Premiering online today, check out the below spoken word short film titled “You Can’t Hear Me,” from director Christopher Folkens, starring Malcolm-Jamal Warner, David Bianchi and Chris Wood, which they summarize as “a socio political outcry about the state of America during the Trump administration, told entirely in spoken word poetry.”
And the nearly 6 minute short film – which is part of a spoken word series called “Spinema” created by Bianchi – unfolds exactly as described, featuring its 3 leads, initially restrained to the bricks they each sit on, speaking powerfully on matters that currently divide us (race, gender, sexual identity, class, religion and more), with the ultimate point being a fervent call for unity now more than ever.
Watch the piece below; underneath it you’ll find the full script to follow along.
And here’s the full script:
The Caged bird sings as deferred dreams swing like strange fruit on a humid summer night
While southern flags burn hostile contempt for anyone not Christian and white
The rotting stench of a Co-opted culture and unprotected youth
Where lies become the truth at the send of a tweet
And black bodies are up for grabs wherever fear and hate meet
The strong hate the weak
and I try not to hate the meek who turn a blind eye to the lives lost
at the cost of white supremacy cries
And as Godly as I try to be I realize
It’s so hard for my eyes to see the God in those who refuse to see The God in me
And yet I still try to search for God in those who chose misogyny and hate as tools
to make America Great
Who would rather scapegoat than face that instead of being pre-occupied with someone’s sexual preference and race
We need to stand tall and unite against the powers that be that are insidiously oppressing us all
My eyes open wide
I feel blind you can’t see me
I open my mouth and I scream
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
Fight for justice
Can’t trust this
My heart I stand bleeding
You cut out my tongue
And I swear
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
I’m angry, confused, emotionally ripped
Being black and Latino the polarization’s so split
While my black next kin being shot dead in the street
And my fellow Latinos fear deportation and we—
Feed into the fear that the media delivers
While my ancestors cry
And sons and daughters shiver
Will my family be torn apart by Americas new policy?
With their names spray painted on border walls in calligraphy?
Latinos are the backbone of American industry
In corporate America I feel the resentment habitually.
This perversion of hate — these American disgraces
The other day I saw my 5 and my 8 year trying to scrub the brown off their faces
The hate crimes, the symbols the bullying that their facing
Go back to your country we fucking hate you nigger-spick faces
And as a terrified father I have no consolation
To explain the anger that’s perpetuated in our nation
I try to do what’s right and stand tall so you can see me
But its gotten to the point I gotta scream cause you can’t hear me!
My eyes open wide
I feel blind you can’t see me
I open my mouth and I scream
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
Fight for justice
Can’t trust this
My heart I stand bleeding
You cut out my tongue
And I swear
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
They build more prisons just to house more children
Lock em up as juveniles indoctrinate em to the system
There was this 16 year old boy who was locked up
He never talked
But he wrote me a poem
About the locks on children trying to grow into gods
There’s a light out in the kitchen
His mother washes dishes in the dark
I got knots in my wings
He’s got walls in between
Himself and his family now
The news doesn’t bother now
They put blackface on children they’ve painted as thugs
They’re still building new prisons for profit
His pencil writes poetry that sounds like his dead brothers screams
They want to lock your mother’s sons
And your children’s fathers Away
And how many terabytes is the capacity of the hard drive that stores the body camera footage of a society of citizen soldiers sent to meet the quotas of privatized prisons whose customers are our children?
My eyes open wide
I feel blind you can’t see me
I open my mouth and I scream
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
Fight for justice
Can’t trust this
My heart I stand bleeding
You cut out my tongue
And I swear
YOU CAN’T HEAR ME!
My eyes are open wide
I’ll drop my pride so you can see me
I’m crying inside and I pray that you can hear me
Together we stand tall
Seeking true liberty
And real justice for all
I hear you
I see you
We’re all in pain
Will you hear me?
