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Neal J. Arp

@nealjarp

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Pecan Candy. Read “Kin,” by Tayari Jones

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Morehouse Classmate @nealjarp walks us through his praline business @morehouse1867 #blackhistorymonth #theintuitivenudge #entrepreneurshipseries #feb24 #graveshall taken in Atlanta, Georgia by @nealjarp

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20

8 months ago

The Hay Straw
The Fire and
The Ice Park After Next Time

By Neal J Arp

And for a while we held each other tightly like sunshine
in a greenhouse
and our hearts weren’t
Outside.
in the arms of others. and it felt good and sweet like rain against the face of straw. And we watched as the breath of fire cleansed all
away.
The dreams and thoughts we had.
Slowly.like, honey.
Then fast like hot honey.
Movin in a Jar
For Another Day.
Eastern Ice
& Western Fire
Freezing And Burning
All
at Once
And twice
In this sap
Twice and Over
Now Life
And a phoenix will
Rise of the melted ashes
To make rivers and drink what left of the melted ice mansions And in the new land
They will again
Give chocolate medals
To the fastest there are
And they will eat them
The Chocolate from Everywhere
Until they melt.
in the name of a colonized country
in their mouths and not their hands
in the torch by @nealjarp

10

2

a year ago

“Jesus, Katrina and the Super Silk Soaked Striped Pajamas” by Neal J. Arp.
The End.

Epilogue

Screams

“Why they give us these stripes to wear to where?”

“Why can’t we leave? We walked this loop 10x.”
(The SuperDome)

“Cause we’re in Hell.” Or…..
“Cause we’re in Hell baby and the rent don’t stop in hell baby.”
Together: You Pay It Till You Die.

**Gunshots

**Water comes up from the baseboards again timer resets Katrina again.

The Timer resets Katrina again.

We just gotta put a hole in the roof —Unknown

Images of post apocalyptic underwater New Orleans

Image surfaces with man putting a hole in the roof top of the SuperDome. As the camera pans out the SuperDome in actuality is a huge shotgun house big af with souls and people screaming inside it.

Notes:

Katrina was lived cinematic horror
Death’s personified angel of broken levied Ponchartrain Chaos. The water was especially significant as it was unable to cleanse and wash away the plaster logged pain of poverty or the actualization of lived people failed by their government. The Hunger Games. The Water Games. Surviving Katrina was learning how to breathe under water with your eyes wide shut.

The water is forever every tear drop of it is forever. The Water is Wide. Take me from the Water. “Mama, Who had the Suites at the SuperDome during Katrina?” “Somebody did Sugar. And it wasn’t Us. I never lied to you and I ain’t gonna start now. It was the Same people always had ‘em.” “Soaked or Silked.” “Put yo pajamas on boy. Katrina was An American Holocaust. We Are Not Victims. We Are They Who Survived. The Truth is Different Colors in Different Lights But It is the Same in Water.” by @nealjarp

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3

a year ago

Jesus, Katrina and the Super Silk Soaked Striped Pajamas by @nealjarp Exiled

“Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dick Gregory wrote Nigger.”

“Maybe I know that already and don’t give two damn maybes cause baby it’s America.” “That was 3.” “Maybe that’s the answer, to every last one of these goddamn Louis Farrakhan soliloquies you’ve read to me today. Maybe for the best Good Luck to ya Sun. (You Shining Black Motherfucker)
Beware the rain. Take care of your pain. In God there is no rain. May his goodness flood your soul.”

“Again? But Noah. What about Noah.”

“Noah was white and he built The SuperDome for you and all God’s creatures. Security! FEMA! FEMA! Maybe Get this Nigger the fuck out of my office and Back to the SuperDome!”

“Your generations will burn in
Pompeii Lakes of Fire
May your souls drown in its Ponchartrain remnants like Atlantis
And May Their Destiny be Deluge with every bone burning morsel of the devil’s hand in all realms you call life. Your dreams and castrated hopes will fill sandbags of fire in the levees of Hell that hold back the ticketed gates to hell.” #katrina #storytelling #story #neworleans taken in New Orleans by @nealjarp

6

2

a year ago

“Jesus, Katrina and the Super Silk Soaked Striped Pajamas” by Neal J. Arp. And All the Black Light We Cannot See. “I know a lot of things happened in the SuperDome. Hell in New Orleans. People surviving in the attics made me think of world wars. We know the story of Anne Frank. And All the Light We Cannot See. What about all the darkness we saw. What stories were people telling during Katrina.”

“People lived the stories, Frankly people can’t journal
In the attic like Anne when there’s water in the attic with Miss Anne. There Wasn’t enough light to write or even see in the Super Dome.”

“… but people made recordings, videos for rememberings”

“Memories that drowned”
“Living Memories to be heard! there’s a whole lot more out there that we need to know. In here. a whole lot more That I need to hear, that I need too remember.”

