Sandra I hope you got my letter, I’m in Washington, DC and I’m going to be US Senator from the State of North Carolina, you need to take control of Coast 97.3 and tell Cumulus that it belongs to the people who work there.
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The white supremacist Democrat conspiracy in New Hanover County is still at large, but I am going to destroy it, and I hope you are ready, because it’s gonna be wild. Coast kept me alive in the New Hanover County Detention Facility, and I hope you know how much I appreciate the work y’all do. My dream is that you take it to the next level.
Fri 2:03 PM
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Sandra, I need you to do something about this shit. I am signed up to speak at City Council again on the 15th, but I am on house arrest at my parents’ home in Wilmington, and I just got this message from Tim Joyner. Someone needs to send his bitch ass back to Greenville. This is not his city.
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Facebook Messenger DM from Timothy Joyner to Dawson Gage, 11 October 2024 ~1AM:
“Happy Anniversary of me beating your ass! I would gladly do it again. Here’s to another year of you hiding and calling the police. Stop mentioning my name. Die. 🙂
And your brother is still dead. ❤️”
Sent 1d ago
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7:51 PM
Sandra
Sandra McClammy
I’ll say something to him❤️
8:52 PM
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Thank you, but I am not sure if he is the one to speak to, or not at first. Marshal Stewart tells me Tim Joyner is a police informant. There is circumstantial evidence to link him to both the police and the Sheriff, and add to that the fact that he was acquitted of his “vandalism crimes” because Ben David secretly approved of him. It is hard to say what is what.
I didn’t catch Donny Williams on the air today but I was glad to know you all had a relationship with him.
When Chief Williams was sworn in back in 2020 or whenever, I went to City Council and shook his hand, and gave him a copy of my “7A-66 affidavit” against Ben David, the one the judges covered up.
But the DA and the Police also covered up Tim Joyner’s criminal charges for his attacks against me, which all the “white news media” knew about and concealed. It has been so unsettling Sandra, the way all the prestigious liberal white folks in Wilmington turned on me. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, but it has been the most difficult struggle imaginable.
It is a tricky situation, because I have frequently considered forgiving Tim and making peace, since he knows something about “the conspiracy”. Maybe wait and think before you say something.
There are some other things to discuss which are much more encouraging, concerning poetry, music, and radio, so let’s change the frame to that. This whole beef with Tim began over “poetry politics” because he and certain others did not want me near the microphone, this is back in spring 2016 which was when I stumbled into “Bottega 2.0”.
Funny thing is that for years the Sheriff’s in New Hanover kept me isolated from the “gang population” except of course at the Courthouse in the holding cell, which is where discussions about “the Law” take place at a very high level. But then they screwed up. But even in total isolation, I had the FM Radio.
In Orange County Detention Center there was no radio but there was a “text message app” on the “jail tablet”, and so some of my writings are preserved. That was where I spent 14 months chopping it up with rappers and gang bosses, and wrote some of my greatest poems yet. The best thing, however, was something someone wrote about me, which was priceless. We’ll start with that then:
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“Gage 4 Governor” by Patches/200.
======= CHORUS
Here goes another 1 /
Unk Sam ain’t done enuff /
Uplift our brothers up /
Bless bliss benevelence /
Free those they cuffing up /
we weak so toughen up /
Support the mothers bra /
Dawson Gage for Governor / (
(I) Our votes don’t even count /
Our crime ain’t even crime /
Don’t cry for Israel /
We sending ’em all they bombs /
They giving us all our drugs /
Walmart got all the 9’s /
If black you are a thug /
Break even is doing fine /
I’m on some other shit /
Grocery store is over priced /
Rome wont built in a day /
Im trying it over night /
I feel the pain & hurt /
Nothing, Dwayne is worth /
3 cent in my bank account /
Brenda having another 1 /
Baby daddy is whats a name /
Bless be the poor & meek /
Heal those wid sick & pain /
This rap ain’t even rap /
These artists ain’t even art /
In that water like Noah arc /
Nah ‘uh like Daddy Shark /
Bro doing anotha bid /
Bond $ he didn’t have /
my bad I stole a car /
me couldn’t afford a cab /
sold drug 2 buy a meal /
thou shalt I had to steal /
please do not make me kill /
Lord Jes’ cum take da wheel”
—Dwayne Ashley a.k.a. Patches/200
—@ Orange County Detention Center, Hillsborough, NC, USA,
26 October 2023
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This kid Dwayne Ashley was alright though, he had tattoos of Dr. King, Malcolm X, and Harriet Tubman on his back and his great grandmother founded an HBCU. When I read him this next poem, he said “You rawer than Emily Dickinson”, which is about the best compliment a poet can hope to get. Here we go:
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“24 January 2023: On the Algebra of Infinite Justice (for Arundathi Roy & Bob Dylan). ~
(I) how many breaths
does it take to make a rhythm?
depends on whether
y’all are countin’ out with ’em.
