Original subtitles

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Silence is what I hear after the handshake and slap of five, after:

- What's happenin'? - Homeboy!

- What's up, cuz? - How you feel, girlfriend?

- Blood! - Miss thing!

When talking with a girlfriend,

I am more likely to muse about my latest piece

or so-and-so's party at club chichi

than about the anger and hurt I'd felt that morning

when a jeweler refused me entrance to his store

because I am Black and male

and we are all perceived as thieves.

I will swallow that hurt,

and should I speak of it, will vocalize only the anger, saying,

"I should have bust out his fuckin' windows."

Some of the anger will be exorcised,

but the hurt, which has not been given voice, prevails and accumulates.

Silence is a way to grin and bear it,

a way not to acknowledge how much my life is discounted each day.

100% off all Black men today, every day.

100% off all Black men today, every day.

Every day. 100% off all Black men today.

Every day!

I strive to appear strong and silent.

I learned to ingest hatred at a geometric rate

and to count silently to ten,

ten thousand, ten million.

But as I've learned to mute my cries of anguish,

so have I learned to squelch my exclamations of joy.

What remains is the rap.

"Silence is my shield

"It crushes

"Silence is my cloak

"It smothers

"Silence is my sword

"It cuts both ways

"Silence is the deadliest weapon

"What legacy is to be found in silence

"How many lives lost

"What future lies in our silence

"How much history lost

"So seductive, its grip

- "This silence - "Break it

- "Our silence - "Loose the tongue

- "Testify - "Let's end the silence, baby

Together? Now."

"Now that I have sat up with death

"Held its hand, rocked it

"Grieved its giggle

"Mocking me to stones too big to pass alone

"Now that I have mourned the passing of men

"Loves never had, acts unacted

"Perversion polited pubescently

"Now that I have shed shades of 'nigger,' 'boy'

"For pigments of 'faggot,' 'queer'

"Gender-blender blur

"Now that I am fairy, freaky, free

"Initiate me.

"Paint wars on my cheeks

"Anoint me with coco oil and cum

"So I speak in tongues twisted so tight, they untangle my mind

"Hold my head in hand

"Bless it

"Slice it

"Leave a cross on its tip

"Mark of the rite

Initiation to the fight."

You've reached Black Chat,

your hot line to the best Black numbers.

Want to connect with a banjee boy?

Press one.

For a versatile butch queen, press two.

Or looking to commit mind and body to a BGA?

Press three.

Don't be a shy guy.

Make a choice and meet that special man.

Good choice.

Now leave a message.

You have a minute after the beep.

BGA, Black gay activist,

30-ish, well-read, sensitive,

pro-feminist, seeks same for envelope licking,

flyer distribution, banner assembly,

demonstration companion,

dialogical theorizing, good times,

and hot, safe sex.

"Why do we go home alone

"Clutch pillows and journals in single beds

"Push ourselves to the nth degree for the cause

"If we can't reap the benefits?

"I do not want to wed the movement. Do you?

"End the silence, baby

We could make a serious revolution together."

I was riding on the S2 headed to Silver Spring.

The bus for most of the ride had been filled

with the quiet murmur of the other passengers.

Suddenly, from the back of the bus,

a voice rose and wailed:

"You my bitch!"

"No, uh-uh! We are bitches!"

I turned around, looked at the back of the bus.

There were two brothers going at it!

"No! You listen here."

"I ain't wearing lipstick. You are!

I ain't no bitch.

I fucked you. You my bitch."

This continued without resolution

until we arrived at 16th and U Street.

The bus is packed with passengers by now.

And as we approach the stop,

I see ten more waiting to step aboard.

Just as the first person steps aboard,

a strident, hysterical voice shouts from the back,

"I'm a 45-year-old Black gay man

who enjoys, enjoys taking dick in his rectum!

I'm not your bitch! Your bitch is at home with your kids!"

We are now entering the fifth dimension of our sexual consciousness.

The ride is rough.

There is no jelly for this.

We heard about this new club, so a few of us decided to check it out.

Got there early, around 10:00.

Figured if it was tired, we could always hit Bella's by midnight.

We must have waited in line at least 15 minutes.

All the while the doorman, Miss Attitude Ann —

You know the type.

Bleach-blonde hair, body by Nautilus, mind by Mattel.

Miss Bitch is watching us.