“Deep down somewhere maybe I know you’re right but I’ve felt enough misery I don’t need to feel no more of its Pain In my heart my eyes my hands my soul or in my goddamn mind! My Ears.

We always lived Uptown. My daddy’s daddy told my daddy to listen buy uptown cause it was just nicer uptown. Sometimes that’s just the way things are. Some people live Uptown and Some people live Downtown.”

“Is that the Yoknapatawpha perpetual exigesis Mr. Faulker for why Black people are excluded from your southern stories’ story?”

“I hate to be your Intruder in the Dusk here Scout, When my niece was about 3. She began responding ‘maybe’ to inquiries of possibility. And to the possibility of inquriies. Maybe I don’t have a Rose for Emily. I Certainly never gave 2 fucks about a cat or Random House Niggers on a hot tin roof.”

“Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dick Gregory wrote Nigger.” #katrina #story #storytelling taken in New Orleans by @nealjarp

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3

a year ago

“Jesus, Katrina and the Silk Super Soaked Striped Pajamas” by Neal J. Arp. And All the Black Light We Cannot See. “I know a lot of things happened in the SuperDome. Hell in New Orleans. People surviving in the attics made me think of world wars. We know the story of Anne Frank. And All the Light We Cannot See. What about all the darkness we saw. What stories were people telling during Katrina.”

“People lived the stories, Frankly people can’t journal
In the attic like Anne when there’s water in the attic with Miss Anne. There Wasn’t enough light to write or even see in the Super Dome.”

“… but people made recordings, videos for rememberings”

“Memories that drowned”
“Living Memories to be heard! there’s a whole lot more out there that we need to know. In here. a whole lot more That I need to hear, that I need too remember.”

“Deep down somewhere maybe I know you’re right but I’ve felt enough misery I don’t need to feel no more of its Pain In my heart my eyes my hands my soul or in my goddamn mind! My Ears.

We always lived Uptown. My daddy’s daddy told my daddy to listen buy uptown cause it was just nicer uptown. Sometimes that’s just the way things are. Some people live Uptown and Some people live Downtown.”

“Is that the Yoknapatawpha perpetual exigesis Mr. Faulker for why Black people are excluded from your southern stories’ story?”

“I hate to be your Intruder in the Dusk here Scout, When my niece was about 3. She began responding ‘maybe’ to inquiries of possibility. And to the possibility of inquriies. Maybe I don’t have a Rose for Emily. I Certainly never gave 2 fucks about a cat or Random House Niggers on a hot tin roof.”

“Tennessee Williams wrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Dick Gregory wrote Nigger.” #katrina #story #storytelling taken in KennedyCenter by @nealjarp

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0

a year ago

Jesus, Katrina and the Super Silk Soaked Striped Pajamas by @nealjarp “Poor Little Jesus”

‘This World’s Gonna Break Your Heart.
And they’ll be no place to lay your head.
Oh Po’ Little Jesus. Come Down All You Holy Angels sing round him with your golden harp for someday he will die to save this world. Oh, Po’ Little Jesus’
There was a level of cruelty and barbarianism shown towards Americans Black People during Katrina, that did not pale but rivaled the racist face of Slavery, the Civil Wars of then The Picayune Times of present and now.

And why ain’t no grant for me
No fund for me
My wet trail of tears
No water for me
One bottle for me
One drop for me
No Sea for me
And We The People
Concentrated People
Obfuscated People
But the Murlitone Grow
The People Whip Dressings
Heaux Heaux Hoe

Up on the rooftop
Reindeer Call
Out jump good old Santy clause
Down through the chimney of good saint knick
Ho Ho
Who wouldn’t go?
Heaux Heaux Heaux
You wouldn’t go.
Down through the chimney
Of good
saint!
Knick!
Cause they melt
Your Black Ass
Like a Candle Stick
#katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

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2

a year ago

Jesus, Katrina and the Super Silk Soaked Striped Pajamas. By @nealjarp Grandmother Hazel

My daddy’s mama who made the dolls died just before me, my cousins and my sisters were born. Her Family was from New Orleans & Vacherie. She looks just like Sarah Vaughn so occasionally I watch Sarah Vaughn Concerts and pretend she is grandmother singing to me And I smile while she is away on tour grabbing chocolates for me somewhere in Belgium while also battling the injustice there in Belgium as she would in America if she were here with me. She’s the only one God didn’t give me. But I have her. Eye once painted her vault with Daddy and once with his Daddy, touched up the hunter’s green border and teardrop edge laid by Her Daddy. We visited her often and every time somebody died.

