CONDmONS CRITICAL No one in power ain't giving up nothing live die All poems/lyrics copyright 1987 You born, you and then you between the lies Lillian ,AJlen/Frontline/SOCAN in you dodge dubious oh where is the promised pie? where the for the 1. ONE POEM TOWN 0:47 is carrot taking? work recognized Hey! Hey! Heyl A woman's is not if be black make this is a one poem town she it double-dized this is a one poem town without a man, she's in nothing's land ride verses Why do we have to fight for a place to live? in on your macramed toil through barber green mind This is the society that our has built take make keep it kool! kool! kool' Whatwould it to on the page a home a right take legalize cause, if you bring one in What would it to way Why do we have to fight any other for we '11 shoot you with metaphors what is our nat-ural rights? tie you cordless hang you high in ironies 3. SISTERHOLD ON 4:35 drop a pun pon yu toe Hold on sister Sister hold on and run you down, down, down I times are and out of town know rough rough rough You work yuself lose cause, this is a one poem town to the bones to this rut babylon and hey! Whatyou doing here anyway? But system conspire to down you Babylon So don't come with no pling, ying, jing system conspire to down you Remember your strength sister ding something remember joys calling it poetry and your Remember 're whole sister cause this is a one poem town you here and you're not alone and you're not to stay?' You hold Are you? just gotta hold on sister Sister on I know times are tough tough tough seems like get 2. \IVHYDO�.HAVETOFIGHT? 3:23 and it things just'a worst feel like Why do we have to fight some moments a nuclear holocaust Sister hold for what is our nat-ural rights? Hold on sister on I struggles, Why do we have to fight know you got sister rights? right up to your eyes for what is our nat-ural ease No change without struggle Just wishing the pressures could Signal a little relief in your life But every time you turn around The city, a curtained metropolitan glare it's another barrier to break down grins a diamond sparkle sunset Just hold on sister it cuts a dashing pose Remember you 're whole "The picture you sent on the postcard was and you 're not alone Wonderful!" Hold on sister, sister hold on It reminded me of a fairy land, See this music, this poetry a place where everything is so clean this heart a place where everyone is happy is reaching out and well taken care of Reach out ... and the sky... the sky... it seems so Hold on sister Sister hold on sound, so huge and so indifferent." (Anta) Hold on sister sister hold on Indifference passes through the wind the wind, it rains a new breed 4. UNNATURAL CAUSES 4:54 breeds a new passion The wind howled and cursed the passion of inaction it knew no rest the inaction of politicians when it ran free the art of avoiding issues it was a hurricane the issues of culture to be watched and silenced the culture of exclusion silence makes you sit and rot the e clusion of the "political" and the even cactus fades powerless against persistent drought Somewhere in this our city they hope the poor will become acclimatized in our governing chambers see how they look at skyrises a watershed of indelight and call them mountain peaks of neutered niceties, unctuous see how the sun greets them first Click/ I I I I click! I I I I click in the city postcard perfect makes a rolling shadow Dry rivers in the valley Somewhere in this silvered city the thirst at the banks of plenty hunger rails beneath the flesh the room at the street-car shelter ... and one by one, they're closing shops in a bus stop bed the city a bus stop bed ... the Epicure, the Rivoli on the porch... No a bus stop bed Small Affair You can make it through the winter if you 're ice ... No Small Affair-the Sequel... La Petit gone frozen Cafe... The Bamboo on many things 5. Africa bare back. no shelter FREEDOMIS AZANIA (South Free) iced .hearts in t.he elements Must Be 5: 5 6 impassioned is the wind Discord ... discord .... discord Nerves Fears sharpen. All people are created equal except in winter twang. Discord grows All people are created equal except in winter Right .here In South Africa where they on the front steps of