CONGO SQUARE the oumas indians prepared this place for us centuries before our arrival a sacred spot where corn festivals were celebrated & as the colonializers came they pushed aside our hosts & introduced us in chains & by the late 1700s we somehow recognizing the sacredness of le place de congo, we somehow, and the how of our persuasive methodologies is not clear at this moment, but nevertheless, even enslaved we crafted and created a space where we could be free to be we and thusly we countered the sacriligousness of the french giving great homage to our ancestors as well as giving praise & thanx to our red blooded brothers & sisters this is an oral libational toast to congo square to native americans & to our african ancestors who made a circle in a square and gave us a way to stay ourselves save ourselves from the transformatory ugliness of america which refuses to recognize the spirituality of life and celebrates death with crosses & crosses, double & triple crosses, the middle passage the first cross, christianity the double cross and capitalism the ultimate triple coup de grace cross of our captivity but the terror of crosses notwithstanding we sang, we beat, we be, we was & is hail, congo square our african gods have not been obliterated they have merely retreated inside the beat of us until we are ready to release them into a world that we re-create, a world heralded by the beat be, beat being, beating being of black heart drums heart beat heart beat heart be/at this place at this place be heart beat be we beating place in new world space beating being in place in new world preserving our ancient pace our dance is the god walk our music, the god talk first thing we do, let's get together circle ourselves into community no beginning no end connected together and singing ringing singing in a ring second let's be original aboriginal / be what we were before we became what we are, be bamboula dance, be banza music, and sing song words which have no english translation third let us remember never to forget even when we can't remember the specifics we must retain the essentials the bounce the blood flow the feel the spirit grow energy, must retain and pass on the essential us-ness that others want to dissipate whip out of us but no matter how much of us they prohibit deep inside us is us remains us inside & needs only the beat to set us free the beat to free us it is morning, a sun day, a field w/out shade but dark with the people black of us in various shades eclipsing the sun with our elegance we are centuries later now and still this sacred ground calls us to remember / to beat / to be beat CONGO SQUARE be CONGO SQUARE beat be beat be remember —kalamu ya salaam