Life LinesLife Lines
  • Subscribe
  • Share
  • Archives
  • About
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Donate

Subscribe

New pieces are published each week. You can listen to Life Lines here on our site and via many podcast apps.

iPhone or Mac? iTunes / Apple Podcast

Android? Stitcher or Pocket Casts or Google Play

RSS Feed

Share

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Embed Preview

Archive Catalog

Genres

  • Editorial
  • Essay
  • Letter
  • Memoir
  • Poetry
  • Song
  • Spoken word
  • Authors

  • Abu Ali
  • Bryan Bell
  • Darrell W. Maness
  • Elrico Fowler
  • George Wilkerson
  • James Jaynes
  • James Thomas
  • Leroy Mann
  • Lyle May
  • Paul Brown
  • Rodney Taylor, Sr.
  • Timothy White
  • Collections

  • Call & Response
  • Call & Response: The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
  • General submissions
  • Mothers' Day
  • Prologue
  • Uncategorized
  • Worship resources
  • Date

  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • Title

  • #98 ‘Tough on crime’ policies endanger the public
  • #105 A bucket of chicken
  • #37 A message for Mothers’ Day
  • #3 All that matters
  • #80 Amazing grace
  • #78 Anti-Catholic sentiment as public safety
  • #14 At the zoo, on display
  • #7 Bad men
  • #91 Beyond the wall (part 1)
  • #92 Beyond the wall (part 2)
  • #6 Blood on my sleeves
  • #101 Breaking news
  • #13 Breaking the silence
  • #69 Bringing in the new year
  • #24 Caged canaries
  • #103 Carrying my side of the plexiglass
  • #27 Closure
  • #75 Contradictions
  • #102 Conversation with a dear friend
  • #42 Dad
  • #67 Dance to the flame
  • #96 Demons in the grave
  • #30 Disquieted
  • #76 Do you love your friends?
  • #63 Domesticated
  • #79 Down in the river to pray
  • #84 Easy doesn’t come easy
  • #60 Fear of acceptance
  • #26 Fine dining in prison
  • #77 For freedom
  • #12 Freedom is
  • #40 Friendship
  • #82 Game day
  • #17 Give me a sign
  • #25 Hanging in the jar life
  • #32 Highrise, part one
  • #33 Highrise, part two
  • #73 Hope
  • #97 How do you see yourself
  • #81 How great thou art
  • #4 Hugs
  • #72 Hypertension
  • #89 In your eyes
  • #94 Insane world
  • #48 Inside of outside
  • #64 Invest in rehabilitation, not punishment
  • #99 Judicial pantomime
  • #41 Learning process
  • #62 Leaving Eden
  • #1 Life Lines
  • #87 Mama
  • #52 Marching orders
  • #23 Me and mine
  • #50 My son
  • #18 O Christmas tree
  • #38 One quiet breath
  • #28 Pantoum of the forgotten prisoner
  • #43 Pawn sacrifice
  • #16 Pilgrimage
  • #44 Potential to evolve
  • #10 Prison is time
  • #83 Reality check
  • #90 Refusing to die
  • #19 Release
  • #22 Shelf life
  • #61 Small windows
  • #95 Sorry that I let you down
  • #36 Spaced out
  • #104 Story of mine
  • #86 Supervision failures
  • #85 Synthesizing freedom
  • #74 Talking to my mom in autumn
  • #21 Talking to myself
  • #2 Ten cent a minute
  • #54 The darkness of nights past
  • #34 The elephant in the room
  • #39 The garage
  • #66 The gift of song
  • #53 The great American eclipse 2017
  • #58 The last lifeline
  • #68 The longest night
  • #45 The noisy blanket
  • #55 The plan
  • #57 The right to remain silent
  • #100 The timestretcher
  • #47 The tombs
  • #88 The weather
  • #29 The wind
  • #31 They took my baby away
  • #46 This is us
  • #11 This place
  • #20 Three Shifts of an Eleventh Hour
  • #51 Through the fog
  • #56 To shine, beat the sun up
  • #15 Trumped
  • #9 Twenty years
  • #8 Undead: voices from the grave
  • #35 What now?
  • #59 When I look
  • #93 When killers cry
  • #71 When You Look at Me
  • #65 Where does it end?
  • #5 Who am I
  • #49 You are
  • #70 You Have No Idea
  • Tags