Ten Black men show up

and they get paranoid the place is gonna tilt.

We finally get to the door and "Thing" says,

with much condescension,

"You know, there's a cover to get in."

Well, I tried to ignore her rudeness, and then she shot her arm out.

"I need to see three pieces of ID."

I thought this shit was through.

I just turned around and looked Miss Ann dead in the eye.

"Three pieces of ID?"

She didn't know what hit her.

We took our money and left.

The next day, I reported that dive to the mayor's office,

the Human Rights Commission, the NAACP

and the Alice B. Toklas Democratic Club.

Don't mess with a snap diva!

This is a basic lesson in snap.

Divarettes, listen up to this grand diva rap.

Snaps can be flung

and snaps can be slung,

to read, to punctuate, to cut like a whip.

Well, you've got a... domestic snap.

You've got a... snap.

Then you've got grand diva snap.

Don't get it twisted.

Our dueling grand snap divas will now demonstrate

the subtleties of snap to divarette initiates.

Precision, pacing, placement, poise.

A sophisticated snap is more than just noise.

Repeat!

Precision, poise, placement.

You must perfect each for the grand snap statement.

You should know that girls should be...

ambidextrous.

If you can't snap with both hands, you out.

You know why we do this?

Because we can't always get our arms free to do this.

"I'd heard my calling by age six

"We had a word for boys like me

- Punk. - "Punk

"Not because I played sex with other boys

- "Everybody on the block did that - Punk.

"But because I didn't mind giving it away

"Now, other boys traded

'You can have my booty if you gimme yours'"

"Mm-mmm! But wait a minute, now. If I go first..."

"Uh-uh, you went first last time."

"But I wanna be the daddy."

"You the daddy all the time."

"But I wanna be the daddy."

"I'm the daddy." Mm-mmm. Mm-mmm.

"Not me

- "I gave it up free - Punk.

"At age 11, we moved to Georgia

"I graduated to new knowledge

Homo.

- "'You don't know how to kiss?' - Homo.

"My best friend asked, shocked I didn't know what to do with a girl

- "When I lost at spin the bottle - Homo.

"'I'll show you'

"He said, his brown eyes inviting

"We practiced kissing for weeks — dry, wet, French —

"Till his older brother called us a name.

- Homo. - "'What's a homo?' I asked

Punk. Faggot. Freak.

"I understood

"We stopped kissing

"Best friend became worst enemy

Motherfucking coon.

"Age 12, they bussed me

"To Hephzibah Junior High on the outskirts of Augusta

Motherfucking coon.

"A spray-painted sign on the wall greeted me

Niggers Go Home.

"The rednecks hated me

Motherfucking coon.

"Because I was one of only two Blacks placed in 8-A

"The class for Hephzibah's best and brightest

Niggers Go Home.

- "The Blacks hated me - Uncle Tom.

"Because they assumed my class status made me uppity

- Uncle Tom. - "Assumed my silence as superiority

- Uncle Tom. - "I was shy

- Motherfucking coon. - Uncle Tom.

"I was confused

- Motherfucking coon. - Uncle Tom.

Niggers Go Home.

"I was afraid and alone

- Motherfucking coon. - Uncle Tom.

Punk. Faggot.

- Niggers Go Home. - Freak. Homo.

- Punk. - Motherfucking coon.

- Uncle Tom. Homo. - Punk. Faggot.

- Freak. - Niggers Go Home.

"Cornered by identities

"I never wanted to claim

"I ran

"Fast

"Hard

"Deep Inside myself

"Where it was still

"Silent

"Safe

Deception."

"Summer, full moon night Started with the rhetorical chant

"'Hey, faggot What you doing around here?'

"City rocks fell around his quickened footsteps

"A wad of spit flew to his bare shoulder

"Empty Coke bottle cracked against trash-can rim

"Sparkling jagged edges motion for his throat

"A blackjack knocked him unconscious

"His money and ID removed His face slashed, disfigured

"Left in a bloody pool

"He waited for the police, ambulance

The kindness of brethren or Jesus To pick up his messages."

♪ The first time ♪

♪ Ever I saw your face ♪

"A white boy came to my rescue

♪ I thought the sun ♪

"Beckoned with gray-green eyes

♪ Rose in your eyes... ♪

"A soft Tennessee drawl

"Seduced me out of my adolescent silence

"He called me friend

"I fell in love

"We never touched, never kissed

"But he left his imprint

"What a blessing his immaculate seduction

"To feel the beat of life, to trust passion again

"What a joy

"That it should come from a white boy with gray-green eyes

What a curse."

