WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.900 --> 00:00:03.390 align:middle line:84% All right, I did this reading with the kids 00:00:03.390 --> 00:00:05.460 align:middle line:90% today in the high school. 00:00:05.460 --> 00:00:07.350 align:middle line:90% And we got into these poems. 00:00:07.350 --> 00:00:08.130 align:middle line:90% And they really-- 00:00:08.130 --> 00:00:10.210 align:middle line:84% I think they never really heard poems like that. 00:00:10.210 --> 00:00:13.950 align:middle line:84% And I think that's amazing that people can grow up and not 00:00:13.950 --> 00:00:15.882 align:middle line:84% know what poetry is or what poetry can do. 00:00:15.882 --> 00:00:17.340 align:middle line:84% Most of the time, they think poetry 00:00:17.340 --> 00:00:18.810 align:middle line:90% is very boring and tiresome. 00:00:18.810 --> 00:00:19.800 align:middle line:90% And mostly it is. 00:00:19.800 --> 00:00:22.450 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:22.450 --> 00:00:22.950 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.950 --> 00:00:25.830 align:middle line:84% But it could be alive, if it's about real things 00:00:25.830 --> 00:00:28.560 align:middle line:90% and real issues. 00:00:28.560 --> 00:00:32.729 align:middle line:84% I want to read a poem that is very serious. 00:00:32.729 --> 00:00:36.390 align:middle line:84% And it has to do with a near-death experience I had, 00:00:36.390 --> 00:00:40.110 align:middle line:84% when I was about, I guess, 15 years old. 00:00:40.110 --> 00:00:42.330 align:middle line:84% And it's called, "The Concrete River", 00:00:42.330 --> 00:00:43.740 align:middle line:90% which is the name of the book. 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.680 align:middle line:84% How many know what the concrete river is? 00:00:46.680 --> 00:00:47.920 align:middle line:90% That's right, the LA River. 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:49.170 align:middle line:84% And there's concrete rivers here, 00:00:49.170 --> 00:00:51.128 align:middle line:84% and there's concrete rivers all over the place. 00:00:51.128 --> 00:00:53.070 align:middle line:84% But it's funny because I always thought 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:54.900 align:middle line:84% that a river was nothing but concrete, 00:00:54.900 --> 00:00:56.160 align:middle line:90% whenever they said river. 00:00:56.160 --> 00:00:58.260 align:middle line:84% When I went to Chicago again, there 00:00:58.260 --> 00:01:00.600 align:middle line:84% is a river with water over there. 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:02.550 align:middle line:84% And I was amazed that there was actually 00:01:02.550 --> 00:01:04.160 align:middle line:90% a river with water going on. 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:06.400 align:middle line:84% But as you know, for a lot of people, 00:01:06.400 --> 00:01:09.450 align:middle line:84% especially like in LA, the LA River and all 00:01:09.450 --> 00:01:11.940 align:middle line:84% these different canals, people hang out there. 00:01:11.940 --> 00:01:16.000 align:middle line:84% There's graffiti, they would get drunk, make love, fight, 00:01:16.000 --> 00:01:18.090 align:middle line:84% do whatever-- it was just like a little hangout. 00:01:18.090 --> 00:01:20.548 align:middle line:90% And we used to do-- 00:01:20.548 --> 00:01:21.840 align:middle line:90% I did a lot of different drugs. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:23.298 align:middle line:84% And one of those things, of course, 00:01:23.298 --> 00:01:26.592 align:middle line:84% was sniffing, which a lot of our kids do. 00:01:26.592 --> 00:01:28.050 align:middle line:84% One of the things that happened is, 00:01:28.050 --> 00:01:32.910 align:middle line:84% I've been covering the story of Salvadorenos and LA immigrants, 00:01:32.910 --> 00:01:35.130 align:middle line:90% who have come there from-- 00:01:35.130 --> 00:01:39.240 align:middle line:84% recently joined barrios there, joined gangs there. 