Hi all,
Reed’s introduction to From Totems to Hip-Hop really moved me. Got me thinking. He gave me the words I’ve been searching for to explain how I know when I appreciate a writer’s work. “It’s when a writer, through the use of their talent, connects to readers who might not share that writer’s background, that the writer’s work becomes universal.” I found that to be the case in the Politics section of this book. I don’t consider myself to be politically-savvy, but I know enough to have intelligent conversations with those who do. I don’t get into great debates about politics, but I am aware of how politics affects my life. So when I read Miguel Algarin’s, And in the U.S.A., I didn’t need to be from New Brunswick, NJ to connect to it, I’ve got enough family members who have gone through the criminal injustice system to understand the picture he paints. I didn’t need to know about the Strawberry Swimming Pool in 1998 (see link below) to know what it feels like to be somewhere that I didn’t belong (according to those who claim they did belong) and to have my presence questioned and threatened. I can go to the Claremont Hotel 10 blocks from my apartment and experience that today. But these poems did widen my lens. They made me aware of the fact that what I experience is not isolated to my experience. That is what I think some poets of color do really well. They use poetry as a medium for telling the truth, no matter how hard or how harsh that truth may be. Not that white writers don’t do that, but more times than not, white writers write for themselves ( a really selfish use of the craft) or they write for others just like them—not concerned with the universality of their work.
**Let me provide the disclaimer before you start banging on your keyboards: I know I’m over-generalizing –not ALL poets of color use poetry as a medium for telling the truth and not all white writers are selfishly using the craft or only writing for those like them.
Moving on – so the idea that poetry has the power to be universal is not a new one, but one that continues to intrigue me as a poet and a writer. I found most of the poems in this Politics section to have some universal quality to them and I found ways to connect to them either as a poet or as a person of color who shares the experience they are writing about.
Mari Evans’s poem, “Speak the Truth to the People” seemed like a mantra poem to me (can we add mantra poem to the glossary?) because of the abundance of repetition. Not just because of the repetition – great poets use repetition all the time, it’s where Evans places the repetition and how she chooses to emphasize the repeated lines/phrases/words. In the first and second lines, she repeats, “to the people” then in the third and fourth lines, she repeats, “free them.” She continues to use similar repetition in lines 8 – 13 with the word “enslaved” and the words “can be” and “unwisdom.” This pattern continues throughout and becomes mantra/chant-like.
How do truth-telling and mantra poems go together? Well for me, a mantra is something you use to change or alter your energy in a positive way – I feel the Truth (yes capital T) can do the same thing.
My favorite piece from this section of Reed’s book happens to be by a white poet, 1990 by Bob Holman. Aside from that being the year I graduated high school, the poem really read aloud beautifully. Are y’all starting to see that I’m a fan of repetition if done well? Okay, I’m guilty. But Holman uses the phrase, “It’s 1990/& Nelson Mandela is free” to highlight the other, somewhat insane, moments that were happening or being focused on when this historically powerful and significant event was taking place. He uses lots of sarcasm (which I am also a fan of if done right) to show how many people simply moved on as if Mandela’s freedom was just another thing to take up news footage and keep them from their soap operas or their busy lives. He uses the truth of what was happening in 1990 and creates a satirical poem that mimics Kenneth Fearing’s 1933 in many ways. While Fearing does not use repetition to propel his work, he does highlight events by personifying 1933—Holman was able to do this with repetition. So to bring this post full circle, I must point out that the political content in all of the poems in this section did several things for me the poet – 1)they made me realize that my poetry might benefit from the inclusion of political content and 2) that political content will be best if I see my poetry as a vehicle for truth and honor the truth that is my unique experience as delivered by my unique voice. As a reader, the political content reminded me that there is a global experience that is happening in this world, whether we choose to participate in it or not, it happened, is happening, and will happen. I appreciate the work of poets (no matter their color) who use their poetry to include everyone in truthful conversations about this one world we all share – regardless of the many elements that we allow to divide us.
--awaiting your thoughts—
Kiala
p.s. the link to a fairly recent article about the Cecil Brown experience
Kiala,
ReplyDeletefirst, thanks for the link...Berkeley...okay? this examination of the work and the then reflection on your own poetry and themes has a lot of weight and does broaden you as a poet. i am looking for a great evolution this semester.
e
kiala i would love to talk with you about this in more detail off the blog! i worked with bob holman at naropa a few summers ago & i felt like he is what convinced me that i have a place on both the page & the stage, but ONLY if there is a global consciousness that goes along with it. he talked a lot about the politics of writing & that writing itself (regardless of the content) is political because it is a choice. what you touch on here is so reminiscent of his words. we have a choice, ALWAYS. when we choose to write about the trees on the hill, we are making a political choice not to write about the car jacking happening on the other side of the hill or the body buried beneath the tree. i think that more than anything, this poem stood as a reminder that we are not just observers & we are not motionless. there is a responsibility in writing & there is a responsibility in seeking out the context of our chosen topics.
ReplyDeletewah i'm so excited!
I completely understand your realization of the relevance of connecting the political with the poetic. Though I've often appreciated the work of writers that have expressed their political sentiments via poetry, I have always struggled to make such an association in my own work. Reading this section of Totems has inarguably altered my choice to involve politics in the poetry that I write. I look forward to observing the ways in which it affects your writing, as well as mine.
ReplyDeleteKG--
ReplyDeleteYour statement about poets of color using their art as a means of truth-telling versus white writers using the craft more for themselves or for those with a shared history (though not universally in the case of either) struck me.
It didn’t strike me because I was hurt or offended, as a white writer, but because it really made me turn the lens on myself and on those white writers whose work I read or have grown up reading. It is always my fear that I might be writing just for myself (or for my mom.. ha!) – to air and work through my place in the world and the way I see others interacting in that world. I believe we do have to look beyond the self but can certainly employ the experiences of the self to create a universal felling/experience/declaration that others can relate to.
Right, so. How does that relate to ethnic or racial identity? White writers have traditionally had the privilege to write about what pleases them, assuming their audience is mostly white folks that have had similar privilege. (I’m talking about historical access to letters & publication.) Contemporary white writers certainly have to (and must!) try harder to step outside of themselves to consider the implications of the experience they are exploring with words—likewise, they ought to consciously Step Back, and let that history be told by those whose voices have been silenced.
Poetry is a platform for writers/artists/citizens/individuals to keep history alive, keep a record, bear witness. Perhaps this is why it has been so important for poets of color to write their truths with the intention of creating universal understanding. That said, I don’t think informed white writers are any more driven to write only within their own bubble than are writers of color. Either group can be driven to write politically or achieve universality.
I’d really like to go deeper into that idea of what “selfish” writing is and who is creating it. To me, it is not about inclination or intention, often, but about access and re-education.
Have I made any sense?.. maybe not. But I’m glad you put this subject out there, K, and I’m excited to move forward in exploring it throughout the semester.
Jessica