Our chant through a global face

that were born at Pawkatuck River

as the raven flies for the stars our living voice

You have known our names as the banner gleams

The Bread is Rising Poetry Collective

we walk deep in open space by the rising sun

from our drumbeats that are born into verses after verses

and our songs of our very hearts

the trumpet blows as seeds grow across the continent

at Mascoot, the Connecticut, the Raritan, Providence, and the Massachusetts Bay,

the Passaic, the Ontario shores, the Potomac, the James, the Detroit, and the Patapsco, 

Lake Michigan, the Delaware, the Allegheny, the Monangahela, the Miami, the Mississippi, 

 the Southern Platte, San Francisco Bay, the Puget Sound, the Hackensack, the Pacific Ocean, 

 and the Thames.

It’s no secret to the seeing eye and ear that we have embraced the earth

and daring to love equal to justice and peace that’s accepted in our hearts.

Back in space, we climb the Great Miami Valley Mound and Seven Circles in

our pilgrimage to honor the name of Yaya as the great blessing of our existence

and now it’s time to have joy and celebrate our 20^th year of The Bread is Rising

on the precious poets who have shared their soul in our café, The Reverendo Pedro Pietri, Cenén, 

Victor Hernández Cruz, Mariposa, Carlos Troche, David Lamb, Jennifer Patterson,

 Louis Reyes Rivera, La Bomba, José Cruz, Zayid Muhammad, Sandra María Esteves, 

Ameerah H. Ahmed,  Professor Anthony Howard, Ngoma, Zuleyka Rose Rosa Molina, 

Antonio Martin, Shawn Torres, Herb Brooks, David López, Umar Ahmed, Luqman Abdul Malik, 

Matthew Courtney, Laura Ludwig,  Richard Washington pianist and Frank Hewitt pianist, 

Ted Wilson, Brother Flip of Attica, Tom Catterson, Evan The Last Poet of the Beat Generation, 

Fareed Abdullah, Isaac McQueen, César, Amiri Baraka, Amina Baraka, Halim Suliman, 

Professor Dennis Brutus, Shorty White, Reg E. Gaines, Clebert Ford, Zulka Maria,

Tanya Taylor, Richard Cammarieri, Dr. Jenny Walker, Tony Medina, Deborah Chainey, 

Dylcia Pagán, Tanisha Jacob, Brother Minister Muhammad Abdullah Muhammad, 

Brother Aminifu, Chairman Lawrence Hamm, Cynthia Blue, Chris Butters, Leighton Hollar, 

 Brother Willy, Raven Chanticleer, Tasha Murdock, Carl Vicars, César Ríos Rivera,

Carmen Bardeguez, Steve Dalachinsky, Uthman Abdul Karim,

Bernard Livingston, Cornel Womack, Lamont B. Steptoe, Askia Muhammad Touré, Gavin Parker, 

Rosie Garland, Lucia Birch, Felipe Luciano, María Carmen Corinne Cruz, Gary Hicks, Sam Díaz, 

Stephanie Agosto, Susana Cabañas, Rosa Escobar, and Papoleto Meléndez, Sister Sheba, 

Theodore Harris, Frank Velgara, Universal Culture, Matthew Smith, Jackie Johnson, 

David Henderson, Pete Dolack, Jorge Matos, Tomasino, RL Tha Gifted 1, Ray Patalarga, 

Kastner, Fred Ho, Fly, Penny Arcade, Willie Sales, Ian Griffin, Nevon Watson, Welfare Poets,

 Robin Grant, the Unknown African, Sister Nzinga, Free,  Nancy Mercado, Brother Jorrel, 

Sister Shandna, Foot,  Nashid Sabir, and Nashid Fareed.

and Muhammad Salluhudeen blows his saxophone

What a Wonderful World into out corner as everybody that speaks is a poet

 from a love song to our pillars

Uthman Ibraheem, Ángel Martínez, Carlos Raúl Dufflar, Baba Sr Amen Ra Schmm Khnuu, David Gordon:

The Bread is Rising strolls along with our love honoring twenty years.

Presente!