman
So he had the change, to become Joi

They will probably will be dead any day now

Model: Golden / Photo by C. T. Smith Model: Golden / Photo by C.T.Smith

18

Black Love American Style

When was the Last Time
SEX was good enough
to Die For?

HIPINC.ORG

Model: Eebony / Photo by Christopher Holter / Ad Created by Jessi1ca9Holter for AFACTA.org

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Model: Jessica Holter Inside My
Little

Black Box
by Jessica Holter

Inside my little black box
there is an enthusiastic gathering

Voices of anticipation
and of preconception

pierce the dark

I am nervous behind the curtain
I too, am in wait,

for The Head Doctor’s arrival

I push my thunderous thighs through her fishnets
paint her face onto mine,
have a glass of wine

fluff her hair beneath her Stetson
slip into her glass boots and step
into to the center of my little black box,
allowing myself to be devoured by her explicit plot

I become her muse
There is no script, just reality theater, Lovers,

and The Head Doctor
making a show of pregnant moments

to speak of fucking... sucking... and
creating Black Love over again

“I won’t lie, I don’t Lie” she says
“I give good head...”

What lovely couple shall I choose?

20

Black Love American Style

Punany Manifesto
by Jessica Holter
This is not a poem about sex.
This is not a poem at all.
This is a Punany manifesto
A literary crescendo
of intimate ideas
A stage upon which
your fantasies are lifted - to life
So you saw me on the TV
decided you wanted to be me
at least for a little bit
Show me what you got
put your tongue to it
live it, do it, be it
more than a watcher, here to see it
“there once was a whore and folks mocked her...”
tell me the story, woman;
become, “The Head Doctor”

21 Jessica Holter, Golden / Photo by C. T. Smith

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

The H Dead octor
by Jessica Holter
IIconcock-tions of love,
such a beautiful thought.

no lies lay here, in the oral realm of concentrated lust.

a perfect head that does not rest, until it busts;
sex is so much simpler than the

multidimensional love that is between us
but head, my goodness

the very quickness of the rush
just sends your lover soaring to a zone
your tongue and cheek, alone, control

open your mouth / it is wet
it is human / it is healing
and it is not illusory

there is no room for debate when the whole you swallow
to do it so well, is to make him call you from work tomorrow

just to say... “thank you, girl”
open your mouth, speak The Head Doctor’s truth

it is real.

22

Black Love American Style

The Head Nurse
by Jessica Holter

In her former life,
she was a gangster girl
who let gangster games
unfurl into the
musty curl of
her natural stuff.
Schooled naughty
n’ street tough,
just a diamond
in the rough,
she saw just
about enough
of those she loved
fall prey
to the deadly virus
they call AIDS,
so she refuses
to be a victim of
perpetrators of
down low love.

She wears a
single glove...

She packs an
AIDS test
in a man purse, she’s
The Head Doctor’s
Head Nurse,
bend over sir,
don’t you resist,
You won’t be touching turf,
but you will be coming quick!

Model Femi Andrades / Photo by Christopher Holter / Live Show2, H3BO filming,1999

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

No man can understand
He can not take her strength in strides
not one can resist the vice grip
of her enormous thighs
She’s holding heads in lock
from cell to tiny cell
army, navy, air force, marines
and all ‘round the block
don’t you ask and they won’t tell
they know her game too well
Don’t try to fight her
she’ll only make it harder
and before you get smarter
you’ll be stupid,
dumb and dense

24 Photos by C. T Smith / Live Show The Crucible

Black Love American Style

so simply lost in the game
of dollars and sense.

She packs an AIDS test in a man purse
she’s The Head Doctor’s Head Nurse
she’s the swan in the dive
she’s your hostess with the mostest
and the most you can hope is
to survive.
“Insatiable” is her name,
she takes and gives a lot
and her tricks of fame
are bitchin’ hot
Breasts like melons,
hips on swell ‘n
soon she can tell if
you are a bottom
She’s got
two cats of nine tails
and with her
golden finger
she turns
feloPhnotso biynCtaorroflleT.mSmaitlhes

25

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Let the gangster games unfurl!
Their souls are locked
inside her golden curl
Like a hoochie on the prowl,
she’s gonna make you howl,
just to think of the tendrils of her Punany
as around your flaming wick, they swirl!
She packs an AIDS test in a man purse
she’s The Head Doctor’s Head Nurse,
bend over sir, don’t you resist.
You won’t be touching turf,
but you will be coming quick!