Mama. used to tell Sonny, “Sonny, every time you cut the grass somebody dies.” And then he’d say, “I’m gonna cut it everyday.” Sonny was the undertaker who saw the brightest side of life. Our first house was a little greenhouse that is no more, a little greenhouse next to the park across from the funeral home. #katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

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2

a year ago

Ash Wednesday. And the sun shines in New Orleans like fall in Spring while the world is white winter ash. And Wednesday is also the Wednesday of Wednesdays in New Orleans after Fat Tuesday. Still bubbling hot Candy. And I wonder what I will do if I retire earlier than I really want to. Like new Mardi Gras beads dead on arrival I am a baby two young to weep now and two old to wrap a new bow on myself. In the ash. And four score I am a diamond square. Yet uneven as only a diamond square is.

Sometimes walking times’ footprint cobblestones I remind myself that there is nothing in time to fear. For it will come as seconds do in days rays light and as Napoleon was marched into night. Somebody like us will win and I will play.
#katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

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5

a year ago

Now only in New Orleans could one immerse or erase himself from inside a place from all he was and from all his world was writing and drafting. Burning. Offering.hanging or selling like ice in hell…to him in hell or the snow man in hell who needed it more On the same street in hell. And there must’ve been some magic or beads in that old silk hat they found.
That shit In.

Now The civil war ended yesterday morning. And so Washington is Ford’s dinner theatre. set for four. in Forever. Where ever It is.
“And every tomorrow is or could be a hurricane.” “In New Orleans.” “Yes, in New Orleans and I want no revenge with New Orleans or a Hurricane for that matter. Though I will take another.” “A Hurricane?”
“Yes. A Hurricane.”
So things press easier here. Easier than Washington cherries or apples. And I wish one blossom to give me a cherry cheer Cher. Butt only Pitts. Of this. Pitts of that. To drown in. And not even the pecans of South. #katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

3

0

a year ago

Princes of Egypt Part 2. Done Made My Vow
And I Never Will Turn Back

Psalm 40 1-3

40 I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.

“High John, the Conqueror.”
“Junkanoo is that You?”

“Mama, June saw a Mama and 3 baby bears crossing the Mississippi.”

“Be careful that River’s cresting at 41 feet. Be careful at that River yo Granddaddy was born baptized and drowned at that River.”

“What you talking about old woman.”
“I’m serious he and his twin brother souls are there. When he and his brother was born down at the river the midwife told them that both would live to be born and baptized but only one would live past 7 in this world.”

“What happened after they turned 7.”

“One would return to the river. And the other would live long in this world but at his end he too would return to the river where they’d reunite. Until one came back as Moses.”

Until One Came Back As Moses
to Let the People Go.

“So I don’t fish in that river or swim much anymore there anyway.” Looming then, “Does that make me a basket?”

“No. Pharaoh’s Daughter.”

Mama knew both her babies couldn’t be free in this world so she made a deal that one would be free on land and the other in The Sea. And in magic her grandmother turned them to catfish it was the only way to escape the Union killings. And as it happened they lay still in that mud underground in the river of blood and bodies all winter. Escaping death and he is mad and scratching at his hat. And when the killings stopped. The world cried and cried until the bowl filled up and as that water hit their faces the fish come to and leapt from the bowl And pit of wild peaches watered in blood. That’s how High Jean save me and all the souls. Making future souls fish eggs until better freedom came.
“That’s how they left.”
The Devil’s Punch Bowl. #katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

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6

a year ago

Princes of Egypt
By Neal J. Arp.

My name is June, One May I was baptized in the Mississippi. When I went under I saw Jesus and he was a Catfish Sea with great black whiskers.
I knew he was old and about 12 feet. …soul needed to have him … so I searched 40 years and 1 night before my liver heart grabbed him in a crab’s chance. I am a dying man now unsaved & trapped in worn time tattered claws clenching the dead bloom of hope free cape jasmine or gardenia
sold
somewhere
for a dollar.
And my soul does not cry or wash away in this river sin I am in. And so the tears run down to the sole of my feet deep down to the chains that I am walking chained. to and in. That move when they wash me and.my sin away.
Move when they wash.me and my sin away.
That move when they.wash me dye me and drink me in the devil’s cotton punch bowl. And every ladle is silver or gold in the water I have none.
And I ‘Clare for St. Lizabeth and St. Jean.
With no ice I Clare. And they drink the Black Gold I Am.
He is a silver man
Who thinks he is gold
in a River of Blood
Shining Gold in a Silver River of Blood

Take My Hammer
to the Walkin
Boss
Tell Him I’m Gone
Tell Him I’m Gone
it Shines like Silver
And Rings Like Gold
If he ask you any question
You Don’t Know
Tell him You Don’t Know

This ol’ hammer killed John Henry
But this ol’ hammer
Won’t kill me.
“The Believers Were Saved.”
Boy June and May Boy, were identical with a month’s color between them. Both were born with webbed feet and swam fast like Dolphins.

“Let the Sea Roar & All that fills it. Let the Fields Exhault and Everything in it.” #katrina #story #storytelling by @nealjarp

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5

a year ago