(II) how many rhymes
does it take to make a scheme?
several if ya whisper
fewer if ya scream!
(III) how many crimes
does it take to make a habit?
for scapegoats, one
three or four for Brer Rabbit.
(IV) how many points
does it take to make a line?
how many coins
do you need to pay the fine?
(V) how may eggs
in the young maiden’s tummy?
how many hands
‘til she hits gin rummy?
(VI) how many moons
before a boy should have sex?
how many ‘Y’s’
does it take to solve ‘X’?
(VII) how many dates
‘til it’s time to propose?
how many violets
do you trade for one rose?
(VIII) how much paper
do you get for your gold?
how many minutes
will they keep you on hold?…
(IX) how many matches
will you strike in the wind?
how many verdicts
‘til you know that you’ve sinned?
(X) how many heads
‘til you call it a quorum?
how many voices
do you need for a forum?
(XI) how many ballots
in the mandate of heaven?
does a triple-six weigh
more than one good seven?
(XII) how many particles
in every light wave?
do souls blend together
in a hidden mass-grave?
(XIII) how many wives
did Lot lose at Sodom?
how many new hells
before we finally hit bottom?
(XIV) how many kisses
‘til you call it ‘true-lovin”?
can you count the white witches
in the same red coven?
(XV) how many bad words
‘til a kid gets detention?
can you be an outpatient
during in-school suspension?…
(XVI) how many faxes
‘til they charge you with ‘stalking’?
if you fire five lawyers
can you do your own talking?
(XVII) how many tongues
in the tower of Babel?
when you use foreign terms
are you cheating at Scrabble?
(XVIII) how many raindrops
‘til the levies all burst?
the sword comes second
but the pen goes first!
-Dawson Gage,
@ Orange County Detention Center, Hillsborough, NC, USA
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Then there is this one, for two of my favorite “women lawyers” who inspired my studies. Congresswoman Deborah Ross made clear to me back in 2013 when we first talked that I shouldn’t bother with law school. Then Kim Kardashian came along and started “studying law without going to law school”, which used to be called “reading the law” or “the old-fashioned way”. This is actually one of the most serious political issues and you can see it here in Wilmington.
Because they didn’t start having “Bar Exams” until 1933, and law school was not required then. You could study under an apprentice. This was how by 1898 there were a whole bunch of “self-taught Negro lawyers” in Wilmington, and from H. Leon Prather’s book you learn that one of the things that led to the catastrophe was “the Negro lawyers were too smart”. They would “sass the white man” in Court, and it got under their skin.
120 years later, studying law under the guidance of Thom Goolsby, I found that the judges and clerks and DA’s had about the same attitude about me, which told me I was doing something right. With that introduction, here is the next poem:
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That’s “study as an apprentice”.
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“well I ain’t passed the Bar / but I know a little bit” —Jay Z, “99 Problems”
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Here’s my poem:
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“8 December 2022: Money in Your Bra (for Kim Kardashian & Deborah Ross”
I.
money in your bra
is a beautiful thing
you can wear granny-panties
or a gold g-string
but what’s even more precious
than a diamond ring
is money in your bra
such a beautiful thing.
II.
money in your bra
in the time of war
there’s gunmen on patrol
and long lines at the store
but give peace.a chance
and pretend you’re poor
with money in your bra
in the time of war.
III.
money in your bra
at the border fence
international law
mixed with common sense
put on a few pounds
it’s just a civil offense
the money in your bra
at the border fence.
IV.
money in your bra
that you stashed away
it’s that time of the month
but you skipped a day
it’s September now
but it’ll soon be May
so put money in your bra
the old-fashioned way.
–Dawson Gage
@ Orange County Detention Center, Hillsborough, NC, USA
“John Lennon R.I.P.”
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Next one is for a woman who is a little more accessible/available than Kim Kardashian and a little younger than Deborah Ross, which is Anderson Clayton, the 26 year old chair of the NC Democratic Party who won her position in an upset over the “mainstream candidate” while I was in jail. In fact, it came just days after the “Chinese balloon” floated over Hillsborough. I speak Chinese and have been to China 4 times to teach, travel, and study, and it looks to me like “the Chinese sent the balloon to save Dawson”. As it floated over Hillsborough my mom and friends started texting my on the Paytel app, saying “There’s some kind of Chinese balloon over North Carolina right now!” It was music to my ears and balm for my troubled soul. This poem is for two Chinese political prisoners. One was the Mayor of Chongqing who is in prison to keep him out of power, the other is a young woman who invented some kind of insane “secret Internet radio code” for passing messages around China without getting arrested for sedition.