Photo by Carroll T. Smith
Model: Golden

26

Black Love American Style

The Condom

The Condom...
Especially when
a brotha is fine.

27

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Model: Golden
Photo by Carroll T. Smith

Underneath The
Apple Tree

by Golden

He took me unexpectedly, while I was having a quiet
lunch underneath the apple tree.
The autumn leaves rustled as the warm wind blew.
(Why did I wear such a short skirt today?)
I thought to myself, as I let the wind
have its way unveiling my sun glazed thighs.
(I guess subconsciously I knew he was coming)

28

Black Love American Style

As I took another sip of my sweet champagne
I gazed into the cotton blue sky and my body began to sizzle.

The combination of drink and a beautiful day always
arouses my senses. I giggled
at the tingling feeling

between my legs and couldn’t help but to touch it.
As I caressed my crevice, I felt someone watching me,

my eyes wandered up... and there he was....
my crush... the one I fuck in my dreams.

Without any words, he says hello,
his hands holding my

face and his tongue tasting my lips.
Am I drunk from just a few sips?

Well if I am drunk, pass me the bottle
give me a hit, this feeling, I just can’t resist
I want it to last forever, got damn, shit!!!!!

My pussy is throbbing from just one touch
before I know it, my sweater is off but my skirt is still on

and my big tits are smoothing his dick.

Juices are dripping, my mouth is wanting more,
so I suck him all in and... hummmmm
For it is joyous to pleasure him,
as he fills my mouth I here him moan.

Sensational vibes shake my body, as he lifts me up
and glides me down his pleasure dome.
His hands are on my waist...
My breasts are in his face ...
and I begin to cummmm!

SLAM, Golden / Photo by C. T. Smith

29

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Euphoria overcomes my body and soul
It’s like I have lost complete control.
Bouncing my ass, faster and faster
moving my hips to hedonistic rhythms,
screaming with lust and desire, feeling this man inside of me!
I grab his piece without any hands and begin to pulsate it.
Now it is his turn to cum, but to his surprise, I am not done.
I slide off his stick and put my face on it,
I lick the wetness of myself and get hot all over again
spelling CUM with my tongue.
I want it on me, his man juice
I want it on my lips and dripping down my chin,
banging on my face and choked down my throat.

Do what you want with me!!
The pleasure of my orgasm is still apparent
my flower is dripping wet.

I want him to cum like I came... like I’m still cumming,
My mouth is juiced up
I can feel the explosion, splash waterfalls all over my face...

Oops.... how obscene!
There I go again, running away with my dreams.
My fantasy isn’t reality, but oh how I wish it would be.
When will he come to me?
Will I ever feel that euphoric touch?
That orgasm that I want so much?
The surprise of a man seducing me?
The sex that I always want it to be?

Oh well. Model: Golden / Photo by C. T. Smith
We will see.
Until then, I’ll be waiting,
Underneath the apple tree.

30

Black Love American Style

Model: SLAM A
Prison

Poem
by Jessica Holter
wounds open

in the salt mines of
capital punishment

1 million men
march to certain death

and bury their brides
down low

31

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Jail House Pimpin

by Kenita James

OK, so,
This is how it had went down...

I met this man, right? He had introduced me to his cousin Siren, who had
introduced me to his friend Gavin. But that didn’t work out, on account of
he had these huge slobbery lips, that use to drool when I kissed them, and
his spit, what tasted like cigarettes, use to run down my face, you bet, it
was nasty.

Now, I am what you can call a direct kind of female, I don’t kiss and tell
nobody else, but if it’s you that I’m kissin’, honey I tells the truth. You know
how ghetto girls don’t play! I said, I wasn’t trying to fuck an ashtray. He
said he appreciated my honesty, so we had made friends anyway. So then
he had introduced me to this dude named Pauley, who was still locked in
the pen, but on his way back home.

