The Greg Morozumi Manifestos (In memorium)

Greg Morozumi | portrait by arnoldo colibrí, (2005)

arnoldo colibri

The Greg Morozumi Manifesto number 1

He is calling all people of the color of the land

Guided by his spirit animals

Turtles and black panthers

that carry his fleshy soul into the highest levels of class struggle:

Where humans and animals

Plants and dirt

Wind and rain

Skys and rainforests

The sun and the moon

The constellations and the caracoles

The peoplel of ceremony and cosmic chants & prayers

Undomesticated the unemployable, the outlaws & imprisoned,

the queer and not so queer

the straight and the crooked teethed

the unfree and the imprisoned by industrail fields and prisons

The unruly scribbles of poets and hip artists with flamethrowers for spraycan walls

the maroon dreamers that no state can rule

those who carry wars on their skins and borders on their backs

Unite, become a specter haunting

the class struggle

upheaving the remnants of the third world

Making art fists and power a daily ritual

Greg Morozumi in his solemn silence roars: 

Remember who we are, where we’re from 

We are seed soil water wind and sun

We are our own art and song

We are the art of self-determination

the hands that plant cultivate and harvest liberation

the body that is memory resistance rage and tenderness

Greg, we have nothing to lose and third worlds to gain . . .

—arnoldo colibrí

Day 620 | June 17, 2025

The Greg Morozumi Manifesto number 2

Face the struggle,

Make liberation the Great Leap Forward of every step you take

My heart is black—the color of revolutions without borders

My veins the yellow quartz that binds the sun

My lungs the saxophones of the red colibrí 

Our dreams

spinning on the turntable

of the philosophy of the masses

Will make a hundred fists bloom

Will make our poetry grow from the barrel of a gun

Will bring us back from the edge of forgetfulness

And our prayer will work to end all death and separations

Our prayer was the proletariat

Our prayer is the original people

Our prayer is the surrounding

the invisible cities from the invincible mountains

Our prayer is the unbreakable horse of our utopias

I deciphered your silent vowels and your unstoppable motion to reach the horizons — or at least go to China town to savor one more time

the taste of our free homelands

This is a manifesto to grant you

many bodies

many lives

to live

to make the revolution of turtles and panthers

to speak in tongues as prophet of the homelandless

to make jazz and blues the colors of our eyes 

You lay in deep sleep, hungry for justice and a bit of soup and pan dulce 

You are not silent.

We know your demands

We hear you chuckling and swaying to the beat of your political lines and spirals 

Whirlwinds of the oppressed, unite

We have nothing to lose.

—arnoldo colibrí

Day 621 | June 18, 2925

The Greg Morozumi Manifesto number 3

No one is alive until we are all alive.

No one is art until we are all art

No one is love until we are all love

No one is in front and no one is in the back:

No one gets left behind.

Drum on the turtle’s shell

Sleep in the panther’s night

Dream the international of dirt the international of water the international of wind the international of suns  

We will make the human human again

Organize the vanguard that listens to the day laborer

Organize the underground that the farmworker can plant seeds in

Organize the party that surfs on the spontaneous ocean waves of the masses

Organize the men that bow towards the women

Organize the four directions that find their center in the X of Malcolm

Organize the ancestral dreams of liberation that hum in the throats of our children

Organize the humans to live in their place in the web of creation

Organize the ten pount plan of buffalos, spiders, crows, the coyotes and their philosophy of plumed serpents and howling lunar eclipses

Deindustrialize decolonize your hands

Let your eyes turn into the sixth sun 

Let your eyes become the language of cosmic upheavals

Greg Morozumi meditates and fasts

his body becomes the silent accumulation of revolutions to come

—arnoldo colibri

Day 621 | June 29, 2025

The Greg Morozumi Manifesto number 4

Remember the good, never forget the bad

If the community doesn’t teach you how to love

You end up loving alone

And you will make things bad for someone’s heart

The heart never forgets, always remembers 

And the heart pumps out the bad and stores the good forever 

The good is the wisdom of the comrades

the bad is the wound that carried you to solitudes 

the asteroid that sliced the revolutionary in half

Tenderness is the justice of your hands around her waist

Memory is etched on the map of the palm of your hands

The good and the bad 

The palm-reader cannot read a slap on her face

She will never forget your hands open or closed

your hands are either flower buds or thorned fists

Your voice became silent became

the cenote [the circular well] of your cosmos

Where only jazz and poetry could enter

Your smile your hope of understanding

You will become a Buddha without even desiring it 

You can escape any prison or exile 

Except the bed of abandonment 

You are books, turtles, the mangled logic of freedom,

the sisterhood that held you alive

Your Buddha body calls out:

become unfold rise fly rebel

It is right to rest

The revolution needs eight hours of sleep

to dream the rest of the time

The revolution will sleep and dream silently for the next 50 years

—arnoldo colibrí

Day 623 |  June 20 2025

(C) all rights reserved.