♪ The first time ♪

♪ Ever I saw♪

♪ Do ya wanna funk? ♪

♪ Won't you tell me now? ♪

♪ If you wanna funk Let me show you how ♪

♪ Do you wanna funk with me? ♪

♪ Do you wanna funk with me? ♪

In California, I learned the touch and taste of snow.

Cruising white boys,

I played out adolescent dreams deferred.

Let me touch it. Let me taste it. Let me lick it. Let me suck it.

Let me taste it. Let me lick it. Let me suck it. Let me touch it.

Let me lick it. Let me suck it. Let me touch it.

Let me touch it. Let me taste it. Let me lick it.

Let me suck it. Let me touch it.

Let me taste it. Let me lick it.

Let me suck it. Let me touch it.

Let me taste. Let me lick.

- Let me suck. - Suck it!

"Maybe from time to time a brother glanced my way

"I never noticed

"I was immersed in vanilla

"I savored this single flavor, one deliberately not my own

"I avoided the question, 'Why?'

"Pretended not to notice

"The absence of Black images in this new gay life

"In bookstores, poster shops film festivals

"Even my own fantasies

"Tried not to notice the few images of Blacks

"That were most popular

"Something in Oz, in me, was amiss

"But I tried not to notice

"I was intent on the search

"For my reflection, love, affirmation,

"In eyes of blue, gray, green

"Searching, I discovered something I didn't expect

"Something decades of determined assimilation

"Could not blind me to

"In this great gay mecca, I was an invisible man.

"I had no shadow, no substance

"No place, no history, no reflection

"I was an alien, unseen And seen, unwanted

"Here, as in Hephzibah I was a nigger, still.

"I quit the Castro No longer my home, my mecca

And went in search of someplace better."

♪ I don't know why ♪

♪ But I'm feeling so sad ♪

♪ I long to try something I've never had ♪

♪ Never had no kisses ♪

♪ Oh, what I've been missing ♪

♪ Lover man, oh, where can you be? ♪

♪ The night is cold ♪

♪ And I'm so all alone ♪

♪ I'd give my soul ♪

♪ Just to call you my own ♪

♪ Got a moon above me ♪

♪ But no one to love me ♪

♪ Lover man ♪

♪ Where can you be? ♪

♪ Black ♪

♪ Is the color ♪

♪ Of my true love's hair ♪

♪ His face so soft ♪

♪ And wondrous fair ♪

"Grief is not apparel

"Not like a dress, a wig

"Or my sister's high-heeled shoes

"It is darker than the man I love

"Who in my fantasies comes for me

"In a silver six-cylinder chariot.

"I walk the waterfront curbsides

"In my sister's high-heeled shoes

"Dreaming of him

"His name still unknown to my tongue.

"While I wait for my prince to come

"From every other man I demand pay for my kisses

"I buy paint for my lips, stockings for my legs

"My own high-heeled slippers and dresses that become me

"When he comes, I will know how to love his body

"Standing out here on the waterfront curbsides

"I have learned to please a man

"He will bring me flowers

"He will bring me silk and jewels, I know

"While I wait, I'm the only man who loves me

"They call me 'star'

"Because I listen to their dreams and wishes.

"But grief is darker.

It is a wig that does not rest gently on my head."

♪ So, Black ♪

♪ Is the color ♪

♪ Of my true love's hair ♪

♪ Of my true love's hair ♪

♪ Of my true love's... ♪

Abomination!

It's an abomination!

Mankind shall not lie with mankind,

for it is an abomination in his sight.

They say, "We're all in the same political boat.

We should be brothers."

But before I accept his kinship, political or otherwise,

this is what I want to know: Where does his loyalty lie?

Yo! What kind of role model is a punk anyway?

There is no crevice,

there is no corner in God's church

for perversion!

Priorities — that's what I want to know.

Come the final throwdown,

what is he first, Black or gay?

You know the answer.

The absurdity of that question.

How can you sit in silence?

How do you choose one eye over the other?

This half of the brain over that?

Or, in words this brother might understand,

which does he value most: his left nut or his right?

Tell him.

"Silence is my shield

"It crushes.

God gave man a holy purpose.