00:01:39.240 --> 00:01:41.550 align:middle line:90% And then they get deported. 00:01:41.550 --> 00:01:43.020 align:middle line:90% And they go back to El Salvador. 00:01:43.020 --> 00:01:45.090 align:middle line:84% And there, they don't know the country anymore. 00:01:45.090 --> 00:01:46.590 align:middle line:90% They came when they're children. 00:01:46.590 --> 00:01:49.483 align:middle line:84% So now, in El Salvador, there's alley gangs. 00:01:49.483 --> 00:01:50.400 align:middle line:90% And there's drive-bys. 00:01:50.400 --> 00:01:51.392 align:middle line:90% And there's graffiti. 00:01:51.392 --> 00:01:52.350 align:middle line:90% And there's low riders. 00:01:52.350 --> 00:01:53.142 align:middle line:90% And there's cholos. 00:01:53.142 --> 00:01:55.560 align:middle line:84% And all these things are happening down there. 00:01:55.560 --> 00:01:57.388 align:middle line:84% And I went down there to talk to people. 00:01:57.388 --> 00:01:58.680 align:middle line:90% And I even went to the prisons. 00:01:58.680 --> 00:02:00.857 align:middle line:84% And all these alley homeboys are in the prisons. 00:02:00.857 --> 00:02:02.940 align:middle line:84% "Orales", said, they come up to me and talk to me. 00:02:02.940 --> 00:02:05.130 align:middle line:84% I was like, could have been in LA. 00:02:05.130 --> 00:02:08.190 align:middle line:84% There's a Hollywood set in San Salvador 00:02:08.190 --> 00:02:10.169 align:middle line:90% now, of the Mara Salvatrucha. 00:02:10.169 --> 00:02:13.740 align:middle line:84% So they have transported the gang culture 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.725 align:middle line:84% to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. 00:02:16.725 --> 00:02:19.710 align:middle line:90% 00:02:19.710 --> 00:02:22.590 align:middle line:84% It's the whole idea that if you get rid of them, 00:02:22.590 --> 00:02:24.750 align:middle line:90% the problem is over with, right? 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:26.190 align:middle line:90% It doesn't work that way. 00:02:26.190 --> 00:02:28.620 align:middle line:84% Because the problem has to do with something else. 00:02:28.620 --> 00:02:34.250 align:middle line:84% And anyway, when I was walking through the capital, 00:02:34.250 --> 00:02:35.250 align:middle line:90% I saw these little kids. 00:02:35.250 --> 00:02:36.900 align:middle line:84% And all over Latin America, there's 00:02:36.900 --> 00:02:40.320 align:middle line:84% all these homeless children, thousands of them, 00:02:40.320 --> 00:02:43.260 align:middle line:84% with no shoes, literally walking the inner cities. 00:02:43.260 --> 00:02:45.660 align:middle line:84% And a lot of them are called "wilipegas". 00:02:45.660 --> 00:02:47.100 align:middle line:90% They're the sniffers. 00:02:47.100 --> 00:02:50.370 align:middle line:84% And I saw two little kids, 6 and 7 years 00:02:50.370 --> 00:02:54.690 align:middle line:84% old, crossing the street, holding each other, 00:02:54.690 --> 00:02:57.540 align:middle line:90% with the bag. 00:02:57.540 --> 00:03:00.300 align:middle line:84% And it brought tears to my eyes because that's exactly what we 00:03:00.300 --> 00:03:01.410 align:middle line:90% did in East LA area. 00:03:01.410 --> 00:03:03.450 align:middle line:84% That's exactly what I went through. 00:03:03.450 --> 00:03:07.690 align:middle line:84% And it's amazing how that's one of the links to our children. 00:03:07.690 --> 00:03:09.640 align:middle line:84% It goes all the way down the Americas. 00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:13.590 align:middle line:84% It's this damn glue or whatever it is, spray. 00:03:13.590 --> 00:03:15.873 align:middle line:90% Look, it's there. 