![\"Kathleen+Yearwood+kath4\"](\"http:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Kathleen+Yearwood+kath4.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nSometimes, rarely, art and politics get married and it’s perfect. Nobody could dream up anything better than Kathleen Yearwood. I received a cassette in the mail 25 years ago from her. I received many cassettes and many cds but almost everything people send me bores me or annoys me. The title of what she sent me was “book of hate” and it contained many goosebump worthy songs. Even though she once almost killed me because I would stoop so low as to use “sampled sounds”, I believe she is the top of the heap. Especially spooky and smart is her hand clapping for percussion throughout.<\/p>\n
Listen to the song by clicking here<\/a> <\/p>\n The judge takes his chair Phillip stands in chains They gave us 5 minutes alone together They wanted to know how I could be his sister In the edmonton remand We were the same age exactly several trials later He always called from jail And the war on drugs is just a war on the poor I still have one of his letters he had the same dreams and a man of 50 who knows nothing Who Killed Phillip? Is about my friend Phil Bearshirt. I wrote it in 1991 after he died. -Kathleen Yearwood Sometimes, rarely, art and politics get married and it’s perfect. Nobody […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"Layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[119,405,17],"tags":[440],"class_list":["entry","author-rockbob","post-3006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-politics","category-rabble-ca","category-writing","tag-bob-wiseman-and-kathleen-yearwood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bobwiseman.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhe’s convinced he’s a genius
\nhis morning drink gives him strength
\nand he considers the prisoner<\/p>\n
\nankles and handcuffs
\ncompletely unashamed he smiles
\nand tries to wave<\/p>\n
\nin a room filled with echoes
\neverytime I touched Phillips hand
\na guard burst in
\nthe first time he warned me
\nthe second time he stood in the door
\nthe third time he threw me out<\/p>\n
\nand where did I live and what was my last name
\nhow could we be related because of the colours of
\nour skin? In this great racist colony
\nI watched as the full force of common law
\ncame crashing down on Phillip like a tidal wave<\/p>\n
\nin the elevators to the cells
\nhe slipped a bony hand out of a handcuff
\nand waved his free arm in the air
\nfour guard stood like pillars
\nafraid of what he might do
\nso long considered a dangerous prisoner
\nhe laughed.<\/p>\n
\ngrew up not ten miles apart
\nhe on the reserve
\nme in an all white suburb
\nand his grandparents were raising him
\nuntil the childrens aid
\ndecreed they were too old and he was sent to foster
\nhomes<\/p>\n
\nwith pigs in red and pigs in blue
\ntalking in French about prostitutes
\nthey gave him 8 extra months for allowing six guards
\nto split his face open<\/p>\n
\nhe was proud and
\ndetermined and
\nwhen he finally when home
\nwhen he finally went home
\nin 1988 after a lifetime away
\nsomeone found him at a friends house not sleeping
\nnot asleep
\nwho killed Phillip?
\nNot I said the judge
\nNot I said the guards
\nNot I said the court
\nNot I said the lawyers
\nNot I said the prosecutor
\nNot I said the warden
\nNot I said the people
\nNot I, said the people<\/p>\n
\nyou never ask those kids, what are they taking it for?
\ntoo kill the pain, to kill the rage
\nto extinguish the hatred
\npassed on by a racist culture
\nwho killed Phillip?<\/p>\n
\nas me
\nhe had bigger dreams and better
\nhe had dreams like a coyote singing
\nlike the sun rising up blood red
\nlike a sea of singing birds and he
\ncould have done anything, anything in this world
\nPhillip- I’m angry<\/p>\n
\ncan easily govern this country
\nand condemn to living death the powerless and all
\nof his intellectual superiors
\nwith the magic wand of colonialism
\nthat is blind to any justice
\nand destroys the hope of generations.
\nAnd not even the frantic singing of the nighttime
\nwhipoorwill
\ncan bring back the useless sacrifice
\nWho killed Phillip?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"