Episode 25

We open this week's episode with TRINA who is calling CARYN on the phone.

CARYN's answering machine - Sorry, you missed me. But leave a message and I will hit you back....BEEP!
TRINA - Caryn girl, this is Trina. Give me a call as soon...
CARYN - Hey? Trina?
TRINA - Hey girl, you screening your calls?
CARYN - Yeah, this Kappa named Greg won't leave me alone. Keeps calling. You know how I get 'em open!
TRINA - Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, I told you about messin' with those Kappas!
CARYN - Ha ha ha ha I guess you were right! Speaking of messin' with frat boys, what's up with you and Mr. President?
TRINA - Yo that's why I called you! I just had a confrontation with him and Alexis!
CARYN - What!
TRINA - Yeah girl, and I need your help. I want to set that bitch up!
CARYN - Ok, I'll be right over!

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We continue with the telephone conversation between JUNE and DERRICK.

JUNE - I said, you win. If this is the way you want it, fine. Let's go our different directions because I am doing this.
DERRICK - I can't believe you are about to throw away all that we have!
JUNE - I'm not throwing away anything. I didn't come to you with the notion of breaking up, you brought it to me.
DERRICK - But I would have never brought it to you if you would not have come to me with this notion of pledging.
JUNE - You don't want to support me in the things that I want to do. This is important to me and it is crushing me that you don't have my back with this. It really is. As much as I have supported you with your athletics. But I will move on with my life with or without you.
DERRICK - So it's like that?
JUNE - I will not let you dictate to me my future. Let it be known that it is not me walking away from you, but it is you walking away from me. At a time when I may need you most.
DERRICK - Don't try to put a guilt trip on me, that's bullshit.
JUNE - You only feel guilty because you should.

(silence)

DERRICK - Well all I have to say is that I apologize for loving you so much and caring so much that I don't want to see you fucking hurt, ok? Damn, what do I get for the love I put out? Nothing! But that's cool, it's all good. I hope you have fun doing the sorority thing and I hope it brings you fulfillment and happiness. I hope it is all that you hope it to be. Peace!

(DERRICK hangs up.)

JUNE - Hello? Hello?
JUNE thinks - He hung up on me? I can't believe he hung up on me!

(JUNE dials DERRICK's number)

DERRICK's answering machine - Yo I aint here, you know what to do...BEEP!
JUNE - Oh now you aren't home huh? Fine, be a child and don't pick up. But that was really mature of you to say your last words and hang up without giving me a chance to say anything. And you know what, I will take your advice and enjoy this sorority. Even though you didn't mean it. I see what kind of person you really are!

(JUNE hangs up. She stares at the phone expecting it to ring any second. It doesn't. JUNE begins to cry.)

JUNE thinks - I have to call someone, someone that I can talk to.

(JUNE dials the number.)

JUNE thinks - I just lost my man.

(JUNE starts to cry harder.)

MONA - Hello?

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We rejoin CARYN who has just arrived at TRINA's house.

(TRINA opens the door.)

CARYN - Tell me the scoop, tell me the scoop!
TRINA - Girl let me tell you. This bitch comes to my front door and starts asking me questions about Bobby. So I was like, look ho, I don't know you but you need to check your attitude at the door ok?
CARYN - Yeah...
TRINA - So she gets ready to get in my face and the man of the hour comes in.
CARYN - Bobby just came in?
TRINA - Just walks in the door.
CARYN - No!
TRINA - Yes girl.
CARYN - So then what happened?
TRINA - Let me tell you. Alexis starts to question Bobby and she calls me a bitch!
CARYN - That bitch called you a bitch?
TRINA - Yeah! So I just pimp slapped her!
CARYN - You are lying!
TRINA - Hell naw. I slapped her so hard she was standing there looking stupid.
CARYN - Ha ha ha ha, so then what happened?
TRINA - So she tries to jump bad with me but Bobby broke it up. Then he told her I was pregnant and she broke out.
CARYN - He told her you were what?

(TRINA smiles.)

CARYN - Girlfriend spit it out, I know you didn't just say what I thought you said!
TRINA - Bobby and I are going to have a baby!

(TRINA screams out in excitement as she watches the reaction come across CARYN's face.)