  • Family
  • Childhood
  • Connection
  • Alienation
  • Prison life
  • Death penalty
  • Memory
  • Mothers
  • Home
  • Identity
  • Friendship
  • Hope
  • Writing
  • Humanity
  • Freedom
  • Abuse
  • Love
  • Language
  • Execution
  • Mental health
  • Captivity
  • Phones
  • Race
  • Children
  • Future
  • Time
  • Fathers
  • Coping
  • Christianity
  • Solitary confinement
  • Violence
  • Meals
  • Routine
  • Community
  • Visitation
  • Police
  • Breaking
  • Throw-away culture
  • Control
  • Perceptions
  • Music
  • Spiritual
  • Trauma
  • Parents
  • Holidays
  • Voice
  • Waiting
  • Sound
  • Belonging
  • Fear
  • Appeals
  • Lawyers
  • Moratorium
  • Abandonment
  • Contact visits
  • Affection
  • Judgment
  • Innocence
  • Slavery
  • Presence
  • Responsibility
  • Religion
  • Dreams
  • Escape
  • Mass incarceration
  • Justice
  • Regrets
  • Discrimination
  • Exclusion
  • Windows
  • Christmas
  • Generational trauma
  • History
  • Non-human life
  • Domestic violence
  • Poverty
  • Singing
  • Work
  • Spouse
  • Parenting
  • Television
  • Radio
  • Expectations
  • Loss
  • Generational incarceration
  • Fashion
  • Style
  • Popular culture
  • Guilt
  • Count
  • Theatre
  • Avoidance
  • Attention
  • Lynching
  • Resistance
  • Police violence
  • Prejudice
  • Laughter
  • Siblings
  • Creativity
  • Silence
  • Teachers
  • Victims
  • Segregation
  • Exile
  • Learning
  • Chess
  • Resilience
  • Security
  • Isolation
  • Reality
  • Science
  • Economics
  • Fantasy
  • Wonder
  • Food
  • Retrospect
  • The Hole
  • Menu
    ✕
    • Subscribe
    • Share
    • Archives
    • About
    • Search
    • Contact
    • Donate

    #77 For freedom

    We gotta ride gotta ride, to the end of the line, for freedom

    Rodney Taylor, Sr.2018/03/04

    https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/lifelines.is/podcast-player/657/for-freedom.mp3

    Notes

    On top of being entertaining and breaking box office records, Black Panther has animated thoughtful conversations about race and afrofuturism that take seriously the weighty and complex histories which have unfolded over the past five hundred years. Plus, you won’t find a superhero movie with more complex characters. We won’t give away any spoilers, but how about Killmonger’s last line?

    Unlike most of the film’s characters who, as native-born Wakandans, seem to have little direct experience with colonization and slavery, Killmonger grew up in the United States, in the Oakland projects, and carries the unequal burden history has placed on his flesh. These distinct realities present some of the central tension of the movie: Which histories are this mythic African nation willing to acknowledge, and how will they draw on these reservoirs of identity as they confront a future of uncertainty and danger?

    In “For Freedom,” Rodney Taylor, Sr. writes with a voice that could be that of Killmonger’s uncle. The piece is written in response to Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad with a cadence evocative of both a work song and a steam engine gaining speed. As the work progresses from cotton fields towards freedom, Taylor shows us passing landscapes of the pain and dignity that fuel his journey. By studying these landscapes, we can begin to understand where we are and where we want to go.

    $
    Select Payment Method
    Personal Info

    Donation Total:

    Copyright © 2022 Life Lines Collective and individual authors