The Resistance Will Not Be Tweeted

I'm working with a comparative literature professor, Dr. Vinay Dharwadker, at the University of Wisconsin at Madison to prepare the Blowtorch Reading Series. It consists of public meetings held on the 8th of every month in which texts that reassert atemporal values are read. They are are read on the 8th of every month in response to the 2016 election. We've had one meeting thus far and there I read three works: I Want a Dyke for President by Zoe Leonard, The Unknown Citizen by W.H. Auden and Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing by James Weldon Johnson. 

Following this encounter, I have encouraged Vinay to hold these meetings within library spaces. He, in turn, encouraged me, to keep writing. We thought, together, about works that might be appropriate for Black History Month in February and Women's History Month in March. Something inspired by Gil Scott-Heron's 1970 The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was born from these conversations. An original draft:

The Resistance Will Not Be Tweeted
with all my love to the Holy Gil Scott Heron

You will not be able to like this status, “Brah”  
You will not be able to favorite, vote up, or double tap.
You will not be able to share it in a private message,
Or tag me in your outrage.
Because the resistance will not be tweeted.

The resistance will not be tweeted.
The resistance will not be brought to you by our sponsor,
Posted on Facebook or in convenient, consumable, 2-minute-long video clips.
The resistance will not show you pictures of a blighted Aleppo,
Burning, crumbling, falling at a boogeyman’s hands,
Or bloodied little boys, parentless, awaiting care in an ambulance.

The resistance will not be tweeted.
The resistance will not be brought to you by Fox News, NPR, or the Atlantic.
It will not star Ta-Nehisi Coates, Dylan Moore, or Shaun King.
The resistance will not bring you closer to the thigh gap.
The resistance will not give you Kylie Jenner’s plumped lips.
The resistance will not be the juice cleanse of your dreams.
The resistance will not be tweeted, “Brah.”

There will be no pictures of Kim’s derrière, naked or clothed,
Or Kanye, babbling, balanced, or a little off.
TMZ will not catch the right star at the right time saying the wrong thing.
It will not “break the Internet.”
It will not nod to white feminism.
It will not be “Black Lives Matter” on a wrist band.
The resistance will not be tweeted.

There will be no cell phone video footage of our hands up, hollering “Don’t Shoot.”
There will be no black panthers in leotards at a football stadium slaying.
There will be no battered windows or sunken patrol cars.
There will be no Lemonade.

The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones, and Empire will no longer be so go-damned relevant,
And no one will care who wore it better because brown people will be talking to each other,
IRL, F2F, TBH AF, YGTI.
The resistance will not be tweeted.

There will be no urgent reports or strategic shots of “professional protesters”
Or hashtag movements from the comfort of your own home.
The inauguration will not be washed down with a liquor of your choice.
You will not be able to “call your doctor and ask about” benevolent dictatorship.
You will not get a push notification on your phone, a GroupOn, or an invite.
The resistance will not be tweeted.

The resistance will not be bookmarked and saved in your cookies
Where you can open a folder and get back to it later.
You will not have to worry about Sara sharing it first to your reading group, Dan columbusing this fresh discovery, or Mark mansplaining the ins and outs of reparations.
The resistance will not be swallowed with a spoonful of sugar.
The resistance will not be taken with a grain of salt.
The resistance will not be “the nighttime, sniffling, sneezing, aching, coughing, stuffy head, fever, so you can rest medicine.”

The resistance will not be tweeted, will not be tweeted, will not be tweeted, will not be tweeted.
The resistance will not be favorited, “Brah.”
The resistance will be between you and me.

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