A Dream For Sale

neurotic: poet / illustrator IG:@nikrichard

[nikrichard]

“There is nothing more powerful, than an idea whose time has come” - Saul Williams

[nikrichard]

🌹

[nikrichard]

“Black people in this country are in a state of emergency” - As an artist it can take me weeks or months to find the time, energy, and inspiration to create something new, but these past couple of months have put all other art on hold as I try to process and respond to what’s going on in this country. Black people are under attack. As I’ve seen many post before - don’t tell me you’re sorry as if you take pity on me being Black, and don’t tell me you stand with me, tell the racists you stand against them.

Shoutout to all the artists who have found the will and energy to create anything during such emotionally draining times. And shoutout to the artists who haven’t created anything in months because we are still processing, or because artwork has taken a back seat to survival. #blacklivesmatter #socialdistance #socialjustice

[nikrichard]

On September 15th, 1970 the New Orleans chapter of the Black Panther Party held their ground in the Desire Housing Projects against law enforcement in a shootout that lasted over 30 minutes. At 8:00 am over 100 officers in military gear stormed down on the Panther’s headquarters located at 3544 Piety St. and unloaded gunfire in an attempt to eradicate the Black Panther Party from the State of Louisiana. Miraculously no one was killed in this standoff.

Law enforcement made another attempt to raid the headquarters on November 19, but thousands of Desire residents circled the building in a successful effort to protect the members and fend off another violent attack.

In August of 1971 all of the members were found not guilty.

[nikrichard]

Ever since I read The Alchemist I have always associated wandering the desert with searching for your dreams. It’s a book I come back to over and over again, each time leaving me a little more confused, but I keep reading expecting one time I’m going to figure it out the same way I keep coming back to the desert expecting to find… something. But every time I come I leave a piece of myself, each time bringing more and more of me to share, and every time I leave I take a piece of the desert back for me until one day I have it all figured out, or until the desert and I eventually swap places.

[nikrichard]

🦋🦋🥊🦋🦋

[nikrichard]

Just trying to find the art I’m good at so I can make more of it.

[nikrichard]

We're the lucky ones, the ones who love the ones who lost the ones who stay up late the ones still trying the ones in debt the ones who are sorry the ones who create the ones with regrets the ones still changing the ones still looking the ones who die over and over again for their art, we're the lucky ones because we have so much to look forward to.

[nikrichard]

In an alternate universe Nefertiti has a tattoo of 2pac on her chest. 👑

[nikrichard]

Choose your weapon just in case this doesn't go as planned. Hold my hand but hold your knife too. I promise I'd never hurt you but this might kill you. Will there be any pieces of us left when it's over? If it's over? I've never done this before - loved someone I couldn't hide from. Can I love you when I'm still in love with everyone else? Can you love me when everyone else is still in love with you? What are we gonna do other than clutch our knife and our gun and hope the other doesn't run when things start to burn? We always love the savage but never before was that savage a friend. Stability or madness? I'll choose the madness, again.

[nikrichard]

I asked her who she voted for in 2004. We were discussing politics and religion and that was the first election I was old enough to participate in. I said, Gore she said that was the year she stopped believing in anything but she still went to church just in case. She still voted in every election after that just to be safe because she didn’t want to be blamed when things went wrong and things always went wrong. And knowing she wasn’t the reason why helped her sleep at night. I asked her how she’s been sleeping lately. She asked, “why do you put so much pressure on me to dream when I’m still stuck between feeling lost and feeling free? Forced to get along with those who arm themselves and dream of harming me. Sold me a house with a lawn and picket fence but made copies of the key so you can come and go as I sleep at night and my dreams can be policed. I worked my whole life for the American dream to find out it wasn’t for me. What do you do when your dreams come true and you don’t want them in the end? Or you’re so in debt you don’t know if you can afford to dream again? Do you work the rest of your life to pay them back or go on and pretend like you never gave a second thought to giving up or giving in? Happily ever afters make you think that your dreams come true in the end when they actually happen somewhere in the middle and the rest of the story is you figuring out what to do with them. Who is it you want to be? Did you ever consider maybe giving up is a way of getting free?” I told her she sounded like a politician campaigning for an election she knew she would never win. A disappointed victim of her own expectations. And there I was, trying to convince myself I didn’t want all the things I knew I did. Still holding on to dreams I was told to believe in ever since I was a kid. But it’s such a relief to wake up and no longer want the things you felt you could never have. I could free myself by letting go of all the dreams I’d been sold in the past but I didn’t. I still wanted it all even if she warned me it wouldn’t last. I wrote my vote on a post-it note and slipped it in her bag. She won the election, I lost my way. We were a new nation under old flags.