Directions to where you and I belong | arnoldo colibrí

arnoldo garcía: abuelito in blue
(9"x16 'on fat paper, June 2025

Go south

To winter from the borders

Go north to flee to freedom

Go east to meet the grandfather of all grandfathers

Go west, sleep, to rest, to be safe, among the only humans who make life as part of their life

Go to the center to place your head on the pillow made of dirt and the bones of our ancestors

Go up into the stars and constellations

Go down into the DNA of the human soul

If you are human

If you are life

You are a nomad

You are movement to keep the natural world alive

You are where you belong.

 

January 8, 2025

The story of our name

I was born

in the mouth

of the Río Bravo

the untamable river

the wild roots of the crystaline waters

that traverse our bodies

I was born

in the mouth

of the Río Bravo

as the monarchs arrived

carrying the harvest on their wings,

a mosaic

of squash, maize and frijol

I was born

from the purépecha’s misty pine tree covered volcanic thrust

commingling with the palestinian wound

My grandmother

manuela, healer, seed carrier

My grandfather

caretaker of earth

struggled

with their eldest daughter

Coatlicue

on what was happening

to her body

I was born and

given as a gift

to Coatlicue’s parents

to raise me

and I became

El viejo, el viejito

Arnoldo

named after Coatlicue’s lover’s best friend

and not after the place we go

to pray, Tamaulipas

Coatlicue disappeared

and I kept her

in the caverns

of my body

I grew up

with her eleven brothers and sisters

and named my daughters

after my grandparents

the women who who labor

to ensure we do not become machines

My elders

sat across from me

sharing a meal

we were

each other’s mirros

of the past, present, future

I followed Abuelita

(in ceremony)

who taught me

how to walk

and to always offer water

to anyone

who came to our door

Abuelita said

You must treat everyone you meet with reverence and respect

You never know if that person at the door or that passes by on your path

is a holy being

And if you don’t know what to do

always answer

always respond

with you dignity.

My grandfather’s body vibrated with the dust of horizon and plants

He could find any place we migrated to work

His prayer beads

were the constellations

He would pull back his head way back as in ecstasy

under

the star-filled

night

as he prayed

In his left hand his beads

Inn his right hand the constellations

He loved Manuela

and worked

every

single

day

of his life

so that she could do her work

of healing . . .

August 2024 | Santa Cruz-Oakland 

[Poem & photograph: arnoldo colibrí (c) ]

Ransom for Six Sky

On the day

8 Ben 16 Kayab

Six Sky of Río Azul

was buried.

Most likely during the year 450

Then in the late 20th Century

Looters took

the vessel

from her grave

Now Six Sky sits under a glass display

(anxiously awaiting liberation)

at the Detroit Institute of the Arts.

The looters kept no record,

but the people will always remember

In December 1985

140 small pieces of

gold

jade

obsidian

and

turquoise

were taken from

the National Museum of Anthropology

in Mexico City | Tenochtitlán

the thieves

sent

a message:

these priceless precious stones

are being held for ransom

Now, the Maya Zapatistas are paying the ransom

freeing Indigenous past and present

from the neo-liberal kidnappers, the grave-baron-land-robbers,

the military industrial complex of generals, soldiers, paramilitaries,

police, battalions, secret police, political parties, non-profits, politicians

and toastmasters of capital.

Six Sky

has been

resurrected,

scattered

between Detroit and Tenochtitlán

Seattle, Oakland, Matamoros,

Chicago, Toledo, New York

Organized into a community army

armed with the colors of the earth

their weapons are our ancestors

who have secretly taken over the underworld

putting ski-masks on the sun and moon

Gestating flesh and blood onto the skeletons of our dreamers

.