Yes, he did.

To beget future generations.

But the homosexual defiles his seed!

His life — I say, his life

perverts God!

We need strong Black men to fortify the Black family.

How does the homosexual help this agenda?

- Isn't he just part of the crisis? - A punk is a punk is a punk is a punk.

I don't want them around me or my kids, period.

"Silence is my cloak

"It smothers.

Don't you think that God don't see the wickedness of this world.

- Amen! - He knows.

He watches.

He punishes!

Yeah, man. Like this AIDS shit. All the innocent victims, man.

Mamas and babies dying

because of dope fiends and faggots.

Faggots aren't allowed to look at my ass while I'm on stage.

That's why I keep moving while I'm up here.

If you don't know where the faggot section is,

you got to keep moving.

So if they do see it, it's quick and you switch.

They don't get no long stare at your shit.

"Silence is my sword

It cuts both ways."

- For the girls in the yard! - Yes!

- For the sissies. - Good God, yes!

When I say, "Gamma," you say, "Fag."

- Gamma. - Fag.

This is the view of our most talented tenth,

the movers and shakers, the image makers.

Consider the millions who follow their lead.

Fag, fag, fag, fag.

There's nothing like having a nation of fags looking for you.

Their jokes, their laughter form a chorus of contempt.

Cars that come rushing across town be —

There won't be no siren. Be a real fag sitting on the roof, going, "Whoo-whoo!"

Each joke levels us a little more

and we sit silently.

Sometimes join in the laughter,

as if deep down we, too, believe

we are the lowest among the low.

No one will redeem your name, your love, your life,

your manhood, but you.

No one will save you but you.

Your silence is costing.

Your silence is suicide.

From Sodom and Gomorrah

to San Francisco...

When I say, "Gamma," you say, "Punk."

- Gamma. - Punk.

We need strong role models, man. We can't have cats looking up to guys that are gay.

How would they know what it means to be a man?

Sodomy is sin!

And you know the wages of sin is death.

The wages of sin is death.

Fag, fag, fag, fag. Punk, punk, punk, punk.

Fag, fag, fag, fag.

"I know the anger that lies inside me

"Like I know the beat of my heart and the taste of my spit

"It is easier to be angry than to hurt

"Anger is what I do best

"It is easier to be furious than to be yearning

"Easier to crucify myself and you

"Than to take on the threatening universe of whiteness

"By admitting we are worth wanting each other

"I, too, know anger

"My body contains as much anger as water

"It is the material from which I have built my house

"Blood-red bricks that cry in the rain

"It is the face and posture I show the world

"It is the way, sometimes the only way

"I am granted audience

"It is sometimes the way I show affection

"I am angry because of the treatment I am afforded as a Black man

"That fiery anger is stoked additionally

"With the fuels of contempt and despisal shown me

By my community because I am gay."

"I cannot go home as who I am

"When I speak of home

"I mean not only the familial constellation from which I grew

"But the entire Black community

"The Black press, the Black church

"Black academicians, the Black literati

"And the Black left

"Where is my reflection?

"I am most often rendered invisible

"Perceived as a threat to the family

"Or I am tolerated if I am silent and inconspicuous

"I cannot go home as who I am

And that hurts me deeply."

On another day I'm walking down Spruce/Castro/Christopher Street

on my way to work.

A half-block away walking towards me is another Black gay man.

We've seen each other in the clubs.

Side by side at the precise moment our eyes should meet,

he studies the intricate detail of a building.

I check my white sneakers for scuff marks.

What is it that we see in each other that makes us avert our eyes so quickly?

Do we turn away from each other

in order not to see our collective anger and sadness?

It is my pain I see reflected in your eyes.

Our angers ricochet between us

like the bullets we fire in battles

which are not our own nor with each other.

The same angry face donned for safety in the white world

is the same expression I bring to you.

I am cool and unemotive,

distant from what I need most.

It is easier to be furious than to be yearning,

easier to crucify myself and you

and perhaps easiest to ingest that anger

until it threatens to consume me

or apply a salve of substitutes to the wound.

But real anger accepts few substitutes.

And sneers at sublimation.

The anger, hurt I feel

can't be washed down with a Coke or a Colt .45.

It cannot be danced away, mollified by a white lover,

nor lost in the mirror reflections of a Black lover.

I cannot hope it will be gobbled up by the alligators on my clothing.

