Juneteenth 2025: The Fire This Time

02 VERSES IN THE WAKE

I. PROJECT 2025 / FREEDOM DELAYED

June nineteenth, eighteen sixty-five—
News traveled slow when freedom arrived
But the chains still jingle in different keys
Same plantation, different deeds
They told us we were free to go
But where you run when the whole system's your foe?

Emancipation on paper, incarceration in practice
The more things change, the more they stay drastic
Voting rights to private prisons
Same song, different rhythms
We celebrate the day they said we're human
But still fighting to prove it, still moving

II. VOTING WHILE BLACK / DEMOCRACY AUTOPSY

They closing polls in our neighborhoods
Making us jump through hoops like we misunderstood
One in nineteen Black adults can't vote
'Cause of felony laws that they specifically wrote
To keep us out the booth, away from the truth
That our voices matter, our power is proof

Texas rejected seven thousand ballots in March
Most from Black and Brown folks, predictable farce
Georgia got that Senate Bill 202
Making it harder to vote, that's their strategy
But we still show up, we still make noise
'Cause liberation depends on our choice

III. BLACK LIVES STILL MATTER / AMERICAN NECROPOLIS

They painted over our mural in DC
March 2025, said it was necessity
But you can't paint over the movement
You can't erase our improvement
We still healing the past, reimagining the present
Investing in the future, that's our essence

From Ferguson to Floyd, we ain't backing down
"I can't breathe" became the battleground
Eight minutes forty-six seconds on his neck
Derek Chauvin thought Black lives were worthless to protect
Breonna sleeping in her bed, they kicked the door
Ahmaud jogging while Black, couldn't take it anymore

Fifteen to twenty-six million in the streets
Cell phone cameras showing what the news won't tweet
Every chokehold, every knee, every "hands up don't shoot"
We documented the truth while they called us crude
Say Her Name, Black Trans Lives, the whole spectrum
We organized now, 'cause the system gonna wreck 'em

Police still killing us at three times the rate
But now the whole world watching, can't hide behind the gate
From Minneapolis to the globe, they felt our pain
'Cause this time we made sure they couldn't look away again

IV. OUR 2025 / THE RESISTANCE

NAACP said "Our 2025"
Counter-programming their lies, keeping hope alive
Higher wages, better schools, justice that's real
Not their Project 2025 devil's deal
We refuse to go back to the injustices of the past
So we building a future that's built to last

From Galveston to every city block
We remember what resistance meant to unlock
Not just the chains on our physical being
But the mental chains that stop us from seeing
Our power, our purpose, our place in this land
United we stand, freedom in hand

V. THE FIRE THIS TIME

Baldwin said "The Fire Next Time"
We say the fire is now, burning in this rhyme
In every vote that we cast despite their suppression
In every march, every tweet, every expression
We affirm the lives of all Black people
From the block to the steeple

We working for a world
Where Black lives ain't targeted
Where our humanity ain't marketed
Where our contributions are seen and respected
Where our resilience ain't just expected

So when they try to roll back our rights
We organize, mobilize, ready to fight
Not with violence, but with our voices
Making moves, making choices
The fire this time burns in our hearts
This is where our future starts

VI. JUNE 19, 2025

You want to know what Juneteenth means in 2025?
It means we're still breathing
Despite every plan to make us die
Every law designed to break us,
Every vote they tried to steal
Every knee pressed to our necks,
every wound they wouldn't heal

We are the children
Who survived the Middle Passage
The auction block, the whip, the rope,
the systematic damage
Our ancestors bled for 400 years
So we could be here
So Project 2025 can kiss our Black ass,
We persevere

We built this country
From the ground up with our bare hands
Every railroad, every highway,
Every dollar understands
Our labor, our genius,
Our culture, our pain
You tried to erase us
But we're still here to remain

We are the ones they couldn't kill
We are the power they can't eliminate
We are the future they can't legislate
We are America, and we ain't going nowhere
We are the truth they cannot bear