In the butterfly of our women

flutter two banners, two flags, their lips chanting

we shall dream

we shall win

we shall birth

we shall love

we shall shatter

we shall clench our hearts

we shall cry in community

we shall sing off the face of the enemy

we shall batter the helmeted soldier,

laugh at his bayonet

we shall stop the bullets, the bombs, the fires

And the new people

that Six Sky dreamt

in her deep sleep

in the year 450

emerge, rise, fly, speak with an earthen tongue

when we will swallow the sky

to become pregnant with clouds, rain, butterflies, milpas, babies,

chidlren-ancestors, who slept in our arms

and made thunder rise

from the maize, the frijol, the women, the men,

the elders, the still-born, the invaders, the raptors,

who remembered then:

Six Sky was resurrected in the sixth sun….

[1984-2012, unfinished words of mariposas | c.s]

New 'zine! Raza for Gaza : Poets in solidarity with Palestine

To mark a two-night gathering of community with poets and musicians to express solidarity with the Palestinian people under siege in Gaza, the EastSide Arts Alliance with editorial Xingao published a lightning 'zine Raza for Gaza Poets in Solidarity with Palestine, featuring nine poets from across the world, as part of the "Raza con Gaza | Raza for Gaza" solidarity and justice movement culture celebration at the Eastside Arts Center in Oakland,  February 23-24, 2024.

Eastside invited people to make a generous as possible donation to either the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, the Middle East Children's Alliance for Peace or the Electronic Intifada and take a copy of the 'zine home. As City of Oakland Poet Laureate declared at the "Raza con Gaza | Raza for Gaza" gathering, 'This is a unique publication that you cannot buy tonight or anywhere else. Raza for Gaza is not for sale and you can get a copy when you support the organizations doing the work.'

The two-night gathering at the Eastside Arts Center featured three poets and three musical groups each evening. Poets Ayodele Nzinga, Mo Sati, Lubna Morrar and Leticia García and musicians Camellia Boutros, AntiFaSon, Diana Gameros, and the Duo Made y Feña with special guest Daniel Oñate, graced each evening with joyous sounds, passionate verses and heartfelt lyrics acknowledging the grim reality and resilient spirit of resistance of Palestinians under the Israeli genocidal siege of Gaza and occupied Palestine territory.

Raza con Gaza | Raza for Gaza Snapshots at the Eastside Arts Center

Here are some images of the two nights at Eastside Arts Center in Oakland (see bios of each performer at end of post).

AntiFaSon

Ayodele Nzinga performing two poems published in the'zine

Lubna Morrar, poet.

Duo Made y Feña with special guest Daniel Oñate 

Diana Gameros.

Camelia Boutros & band.

Mo Sati, poet.

Leticia García, poeta.

Diana Gameros & Camellia Boutros.

BIOS OF THE POETS & MUSICIANS

AntiFaSon is a Son Jarocho project, a musical guest on Ohlone territory (aka Oakland). They amplify anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-fascist and anti-extractivist feminist themes in Son Jarocho songs that form part of the larger history of Afro-Indigenous land, water and campesinx struggles. 

For more info visit their Instagram page: @somosantifason

Camellia Boutros is a Palestinian-Lebanese American composer and multi-instrumentalist based in San Francisco. Having performed as a trumpet player with a diverse array of Bay Area world music projects, such as Mission Delirium, Alaturca Connection, Inspector Gadje, and Banda Sin Nombre, Camellia approaches the music she writes with a custom modified fretless 12-string electric guitar, enabling her to write and perform music using the quarter-tone Maqam system. Her music and lyrics defy genre definition, forming an experimental blend of rock, folk, Arab, jazz, and brass music, all of which can be found on her first solo album Refuge.

For more info: Camellia Boutros Music https://camelliaboutros.com/about/

Diana Gameros is a singer, guitarist, pianist, composer, songwriter, music instructor and social justice activist, based in San Francisco, California. She was born and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México and immigrated to the United States as a teenager to study music in Michigan. Over the last decade in the Bay Area she has released two albums of original songs written in Spanish and English, and Mexican classic songs. In 2014 Diana received the Emerging Leader Award by the Chicana/Latina Foundation. In 2015 she was named one of YBCA’s 100: creative minds, makers, and pioneers that are asking the questions  and making the provocations that will shape the future of American culture. NPR Music gave Diana an honorable mention to Arrullo in best Latin albums of the year in 2017. Diana was named one of SF Magazine’s 100 Artists: Artists Putting The East Bay On The Map, in 2018.

