{"id":4694,"date":"2014-01-23T23:55:38","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T04:55:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oshetablogs.wordpress.com\/?p=2228"},"modified":"2014-01-23T23:55:38","modified_gmt":"2014-01-24T04:55:38","slug":"a-song-for-spalding-spinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shalominthecity\/2014\/01\/a-song-for-spalding-spinner\/","title":{"rendered":"A Song For Spalding Spinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Tonight I went to a card-making class in Porter Square.\u00a0 Since our minivan is at the dealership for repairs, I\u2019ve been taking the \u201cT\u201d, Boston\u2019s public transit\u2014which I love. \u00a0 To get to Porter from my house, I have to take the 73 bus to Harvard Station then transfer onto the outbound red line train. Usually, I get on the bus, turn on an audio book and ignore the other passengers until I get to Harvard, but tonight,\u00a0 I noticed a young man. \u00a0 He was clutching a Spalding basketball in his hands, wearing crisp white Adidas sneakers, and nodding, no banging his head to the hip hop in his earbuds. Soon he started rapping, under breath and then loud enough to get my attention. While watching this young man,\u00a0this poem of sorts came to me.\u00a0 True story:\u00a0 I got off the bus and onto the wrong train while jotting down this post into my phone! These are my thoughts about my seat mate:\u00a0 Spalding Spinner. <\/em><\/em><\/p>\n

\"800px-HarvardSquareTrolleyTunnel.agr\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Brown skin, blood-shot eyes, thick lips chapped and pursed.<\/p>\n

Air Jordan\u2019s, baggy coat, glove-less hands ashy from the biting cold.<\/p>\n

The only black man on the bus is Spinning his Spalding basketball, tapping that sneaker-ed foot and nodding to the hip hop in his ears.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He\u2019s lost to the smooth beats and oblivious of our sharp sideways glances.<\/p>\n

Soon he starts singing while he\u2019s spinning that ball.\u00a0 No, he\u2019s not singing. He\u2019s rapping.\u00a0 Hard and fast,\u00a0 primal and powerful, he\u2019s filling the bus with his poetry.<\/p>\n

And I want to quiet him with my fierce thoughts: <\/i><\/p>\n

\u2018<\/i>Why? Why are you doing that?\u2019\u00a0<\/em> says my Mama-shame stare to the back of his head.<\/p>\n

Stop it, stop it!<\/em> Don\u2019t you know?<\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you know with your dusty Spalding basketball and do-rag covered head that they\u2019re staring at you?<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t know that I\u2014with my Vera Bradley laptop bag and puffy Laundry winter coat\u2014am staring at you, too?<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Why Spalding Spinner?\u00a0 Why are you rapping on the 73?<\/em> Why do you tap out sick beats and spit lyrics with such force? How do you have such freedom? <\/em><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you know? Don\u2019t you care?
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

They\u2019re watching.<\/em><\/p>\n

I\u2019m watching.<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re watching.<\/em> <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

You are always watched.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even though we watch in annoyed disbelief, he keeps stringing his rhyming words together, he keeps spinning his Spalding, and he never stops swinging his head.<\/p>\n

I can only sit and watch him as he abandons himself to his art.<\/p>\n

Soon the mama-glare softens and the Sister gaze settles as I realize what Spalding Spinner is doing beautiful and baffling.<\/p>\n

Hope. Bravery.\u00a0 Confidence.\u00a0 All the things.\u00a0 On Display on the 73.<\/p>\n

Then my Sister gaze cheers him on: \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe you do know you\u2019re always watched!<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe, because you know<\/b>, you rap?<\/em><\/p>\n

You know we\u2019re watching and yet, you\u2019re not afraid\u2014so you swag that do-rag covered head back and forth, front and back, side to side\u2026no one in the Red Line has swagga like that!*\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Spalding Spinner, can you do this because hope courses wild and right in your veins?\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Are you like the caged bird that sings his liberation song? <\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Have you accessed your freedom from within the cage of your brown skin and that\u2019s why you ignore our judgy eyes?
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

I wanna be brave like you, Spalding Spinner!\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

I wanna be brave like you. <\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

Because your bravery gives me hope.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Hope_330\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

*This is a play on a rap song, \u201cPaper Planes\u201d\u00a0 by M.I.A.<\/a> a Sri Lankan refugee rapper.\u00a0 The phrase \u201cno one on the corner has swagga like us\u201d is sampled from MIA\u2019s song by T.I., Jay-Z, and Kanye West in a song called\u2026you guessed it\u2026\u201dSwagga Like Us<\/a>\u201c.\u00a0 There\u2019s your hip hop lesson for the day :)!<\/p>\n

Shalom and Swagga ;),<\/p>\n

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Tonight I went to a card-making class in Porter Square.\u00a0 Since our minivan is at the dealership for repairs, I\u2019ve been taking the \u201cT\u201d, Boston\u2019s public transit\u2014which I love. \u00a0 To get to Porter from my house, I have to take the 73 bus to Harvard Station then transfer onto the outbound red line train. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3037,"featured_media":2229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,102,358,360,362,21,364,366,368,15,136,250,370,372,160,8,374],"class_list":["post-4694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-as-a-jesus-girl","tag-boston","tag-harvard","tag-hope","tag-jay-z","tag-jesus","tag-kanye-west","tag-mia","tag-paper-souce","tag-peace","tag-race","tag-racial-reconcilliation","tag-rap","tag-red-line","tag-sheloves","tag-social-justice","tag-t-i"],"yoast_head":"\nA Song For Spalding Spinner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tonight I went to a card-making class in Porter Square.\u00a0 Since our minivan is at the dealership for repairs, I've been taking the "T", Boston's public\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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