Name: Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Rifle"
Uploaded: 2020-07-03T09:17:38.000Z
Duration: 3 min 44 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

our next guest is here to perform the poem, Rifle,

Please welcome back to the show Rudy Francisco.

approximately 30,000 illegal firearms per year.

When the guns are taken, they get dismantled,

and the metal is used to make other types of weapons

that will later be utilized by their military."

In 2012, Pedro Reyes, an artist from Mexico City,

convinced his government to donate the guns to him,

and he turned them into musical instruments.

all made out of things that were used to take people's lives,

that puts life back into people's bodies,

which is to say a weapon will always be a weapon,

that even the most destructive instruments

can still create a melody worth dancing to, and, sometimes,

I wonder how long it took to convince the first rifle

that it can hold a note instead of a bullet

but still fire into a crowd and make everyone move.

In the '80s, that was the anti-bullying movement.

Uh, the first time one of my classmates took a "yo mama" joke

a little too far, I remembered my training,

I remember staring at my hands the same way

you stare at a test when all your answers are correct.

and isn't that what masculinity has become?

A bunch of dudes afraid of their own feelings,

terrified of any emotion other than anger,

constantly yelling at the shadows on the wall,

that we're the ones standing in front of the light?

We learn the heart is the same size as the fist,

but we keep forgetting they don't have the same functions.

We pull their triggers, and then we ignore

all the damage they're doing in the distance.

The word "repurpose" -- The word "repurpose" --

I am learning that this body is not a shotgun.

I am learning that this body is not a pistol.

I am learning that a man is not defined by what he can destroy.

I am learning that a person who only knows how to fight

and that shouldn't be anyone's first language.

I'm learning the difference between a garden and a graveyard

is only what you choose to put in the ground.

Once I came across a picture of a strange-looking violin.

The caption said that it was made out of a rifle,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Spoken-Word Poet Rudy Francisco Performs His Poem "Rifle"

constantly

bunch

realize

convince