Editor’s Note: the following are excerpts from a Foreword by Steve Teixiera to the new book, “My Spoken Word Wife: Playing For Keeps” by Misael Juarez. The author brings a vision, stemming from the poverty that now exists, to the new world we can have. Published by Barrio Blues Press, it can be ordered at Amazon.com
EXCERPTS FROM FOREWORD BY STEVE TEIXIERA:
When Misael Juarez’s teacher told me, “His writing is powerful—and yet he can’t write,” I knew she didn’t mean it as an insult. She was trying to explain how his writing could be so effective, even though he didn’t seem to know many of the rules of so-called proper writing.
When she encountered that dynamic collision between Misael’s writing and writing rules, she had bumped into the contradictory essence of who he is: a thoughtful man who has lived a reckless youth; a gentle spirit who sometimes became aggressive; a source of creative energy despite a self-destructive past.
Misael Juarez is a writer and a poet because that is what he does, not because he was ever professionally approved to do it. Nowhere does his academic record at Cal State L.A., where I first met him, proclaim that he is a writer. Neither does his bank account.
He did not start to write, and constantly keeps doing it, to earn the approval of those kinds of institutions. He told me he did it because writing was his way to survive the hostile social system that confronts him. I would add that his poetry is his way of helping others to survive, not by hiding from oppressors, but by exposing them. Excerpts from his work make this stance clear:
“The Word Doctor’s Medicine” (excerpt) Making money is a curse if you’re full of greed Don’t respect billionaires when kids sleep on concrete The crowd roars at my shows when I let them all know Fighting injustice provides you with a bold soul
“Bombs and Poets” (excerpt) Women take the lit stage and spit their grievances Rhyming precisely for the exploited seamstress It don’t take a college degree to make demands When you make the crowd roar with a microphone stand
“The Jaguar 45” (excerpt)
My time in jail taught me it’s a marketing scheme
Appealing to scare folks that punishment heals fiends
Kids are sent from schools to the prison industry
That’s legal human trafficking if you ask me
And yet, My Spoken Word Wife is also a book of hope, because after surviving a world that could have killed him, or broken his spirit, he sees us and stands side-by-side with us:
“Made for Rap” (excerpt) I see those hard-working people without the fear Making this country great with their blood, sweat, and tears
It’s expensive to support the habits of the rich
They hoard wealth while ignoring the impoverished
Returning back home after being stranded at sea
Rocking metaphors like they are my golden fleece
“Graffiti Angels 1996” (excerpt)
All the homies searched for visible spots to graffi
As cops surveilled like End of Watch while we all laughed
Gentrification brought rich folks with .44s
Landowners who turned old buildings into condos
Raising the rent on the poor like they are heartless
Developers kicked families out apartments
New residents scored drugs in their brand-new Jaguars
Crying the city is full of graffiti wars
And taggers from L.A. were some of the baddest
We were rebels with no money for a canvas
But Misael has a broader, deeper vision than just what’s painted on a wall. This “L.A. Zapotec,” as he calls himself, reads and learns as well as writes. From the streets of Oaxaca, México to the Harvard Street barrio in Los Angeles, he refers to perils but also possibilities for a better future. He says his Spoken Word Wife inspired him to see this truth—and she will inspire readers.
“Revolutionary Dreams” (excerpt)
So, I never look back or down on my bad luck. It’s never too late to write a flight for sitting ducks. But if the economy wishes automation, then we are mighty ducks to ask for revolution.