First he had gave me a picture, as soon as I saw that big buff niggah, sweaty
and squeezing a crocodile grin from his lips, I was like daaaamn! I knew I
had to get my spot ready, for him to come home to.

The first thing to do, was send baby Mookie, to live with Big Mookie’s
momma, since that’s where I told Pauley he was when I had wrote him the
third letter. I’m pretty sure it was the third letter, because the first one was
just about me and him, and what I was gonna to do him, when he got out,
and the second was an answer to his request for me to send some money,

Model: Ernest, Photo by Dayna Gaspard

32

Black Love American Style

which I sent without a single doubt that it was a good investment.

Yeah, I sent my son to live with his Grand Momma! Bitch, don’t be looking at
me like that, Mookie side of the family ain’t hardly put in no time. Besides,
don’t no man just getting out of the penitentiary, want to come home to a
screaming kid especially one that wasn’t his, and after all the love I had to
give that sucker, it was time for me to do me. So I did what I need to do to
get what I needed to have to live.

Hell, it was damned near 2 weeks since Mookie went back in, it was his
third strike, he wasn’t never gone see these streets again , and I, well, hell,
I simply need me a man.

So I made me a plan to get me this man, and I mean he was fine! Eight
Hundred Forty Six days of nothing but exercise of his body and his mind
- Oh, God, my sisters, I mean to say this mo-fo was fine! I found the find
that yall didn’t find so hate if you must, but trust the man was mine. I kept
money on his books, was there every visiting day and accepted every single
collect call he made.

He said, just talking to me gave him a taste of freedom. He said, I was a
warrior princess and that I should prepare his kingdom. He said WE would
change things when he got out, expose to the world to the system of prison-
for-profit and work so hard we would make money to invest in it, we was
gonna get stock brokers and shit. He said, we would start a corporation
charged that would free brothers just like him, innocent... and I was dead
set on going the painful distance.

So I gave up single motherhood, to fall in love and do some good, to be a

33

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

queen and wear this hustler’s crown.
I never thought I’d have to share it, with the other girls who held him down
- The president, vice president, secretary, treasurer and chief financial of-
ficer, all move into my pad, before Pauley was through, and reduced them
all to being my sister wives, with his pimpin’ prison jive.
But Pauley, he turned out to be a violent motherfucker, and I was, in the
end, just happy to be alive. Sophia, Marcia, Donna and Jade weren’t quite
so lucky, you see... they died in what you could call a corporate revolt.
The first by bullet, the second by drowning, Donna was poisoned and Jade
died while on his illustrious black dick she choked. The moral of the story
for me, was about how to date a G. First you pull his record and read, just
what they said he did, and in his letters read between the lines, to find out
just why he’s in the pen.
Pauley was a rapist and a murderer of women, who said he was set-up by
the man, but now my friends, as I look back on it, I simply beg to differ.

Photo by C. T. Smith

34

Black Love American Style

Mookies Girl
by Kenita James
Verse 1

Never had noticed
Pictures in ceiling stucco
Farmer milking cow

Verse 2

Mookie, hurry cum
I need to get my nails done
you taking too long

Photo by C. T. Smith

35

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Why Come?
by Kenita James

Why come when a dude wanna call another
dude weak or try to punk him,
he calls him a pussy
like pussy is some kind of
insult or something?
That just goes to show
that people don’t care
anything about pussy at all

(and if the word pussy in this poem
is offending you, after all the crap pussy
has to go through, then you can eat a dick)

Pussy is soft. But it’s just the softer side of strong.
A dick can’t have a baby,

and most times when it comes, it’s done.
Show me the dick that can go all night long without a
bluebie an that’s the brotha you should be calling a pussy.

And, why come they think than can knock down her walls?

You know something?
I would love to see a man
push a ten pound baby though his balls!

Photo, Compliments of For’Play Productions
Models: Kween & Baby Mookie

36

Black Love American Style

Its Raining Baby
Mommas

It’s raining Baby Mommas,bysJaSyteabl rother you got your hat?
I don’t dream, I plan. I am not planning on Similac.

I am planning on an education, to keep my future in tact,
what would I ruin it for?

