Thursday, July 8, 2021

Elegy for Terry Collins, Memorial Service Saturday, July 24, 2-6PM, African American Cultural Center


A Memorial Service for 
Terry Collins will be held on 
Saturday, July 24, 2-6PM 
The African American Cultural Center, 
762 Fulton street San Francisco, 2-6PM

Terry Collins-KPOO FM Radio

KPOO-FM Radio co-founder and station board chair Terry Collins passed away July 8th. 
Terry was a leader of the 1968-69 San Francisco State University Black student strike 
that created the world's first college Ethnic Studies department at SF State. Terry helped 
obtain the license of KPOO FM Radio at a time when few African Americans were in 
possession of an FCC broadcast license. Terry was also a host and producer of several 
shows on KPOO and was a mentor to hundreds of KPOO volunteers and interns who have 
become elected officials, college professors and award winning journalists. A memorial 
service will be broadcast live on KPOO 89.5 fm and kpoo.com 2 PM Saturday July 24th. 
In lieu of flowers donations can be made to KPOO FM Radio https://kpoo.com/support

Come with a heart and mind to celebrate the Dedicated, Loving Life that Terry gave
to the Community.
To those of you who have asked where to send cards and financial assistance to
Terry's family, you can send to Terry's wife:
Cecelia Johnson-Collins
1151 Webster St. Apt. 2
San Francisco Ca. 94115




Elegy for Terry Collins









Oh, Terry

Tip of spear

Look of Lion King

Dapper Swagger Classic

Like yr uncle Malcolm X

Yo Mama Ella Collins bad too

Didn’t she run Boston?

Collins family owned land in dirty South

no share-croppers jim crow slaves

black land owners shot back

better ax somebody

Ella Collins bout it bout it

Paid Malcolm’s way to Mecca

You and brother Rodnel

Royal brothers I say

Glad to know you both

Wife Cat Cecelia

daughters too, Renya, Kiara

KPOO family royal

We know JJ got the baton

Joe Rudolph taught us all

how to talk on radio

Let me throw in some JB funk

John D taught, "Don't go on no talk show

without the Black woman

yen-yang woman

Ma-at woman. Pass ball back'n forth!"

Who John D John Douimbia

If you a Frisco Negro

you remember John D

Like Terry a classic

Hustled in Harlem with Malcolm

On release from prison, Malcolm told John D

help organize San Francisco Mosque #26

Only one man dressed better'n John D

The Most Honorable Willie Brown

Can I get amen, ache', hotep




But Joe Rudolph taught One more

No matter how many takes

One more Joe said

you be tired wanna get out that hot room

Joe said one more


Oh, Terry You interviewed me so many times

I know we got book in KPOO archives

So many nights so many subjects

world events

Africa, Palestine Iran Syria Afghanistan

You my draft counselor when I refused to fight in Vietnam

I did exile twice listening to you, Canada, Mexico City, Belize

Terminal Island Federal Prison too






Oh, Terry changing of the guards

Soldier, you relieved of post

Let the new generation soldiers carry your coffin

Let them know weight of revolutionary love action

study your life

revolution beyond color class sex gender

Change is revolution nada mas


Oh, Terry, you did all to make change

chains off brains

preached til you could say no more

do no more

What shall we do without you

alone exhausted

solitude of our lives

inundated with isolation

terrified in rooms

scared of virus vaccine too

watching elders dancing daily into ancestor land

We must catch and hold high torch of revolution

Oh, Terry your team were true troopers at San Francisco State

University Strike for Black Third World Studies

Joe, Corbett, Benny, Jerry, JoAnn, Ramona

Danny, Crutchfield, Arnold, Bernard, Jimmy, Mar-yam, Charlotta

Victory is your legacy for us to grow


Oh, Terry, you did 85 in Babylon

Old New York Communist Party women told me

Better be a Communist

We Communists live long time

You did your revolutionary duty

for all to see

freed everybody

wife, children, comrades, community, world

and me!

a friend to the end

true friend

Love you, Terry

heart broken

want to cry

Tears don't come

May come today

I cry for your love

tenacity lessons

for generations to come.

Hip Hop generation say 60s revolution failed

We broke heroes, Askia Toure' son said

Was revolution about money or freedom?

Is revolution about branding bling bling?

Dr. Cornel West said you got branded when you landed!

Francis Bacon said, "Truth will not make you rich

but it will make you free."

Bible say people were destroyed for lack of knowledge

not lack of money.

How you ignut with global wisdom on yo cell phone?

All you wanna know is "Where you at, where you?"

Ask yoself where YOU at?

Fanon said the oppressed man/woman is disoriented

are you west east north south

You gotta ask Siri Karen Becky


Yo phone is a weapon of knowledge to free yo mind

Google Africa, Reparations, Sovereignty Self Determination

Land, Equity, Pan Africa, Five states to be free

Google voting rights, George Floyd, 1619 History Project

Critical race theory

Google mass incarceration

Figure out when we be free

240 years before economic equity

What Ancestor Amiri Baraka say

Don't let them take yo um boom ba boom

you be in deep trouble let them take yo um boom ba boom

take you centuries to get out"

Be in harmony with Indigenous peoples

Reparations, Sovereignty Self Determination

National Liberation

no eternal suffering in pseudo democracy

languishing eternally between

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

vote for me I set you free

good cop bad cop mystery

Didn't Uncle Malcolm say Revolution is land

You wanna vote or you want land

voting ain't endgame

voting a process to freedom

Land is the endgame

When they took us from land

they took our minds too

Malcolm said you left you mind in Africa

it's still there in the bush somewhere

how we go be free at the whim of gentrification

Free the Land

Free the Man/Woman


Don't say black lives matter

then buy the hood

blacks in tents under freeway

you got they house

black lives matter sign in window

blacks walk they old hood

you watching with binoculars

call 911

suspicious persons in the hood

Free the land

free the land

Elijah said, Republic of New Africa said

Ancestor Amiri Baraka asked long ago

When white power falls where will you be

What land shall you seize when America Balkanizes

when every ethnicity grabs their share of cherry pie

what part of the pie do you want

Sun Ra said in Space is the Place

"You don't want nothin'!"

Texas long been wantin' to be

Lone Star Nation

Bloods better want Houston Nation

Better Ax Somebody

California wanna break into three nations

have you heard

What part for North American Africans

Where we go be

we go be where we wanna be or where somebody else want us to be nowhere stuck under freeway in tents

We want The North American African

People's Republic of Oakland Houston Brooklyn Harlem

Fillmore Hunters Point

whites with strange habits

go your way be free

you black white people go your way too

We go our way

Ma'at Sankofa we Africans say


Oh, Terry remember the Black Arts Movement 50th Celebration

at Laney College

Intergenerational Discussion with your daughter, Phavia's child and my daughter Nefertiti

whose words went viral

"Dad, you say you gonna pass the baton

but you won't pass the baton

we qualified and ready

so pass the baton!"

Oh, daughters Renya and Kiara

Dad passed the baton

you feel it in your hands?

run for your life to finish line of liberation

see him there

If you fall he will catch you

time after time!

We elders will catch you

time after time

feel like you slipping into darkness

give us a call


Oh, Terry, our work is not in vain

Children grandchildren coming strong

Like Garvey said

Look for them in the Whirlwind!

--Marvin X

7/8/21

Revised 7/22/21




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