abundance don't need a reason to Caroline Bungle tugs her load oppress you 'Cept- colour of stalks a place, invites a little company of the your skin sleep Bronze Black 'Cept- unclick/ I II/ that you're African and Bantued t-.his my dear is very unpostcardlike Xhousa spirited 'Cept- your Not inclined to poses it's country where 're posturing only her plight And that's you gonna die any­ a dungle of terror way, they feel of lost .hope And it in your daring psychopat-hically abandonment As they rewrite your his­ an e plorer in the arctic of our culture tory feel back crack. Cracking a straggler adri� You your Your cross our terrain of indifference arms and legs and yourspirits grow­ a life unravelled ing strong years of crystallize seeks a connection Four hundred resistance You will You will lie a soul outstretched to t.he cosmos not lie down not Can you spare a little social change, please? down In South Africa hope endlessly a cup of tea a cup of tea Where pound rage a place to sleep in a drumbeat ajob ajob ajob... ????? Grandmothers carry in their breathing The fire, hope "The last postcard you send was kinda weird... the The poor people, sleeping at the bus stop!?? only way for a just society of Surely you don't .ha e that there... " Hooking the network resistance " ... anyways, I'm dying to come to Canada I'm a pioneer!" Threading Every leaf that moves in the night Building a tapestry of voices So�. Determined. Unshakeable. In South African they don't need a re ason to shoot Freedom cried are answered wit-h gunshot- blast­ o. CONDmONS CRITICAL S:00 Defiant youths dragged through the streets Dem a mash it up down inna Trailing in what's left of the blood Dem a add it- up down inna Jamaica They've been sucbng form them for centuries Gas prices bounce in hoops for the sky In South Africa a little spark and the embers of oppres­ Where decency, basic human rights sion rise And the people's will for a just society People tek to the streets. Are swept- int-o the garbage bin of oppression It's no negotiating stance Even then the fighting spirts will rise ....rise When do you want freedom. Yesterday. Refuse to lie down And how do you propose you'II get it-. By An amputated arm will offer itself the people's way To an old lady in the night So, that's why, dem a mas it up down Smuggling food t-ofront-line fightersr inna Jamaica A dead leg will run off to the bush Dem a add it up inna Jamaica To conspire for ancestral re enge Dem 'say dem tired of trying to buy the In South Africa country back They don't need a reason to oppress you from t-heAmericans and the IMF pack 'Cept diamond, gold, greed. A little friendly debt- with an open end Superexploit-ation and it feels like the ball and chain game Apartheidism, Racism. Capit-alism. again Imperialism. Conditions critical ...And an unnerving fear Freedom has been mythical of t-he spirit of t-he people Every few years a new deliverer come Standing on oO million feet Say: Better must come, .let me lead the ALIVE way my people DEFIANT Seems better get delayed and some­ AND SWELLING IN RESISTANCE where hiding Freedom is Azania It-'squart-er t-o twelve and it's gettinglate Freedom is Azania Better change to waiting and we wait­ Freedom is Azania ing here a while Amandla! and the weight is piling on our backs They can't- kill the spirit And we sweating and dying under dis­ Sout-h Africa must be free parity's attacks.... attacks South Africa will be free And our children still bawling. And our THEY CAN'T KILL lliE SPIRIT ancestors still calling And we right ya so demanding 7. HISDAYCAME 5:35 8. JAZZYOU 1:35 They came for him that day molten shimmer red charcoal roasting And sure as hell they found him like hot. burn. burn black. burn sax. He wasn't even watching TV burn blue. burn into my flesh His principal said burning sax. on the wind at sea He was a disgrace ....disgrace brewing a potpourri of a storm a discredit to his race a blowing waves of hue His mother, she worked hard hot wax, rise and sink, twist and siule worked hard and prayed in the frying pan She got him everything he wanted mood simmer agasp She bought him a colour TV, a computer gasping... gasp Oh yeah a 5-speed bicycle and a three piece suit A breath in the life