AT LAST, MANDELA AND I will sit together unless there are seats assigned. A toasted brown-skinned lady stood outside room 231. Rocking a pair of Chucks and a mohawk. Remote in hand, she extended the
other hand towards the classroom. “Please, take a seat.”
The music came on.
“Kingston got the vocabulary! Idlewild got the vocabulary! New Orleans got the vocabulary! Chicago got the vocabulary! Brixton got the vocabulary! Baltimore got the vocabulary! Harlem got the vocabulary! Oakland got the vocabulary! Jupiter got the vocabulary! Black folks got the vocabulary! I am Sister Becca.” Sister Becca wrote her name across the blackboard. “Welcome to vocabulary, ebonics, slang, jive, street talk, hip-hop beatbox bop, by any means necessary. Can you dig it? Words not only create phonetics sounds.