[nikrichard]

Before Drew Brees arrived in New Orleans and gentrified the Saints' quarterback position, Aaron Brooks held almost every franchise passing record, including being the only quarterback to bring the Saints a playoff victory. Also, after Katrina he was the only person on the team to speak out against the NFL and Tom Benson for the way they handled the players, and was blackballed by every other team for it (except the Raiders). I'm surprised most fans have let Aaron Brooks fade into Saints obscurity. #2 was the first Saints jersey I owned. I'm not saying he was the best to ever stand under center, but at least he deserves his own mediocre restaurant along with the other New Orleans quarterbacks his jersey hangs next to in the team hall of fame. ⚜️

[nikrichard]

Muse

I've never felt so used. All I do is write and paint  and say beautiful things about you

and what do you do besides break my heart? Sure you inspire me but at what cost?

I’ll never own you but I feel like you belong to me.

I’ve called you home for far too long

far longer than these transplanted seeds.

They don't have any roots here they haven't grown any trees.

Yea, they sing you songs but they do you wrong, too.

It’s hard having to share you with those who have yet to shed their leaves.

When they come for a visit and they don't stay I'm the one that sweeps your streets the next day

and how do you repay me?

With hurricanes, and apathy and summers that last too long and disregard but I still hang you on my living room walls  

and invite everyone I know over to see that you're the one who inspires me even if you don't care at all.

[nikrichard]

Where Are You?

Please don’t leave me here with these people. I'm not of them. I won't love them. Take me with you when you go. I don’t recognize them. We don't speak the same language. They’re humid. They're dank.  They’re hollow. Don’t make me love them. I don’t want to. I just want you. I’ll be quiet on the road. I’ll love them if I have to but I’d never tell you I’d be too embarrassed to let you know. But tell me who will you love? Where will you go? Will it ever be as good? What will you do when they don't recognize you or they don't love you like they should? I’m right behind you. I’ll come and find you. Don’t be stubborn out there on your own. They love me here but it feels so empty. Don’t leave me here with them alone.

[nikrichard]

Where Are You? Please Don't Leave Me Here With These People: a love story

[shotbybmike]

My brother, the brilliant @nikrichard dropped off some copies of his new book at @studio_be_ , pick up your copy while supplies last. #studioBE #ephemeraleternal #ADreamForSale (at Studio Be)

[nikrichard]

Pick up the new book (and the old one) at Studio Be in New Orleans or visit my website nikrichard.com

[nikrichard]

There are people out there who know what it’s like to walk around with a book inside you. For years you feel heavy and weighed down because you have this story to tell, but you’re not quite ready yet because it’s a story that you’re still living, whatever that story is. So you write, and write, and delete, and start over, and little by little you come apart, but in a beautiful way, until it all comes together. And you have a story that no longer lives in you, but one that you will live in from that day forward. And you feel free, you feel lighter, you feel complete, you feel finished - A Dream For Sale is that story. It’s not the first story, and it won’t be the last story, but it is the story I have to tell right now. If you read Love and Water and wondered what happens next, I’m ready to let you know. // A Dream For Sale - August 27th 🎈✂️🎈