A 45 minute ride in her slippery sublime
for debts I’ll be paying for a lifetime?
Examine, my brotha’s, the simple score

Uncle Sam can send you to jail for non-support
of a child, you never even asked for!
My lady can beg, she can plead

but every month, I wanna see her bleed
to know she’s still in the war!

37

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Some women are lovers, you see, by their very nature,
with insatiable desire; Some have liquid fire that burns

hotter and higher, each time you ride her.
Some chicks are like fine chefs, when they butter the cob...

But no matter how good she slobs the knob
you had better resist the temptation to come inside her,

especially if you don’t have a job!
These chicks are out here trippin’,
like we are not all affected by capitalism.
Just a final note of Punany wisdom,
Once a woman is pushing thirty,
her need for motherhood comes over her like a baptism.
But whether a black man works or he goes to prison
America will teach him all about economics
Comprehend the dynamics of 1 million enslave brethren
It’s raining Baby Mommas, say brother you got your hat?
Cause it’s raining Baby Mommas
Oh, the pregnant possibilities of the skillful cat!

Model: Empress Freedom / Photo by C. T. Smith

38

Black Love American Style

TALK TO YOUR
CHILDREN

If you do not

talk to your children

about sex...
Somebody else will.

Model: Eebony Browne / Photo by Dayna Gaspard
39

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Footwear
by DJ Blackmon

My momma used to tell me, finding a mate is like shopping around
for a nice pair of shoes, the wrong ones, like the wrong pair, can give you
the buyer’s remorse blues. You know, how you might find a pair that’s re-
ally cute but cheaply made? Not well put together or worth the price you
paid?

Or, what about the ones you got by mistake, because you thought
they were made of genuine leather, but actually they were fake? You looked
inside to see how much you paid, and found a stamp that said the material
was all man made.

Or how about the ones you liked when you got them, but later hurt
your feet and you wished you hadn’t bought them?

And how come the ones most comfortable to wear always seem to
be the most unattractive pair?!!

Then there is that pair you thought would soften up as you broke
them in, but you could never seem to get them to fit so you never wore
them again.

...or, the ones that you bought with a specific occasion in mind...
spent all that money, then you only wore them one time?

And don’t you just hate when you have a pair you like, but they’re
always somewhere else, and you can never seem to find them when you
want to wear them yourself?

Don’t it give you the blues when someone else is trying on your
shoes?

The kind of shoes I want?... Should go with whatever I wear; be
made of the finest material, and deserve the best of care. They should
contour, naturally, to the shape of my feet as I break them in, and I
should not have to reshape them over and over and over, again. They
should stay comfort-able, even after I have been in them all day, and be
of an affordable price to pay. They should be classic, still look good, still
feel good, and go with whatever, even after I’ve had them forever.

But, I guess, I’ll continue to shop with zest, and stop to take
an occasional rest, and just like I do when I’m shopping for shoes, I’ll
keep searching ‘til I find the one that fits best.

(From Skin and Soul, 2000)

40

Black Love American Style

Slave Mentality
J Steal
Whereas other men disrespect you,
call you out of your name,
like slave men, who have known only disgrace and shame;
I will never.
I will dress your spirits with confidence and glory,
whistfully carry you to an erotic ball,
in a palace of love and honor
Inside this place you will dance with a true king,
who understands your power,
and will dutifully accept the command your scent;
I will always.
For only a many born of a slave’s mentality
would ever give his love to a wench;
Only a man who thinks like a dog
could ever make love to a woman
he thinks of as a “bitch”.

Models: Eebony & Ernest / Photography by Dayna Gaspard

41

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Pushin Punany
by Aalani-Renee

Every night I’m out here singin’ my song
Pushin’ Punany like a whore
on a late night stroll
A nic, a dime, a quarter, a dub
I’m pushin’ Punany
the most addictive drug

Model: Aalani Renee / Photo from Video

42

Black Love American Style

You see,
I’ve packaged it nicely and gave it some sex appeal
Hooked up my best customers and cut them a deal
Oh snap, lil’ mamma
What you sellin’ tonight?
I got Punany, it’s good and wrapped real tight
Can I get a hit of that sex weed?
If the price is right...
Oh snap
Another customer is comin’ my way
To bad out of luck,
I been in this motherfucker all day
Pushin’ Punany is all you hear
Two for a dolla, I’m the silver dolla holla
HOLLA!
Damn, lil’ mamma
Whatever you sellin shol’ look sweet
Sorry big daddy, I re-up next week
I’m Pushin’ Punany

