Performance Tags Used in Events

Or pain or loss

Or dissapointment

And yet each of us has arisen

Somehow made our ablutions seem other humans beings

And said morning how are you, fine thanks and you

There is the nimbleness of the human spirit

Despite it all black and white, asian, spanish, native american

Pretty, plain, thin

Fat

We rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies

You may trod me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

Just ’cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Just like suns and like moons

Still I'll rise

Do you want to see me broken?

Shoulders falling down like tear drops

Weakened by my soulful cries

Does my sassiness upset you?

Don'e take it so hard just cause I laugh

You can shoot me with your words

You can cut me with your lies

You can kill me with your hatefulness

But just like life, I rise

Does my sexiness offend you?

Awe, does it come as a surprise?

That I dance

Like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs

Out of the huts of hickory shame, I rise

Up from the past that's rooted in pain, I rise

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave

I am the dream and the hope of the slave

And so naturally,

There I go rising.