of a sound breezes But he wanted her to stop working through sax breeds Jw::z breathes sax slaving in some white man's factory a step to beat uup pa pa pa His principal, Mr. Frw:er. said Your heart was my whipping stick. oh His mother was a hard working woman heart quite happy, and well suited to her job. and your soul my tambourine That's when he smashed his fist into Mr. shake on. shake life into them silent Frazer's face sound He sent the principal's dentures flying... flying solo in duet. Solo on the breeze He said it was the biggest Voo Solaring. Be you. Be bird. Be song. most dirty lie he'd ever heard. biggest Sing. Sing the blues .... sing most trucking dirty lie he'd ever heard blue skies, sing me, sing you skies So they came for him that day sing ..oh .. oh Oh sway and sure as hell they found him Oh stay oh... oh sing me you and leaving Like that in the sing the go away frustration blues back of a police cruiser wasn't easy Sing: "I ain't stop singing till I true.k­ the tears cracked, cracked, like a rock ing through blues" inside of him (The notes and the melody keep slip and the policeman asked him slip sallip if he was feeling any pain Oh real So real surreal, slip "Are you feeling pain, boy?" Oh I'm so tired, no music in dem here But he only replied toes looking thin, through thin air music, no music, music, no music thinness a picture in front of him Oh the music/the music always the Good. Please help Mamma music) God. Please help Mamma. 9. DIS YAMUMMA.EA.RI'.H (Peace Poem)7:41 CONDITIONS CRITICAL Oh oh oh O mother earth ExecutiveProducer: Lillian Allen - Verse to All lovers of the earth Vinyl Records Nuclear arms protestors, anti-war activists Produced by :Billy Bryans with Lillian Liberation fighters! We are the poets Allen, Dave Gray and Jeff McCulloch, Restless like the summer's sun except Unnatural Causes, produced by spreading the warmth spreading the word Lillian Allen, Elaine Stef and Jeff in a dis ya dis ya mumma eart-h McCulloch cause everything 'pon it- Musicians: Billy Bryans/ drums; Lauri and wi' blood and sweat in it Conger/keyboards; Dave Gray/ guitar; Terry Lewis/bass; Nydia LibertyMata /bim­ is every body's homeland all a fiwe own Get up! Stand up! Shout en masse bales, congas &., percussion Wail in the wilderness Our will.... will be Special performances: Sister Hold Peace, justice, equality On.. . Freedom is Azania .. Chorus/Four the Join hands in liberation dance Moment.... Additional percussion/Lillian Freedom chants Allen Additional vocals/Anta We are our only weapon for peace WhyDo We Have to Fight - versions People I demonstration/banners/ chants Chorus/Rachel Melas, Connie Nowe Linking arms Fight if we must Dis YaMumma Earth... Additional vocals/ Fight/fight fight if we must Chorus/Lorraine Segato, Listen to the poets chant Rebecca Jenkins, Micah Barnes, Lucie Blue listen to the people's wants Tremblay, Djanet Sears, Keir Brownstone, peace.... peace .... peace Sarah McElcheran ... Trumpet/ Sarah McElcheran Vv'hen the bomb drops Percussion jam/Richardo Rodriquez, it nah drop pon one person's house top Lorraine Segato, Connie Nowe, Billy Bryans Ain't be no sunshine when we're gone Unnatural Causes ... Guitar/Elaine Stef Ain't be no ... Conditions Critical... Synth Horns/Dave Gray Dis ya dis ya mumma earth Recorded and mixed at Wellesley Sound Studios, l 987, , Canada is for every one Dis ya dis ya mumma earth is our home land Engineered by Jeff McCulloch; Additional Dis ya dis here mother earth is we only one engineering by Roger Slemin; Assistant engineers: Dina Brands, Scott Keenan. Mastered by Peter Nor man at Mc Clear Place, Toronto, 1988 Cover Illustration by Barbara Klunder, 1989 Redesign/layout for CD by Carol Auld, 1998 CONDITIONS CRITICAL Winner

dis word breeds .my rhyt.hni dis word carries .my freedo.m dis word is .my hand : .my weapon

Photo hy Phyllis Gordon, 1998

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Dedicated to Anta For information: POBo xJll, StationE, all � and to wonderful supporters and Toronto, Ontario, �-­ friends1 Canad a M6H 4E3 Also available by Lillian Allen... Revolutionary Tea Party 1986 Juno Award Winner; Nothing But A Hero (children and young people); Freedom &. Dance, 1998.