Nor can I lose it in therapy.

I cannot offer it to Jesus.

- Allah. - Jah.

So I must mold and direct that fiery-cool mass of angry energy.

Use it before it uses me.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

Anger unvented becomes pain unspoken,

becomes rage released, becomes violence, cha-cha-chá.

"In search of self, I listen to the beat of my heart,

"To rhythms muffled beneath layers of delusion

"Pain, alienation

"Silence

"The beat was my salvation

"I let this primal pulse lead me

"Past broken dreams, solitude

"Fragments of identity to a new place, a home

"Not of peace, harmony and sunshine, no

"But truth

Simple, shameless, brazen truth."

"Listen..."

"When you find yourself coming up short

"Do what I do

"Borrow things from the universe

"Take a little from the shelf

"Grab some extra for yourself

"It's all yours Go ahead. What's the matter?

"Are you scared?

"Lean slightly forward on your toes

"Point your chin toward the sun

"Reach for distant galaxies

"Peep over horizons

"Can't you see?

"Win or lose, you pay your dues

"For latent fantasies

"So first, reach, pull, grab

And snatch what's yours from the universe."

Uh-huh, sensible boy, yeah.

Like beating me and punishing me for being like that.

No one said that that existed or that that was an alternative.

They said, "You want to wear women's clothes."

And I said, "No, I don't want to wear women's clothes."

Then when I realized that "faggot" meant you want to sleep with men

and you could wear women's —

that's another alternative, but that's what they're really talking about —

then it was like, "Well, let's reevaluate the situation."

You see what I'm saying? You're fighting against this ignorance.

That's why I can embrace these terms and go,

"Well, what we're really talking about on a gut level

is men sleeping with men, and I do that."

- Yeah. - Or I hope to.

Which is a lot different than saying,

"Well, they don't know what they're talking about."

And I'd rather call them on it and have them be specific.

Rather than say "sissy" and then they come with all these issues,

and they don't have to explain what they mean.

I say, "Yes, I'm a sissy. Now what does that mean to you?"

- Exactly what I say. - "So, what are you really trying to say?"

- Yeah. - Spell it out.

Be pejorative if you're being pejorative, but do it in a specific way.

I'm supposed to just — What we do is we aid them.

All of a sudden, we drag up all our own issues,

and they're able to torture us and they don't have to say a word.

You decide what you think a sissy is and you torture yourself.

And they haven't done anything.

You've let a six-letter word hurt your life.

- That's right. - I'd rather make them do the work.

Basically, Vogue started back in the '70s, from what he told me.

Okay, now, the younger ones, the younger queens

what they do is, like, they have a house.

What they do is they go to the ball and they challenge each other.

If you're down with a certain house, you dress that certain way.

If you're down with the house of Chanel,

you dress with Chanel, you know, Chanel clothing.

I never heard of that.

But that's what they do here in New York.

Yeah, in New York. In DC, I've never heard of that.

Yeah, well, see, each — each state — each state, each gay community

does different things.

Like in your community they speak "agua" or whatever you call it.

- Aga. - Aga.

Uh-huh.

I find that cute, though.

"Mother, do you know I roam alone at night

"Wearing colognes, tight pants

"Chains of gold?

"Searching for men willing to come back to candlelight

"I'm not scared of these men

"Though some are killers of sons like me.

"I learned there is no tender mercy for men of color

"For sons who love men like me.

"Do not feel shame for how I live

"I chose this tribe of warriors and outlaws

"Do not feel you failed some test of motherhood

"My life has borne fruit

"No woman could have given me anyway.

"If one of these thick-lipped, wet, Black nights

"While I'm out walking, I find freedom in this village

"If I can take it with my tribe

"I'll bring you here and you will never notice

The absence of rice and bridesmaids."

Ironic that dance, my ticket to assimilation,

my way of amusing, then winning acceptance by whites...

How many of us have followed this path?

...that the same steps were now my passage back home.

Anthropology.

Unending search for what is utterly precious.

"I'm chocolate candy, a handful of cookies

"The goodies you are forbidden to eat

"I'm a piece of cake A slice of pie

"An ice-cream bar that chills your teeth

"Think of me as your favorite treat

"A pan of popcorn kernels

Waiting for the heat."

"Exiting the john, I check the mirror

"For the face of naked lust

"His eyes howl at me

Coyote separated from the roving pack."