Krystal Hill & LOVE the poet - Photo by C. T. Smith

43

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

Dazzlin Darlin
by Ghetto Girl Blue

That’s what I am
Dazzlin’ Darlin’
From every unsplit hair
on my mane
to the gentle breezin’ pleasin’
of the V part of me
that stays clean,
and Brazilian faded
From Cuba to Malaysia
I’m fantasia
Known all around the world
from England to
Rodeo
Drive
I steer men crazy
I laugh while I amaze thee
from judge’s chambers
to TV anchors
they break bread and backs
just to save me
the Captains
I’m gamin ‘em
got ‘em cravin a
thousand dollar
conversation with me
a presidential dinner
so to speak
but you look down on me
get mad at the creep
calling me a come-up

Model: Aalani-Renee / Photo by GGB

44

Black Love American Style

a gold-digger
be mad
I invest in my figure
my hair
my hygiene
make-up
my body
the fits that mold to it
all investments
in my pedigree
I put pedicured feet
in my designer shoes
toss a manicured pinky
into the air when I sip
and sup on corporate
secrets and stock tips
my intoxicating scent
and my flawless skin
are every bit
as important to me
as your
unconditional love
and your children
After all
it’s husbands like yours,
Little Mrs.
that buy my attention
yes, it’s hard working
husbands taken for granted
that keep me
Dazzlin’ Darlin
and in business

45

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

All Love

All love ain’t good love
a sentiment remembered

with each striking blow
Ghetto Girl Blue

Photo compliments of For’Play Productions / Photo by Dayna Gaspard

46

Black Love American Style

aBstain

From the land of Hottentot
to Tuskegee...

you have every reason
not to trust

Scientific intention,
for testing is not a must,

and it is not prevention.
Pay attention

while I make it plain,
Sister, you can bust with your heart

and your brain.
Be safe.
Abstain.

47

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

The Punany Poets
and Urban Erotic
Activist Theatre

The Punany Poets and their appetite for the forbidden reflect what music
critic Nelson George has describe as “post-soul” aesthetics. Neal, fol-
lowing George, defines post-soul as the time period after the Civil Rights
movement to the present day. Post-soul attempts to rectify the current
and historic schism between the black middle- and under-classes by ad-
dressing issues of poverty, globalization, and inequality, as the most mar-
ginalized members of the black community experience them. He argues,
those folks whom some blacks posit as on the margins of acceptable or
even relevant black life—the niggas, the bitches, the queers, the baby-
mama to name a few—are as integral to that experience as those who try
to keep them at arm’s distance, rhetorically, spatially, or otherwise.

Members of the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement de-
sired to silence these identities as they undermined their notion of “posi-
tive” black identities. Gangsters, pimps, and hoes are how black folks have
been wrongfully depicted in the media to incite fear and loathing in white
America and justify white dominance and oppression over black people. If
the pre-civil rights black aesthetic projects were necessary interventions,
their strategy is currently outdated. Members of the Harlem Renaissance
could not predict how the hyper-commodification of “blackness” would
make it nearly impossible to control mediated images, and according to
poet Kalamu ya Salaam the commodification of blackness was partly re-
sponsible for the demise of BAM. Salaam maintains:

President Richard Nixon’s strategy of pushing Black capitalism as a re-
sponse to Black Power [emphasis in the original] epitomized mainstream
co-option. As major film, record, book, and magazine publishers identified
the most salable artists [sic], the Black Arts movement’s already fragile
independent economic base [sic] was totally undermined.

