riot:lyrics the collection

2011-08-25T03:33:00.000-07:00

deep:black invited London residents to respond to the events in London last week by posting 3 lines on our blog expressing their experiences, feelings or thoughts about what happened.
Have a look at our riot:lyrics unplugged collection and maybe feel inspired? touched? frustrated? confused? understood? or something entirely different...

Free for all as middle aged women grab some swag
Lawlessness calls as the blaze rages

Chaos goes national but was it all a game of chess?

Kweku Aacht

Fight with the voice not with your hands. Shame on you for violence, shame on you for arson, shame on you for destruction and putting fear in your community. Come together to reason, you cannot defend your actions nor will I hear your excuse.

Anonymous

For all the condemnation of the rioters, nobody looks at themselves to see what they did/didn't do. I'm not agreeing with the rioters/looters, but please remember they come from our communities, they are us.

If we condemn and punish without forgiving and moving forward at the same time they will return just as angry, just as outcast and we will repeat the pattern.

Anonymous

Fight for against oppression doesn't mean you have endanger someone else's life.

There are other ways tell your voice be heard.

Violence shows ignorance and weakness and let your oppressor think they show the world who you really are.

macbern

They burn down shops cos they wanna break out of their box,

they ignite fires but they can't yet feel the fires within themselves,

do we dare delve, to the deepest places where this all started?

Stu

Unity of the people at last Black, White, Asian, Jew, chav, rudeboy, Mother, Father, doctor, lawyer, student, shoulder to shoulder.

But for what Greed, Chaos, Anger, Frustration?

Why can't we The People come together for a positive PURPOSE in our millions instead?

Lisa Djembe

They were from various social and economic settings. They were not looting basic resources such as food and water. Maybe the events of the past few days are proof that the social conditioning of this nation has been very effective. Consumers will do just about anything to achieve self gratification and get shiny new goods! (Good Consumers?)

Anonymous

“A riot is at the bottom the language of the unheard”

“Get up, stand up”, speak up and be heard

One community voice, one choir, one harmony that echoes for our time

Sheila Suso-Runge

"The youth of this era

need to be disciplined accordingly.

No excuses!!! "

Budums

If this is about our young people, guess what? It's about us.

If it's about the breakdown of law & order, materialism and greed, guess what? It's about us.

And even if it's about the politicians, the so-called powers that be, guess what? It's about us. It's about us.

a22bf88c-c73f-11e0-b177-000bcdcb5194

Out of this Chaos let there be Clarity

Out of this violence let there be Peace

Out of this Destruction let there be Positivity

FB group - Riot Cleanup Tottenham

fast paced emotions, too high, too loud, too unreal

centrifugal power, ever faster, the only choice being drawn in or catapulted out

fast paced moving-on, too thin, too loud, too unreal

petra hilgers

too fast to focus on behaviour...you can't change behaviour without changing thoughts and feelings. you can't engage with people if you don't talk from / empathise with their point of view. the disenfranchised will speak and act with THEIR language. close your mouth - you're not shocked - you're disgusted with yourself for thinking they'd remain unheard and unseen. poor judgement call for you - what you gonna do?

Spirited Strength

devoid of love - divide us and rule us

looting and destroying?

look who got there first

Val Archer

political faces, bullys in dark places, grief from the street taking on the institutions and the beat, hurt and pain crying what does it take to be human again,

Joseph D

Imagine not caring about the consequences

Nothing could be worse than now

Of course, I don’t care, I have nothing to lose

Natalie

Young people with no future criminalised on mass

Greedy politicians call for them to be hung

Its time for people with a heart to speak out.

Anonymous

Don't try to put this fire out!

It's bigger than you it's bigger than me and I know what I'm talking about.

Warming the cold lighting the dark and like every roaring blaze it grew from a little spark

Tom Currie

There is true injustice in our broken society, which remains invisible, unless you scratch beneath the surface. Join hands, work together and mend these broken hearts.

glossed by TV, she couldn't miss her opportunity,

to be famous for a few mins and smash windows with disused bins,

her angered face on government CCTV - all and sundry were there to see,

her guilt and shame absent for she says she was hungry.

her life is now a media feast afraid of those who acted like beasts,

a lesson she will never really learn, because her world was already a fire to burn.

beverley

Fists jerk, knee-jerk. Privileged voices with no understanding call for less understanding and more condemnation. Slam shut the cell door and slap on the plaster; but the wound still festers.

Nick

A country heated by the fires of youth;

Without hope, justice or success, in truth.

Their failures and despondency transmitted across the globe for the world to see,

teenagers - black and white - rushing for plasma TVs.

Strive for a better place, strive for better futures, but I beg you please, don't lose our community strength for a pair of Footlocker sneakers.

beverley

lives blighted - from the right and from the left, the wrath of the people who have been left bereft, hunger or greed? what's the cause of their plight? no-one really knows why London was set alight on those fateful nights. respect the unrespected, judge not in your haste. our capital city was ablaze - a revolution may have taken place.

beverly

The London riots shed some of light to some of the economic problems faced by young people in UK. The question now is what will happen next? In the words of Malcolm X "Truth is on the side of the oppressed".

Farah

The Riots in London that quickly spread to other parts of the Uk

Are a sign of our uneasy times,

Young people should be listened to, recognised and supported.

The Riots are more than just 'mindless violence' but are collective expression in the form of anger and destruction.

Let's try to give them some hope back.

Martha McAlpine

There is a riotous tenderness in my heart

It is not allowed out, it is unwanted

It is swallowed

Underneath, hiding its beauty

Causing ripples and Obfuscations

Just a flash in the pan

Because to be really seen

Is just too scary, man

So get out of my face

Get it

Edward Nelson

Like a scorpion in a ring of fire,

Stabbing at itself with poisonous venom

Confused and frightened

Heat and bright lights make a pretty prison

But who started the fire?

Smothering smoke clouds all thought and reason

Rita Walters

Outraged we were to find our own lawmakers

there in the sack with hacks who hack, connivin with cold-blooded lawbreakers

yay these are the people now to put our house in order

“such pleasant well-dressed criminals - not like those lawless marauders!”

BeeGirl

Oh No

Oh God

Why?

Irene Grindell

What happens to us

parents if our kids

know no fear?

Ruth

Riot! sick and tired of the piece and quiet,

we're hungry, tired of being drip fed, no leaders no followers are we the living dead?

lied to with no right to, and no light to what our voice said...

so we going out to the venue called mob rule,

Where Cocktails are molitoff its old school! Thats free on the house too!...

and if you on the same strip that's 3 more to your house fool! Coming through your shop windows, taking whatever goes then smiling for the camera with a cute pose!

Street beefs the main dish

Lootings the 3rd course

any signs of weakness,

geeza your mine gowg!

Yo but hear what, you think your big in diss dont you know da bwoy dem were ordered to let it riff!

Its Organized confusion...

What's that called problem reaction solution, they create the problem we react and then they shoot them? them is us, us is we, and we rebuke them! Send them back to the caves where they come from either that or continue with the serfdom are you a real man or a straw man what's real dan? Guns, gold and a get away plan!

Stephen Thornhill

Speak to me on the telephone

Listen to me on the microphone

Make sure I’m not home alone

When change is going on

Catch me up on the street

Step up with me in a heartbeat

Make sure it’s a rhythmic treat

When change is going on

When the moon shines down and its night

When the sun rises up and its bright

people get ready, get right

when a change is going on

Sheila Suso-Runge