Yvette Battle-Leaphart
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Yvette Battle-Leaphart is the original New York City Girl! A devout Buddhist born and raised in NYC, now a resident of Lexington, MA, Yvette is a multi-media artist, vocalist, writer, spoken-word performer, and designer. A seasoned slammer, she's won Ren Jender's Amazon Super Slam several times, placed first in an independent Amazon Slam in Chicago during the Nationals in 1999, and accomplished the nearly-impossible feat of placing second out of 100 contestants two years in a row in the National Outwrite Slams in 1998 and 1999; second only to the luminous author, Letta Neely. Additionally, she won Best Female Erotic Poet and Best Hip Hop Poet in 2000 at the Cambridge Poetry Awards. Yvette's passion for the literary arts reflects her belief in the power of the written word and its ability to alter, define, and express life and love. She does not believe in diluting her feelings, saying, "It is important to me to put my feelings out there...it does me no good to hold them inside where they create havoc. I would rather have them out, reaching and touching those who are strong enough to withstand the truth in them. I love having the ability and opportunity to shift the thinking of a fixed mind."

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I ainıt movin to... 10-10-05 yvette b


You donıt want none of this, mami
First i moved over for his baby mama
Then came the wife with the green-card drama
There are no left-overs, girlfriend no bones
And I ainıt movin to arizona

This hereıs been here long before you came
And i know it feels good to be swept up in his game
And I know what you see right there looks sweet
And your thinkin Œbout bein burned by his heat
But see, i aint here to compete, oh no
And i aint movin to Ohio

paid my dues/got my due
Œbe a long long time,girlfriend before Iım through
And if you aint got bank from the start
Itıs only time Œfor he breaks your heart
Iım stayin and iım claiminı every iota
And i aint movin to Minnesota

I know how hard it is to see through smoke
But, when this man breaks you off ­ youıre broke
You better decide if this is really what you want to do
To keep fooling yourself thinking he wants you
No, really wants you,
Cause I aint movin to

I paid for a timeshare
And could be you donıt care
But i warn you he donıt come cheap
A sexy man is hard to keep
Your name can be Shay Shay, Kee Kee, or Hannah
But, I aint movin to Montana

I had him in his prime see
Can you handle bein just another dimepiece
He may be expert in the sheets
but heıs damn sure expensive to keep

unless you got bankroll
i suggest you take a stroll
I donıt want his energy wasted
its spread around enough
I mean to get all thatıs left, wipe him out, wipe him off, put him to sleep

So get on young girl ­ heıs done for the moment chasin skirts

Donıt waste your time, heıs tied up, knotted, gift-wrapped ­ delivered
Thereıs nothing to see here, nothin to do here, move along

Donıt be stubborn. I know you want him and maybe he thinks he wants you
But, forget it, keep it movin. I am the last line of his defense.

I am just savin him from himself
I understand
If you saw how he does what he does when he does it ­
youıd want him even more -

So before you play yourself, get in line, take a number. Forget his digits,
donıt blow up his cell.

Baby girl, iım tellin you for your own good.
Once you test that water, you wonıt be able to tread, you will drown
You will be consumed, you will go crazy, lose your mind, your sanity will be
at risk,

Youıll end up #4 wanting him and he wonıt be there when you do

And youıll cry
And
March 13, 2006



SUGAR SUGAR SUGAR


While everyone will agree sugar is sweet and sweet is good
Too much of a good thing can be bad and bad can cause pain.

But everything in life cannot always be good
Up----down --Our life is a graph ­
a constant chart of risings and fallings
That is the pattern of our existence

I believe women experience life in great variables/deeper dimensions
Our risings are stellar and our fallings can be abysmal

We are, after all, the birth-givers, the procreators,
The ultimate nurturers of life in the womb and outside the womb
and we are fierce in our instinct to preserve and protect

We are very powerful, Born with a matrix of senses
that far outnumber the five known senses of touching, feeling,
hearing, seeing, tasting ­ thereıs instinct, perception, clairvoyance

And when we love, we love fiercely, sometimes foolishly
And we are not given to letting go easily.

I believe what I believe. I donıt ask that you agree with me.
I believe the human potential is incomprehensible
But that we can achieve what we will ourselves to achieve

I am a believer of love as a healing potion
Which can become poison if not handled with care

My works are about life, love, my perspective on my own existence

I am found in all the characters of my works. I am all of them. I created
them, or they already exist. If you find yourself in my works, so be it.
Whatever you find here is yours to do with as you will, to think about as
you might, to use as you may, to discard as you please.

How you process what you hear, read, or see is of your own free will. I
just want to take you on my journey through the intensity of being and
feeling and loving and hating and caring.

Please enjoy sharing this space with me

Black sons

It is common for black males to die young in these times
Prematurely, violently before their prime.
It is a phenomena that cannot be explained
But I see the wall of pain revisited by mothers
Whose sons die before their very eyes
And we, mothers, cry for the loss of our sons who die
And the loss of our sons who pulled the trigger.

My son crying at the wakes of dozens of his friends in as many years

What is this dark vigilante spirit that invades their soul?
Creating countless black holes in our universe
Perpetuating a twisted ecological balance-
Some weird equation with no solution
It is, after all, not the earth that yields
9 millimeters/assault rifles, Glock 9s ­

Yet they come to rest frequently in the hands of
the young who become life-takers, stalkers, hunters,
killers; declaring war on each other
trading a look, a gold chain, a girl... for a life?

This is our terror and our reality.
A cousin bound, gagged, tortured ­ dead at 15
His mom wailing, recognizing him only by a mole ­ a birthmark -
left starkly intact on his young face

Not just "over there" ---no --not just "over there"
Here - on my street today, yours tomorrow
Inner-city discontent turned to irrationality
bullets flying in the face of reason
for no reason that we can comprehend

Yet, we can launch spaceships. Build supercomputers.
Download massive amounts of data onto the heads of pins
But have no science to predict or save the next victim
Billions of dollars spent on war "over there"
­0-for this insidious war at home.

My sons survived;
Though I have held mothers of the sons who did not.

We will save the Great Winged Hawk from extinction
But, who will save our Black sons? Revised 10-15-05