America Taught Me How To Forget

By Jay-Marie Hill

America Taught Me How To Forget

 

america taught me how to forget

my name
my pain
my stories
my glories

 

it’s never enough for the beast of forgetting.

 

insatiable ap’tite, this creature sure has
that don’t stop & won’t
till i give up my past.

 

my breath
my toes
my fears
my nose

it’s all in the running for me if you’ll let it.
cuz
ain’t no part worth leaving out as i tell it.

 

so, here i am, y’all. my stories at ready
finally shouting my own truth so steady.

 

my wounds, feel them shrinking at these unleashed truths
see they fester in me, yes, but also in you.

 

they fester cuz black built this ish
from damned white house 2blessed pew

 

we built this place / they killed our race
and spread lies in our deathful wake

 

these lies they pull us both down deep
like a score that’s never settled

 

the wounds so real like gaping holes
untouched as brand new metal

 

— well i say , the time is now —

the time has come to face the charge,
to heal the masses & play the cards

 

this mantra mine, for everywhere;
leaps from my lips here as a prayer

 

i don’t believe the lies you tell,
the lies you sell they won’t get thru

 

to those who’d wish me keep amnesia,
3/5ths’ whole now, i’m full & regal

 

so while america may have taught me how to forget
Come See Me Love Me Back To Remembering.

 

 

 

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Magic is that weirdo that you desperately want to kick it with; that one who reminds you that sexy can’t exist without authenticity and that there is nothing more miraculous than the pleasure of staying true to yourself, your quest, your he/art.

Singer-songwriter & multi-instrumentalist, Jay-Marie Hill is that magic. A “creative mind asking the questions that will shape the future of culture”, Jay-Marie Hill (they/them) is an educator, race & gender justice consultant, and an organizing strategist who lives the struggle of creating the world anew. Whether participating in frontline activism with international resistance movements from Palestine, to South Africa, Ferguson to Oakland, performing bass or singing on stages, or helping others birth new possibilities beyond gendered and racialized norms, Jay-Marie pushes audiences to think bigger, question better, and love harder. GenderQueer artist, activist and renegade – Jay-Marie shines – onstage and off – with a vibrancy that makes you want to slow down and celebrate your own existence.