"Love potions solve no mysteries

"Provide no comment on the unspoken

"Our lives tremble between pathos and seduction

"Our inhibitions force us to be equal

"We swallow hard Black love potions

"From a golden glass

"New language beckons us

"Its dialect present, intimate

"Through my eyes, focused as pure, naked light

"Fixed on you like magic

"Clarity

"I see risks

"Regrets, there will be none

"Let some wonder, some worry, some accuse

Let you and I know the tenderness only we can bear."

♪ Shoo-be, doo-be, doo doo ♪

- Out of the closet! - ♪ Shoo-be doo doo, shoo-be doo doo ♪

♪ Shoo-be, doo, shoo-be, doo-be, doo doo ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo, shoo-be doo doo ♪

♪ Shoo-be, doo, shoo-be, doo-be Doo doo, doo wop ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo, shoo-be doo wop ♪

♪ Shoo-be, shoo-be, doo wop ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo, shoo-be doo doo wop ♪

♪ Hey, boy ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo ♪

♪ Can you come out tonight? ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo wop ♪

♪ Hey, boy ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo ♪

- ♪ Can you come out tonight? ♪ - We're Black! We're gay!

We don't have no other way!

We're Black! We're gay! We don't have no other way!

♪ I don't know where we will go ♪

♪ There's one thing I know ♪

♪ I'll be your one and only ♪

♪ Lover man tonight ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo wop ♪

♪ Hey, baby ♪

♪ Don't be ashamed to say ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo wop ♪

♪ That you are my baby ♪

♪ And you will always stay that way ♪

- Out of the closet! Out of the closet! - ♪ Shoo-be doo wop ♪

♪ So if you would just take a chance ♪

♪ We'd go for a walk Or maybe we'll dance ♪

♪ We'll go hand in hand Right up Main Street ♪

♪ And down old Broadway ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo, shoo-be doo wop Be doo, doo-be doo ♪

♪ No one can say we can't love this way ♪

♪ It's true ♪

♪ So baby ♪

♪ Just take my hand ♪

♪ Together we'll stand ♪

♪ Baby, it's me and you ♪

♪ Ohh ♪

♪ De-doo-be, doo doo... ♪

♪ Hey, baby ♪

♪ I know you're hurting inside ♪

♪ Yeah ♪

♪ If you love me ♪

♪ Don't let love be denied ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo doo-wop, shoo-be doo ♪

♪ You've got to take what you need ♪

♪ And by now it's agreed ♪

♪ Do what is right ♪

♪ Oh, do what's right ♪

♪ Baby, come out tonight ♪

Black, Black, Black, Black, gay, gay, gay, gay!

We will have no other way!

We're Black, Black, Black, Black, gay, gay, gay, gay!

We will have no other way!

We're Black, Black, Black, Black, gay, gay, gay, gay!

We will have no other way!

We're Black, Black, Black, Black, gay, gay, gay, gay!

Hey hey, ho ho! Homophobia has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho! Homophobia has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho! Homophobia has got to go!

Hey hey, ho ho!

Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!

- ♪ Shoo-be, shoo doo-be doo ♪ - ♪ Baby ♪

- ♪ Baby ♪ - ♪ Baby ♪

♪ Baby ♪

♪ Come walk with me, talk with me Hold me now, love me now ♪

♪ Baby, baby, baby, oh, yeah ♪

♪ Shoo-be doo wop, doo-be, doo-be ♪

♪ Come out tonight ♪

♪ Saying, come out tonight ♪

♪ Come out tonight... ♪

"Times are lean, pretty baby

"The beans burned to the bottom of the battered pot

"Let's make fierce love on the overstuffed hand-me-down sofa

"We can burn it up, too

"Our hunger will evaporate like

"Money

"I can smell your lust

"Not the pot burnt black with tonight's meager meal

"So we can't buy flowers for our table

"Our kisses are petals, our tongues caress the bloom

"Who dares to tell us we are poor and powerless

"We keep treasure any king would count as dear

"Come on, pretty baby.

"Our souls can't be crushed

"Like cats crossing streets too soon

"Let the beans burn all night long

"Our chipped water glasses are filled with wine from our loving

And the burnt black beans, caviar."