CARYN - You little ho, you did that on purpose didn't you?
TRINA smiles - Yep!
CARYN - Genius T. I haven't even made so much as eye contact with Derrick. He is so sprung out over this bitch June. And now I hear she is trying to go greek, which means that she will have less time for Derrick and he will have more time for me.
TRINA - Girl, just be persistant and it will happen. Do you think it was easy to snatch Mr Brother of the Year? I can tell you that it wasn't but he is all mine now.
CARYN - What makes you think that because you got pregnant he will leave Alexis completely alone?
TRINA - Because he loves me, that's why. Plus, that's where you come in.
CARYN - I'm all ears.
TRINA - I want to fuck this bitch up, and you are gonna help me. Now this is what we are gonna do.

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GINA and MIRI arrive at Pharoahs and the place is packed.

GINA - Damn, full house tonight.
MIRI - Yeah, I told you Stephanie is no joke. She is starting to build quite a large following here. You're gonna love her.
GINA thinks - Yeah, I know!

(MIRI takes GINA to the front of the line and he greets the bouncer. They walk in free.)

GINA - Wow, I'm glad we got inside before the crowd came in. We may not have gotten a good seat.
MIRI - I know, it pays to be a poet.

(GINA smiles. They take a seat toward the front.)

MIRI - Can I get you something to drink?
GINA - Yes please, a glass of Merlot would be nice.
MIRI - Coming right up.

(MIRI heads toward the bar and Pharoahs quickly begins to fill. GINA stares at the stage and remembers seeing MIRI stand there and deliver his poem to her.)

MIRI - One Merlot for the lovely lady, and one pineapple juice for me.
GINA - I was just daydreaming about when you were up there.
MIRI - Yeah, I remember the night we met, right here.

( A man takes the stage and begins to speak.)

SUIRRAD - Brothers and sisters, welcome to Pharoahs. My name is Suirrad and I have the honor of presenting our featured artist for the evening. We have a few poets coming up tonight, so if you could all take your seats we can get started.

(MIRI sits back and crosess his legs. He smiles at GINA.)

SUIRRAD - This sister coming to the stage, a lot of you may know. I had the pleasure of meeting her a few years ago and have been in love with her work and her spirit ever since. She is the founder of creator's child productions where they specialize in blessings of verse and lyrics. She just completed her second cd entitled mozaik with some of her gifted squad. Her first cd called la boca mocha is still out and still blazin'. She comes from the city of brotherly love, Philly.

(Someone in the crowd yells, Philly in the house! Everyone laughs.)

SUIRRAD - Oh I see we got Philly in here! That's cool. Brothers and sisters, please help me welcome to the stage, none other than the incomperable Stephanie Renee!

(Everyone claps, a few stand and a few whistle. STEPHANIE steps on stage and hugs
SUIRRAD.)

STEPHANIE RENEE - Thank you, thank you very much. I get so much love from my peeps here at Pharoahs, I just want to say that I really and truly appreciate all the support my team and I receive whenever we come here. Now let's get down to business.

(Someone yells, get busy Steph! STEPHANIE smiles.)

STEPHANIE RENEE - In my mind first, is family. I am big on family, especially my sisters and my brothers. So this piece speaks to my family by speaking to my brothers. For my brothers.

Brother
how can you look at me
and not see infinity
all that we have been
and ever will be
reflecting in the
brilliant brown of my eyes

how could you
touch me
kiss my lips
or caress my cheek
and not feel our antiquity
generations been snatched
out at the root
but the genes still reproduce
in the rough smooth thick full dark
of you and me

my brother
it's impossible
to listen to me
and not hear faint traces
of the lullabies
that used to rock you to sleep
impossible to hear
my sorrowful cries
after one of you has taken
yet another brother's life
impossible not to hear
my passionate moans
floating through the dark
after loving you
under the starlit sky

black man
I be the tail to your comet
the extension of your brilliance
black man
I be the wood beams of your mansion
the foundation upon which you stand
black man
I be the e in your alphabet
something silent
but ever present

MIRI whispers - Damn!

a necessity
just like you are to me

how can you look at me
and not see
you
how could you talk to me
and not hear
you
how can you touch me
and not feel
you

brother
how can you
look at me
and not even
see
me

converse with me
and not
hear
me

touch me
and still not
feel
me

don't you see

I am your queen
who rules beside you
and loves you

(GINA grabs MIRI's hand.)

black man
I am your sister

we are family
Thank you.

