Dean Atta on Stephen Lawrence

Following the January 3rd conviction of Gary Dobson and David Norris in the racially motivated murder of Stephen Lawrence, spoken word poet Dean Atta wrote a poem called "I Am Nobody's Nigger," recorded it on his iPhone, posted it to SoundCloud, and then watched it go viral. In five days, 15,000 people listened to the poem and that number is still growing. A recent article in The Guardian reports:

The poem was, he says, a reaction to "the injustice of the death of Stephen Lawrence", and to the loose usage of the N-word. "Watching Panorama, where they reconstructed his murder, and hearing that the N-word was the last thing they said when they stabbed him really struck a chord with me."

The poem began as an update on Facebook and post on Twitter, saying: "Rappers, when you use the word 'nigger' remember that's one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard, so don't tell me it's a reclaimed word." It received 80 likes and 50 retweets, and became the first line of a poem he wrote in 30 minutes.

Learn more about Atta and listen to his poem here, and read The Guardian story in its entirety here.