Currently black artists attempting to adhere to the tenants of “positive”
black identities, established in the antecedent black liberation struggles,

Model: Golden / Photo by Carroll T. Smith 48

Black Love American Style

are undermined by hip-hop and its distressing commercialization. It has
successfully commodified the very characters many African Americans
have desperately fought to silence. Hip-hop, once the cultural expression
of inner-city blacks and Latinos in the United States, has become one of
the U.S.’s largest cultural exports. In many of the videos, black men de-
scribe themselves as pimps and hustlers, and black women as groupies
and hoes. As a result, these images are broadcasted globally as represen-
tations of all African Americans, further polarizing the intra-class battles
among African American communities. The war continues to be waged
over how we should be represented, overlooking the potential for critical
engagement in what may be embedded in the caricatures of the ghetto.
The solution is not to simply eradicate distressing images from black ex-
pressive culture, any more than it is to have black booties shaking and
thug life aired 24 hours a day on cable television. If we desire to address
the interconnectedness between poverty, violence, substance abuse, and
HIV then we need to create a space for those black folks who are the
most infected and affected, who just so happen to be those members of
black communities erased from the traditional black aesthetic projects—
women, queers, and the poor.

The Punany Project creates the necessary space. It demonstrates that
performance can grapple with difficult issues making them palpable for
large audiences to digest in ways that other educational forms such as
academic journal articles, and mediated public health messages cannot.
Academics tend to be the only ones who read academic journal articles,
thus such venues cannot be relied on to transmit important health infor-
mation to the masses. Mass marketed public health messages reach large
populations, encourage HIV testing, communicate the routes of infection,
and explain how to protect oneself from infection; but they do not explore
the intimate contexts that aggravate the spread of HIV. It is difficult for a
thirty-second PSA to convey the intense contradictory emotions a woman
or man, may feel when faced with the decision to use a condom in the heat
of the moment. Likewise, it is unfair to assume that a thirty-minute sitcom
with an HIV theme can provide comprehensive education on HIV. Again,
the focus tends to be on testing and the routes of infection, which makes
it easy for the viewer to tune out if it’s information they have previously
heard or read. The Punany Poets, however, perform the intimate con-
texts. Their work speaks to women who maintain romantic relationships
for financial security, in spite of continually contracting sexually transmit-
ted diseases from their partners. Their work explores how childhood sex-

49

Punany: The Hip Hop Psalms II

ual abuse can potentially lead to self-destructive behavior like substance
abuse. They show how to make condoms a seductive, fun part of the sex
act. They address HIV by depicting the various sociocultural, emotional,
physical, and spiritual issues around it. The Punany Poets perform HIV
interventions by specifically encouraging women to be proud of and take
control of their sexuality, which is different from merely protecting your-
self from a man. In the Punany paradigm, women are active agents, while
public health messages tend to position them as passive ones.

While the Punany Project embodies the post-soul aesthetic, because it
depicts the experiences of marginalized black folks, I posit that defining
the Poets only within the post-soul framework is limiting. First, post-soul
aesthetics tend to only consider mediated urban popular culture—music,
music videos, film and television, which are inherently dominated by men
and are constructed for the male viewer. The Punany Project was cre-
ated by a woman and for women. Through live performance the Poets
encourage women to embody their sexuality. Their performances rely on
the African tradition of call and response, which is not permitted by medi-
ated entertainment. Unlike in mediated forms, audience participation is
encouraged and at times mandated as I will demonstrate in detail in the
forthcoming chapters. Being able to participate in the theatrical experi-
ence allows an embodiment implausible through mediated forms.

Secondly, the Punany Poets appropriate marginalized characters in order
to directly address social issues like HIV, sexual abuse, welfare reform, and
violence towards women. Thus, coupled with the expected interaction
between audience and performer, their performances also embody the
tenets of Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, more than post-soul
aesthetics. Theatre of the Oppressed blurs the distinction between per-
former and audience by inviting audience members to participate in the
performance, in order to articulate the desired political change. I contend
that Punany theatre engages in a series of political discourses about black
female sexuality, HIV, and its accompanying issues, but the explicit sexual
content is a clear point of demarcation between Punany and Theatre of
the Oppressed. The audience participation mandated in the latter is op-
tional for Punany audiences. Punany performances are scripted shows
with space for improvisation; they are not inherently improvisational like
Boal’s theatrical form, which does not exist without its audience. Hence,
I cannot collapse Punany theatre under the rubric of Theatre of the Op-
pressed.

50