(Crowd gives thunderous applause.)

GINA - Wow, that was tight!
MIRI - I told you she was all that. It's like she was born to do this, her flow and delivery is so natural.
GINA - She is powerful, just like you said.
GINA thinks - Ooh I can't wait until I surprise Miri.

STEPHANIE RENEE - Thank you so much. Thank you. This next piece I hope yall vibe with as well. I had to dig through the corners of my mind for this one. But I pulled it together. Mind over matter.
can't remove nigga from my name.
it's a cell
we continue to lock me in
guess bitch will be my only claim
till I unearth the queen again.

when I lay to rest
makes no difference
that I can
feel the pea 'neath my
mattress
I be the lost princess
massa wouldn't let me take
my throne to my new address

(STEPHANIE's arms begin to sway as she finishes each phrase.)

scared and disillusioned
orphaned stranger in a foreign land
I had an appetite for soul food
but somebody messed up my new world order
asked for chitlins and sweet potatoe pie
but they come back with lynchings and stake fries
made me spill blood all over
my birthday suit

GINA - Wow!

under the weight of the world
fragile dreams are deferred and shatterred
but the pressure on this earth made me diamond min(e)d over matter

I could shout my true identity from the go tell it on the mountain peak and hope the echo will make Miss Liberty do a flat assed hoochie coochie dance with bells on her hips to cause justice and freedom to ring

(GINA smiles. STEPHANIE closes her eyes.)

but what good would it do if my joyous revelations only whisper in the deaf ears of fallen angels who have yet to discover their wings
it's hard to find peace when olive branches have never caressed my palm when the dove is white and bears no resemblance to me

(STEPHANIE opens her eyes and speaks forceful.)

but my truths are gonna break
the chain of apathy
from the psyche of those shaded brown like me
the new rules of the game
are we for we
making deals
or sleeping with the enemy
is considered treason
and punishable by mortality

so all smooth criminals
plotting
bout how to steal my thunder
best beware of the stroke of my lightning
my brilliance flashes
your shadow tactics forced to recede like hairlines
out of sight
out of mind over matter

and what is the true price of prosperity
when even democracy taxes me
wears me down to the size of fine print
small
black
and insignificant

MIRI - Damn!

got to readjust the record on its axis
to make sure I set it straight
manipulates
the six degrees that separate
exponentiate
until we bring it back to the
power of
one nation under
a groove
raise the voices
of the rainbow children
to put rhythm back in our blues
hip-hop drums
are gonna beat me free
from the burdens that make me
sin against me
gonna open my mouth
and holy shout
dance for obatallah
right down heaven's aisle

gonna baptize myself
when I leave these shores
and swin back home
to the river Jordan
wash away my trail of sins in the sea's holy water
gonna be sanctified when I get there
pure mind over matter

(STEPHANIE pauses and looks down.)

so remove nigga from my name
open the cell
you lock me in
you see
bitch is no longer my claim because I unearthed the queen again

can you see
the day of reckoning is dawning
we children of the sun
set thought in motion
words into action
we're gonna hijack the
underground movement
uncross the signals
and make it telepathic

today is
asili
that is kiswahili
for new beginning

resurrection
mind over matter
Thank you.

(Everyone stands and gives STEPHANIE a roaring ovation.There is whistling and screaming. SUIRRAD comes back on stage and gives STEPHANIE a long hug.)

SUIRRAD - Brothers and sisters, Stephanie Renee!

(The crowd cheers again as STEPHANIE steps off stage. She hugs a girl in the front and shakes hands with a brother. STEPHANIE notices MIRI.)

STEPHANIE - Hey Honey!
MIRI - Hey lady, you were wonderful! You are off the hook!

(STEPHANIE and MIRI hug.)

STEPHANIE smiling - Aw thanks. Stop it.
MIRI - Stephanie, I want you to meet someone very special to me. Gina, this is Stephanie Renee.
GINA - Hi soror!
STEPHANIE - Oh hi soror!

(STEPHANIE and GINA hug.)

MIRI - Soror?