"ASCENSION" by Keith LaMar & Dexter Story

"ASCENSION" by Keith LaMar & Dexter Story
Voice/Poetry - Keith LaMar
Tenor Saxophone - Salim Washington
Piano - Albert Marquès
Composer - Dexter Story
Assistant Conductor - Dwayne Burrell
Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles - ICYOLA.org
UCLA Oct 6, 2023
Los Angeles, California
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ASCENSION
The Battle Ground (Part I)
To be perfectly candid
I would have refused had I been given the chance
Had I known in advance all the pain
that came with walking this path
And, of course, when I do the math,
none of it adds up
that I survived and still had the presence of mind
to find a way forward
How to explain it?
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It was out of the deepest darkness I emerged
“Kicking and screaming,” they said,
“from the belly of my mother.”
More unexpected than unwanted, I was
But, nevertheless, welcomed into a sacred circle of love, a family
People whose roots stretched back to the beginning
And probably, without pausing to ponder the meaning, they…
they named me Keith...
Keith:
He who comes from the battleground.
Write it down.
My life would be lived on the battlefield
Somehow, they knew
They knew my life would be lived on the battlefield.
Fighting off demons
Looking for reasons
Dying a thousand deaths
A thousand times
Losing my mind
on the battlefield
---
Who among you is surprised to find me in prison,
on death row?
I’m innocent, you know.
Write it down.
My name is Keith LaMar
I come from the battleground.
From the battlefield,
and for the past thirty years I’ve been fighting off demons
Looking for the reasons
I’ve died a thousand deaths
a thousand times
I lost my mind
on the battlefield.
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Proven Ground (Part II)
I was thrown into the belly of the most monstrous monstrosity
Inside the dreaded beast that feasts on misery
And the walls…
the walls were closing in on me
Why is this happening?
Why hast thou forsaken me?
Help me, Lord!
And just like that, the clouds lifted
The body and mind converged,
came together in an attempt to urge my soul to act
to attack the complacency that was killing my will to live
A higher level of seeing and being ensued
Infused with the effort to ignite my agency
Over a thousands books
Millions of words
Sorted and downloaded onto the mainframe
a fateful introduction to the music of John Coltrane
Opened my eyes and helped me realize
The purpose of my plight
----
The melodic musings of a horn
Blowing through the majesty of mind
Releasing my thoughts from form
Erasing the limitations of time
Then a voice in the distance, whispering
They cannot destroy what they did not create
Only if the heart gives way to hate can they claim the victory
Know thy history, my son
From whence you come
And remember: Love is the only freedom.
Ignorance is the only pain, the only bane of your existence
Knowledge is the resistance.
Higher Ground (Part III)
There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t make it.
A time when the pain and darkness was so deep.
I thought I couldn’t take it.
But it was during my lowest moments that I felt most held
When I was at my weakest
That I discovered my strength
Over time, I came to realize that I was not alone
And that, though I had been thrown into solitary confinement,
Surviving the experience was not the only assignment
(We have to do more than just survive!)
No: the task was to unmask the madness in me.
To get inside of the sadness
and try to understand what it means to be a man,
what it means to be a human being
someone with a soul
a piece of God planted right here inside my heart
And that was just the start of it.
The beginning of the end of my bondage
My ascension
to higher ground.
I want to leave this lesson with all the young people who are here with us tonight
All the wonderful musicians
The fear of the future can be a very daunting thing
Something that gets in the way of what we hope to achieve
With our power and potential
And life can very often be a battlefield, that’s true
But please don’t let that discourage you
Your life is going somewhere
You were born for a reason
With this knowledge, strive to be humble.
To be grateful for every hand that reaches down
To pull you up
For that hand is very often the hand of God
In my darkest moments, when all seemed lost,
It was the hand of another human being that saved me.
So please keep your faith in the goodness of life
In the goodness of others
And try, above all things, to do something righteous
with your light
Playing music will not change the world
It was never meant to do that
But it can change people
It changed me
Which means what you all are doing is very, very important
I want to thank Arturo O’Farrill for extending the invitation
I love you, brother
Thanks to Dexter Story for composing such a beautiful piece of music
I carry you in my heart, Dexter
And thanks to all the kind and caring people here at UCLA:
Steven Loza, Chuck Dickerson, Dwayne Burrell, and a special thanks to Kathleen Hood for facilitating the exchange. And, of course, to Albert Marquès and Salim Washington.
It’s been a real honor.

[@veroniquemarazzani-espin6827]

WONDERFUL, BRAVO!!!