Suncere Ali Shakur is a community activist currently based in Cleveland who has worked to feed people in poverty, fight human trafficking and heal trauma caused by gun violence and Hurricane Katrina. Philip Metres is a renowned Arab-American poet who teaches at Ohio’s John Carroll University. We asked Philip to write an original poem in the style he’s known for — documentary poetry — a genre that uses techniques from journalism including interviews, archival material, and primary source research. It’s been around for a long time but might seem new — and offers a fresh way of hearing today’s news. Philip chose to interview Suncere for the poem, and we got the two together to talk about what that was like.
The Gospel of Suncere Ali Shakur
Philip Metres & Suncere Ali Shakur
In July 2023, Suncere Ali Shakur and I met outside Willson Towers, a public housing apartment in Cleveland, where Shakur has lived for a decade. Born and raised in Washington D.C., Shakur is a lifelong activist who walks in the footsteps of the Black Panthers. He made history in New Orleans, when, while providing aid for people after Hurricane Katrina, he and other activists saved the oldest Black church in America from closure. In 2019, he was named one of Cleveland’s Most Interesting People for his many projects to love and care for his people and to challenge the powerful. These words are his.
1.
My elders taught me to do The Work
not because I want someone
to tap me on the back
or admiration
or money
but because it’s my job
2.
One of the attributes of The Five Percenters
is to be sincere
and the sun comes out
whether people like it or not
it has
a job to do
so I put them both together:
Suncere
Ali was a man loved by the people
Shakur I had to earn
3.
When I was a kid
my dad sent me
to the store
but it was closed
had to walk eight blocks to another and went up
to the counter
seen this oil painting of dudes
in berets with pump shotguns
I asked who it was he said
Black Panther Party
and I fell in love
4.
I was a throwaway
my family
threw me away
and wanted the streets to kill me
but somehow I survived
I’m a product of everybody
I met along the way
wound up in a shelter
met a renegade from the Weather Underground
learned at the feet of Panthers
5.
It was a white woman from West Virginia
got me hooked
taught me to do a building takeover
got me hooked
knew I had a big mouth
so she took
what I had
Franklin School building was supposed
to be the site for a hypothermia drop
two people froze to death but the mayor
hadn’t opened it
so we took it over
I was the outside guy
because I had a big mouth
got the crowd
all hyped in front
of the news
and when the police went in
when they broke in
and brought them out
in handcuffs
It was the looks
of defiance
they had on they face
the handcuffs on
and surrounded by police
it was that look on they face
that did it
I said I’m going inside next time
6.
Wound up in New Orleans after Katrina
not to toot my own horn
but I’m 53 years old
and ain’t in that good a health
we went down there
and made history
made history by loving people
saved St. Augustine Church
oldest Black church in America
the St. Aug Twelve
look it up
7.
This place is like a university
I get to get over
myself
and see people
for who they are
if you don’t deal with the trauma
the food and the clothes and the shelter
is important but
you know the Pyramid of Life?
we living life
but can’t think
about education and politics
if you don’t deal with the trauma
they gonna rip
all that shit down
8.
I’m an asshole
but I’m a recovering asshole
I fight the thirst
to be an asshole
every
single
day
a coward takes out his anger
on innocent people
but when I’m angry, I go up
to my room
it can get kind of fucked up
out here
you got people
overtaken by substances
turn into gremlins
but food
I use food
as medication
Listen:
if you give good people
who got issues
a chance
they may surprise you
9.
Corporations always got slaves
they make sure
the underbelly
never stays empty
I feel like I’m on a reservation
watching my people
fall apart
ten years here
went by
just like that
10.
I can’t wait to get out of this mothaf****—
go back to the essence
to try it all again
I’m beat down
nobody cares
about my children
who wants to live in world like that?
every night white vans pull up
and our babies are gone
in twenty seconds
I was a fatass superhero
an extension on my phone
to take photos of license plates
and a paintball gun
to shoot the backs of cars
the only real peace I see
is sleep
11.
deep in the night
everything is calm
no one
I can see is getting hurt no one
is screaming for help
and then the sun comes up
and it’s on
like popcorn
12.
This would be my dream:
get restaurants to do meals
not no beans and rice and shit
but good food
we got seventeen police
for housing projects
and we can’t give the people
three meals a day?
my love comes through
my food
I cooked one hundred steaks
Maggie got from Trader Joe’s
for the homeless
at the Ramada in Independence
homeless deserve to eat
West African
stuffed pineapple
but what we need is revolution
Fidel Castro was a hell of cook
but nobody was talking
about his cooking
music and food
build community
I would love to build a village here
but I would feed them first
13.
Trust me, my people
make sure my head
don’t get too big around this mothaf****
I got my ass whupped, my shit
stole
see these folks, how fucked
up they are?
we’ve brought in 250,000
pounds of food
through here
do you know all these
“wretched of the earth”
helped me organize that shit?
this is a historical movement
but I did it
with alcoholics
dope fiends
people that make
bad choices
I’m over 500 pounds I tried to commit suicide
but they love me, brother
the kids in the neighborhood over there
if you say something about me
they will
tear your ass up
I’m teaching them to see
a black man a man
that love you
and don’t want anything from you
all I want is one
one
one
one out of a thousand
to replace me