I Stay Woke. *Consciousness Series*

Understanding

"Hell yea nigga kept calling me God." I said to Marcus.  

I layed across my bed scrolling down instagram while Marcus played basketball with my door goal. "Nigga buggin you ain't no God.  It's only ONE God." He replied dunking the ball into the goal.  "Imma ride out to the Apache. Ion mind spoken word tho." I said to Marcus.  

SWOOSH!!!  CRAAAACK!!! 

 "DAMN BITCH YOU BROKE MY SHIT!!!" I yelled.  This nigga broke my fucking goal tryna be Steph Curry.  "Damn my bad bruh." He chuckled.

 "Shit ain't funny bruh. Damn pick this shit up." I said helping him pick up the broken pieces. 

"look mane....what chu gone do at the Apache?" Marcus asked me while dumping some of the broken pieces of plastic into my trash can. I sighed and walked over to my bed and sat at the edge. "Imma listen to the people speak. Bruh said he was gone introduce me to some folks or whatever." Marcus shook his head and continued to clean up the mess he made. "Is you gone come with me?" I asked looking up at Marcus. "Is it gone be some bitches? If so hell yea Nigga!" Marcus said throwing the last broken pieces of plastic away. I laughed and laid back on my bed. All this nigga think about is some damn BITCHES. I laughed out loud "Yo ass gone catch some shit one day fucking around so much."

Marcus sucked his teeth at me and waved me off. "I stay protected. I got that good shit." he pulled a condom out his back pocket. I Looked up and squinted my eyes at the wrinkly piece of gold material in his hand. "Bruh WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!" I began to laugh hysterically. "Bruh I am finna get on yo ass! How long has that been in yo back pocket?" Marcus got up and threw the shriveled up condom at me. "Shut yo ass up bruh!" he began to get irritated which caused me to laugh even harder. "You a joke." He stated dryly. 

*Apache Cafe Conscious Art and Spoken word* 

I looked at the advertising poster outside of the building, examining the beauty of the black women on the poster. "Nice huh?" I turned to see Stokley standing behind me. " ahhh yea it's nice.'' I replied awkwardly looking around for Marcus who had walked off to chase some bitches. 

Marcus and I decided to meet up with Stokley and his folks and ride out to the Apache. I was kind of interested in what he had to offer regarding this "conscious community'' tip. I may not have expressed it out loud but I was interested in fully understanding this dude and his family. They were.....different. They reminded me of some black Hippie Stoners. I still thought dude was gay though. 

"Yea I found out about this place on instagram. I came a few times traveling back and forth. It's nice really." Stokley said  looking up at the advertisement poster. I looked at his outfit and chuckled. "what you laughing at?" Stokley asked me with a slight chuckle. I shook my head and sized him up. "bruh man what is you got on?" He looked down at his outfit then looked back up at me. "What's wrong with it." He asked looking at me confused. This man wore a a black turban wrapped around his locs, loose multi colored dress shirt, some black cut off shorts, knee high black socks, and red vans. 

 I chuckled a little more and shook my head. "Nothing bruh man nothing. You good. " Stokley dusted himself and shrugged his shoulders. "You gotta learn how to express yourself young God." he said winking then walking off. I shuddered. This dude so gay i thought to myself. 

"Aye bruh these hoes up in here stuck up like a bitch!" Marcus said running up to me grabbing my shoulder. I looked at him and shook my head. "bruh just chill." I said to him

"Hell naw I ain't come up in here all sexy and shit just to get rejected." Marcus said adjusting his Atlanta Braves baseball jersey. I looked and around at everyone in here then looked at myself and Marcus. Everyone in here looked so eclectic and Afrocentric. Everyone in here had their own sense of swag that allowed them to stand out from everyone else in the building. I had on a simple Plaid flannel shirt, khaki pants and vans. "Express yourself." I thought to myself reflecting on Stokley's words. 

