Boots Riley Performing “Underdog” At Malcolm X Conference

I find this so inspiring because poetry has for so long been monopolized by people who want to do nothing more than communicate their individual psychological issues and angst. To hear something written about the lives and situations of real people in spoken word is powerful. This is also gripping because the poem actually rhymes, and returns us to a time when people understood that spoken word poetry in rhyme creates altered states of consciousness. “Underdog” is still ringing in my ears as I write this.

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About Bruce Lerro

Bruce Lerro has taught for 25 years as an adjunct college professor of psychology at Golden Gate University, Dominican University and Diablo Valley College. He has applied a Vygotskian socio-historical perspective to his five books: "From Earth-Spirits to Sky-Gods: the Socio-ecological Origins of Monotheism, Individualism and Hyper-Abstract Reasoning", "Power in Eden: The Emergence of Gender Hierarchies in the Ancient World" (co-authored with Christopher Chase-Dunn), "Social Change: Globalization from the Stone Age to the Present", "Lucifer's Labyrinth: Individualism, Hyper-Abstract Thinking and the Process of Becoming Civilized", and "The Magickal Enchantment of Materialism: Why Marxists Need Neopaganism". He is also a representational artist specializing in pen-and-ink drawings. Bruce is a libertarian communist and lives in Olympia, WA.

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