It is a sad fact that in North Carolina we have a more oppressive government than “Communist China”, and I can’t even rule out having to go to the Chinese embassy at some point. I actually have a friend from boarding school named Susan Ho who is a strong contender for “the Blackest Woman in Shanghai”. Here is the “Prayer of the Chinese Balloon”:
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“5 February 2023: Prayer of the Chinese Balloon (for Bo Xilai & Zhao Huaxu)“
I walk along the midnight way
to wake in fear at noon
I care for nothing what they say
and howl at the hidden moon
for none can mark the judgment day
though I think it will be here soon
for all mankind I sit and pray
for the next Chinese balloon.
–Dawson Gage 高大文
@ Orange County Detention Center, Hillsborough, NC, USA
9:38 PM
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It has been a very long day so I will skip to “the Music”. Without flashing my own star too much, I think this is actually a new kind of “album” or “record” that I invented. I have recorded and dropped two projects on SoundCloud since I got out at the start of August. I decided to use music to fight back in the realm of politics against the “white supremacist Democrats” who are behind all this wickedness. The key is that I NEVER supported Joe Biden, not for a second. I was arrested by US Marshals in Washington DC the morning after the 2020 election, this while TIm Joyner was fresh off “vandalizing Trump signs” and while the DA’s, Sheriff’s, FBI, and Governor’s office were all trying to hunt me down in DC. (“Like a fugitive slave” I told Sonya Patrick.)
As I say, I never fucked with the Biden Administration, and for a while it looked like I would be driven out of the Democratic Party or would have to part ways with it. Democratic politics was as much a part of my upbringing as radio, and I have planned on running for office since I was a teenager. But as you know, upon my return to Wilmington, it wasn’t long before I started to make enemies in spite of my best efforts to respect this “fundraiser gang” or whatever they are.
So by “primary day” this year, I get out of jail, again, and go straight home and start blowing up Anderson Clayton’s Twitter DM’s, which I had started to do in January, since strangely enough my great-grandfather was the Chairman of the Democratic Party 100 years ago, and I used that to get into Ms. Clayton’s good graces. But on 5 March, I said to Ms. Clayton that Joe Biden needed to step aside, that Kamala should be the nominee. Turns out that Anderson Clayton worked for the Harris campaign in 2020, so she and I together were “the original Kamala Harris supporters”. It was sad that it took so long for people to see Biden for what he is.
But here’s the eerie part. It looks to me like my mother and I did something “supernatural”, it too much to be a coincidendce. It involves Deborah Ross. You’ll remember that Joe Biden came to Wilmington at the beginning of May to talk about “lead pipes”. I was “in custody”, and was just starting to “read presidential biographies” to get myself in the right mindset for this election year (or maybe for 2028?). So while I sit in jail, Congresswoman Deborah Ross has her staff call my mom and ask, “Do you want to be in the audience with President Biden?” She said sure, and so she went and got vetted by the Secret Service etc. Meanwhile, Dawson is in jail, and has no idea that the President is in town and his mother is in the room with him, and Bill Saffo, and Roy Cooper. My mom made a point of saying, “I sat with some of my African-American friends” which is of course a typical statement from her, in fact something that she is “allowed to say” that other white women in the Democratic Party are not really “able to say”. Subtle distinctions.
But this poem proves I must have had some sense that Biden was in New Hanover County, because I struck at the right moment. When I shared this poem with some dudes in jail and told them it was for a woman who knew Kamala Harris etc, they laughed and said “You’re going for the ‘presidential pussy’!” I was like, “That’s true”. I sent this one to Amanda Gorman, as in, the black girl who went to Harvard who read at Biden’s inaugural, but I have also spread it among the Democrats. I am certain Kamala Harris will be delighted when she reads it, but hold that thought:
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“2 May 2024: An Immodest Proposal for the Democratic Party (for Anderson Clayton, with love)”
“These are the lines of attack.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt, “First Inaugural Address” (March 1933)
I. when people ask, “how did you meet?”
we’ll say, “on a cloud in the pale blue sky”
though it’s not so much “how”, but “why”
because spirits are low
and the rent is too high
and the teachers don’t know
so the students don’t try
so the children can’t grow
and the grown-ups all cry
people float to and fro’
and they work ’til they die
when they ask, “why did you meet?”
we’ll say, “that’s why”.
II. when people ask, “where will you sleep?”
we’ll say, “on the straw of the long leaf pines”
though it’s hard to say “where”
if we don’t know “when”
since there’s money to spare
and black ink in the pen
there are crowds at the fair
made of women and men
and not one of them care
if we get up at ten
if we ever get there
maybe we can rest then
when they ask, “when will you sleep?”
we’ll say, “that’s when”.
