My name is Nate Marshall.

I'm a poet, and today I'm gonna read my poem "aubade for the whole hood." An abaude is a poem or a song meant to welcome the new day, and here's one I have to offer you all. today i offer my self all the small kindnesses. i'm out here with breath in my body though it may be stank & body in my control though it may be too much or not enough. today i offer the whole crib a jam we ain't heard in a minute & permission to turn the news down & move a hip like a suggestion to a lover. on this day i declare the pockmarked street i grew up on a miracle. i declare the bills, even the overdue ones, a blessing. who knew that we would still be here to see these injustices. how can we measure the disrespect of lack against that precious surprise? real talk, today i tell myself truths other than the ones that make me low, i give myself the gift of a joke with the homies. real talk, today i stay woke to all the terror but also to my favorite food or my favorite place or my best hope for our people & i work to make all my best lives possible.