Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGmNfDfUT5M Starts at: 01:47:35 (jump to 01:47:35)
Artie Fox — ‘I’m Going Home’ Spoken Word Tribute to Grandmother
[01:47:40] How y’all doing today? [01:47:41] Doing good? [01:47:44] To be honest, I almost didn’t make it here today. [01:47:48] My granny passed recently, and it affected me a whole lot. [01:47:53] Right now, I want to be inside a dark space in a box. [01:47:56] Thinking about my granny. [01:47:59] But then I went to my granny’s funeral recently. [01:48:01] And while I was at the funeral, the preacher got up and he asked, [01:48:05] did anybody have anything to say? [01:48:07] And nobody got up to say anything about my granny. [01:48:10] And it hurt my feelings so much that there were so many people that she inspired, [01:48:15] but nobody had nothing to say. [01:48:17] So I got up and I shared a poem. [01:48:19] And as I’m standing, I’m looking around at my family, [01:48:22] and I immediately realized why nobody else had anything to say. [01:48:26] It was so hurtful, it was so broken, that maybe they had something to say. [01:48:32] Maybe they just didn’t have the strength to say it. [01:48:35] So I’m so blessed that God didn’t only make me a person, but a poet, [01:48:39] because it’s the poetry that gave me the energy to be a strength in my family, [01:48:43] that I never knew I had to be, or even needed to be. [01:48:47] So every poem I do, from now on, I dedicate to my whole family. [01:48:51] Because I realize when I get on the stage, it’s not just me I’m talking to. [01:48:56] It’s everybody I ever came in contact with, that didn’t have the strength to say anything. [01:49:01] And I’m going to do my poem now. [01:49:11] So when I was young, I used to always be late getting home. [01:49:14] And my granny would be the only person that was cool with it. [01:49:16] My mom would whip my ass, and I’d step back with my, everybody would. [01:49:20] But my grandma, she’d be cool with it. [01:49:21] And she’d always say, be yourself no matter what, right? [01:49:25] And I came up with my poem. [01:49:26] My mom would say, and I would say, if I be myself too much, [01:49:30] I won’t have anything else left. [01:49:32] But I realized recently that I have unlimited of me to give. [01:49:37] I can never run out of the me I am. [01:49:40] And this poem is called, I’m Going Home. [01:49:42] Because I wish my granny was alive. [01:49:45] Finally, she’s coming home. [01:49:52] Coming home. [01:49:55] Coming home. [01:49:55] Coming home. [01:49:56] Coming home. [01:49:58] Tell the Lord I’m coming home. [01:50:02] It took me long, but I got strong. [01:50:06] Can somebody please tell the Lord that I’m coming home? [01:50:10] I’m sad to say, God, that I’ll be coming home. [01:50:14] I mean, I traveled, felt like a battle, fighting through my journey, [01:50:17] no idea where I was going. [01:50:19] But now, each piece of me is broken off into a piece that, [01:50:22] you need a microscope to see your mind, your heart, your stuff, [01:50:25] to be together. [01:50:25] To even get a peek. [01:50:26] Did they see me? [01:50:27] I don’t think they did. [01:50:28] I didn’t choose poetry. [01:50:29] Poetry told me. [01:50:31] No place would hold my head up and back like an old dream. [01:50:35] And so I got dizzy. [01:50:36] And spaces and voids become the only safe space for me. [01:50:39] And boom. [01:50:40] Exploding got me free. [01:50:41] Did I mention I was coming home? [01:50:43] I mean, dangling my full body chain out of a rust spot. [01:50:45] They can’t cut it out. [01:50:46] That’s the only scope I’m afraid of. [01:50:47] And I should have known where the knuckle can press lock. [01:50:49] And how we heal through all my pain. [01:50:51] I’m traveling and groping and reminding myself to hold on. [01:50:54] Like God. [01:50:55] I was able to find some things within me. [01:50:56] But they thought keys would set me free. [01:50:57] Nah, nah. [01:50:58] I stared with them right in the eye. [01:50:59] Knowing fire was the only way I would ever actually flee. [01:51:00] It wasn’t the tree stump that was too tall. [01:51:01] When we designed these heavenly fires. [01:51:02] The first time burning. [01:51:03] Never set me free. [01:51:04] So I erased these metal claws. [01:51:05] Anything that held me back from going home from before. [01:51:06] All of a sudden. [01:51:07] It got me feeling extra insulted. [01:51:08] It could not be extra, y’all. [01:51:09] It was a bomb. [01:51:10] It was a bomb. [01:51:11] It was a bomb. [01:51:12] It was a bomb. [01:51:13] It was a bomb. [01:51:14] It was a bomb. [01:51:15] It was a bomb. [01:51:16] It was a bomb. [01:51:17] It was a bomb. [01:51:18] It was a bomb. [01:51:19] It was a bomb. [01:51:24] And I’m going back to my home. [01:51:25] And I’m still obvious as if I’m still 한번 trapped in a chain I spoke [01:51:26] about the most likely you’re not being When? [01:51:27] When I stumbled in and lifted up next to God. [01:51:28] Feeling like an avatar. [01:51:29] Flexing out of my second sense. [01:51:30] I was getting closer to my fear. [01:51:31] Getting a grasp of what’s going on. [01:51:32] Traveling. [01:51:33] Thinking I was going home for so long. [01:51:34] I didn’t even realize. [01:51:35] I was already here. [01:51:36] So at the end of my cold. [01:51:46] I just looked at my soul right now. [01:51:52] Like… [01:51:53] I made it home. [01:51:54] That is già zì. [01:51:54] I made it home, and granny look, I made it home. [01:52:08] Y’all can find me everywhere, YouTube, Instagram, [01:52:12] Clubhouse, Spotify, Artifox, every place. [01:52:16] Thank y’all for having me. [01:52:20] Hey, I like that, I like that. [01:52:23] Give it up for Artifox, y’all. [01:52:25] Give it up for one more time.