"Holy ghost of my heart

"Grinding my memory

"Humping my need

"Throw your head like the Dinka

"Shake your arms like the Maasai

"A French whore flirting

"Licking lips at strangers

"Been waiting for your light bulb

"To glow for me

"Waiting

"To exchange hard-ass love

"Calloused affection

"Slapping high-fives

"Capable and competent

"Listless and lonely

"Turn the blaze up slow

"So I can breathe your morning breath

"Wet my pillow

"Part your eyelids

"I'm a typewriter

"Randy and selfish and wise

"A sonnet, a beatbox

"Serve the next line

"In your salty metaphors

"And smoked salmon humor

"Wet me with the next line

"The resounding refrain

Of grown men in love."

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

- "Now we think - "Now we think as we fuck

- "As we fuck - "Now we think as we fuck

"This nut might

"Kill us

- "Now we think as we fuck - "There might be

- "Now we think as we fuck - "A pin-sized hole

- "In the condom - "Now we think as we fuck

- "A lethal leak - "Now we think as we fuck

- "We stop kissing - "Now we think as we fuck

- "Tall, dark - "Now we think as we fuck

- "Strangers - "Now we think as we fuck

- "Sucking mustaches - "Now we think as we fuck

- "Putting lips - Ah! "Now we think as we fuck

- "Tongues - Ah! "Now we think as we fuck

- "Everywhere - Oh! "Now we think as we fuck

- "We return to pictures, telephones - "Now we think as we fuck

- Ah! "Now we think as we fuck - "Toys

- "Now we think as we fuck - "Recent lovers

- "Now we think as we fuck - "Private lives

- "Now we think as we fuck - "Now we think

- "Now we think as we fuck - "As we fuck.

- "Now we think as we fuck - "This nut might

"This nut might

- "Now we think as we fuck - "This nut might

"Kill us

"Now we think as we fuck

"Now we think as we fuck

Now we think as we fuck."

"Still, I listen to the beat of my heart

"Let this primal pulse lead me

"Though lately I've lived with another rhythm

"At first, I thought just time passing

"But I discovered a time bomb ticking in my blood

"Faces, friends disappear

"I watch, I wait

"I watch, I wait

"I listen for my own quiet implosion

"But while I wait, older, stronger rhythms

"Resonate within me

"Sustain my spirit, silence the clock

♪ ...nobody turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' Keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ Marching on to freedom land ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let homophobia ♪

♪ Turn me around ♪

♪ Turn me around, turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let homophobia Turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' Keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ Marching on to freedom land ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let no racism Turn me around ♪

♪ Turn me around, turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let no racism Turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' Keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ And marching on to freedom land ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪

♪ Turn me around, turn me around ♪

♪ Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around ♪

♪ I'm gonna keep on a-walkin' Keep on a-talkin' ♪

♪ And marching on to freedom land ♪

"Whatever awaits me, this much I know

"I was blind to my brother's beauty

"And now I see my own

"Deaf to the voice that believed

"We were worth wanting, loving each other

"Now I hear

"I was mute, tongue-tied, burdened by shadows and silence

"Now I speak

And my burden is lightened, lifted, free."

♪ So many roles for you to play ♪

♪ Just to stay in the game ♪

♪ Will you follow the lead ♪

♪ Or dance to a tune With a different beat? ♪

♪ Mother, father, daughter or son ♪

♪ They're all one and the same ♪

♪ Then you discover You've played them so long ♪

♪ You don't know your name ♪

♪ After learning predetermined roles ♪

♪ They've set for you ♪

♪ Now's the time to realize ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪

♪ Since you were born You played it straight ♪

♪ Never swayed from the norm ♪

♪ Now that you're grown ♪

♪ You're searching for goals You can call your own ♪

♪ Where will you turn? ♪

♪ You're puzzled and troubled By what you've learned ♪

♪ You could run somewhere ♪

♪ But will you find peace of mind Awaiting there? ♪

♪ After learning predetermined roles ♪

♪ They set for you ♪

♪ Now's the time to realize ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do, yeah ♪

♪ And do what you wanna do ♪

♪ You can be who you wanna be ♪

♪ You can love who you wanna love ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪

♪ You can do what you wanna do ♪

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother. Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Brother to brother, brother to brother.

Black men loving Black men.

A call to action. A call to action.

An acknowledgment of responsibility.

We take care of our own kind when the nights grow cold and silent.

These days, the nights are cold-blooded

and the silence echoes with complicity.