Sister Iyata encourages 'March This Liberation Walk'

... Seeks permission to use Buju lines for poem

Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer

Florida-based poet and playwright Sister Iyata Christi was not at Buju Banton's mid-January 'Before the Dawn' concert in Miami, but she got to see the recording several times. And she hopes to use a few lines from the 'Gargamel' at what seems likely to be his final public performance in several years for the video to a poem she wrote in 2005.

That poem is 'March This Liberation Walk', which Sister Iyata said comes out of her experiences working with incarcerated persons - notably Haitians and Jamaicans. She describes herself as a conduit between the prisoners and their family members, who often do not know that their relative is incarcerated.

"Sometimes they (the prisoners) do not have a way to call home. Sometimes in jail, the person you are calling has to have an account set up on their home phone but many people just have a cellular," Iyata said.

The Buju Banton lines she hopes to use are:

"I want to thank you for sticking with me through these turbulent times. You are not stupid. You are not ignorant. Neither are you dumb. So you are able to understand for your own individual self what is going on here and we are all in this thing together."

Strong video

Sister Iyata said there will also be a "very strong" video for the poem, which will include a courtroom scene and persons holding up signs or saying the names of some persons wrongfully incarcerated. Still, she points out that among the prisoners "some guilty but they not supposed to treat them like that and give them more sentence than a white man".

'March This Liberation Walk' will be on her 16-track debut CD, slated for release this year, as well as 'Mistake a Mistake, Purpose a Purpose' and 'Black, Brown Are One'. Iyata says the first four tracks on the CD will be R&B, hip-hop and reggaeton influenced, with the rest all reggae. The poems are culled from two books, one of which (But Eloa: The Universal Question, But Eloa: The Only Answer) is already complete. The working title of the second book is Black Skin, The Power of the New Generation. "The first book is self-experience. The second is like global," she said.

Books sold out

Sister Iyata says she printed 50 copies of her debut book, Jah See and Hear, in 1984 and all were sold.

She performs at the third annual Karibbean Kruize Muzik Festival today in Tampa, Florida, and Iyata tells The Sunday Gleaner that she has performed on all the stagings so far. She performs with or without music, preferring to use beats to accompany her verse.

There are several places she can perform at, as Iyata says "you can get poetry five or six nights a week". However, while it is possible to make some money out of poetry, she says, "For me it is a matter of getting the message out. There is money that can be made and people keep pushing me to go for the money.

"Back then it was a hobby, but now He is pushing me to do more. So maybe now more people will hear the message," Sister Iyata said.

• MISTAKE A MISTAKE … PURPOSE A PURPOSE

A white man born in America wilfully breaks the law

His excuse is; he did not know that was the law

Excuse received and he is allowed to go free!

A black man arrives from one Caribbean Island

He breaks the law and explains

He did not know that any law was broken

Swiftly he is forced into the institution of a US prison!

Mistake A Mistake … Purpose A Purpose!

Mistakes you must excuse

No matter the colour of one's skin

Purpose you must investigate

Before you begin to condemn

Stop abusing the lives of our Caribbean men

Dragging them away into your

2K Slavery Institutional Systems!

Liberation is on the rise

Educated minds can't be denied

Suffering people have

Nothing left to lose

Our voices will be heard

Our presence will be seen

Standing strong regaining our original dignity!

Our ears hear only the Most High voice

He is our true Authority

Cause what

Mistake A Mistake … Purpose A Purpose!

We strongly encourage that you forgive

The likkle mistakes dem and

We demand that you investigate

The purpose before you begin to condemn … true

No matter who gets caught by

All of your lies

Yah continues to make

De hola we survive!

Remember when you set free

The man with the white skin

You can't condemn a

Yard man, simply because of his national origin!

Cause what

Mistake A Mistake, Purpose A Purpose!

As me did say, and as you dun know

Mistake A Mistake, Purpose A Purpose!