Well folks, this is a P.U.P first…read on and you’ll see what I mean. The day started as any P.U.P day in my experience has— a mixture of giddiness, excitement and, yes, a fear, as we gathered outside the Staten Island Ferry terminal on this gorgeously sunny and windy Saturday. Jon asked that I start things off with a song, and as soon as I looked out at the massive and gorgeous Atlantic, I knew exactly what I wanted to sing, a praise song to Yamaja, the Yoruba Goddess of water and protection. As I began to sing, the ocean sparkling behind me, one man walked by and said, “You have a gorgeous voice, thank you.” He could sense that something was about to popf and sat close by to take in the rest of the P.U.P action. From the other side of the ferry, a woman began shouting “English, B–, sing in English,” but I kept on… As soon as the song finished, the notorious Ngoma popped up with...

Rising Fascism on the Staten Island Ferry          So it’s saturday afternoon the Pop Up Poets invade the S.I Ferry today we’re a bit short staffed our ranks being smaller than usual we forge on relentlessly Jon Sands,Corrina Bain,Elana Bell, Osunyoyin Alake Syreeta McFadden and yours truly As we enter the ferry Elana has a strange feeling Osunyoyin says it’s premonition I’m plodding along trying to psyche myself into doing this Suffering post traumatic slave syndrome I really don’t like large ships Elana sings a praise to Yemoja in Yoruba some deculturalized spanish chick ironically harrasses her to speak english more of a reason that multiculturalism and tolerance should be taught in schools assuming that she went to school in the first place I launch into a poem trying to Shift her Paradigm she continues to scream profanity and holla I take it as a...