"Aye young God's come on over here and have seat with us, show is about to start." I turned and seen Stokley's dad Sango' waving for us to come over and sit with them. "why this nigga calling us God bruh that shit making me feel uneasy." Marcus whispered to me as we walked over to the rounded couch under the dim light. 

"I love being black, I love being called black. But as a black man in this country I think it's a shame that every year  we get a change of name. Scared what to tell my kids, we live in a system that designed for us to fail.  choose not to follow the masses, fuck your beliefs on God, now i'm going to hell......" I listened thoughtfully as each and every word flowed out the speakers mouth. "Knowledge of self is the key to my wealth and black love is the key to my health, my brotha I am becoming what they tried to kill long ago....." The words spoken from these artist touched me in away I could not explain. I was in a trance. 

I felt the power, the sentiment of these speakers as they spoke so beautifully, I almost cried at one point. I felt a nudge at my side, I blinked twice and looked to my right and noticed Stokley leaning in towards me. "You like it huh?" he asked in a whisper. I shook my head yes. "deep." was all I could say. He smiled and turned his attention back towards the speaker. I looked over at Marcus who seemed to be just as turned on my the words that were being said as I was. 

"Man what those poets were saying is exactly how I feel man ! " I said jumping in Marcus face after the all the show was over. "bruh calm down." Marcus chuckled pushing me back some. 

"I'm glad you young Gods liked it!" Sango said clasping his hands together in front of him. "Yo dad that was nice honestly." Stokley said walking up behind his father. 

"aye scuse me, Ion mean to sound rude but why ya'll keep calling us God?" Marcus asked 

Stokley looked at Sango and Sango looked back at Stokley. "Young God....when you loose the perception of God that you have now, and you gain a true knowledge of self, then you will understand why we refer to you as God." Sango replied touching his sons shoulder and than walking off. I looked at Marcus and he shrugged it off. 

"So how about these chocolate bunnies?" Stokley said rubbing his hand against his mini beard.  I cut my eyes at him. "you like girls? I- i- I mean...you ain't got no girl?" I asked trying not to offend him. Stokley looked at me out the corner of his eye and Marcus snickered. "Let's go!" Stokley said signalling for us to follow him. "Bruh." Marcus said to me shaking his head as we pushed threw the thick crown of people. 

"Man it smell like a herb shop in here!" I said out loud. I coughed as we moved passed all of the thick smoke from the incense. "Get used to it." Stokley said as we walked up to two beautiful chocolate sisters. 

"Peace and blessing my two beautiful chocolate Goddesses." Stokley said greeting the two sisters. They giggled and greeted him back. " Peace and blessing King." They replied. 

I looked at Marcus and Whispered "damn they bad as fuck!" He raised his this eyes and shook his head as a reply. "My name is Stokley, these are my friends Marcus and Huey." Stokley said introducing us to the sisters. 

"Hi I'm Oya and this is my sister Osun." one of the sisters said.

These girls are beautiful. I mean, damn! One of the sister looked like a resemblance of Erykah badu. She wore a tall Nefertiti head wrap, burnt orange low cut sundress that showed enough of her breast to tease me, she wore lots of copper that complimented her chocolate complexion so much she looked as if she glittered. The other sister was quite the opposite but just as sexy. You can tell she was an alternative black girl, damn I thought they were so fucking sexy. She had bright pink hair that fit her oh so well, spike jewlery, jean shorts and a black shirt that read "melanin" in white letters. I drooled. 

Marcus and I greeted the ladies one at a time. 

"so are you ladies here alone?" Marcus asked smoothly. I quickly cut my eyes at him then snickered. "Dude is a trip." I thought to myself. "We are. We just came to listen to poets, reminds me of def jam days." Osun the alternative sister said. "Hell yea! Back when shit was real." Stokley replied. 

"We should all link up sometime you know? Feel each other out. You two are sexy. No disrespect." I said reassuringly. 

The girls giggled and we all traded numbers.