JOT: Already

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Already, XI #5, December 2001
Writing from the Bee and King Branch Libraries, Bronzeville
With photos by John Brooks

This fantastic issue of JOT was written by writers who currently write at the King Branch Library in Bronzeville. The is the second magazine to be beautifully illustrated with photographs by John Brooks, whose work has been seen in DoubleTake, the New York Times, the Chicago Cultural Center, and in the CITY 2000 project.

Read an excerpt from the magazine below. You can purchase this issue for $5.

BRONZEVILLE SHINING
By Felicia Madlock

She was a discarded piece of art matted
WIth the footprints of poverty
Cold hopeless tears rain down on her
Seeping despair in the soil
Fertilized death in the sands
Children's laughter replaced by children's
screams
Nightmares that haunted them in the the daylight
Where was the beauty that my father talked about?
47th Street was the mecca of music
Blues joints that twisted melodies into songs
Sung by the lips that knew the rhythm

This was Bronzeville
Not the eyesore of decaying dreams
Spilled from the pipe
That kissed lips
Trying to find hope
In a hopeless situation

This is Bronzeville
I see the season of change
And the cold hopless rain
Is feeling warm to me
I see plants peeping from the soil
And anonymous smiles greeting my presence
I hear whispering melodies in the air
And my fingers want to snap from within
I want to dance on the playgrounds that are
emerging from their slumber
And I see children
Laughing a sound of joyfullness

This is Bronzeville
A piece of discarded art
Reclaimed
Renamed
I see the beauty
I see the sun
Bronzeville is shining again

ALREADY
By Pat Guy

I'm not happy when my children
Stay too close to me
Stand too close
Wanna touch me
Wanna rub my legs
Caress my hair
Play in my face
Cause
It's something they want from me
And I have nothing more to give
If I had it to give, I would
I'd give it, I'd give it freely
What have, to them, anyway
My time
My energy
My me
My all of me
There is no more to give
So
I push them away
I give
I gave
I have given, freely
Already.