For more info: https://www.dianagameros.com/epk

Leticia García is a poet and an immigrant woman from Oaxaca, Mexico, a single mother and a powerful leader in the community, with deep compassion for the suffering of other immigrant women.

To learn more about Leticia, visit Mujeres Unidas y Activas: https://mujeresunidas.net

Lubna Morrar Palestinian, born and raised in The Town aka Oakland,CA. Long time Community organizer, business owner, artist... and sometimes a poet.

Ayodele Nzinga, the first Poet Laureate of Oakland, is a multi-hyphenated artist; a brilliant actress, a producing director, playwright, poet, dramaturg, performance consultant, educator, and community advocate. She is the director of the Lower Bottom Playaz, Inc., Oakland’s oldest North American African Theater Company and founder of Lower Bottom Playaz Summer Theater Day Camp. Ayodele is co-founder of Janga’s House a Black Women Arts collective and a founding member of BlacSpace Collective. She is the Executive Director of the Black Arts Movement Business District Community Development Corporation (BAMBD CDC); and founder and producer of BAMBDFEST International Biennial, a month-long arts and cultural festival animating the Black Arts Movement Business District in Oakland CA. Nzinga holds an MFA in Writing and Consciousness; a Ph.D. in Transformative Education & Change; is a Cal-Shakes Artist Investigator Alumni; a San Francisco Foundation Arts Leadership Fellow; a member of the Alameda County Women’s Hall of Fame; recognized by Theater Bay Area as one of the 40 faces in the Bay that changed the face of theater in the Bay Area; is recognized by the August Wilson House as the only director in the world to direct the complete August Wilson American Century Cycle in chronological order; a YBCA 10 Fellow, a BIPOC Circle Fellow and a VOICES Community Journalism Fellow. Nzinga is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Oakland CA. Nzinga’s work for the stage has been reviewed internationally. Her blog is read in 81 countries. She is the author of Performing Literacy a Narrative Inquiry into Performance Pedagogy, The Horse Eaters, SorrowLand Oracle, and Incandescent and her work can be found in numerous journals and anthologies. Nzinga, a cultural anchor, is part theoretician and part partitioner. She describes herself as a cultural architect invested in creating structures for culture making.

For more info: Ayodele Nznga https://www.ayodelenzinga.com/about/

Mo Sati was born in Palestine, grew up in a refugee camp in Jordan, and now lives in Oakland. Mo is a poet, a writer, a playwright, and an artist. He participates in activist and cultural events nationally and internationally sharing insights about life as a refugee uprooted from his homeland. His poetry, writings, and artworks tell stories of the people of Palestine living under occupation. His work personifies emotions drawn from the day-to-day struggles of resistance to oppression as Palestinians fight to unshackle themselves from decades of military occupation. Listen to Mo Sati perform: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpHLn0aL9Ks

Duo Made y Feña with special guest Daniel Oñate: Multi-instrumentalist composer and writer Fernando Torres and multi-faceted Puertorrican singer /interpreter and political activist Madeleine Zayas. Their eclectic repertoire is rooted in the Nueva Canción/Nueva Trova tradition of entertaining and educating about culture and pressing social issues.

Madeleine Zayas Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Madeleine Zayas is a Latin American singer/interpreter, dancer and choreographer and architect based in Oakland. She was co-founder of Buena Trova Social Club in 2012 and lead singer and co-artistic director of Madelina y Los Carpinteros since 2014. Madeleine has performed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, many U.S. Cities, and Santiago, Chile, and has shared stage with Wilkins, Cheo Feliciano, Inti Illimani, John Santos and Holly Near. She believes in art and cultural activism as a positive force of communication and a tool for social change.

Fernando Feña Torres is a Chilean exile, musician, composer and poet, journalist and founding ex member of Grupo Raiz. Fena is an expert in folkloric multi-instrumentalist. He began his musical career as a young boy inspired by the socialist government of Salvador Allende  A former political prisoner and exiled into the US, he has collaborated with Teatro Campesino and has performed in Bay Area and internationally along with artists such as David Byrne, Pete Seeger and Holly Near.

Daniel Oñate, is a highly qualified performer of piano, pianist, transverse flute and quena. He is also a composer, arranger and orchestra director from Southern Chile. He is a winner of the acclaimed Luis Advis contest, in the Chile Canta a Victor Jara version. He is currently completing a Masters in music at UC Berkeley.

Listen to Made y Feña's new song for Gaza in Would You

AND Madeleine Zayas in a live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j5JOiLPVfM