Basketball Rap

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African American writing, where do I start? Here, where most authors are featured. Make it your summer read.

“When you go to any culture, I don’t care what the culture is, you have to go with humility. You have to understand the language, and by that I do not mean what we speak. You’ve got to understand the language, the interior language of the people. You’ve got to be able to enter their philosophy, their world view. You’ve got to speak both the spoken language and the metalanguage of the people.”

- WOLE SOYINKA

Myth, Literature, and the African World


I came to play

I twirl and pearl/dribble the ball

Behind my back/between my legs.


Why, I jump so high

Sometimes I need a parachute to land safely

They used to call me U.F.O.

Because the Air Force radar

Thought I was from outer space.


I can run so fast that one time

During a game, I ran to the store,

Bought a juice/drank it

And got back before anyone knew I was gone

…... And I had the ball

 

I helicoptered around

And dunked so hard, I tore the basket down

My name is Lonnie Boo

And I CAN DO THE DO.


- Isaac L. Maefield

“Lonnie Boo,” a basketball rap


Book: Jump Up and Say, Page 135

Authors: Linda Goss, Clay Goss

 

Nonqaba waka Msimang

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