What is “Neighborhood Amen” about?
"Neighborhood Amen" is a litany of thanks for the everyday people who hold a community together: the bus driver who waited for a running kid, the barber who cut a fade for free, the corner store that holds a tab till Friday. Kairo West treats the block as a church and these small kindnesses as "the small holy," closing with a benediction for payable rent and loved mothers. At track nine, it is the longest song on Baldwin Bus Receipt and opens its more personal second half.
Neighborhood Amen lyrics
Sunday, or any day
Amen for the neighborhood
Let the church be the block
Listen
Amen for the bus driver who waited for the running kid
Amen for the crossing guard who know every name in the grid
Amen for the barber who cut the fade for free that week
Amen for the woman who stopped a fight without a peep
Amen for the old man who knows all the plants in the alley
Amen for the laundromat that stays open past the tally
Amen for the corner store that hold the tab till Friday
Amen for the teacher with the lesson plan on a highway
Amen for the nurse who held a stranger's granddaddy
Amen for the mechanic with the honest for my cousin's sedan
Amen for the cousins who ain't really cousins but are
Amen for the neighbors who feed the stray cat in the yard
Amen, amen, amen
For the neighborhood
Amen, amen, amen
For everyone making it good
Amen, amen, amen
For the small holy
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
Amen for the Boys and Girls Club, amen for the coach
Amen for the lunch lady with the extra little toast
Amen for the folks I don't know by name but know by face
Amen for the one who swept the leaves from my mama's place
Baldwin said not everything can be changed until you face it
But everything we ever faced we faced in a neighborhood we can taste it
Amen for the corner that raised me without a dollar from city hall
Amen for the homies who got out and still pull up when you call
Amen for the ones who didn't make it, God keep you
Amen for the ones carrying the torch the wind tried to sweep through
Amen for every open door that fed more mouths than it counted
Amen for every prayer somebody said for me uncounted
Amen, amen, amen
For the neighborhood
Amen, amen, amen
For everyone making it good
Amen, amen, amen
For the small holy
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
May the rent stay payable
May the mamas stay loved
May the kids find the book
May the block find the hug
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
Amen
Amen
For the neighborhood
Amen