III. when people ask, “who will you call?”
we’ll say, “every single last one of you all”
though whoever we call
it is only to serve
we’ll get up when we fall
and we won’t lose our nerve
we’ll just bounce like a ball
and then bend like a curve
with the world in our thrall
’cause we do it with verve
though the orders are tall
it is what they deserve
when they ask, “who will you serve?”
we’ll say, “that’s who”.
IV. when people ask, “what is your plan?”
we’ll say, “to be rather than to seem!”
though it’s less of a plan
and more like a dream
if we know what we are
there’s no need for a scheme
we’ll just burn like a star
and then flow like a stream
‘til we stick like the tar
and we spread like a meme
we’ll get so very far
if we work as a team
when they ask, “what is your dream?”
we’ll say, “this dream”.
—Dawson Gage @ New Hanover County Detention Facility Castle Hayne, North Carolina, USA
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As I am sure you understand, the best poetry is also prophecy, because with a poem you can set down an intuition about the way things are headed that eludes your conscious mind, or for that matter “science” and all that. It’s mysterious, but it works. It sure looks to me like this poem anticipated the downfall of Joe Biden and the emergence of Kamala Harris.
Because it clearly has something to do with me: I showed up in Kamala Harris country in August 2011, when I ran away to Alameda, CA with a Chinese woman I had met at UNC. Alameda is an island next to Oakland, across from San Francisco, and this was just months after Kamala had risen from being the San Francisco DA to being the Attorney General of California, which is one of the most serious offices on the planet if you know what “California law” is. My support for Kamala comes from that experience, I had such an unbelievable adventure in California. To put it another way, I had to get the fuck out of “Roy Cooper country” because North Carolina was trying to tear me down. Seems to me this had something to do with Kamala Harris.
The “white Democrats” who liked Joe Biden all changed their tune pretty quick this summer, but they don’t see how Kamala could do something different than they expect. Because it is tangled up in this situation in Wilmington and because the election could go either way, there is an opportunity to influence things here. A new opening, in other words, or a fresh start.
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This brings me to my two new “house arrest SoundCloud records”. They are both “love offerings” for Democratic women, and speak to the fact that I do not separate romance, politics, and art the way people seem to do. When you mix these things together you sometimes cross wires, but what’s the alternative? It’s the same for me and hip-hop, I expect my women to appreciate hip-hop but of course for white girls that can be a complicated task. So it goes for politics, which is to say that there’s no resisting “the presidential pussy”. No great art or music ever happens without “desire”, and I attribute my success with these recordings to this authentic source of inspiration and energy. I don’t know what your feelings and opinions about “pop” and “rock” music are, but I sing and play guitar and I invent my own versions of other artists’ songs. The thing that I have going for me here, besides practice I mean, is “the magic radio ear”. It’s like “phonographic memory”, and it relates to “the poetic tongue”, since you have to be able to “hit all the syllables correctly” to do a faithful rendition of a pop or rock song by yourself. Few artists seem to think this “high fidelity vocal performance” is a good idea, so when they play “covers” they usually try to “make it sound different”. I take the opposite approach, and sing something which closely follows the original, but as I practice again and again, my own voice slowly emerges, and you get something fairly unique. So here is my attempt to “redefine the meaning of mixtapes”:
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https://soundcloud.com/dawson-gage/sets/andibreezemixtape?si=fd178c7fca854724890c47c9889ee73e&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
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https://soundcloud.com/dawson-gage/sets/andibreezemixtape
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And as I say, it has been a long day, so here is my “Kamala Harris endorsement mixtape”, except it is a “super-duper-mega-mixtape” which currently has 67 tracks. I am going to keep adding things until election day, and if Kamala wins I will present it to her as a gift. A fantasy, yes, but not impossible. Signing off. You are so appreciated Sandra, I will do my best to stay in touch.
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P.S. I dropped my “endorsement mixtape” the same day as Taylor Swift. That would seem to be a fulfillment of another prophecy I made in sidewalk chalk:
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https://soundcloud.com/dawson-gage/sets/kamalas-law-the-internet
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This has several “hip-hop covers” which you might or might not dig, but they do what I wanted them to. It is hard to arrange hip hop for guitar, but one day back in 2018 or so I figured out how to do Nas’s “NY State of Mind”, and at some point I also started playing Lauryn Hill’s “Doo Wop (That Thing)”. It sounds a little strange for me sing Lauryn Hill, but I can pretty much do it, because my mother gave me that record when I was 12 years old. (“The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill”, of course).
As I hope our future President Kamala Harris will agree, the best American music defies “the color lines”, and I think I have achieved that with both my music and my writing, which of course takes us back to the days with “two radio stations on the same hallway” where you and I first met. Good night dear.
