Steve Champion (Adisa Akanni Kamara)

Steve Champion (Now Adisa Akanni Kamara) is a death row prisoner at San Quintin State Prison. A former Crips gang member, he grew up in South Central L.A. Champion has been incarcerated for 29 years. He is self taught and conversant in African History, Philosophy, Political Science and Comparative Religion.

As an author he has received honorary mention in the short fiction category in the 1995 PEN prison writing contest and in 2004 won first place in nonfiction for his essay, "His Spirit Lives On: George E. Marshall." He also is the co-author of "After Life, A Death Row Anthology" and has poetry featured in the book "Voices from the Inside."

His work called "The Sacred Eye of the Falcon" can be purchased at lulu.com. More of his work and contact information can be found here: www.ccadp.org/stevechampion.htm.

Revolutionary

Everything i love

  Is dead or dying.

Everything i owned

  Has been stolen or destroyed

Everything i want

  I must fight and bleed for

Everything i am

  i must struggle to be.

Everything i need

  I have earned and deserved

Everything i trust

  has been challenged and tested

Everything i believe

  is strong and firm

Everything i seek

  Lies with revolution`

            revolution`

            revolution`

We roar like lions

We roar like lions

when they encage us

we roar like lions

when they incite us

we roar like lions

when they mistreat us

we roar like lions

when the deceive us

we roar like lions

when they assault us

we roar like lions

when we are ready to fight.

The children

Children with disfigured faces

perched on broken wood

pot-belly

barefooted

undernourished

gun toting children

child killers

forced to abandon school books

for AK-47's

they are everywhere

fulfilling the ambitions of

power crazed

power hungrey

power corrupted

men.

Childhoods stolen

on open battlefields

making it easy to

erase conscience

destroy beauty

kill innocence

squeezing the trigger of a gun

transforming children into

stones.

they throw in our face

reminding us all

the children

need a revolution

an intefadeh

to reclaim their childhood.

I am

I am a warrior

I travel with courage

i pray for peace

i hope for understanding

I battle with little

I am a revolutionary