00:03:15.873 --> 00:03:18.540 align:middle line:84% I want to read this poem because it was a near-death experience, 00:03:18.540 --> 00:03:23.160 align:middle line:84% in which I had actually stopped breathing, 00:03:23.160 --> 00:03:25.482 align:middle line:84% actually went through the tunnel, saw the light. 00:03:25.482 --> 00:03:26.940 align:middle line:84% And the people talk about this now. 00:03:26.940 --> 00:03:28.950 align:middle line:84% Because I didn't know this, that you're dying 00:03:28.950 --> 00:03:30.367 align:middle line:84% and you're going through a tunnel. 00:03:30.367 --> 00:03:34.050 align:middle line:84% And you see, I went through all this stuff. 00:03:34.050 --> 00:03:39.600 align:middle line:90% But one of my homeboys saved me. 00:03:39.600 --> 00:03:41.520 align:middle line:84% And I was really pissed off when it happened. 00:03:41.520 --> 00:03:44.180 align:middle line:84% Because I didn't want him to bring me back. 00:03:44.180 --> 00:03:45.780 align:middle line:84% I was really pissed off at this guy. 00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:46.830 align:middle line:90% So let me read you the poem. 00:03:46.830 --> 00:03:48.247 align:middle line:84% It's called, "The Concrete River". 00:03:48.247 --> 00:03:51.860 align:middle line:90% 00:03:51.860 --> 00:03:56.550 align:middle line:84% "We sink into the dust, Baba and me, 00:03:56.550 --> 00:04:00.390 align:middle line:84% beneath brush of prickly leaves, Ivy strangling trees, 00:04:00.390 --> 00:04:03.750 align:middle line:84% singing our last rites of locura. 00:04:03.750 --> 00:04:08.990 align:middle line:84% Homeboys worshipping God fumes out of spray cans. 00:04:08.990 --> 00:04:12.110 align:middle line:84% Our backs press up against a corrugated steel fence, 00:04:12.110 --> 00:04:14.780 align:middle line:84% along the dried banks of a concrete river. 00:04:14.780 --> 00:04:17.209 align:middle line:84% Spray-painted outpourings on walls 00:04:17.209 --> 00:04:20.269 align:middle line:84% offer a chaos of color for the eyes. 00:04:20.269 --> 00:04:23.690 align:middle line:84% Home for now, hidden in weeds, furnished 00:04:23.690 --> 00:04:27.200 align:middle line:84% with stained mattresses and plastic milk crates. 00:04:27.200 --> 00:04:30.680 align:middle line:84% Wood planks thrust in the thick branches serves as roof. 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:35.150 align:middle line:84% The door is a torn cloth curtain, knock before entering. 00:04:35.150 --> 00:04:40.190 align:middle line:84% Home for now, sandwiched in between the maddening days. 00:04:40.190 --> 00:04:44.090 align:middle line:84% We aim spray into paper bags, suckle them, take deep breaths. 00:04:44.090 --> 00:04:46.850 align:middle line:84% An echo of steel sounds grate the sky. 00:04:46.850 --> 00:04:50.900 align:middle line:84% Home for now, along an urban spawned stream of muck, 00:04:50.900 --> 00:04:55.520 align:middle line:84% we gargle in the technicolor synthesized madness. 00:04:55.520 --> 00:04:59.600 align:middle line:84% This river, this concrete river becomes a steaming, 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.770 align:middle line:84% bubbling snake of water, pouring over nightmares of wakefulness, 00:05:03.770 --> 00:05:07.520 align:middle line:84% pouring out a rush of birds, a flow of clear liquid 00:05:07.520 --> 00:05:12.560 align:middle line:84% on a cloudless day, not like the black oil stains we lie in, 00:05:12.560 --> 00:05:14.630 align:middle line:84% not like the factory air engulfing us, 00:05:14.630 --> 00:05:18.180 align:middle line:90% not this plastic death in a can. 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:21.240 align:middle line:84% Sunrays dance on the surface, gray fish 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:22.800 align:middle line:90% fidget below the sheen. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:26.550 align:middle line:84% And us looking like Huckleberry Finns, Tom Sawyers with stick 00:05:26.550 --> 00:05:30.060 align:middle line:84% fishing poles, as dew drips off low branches, 00:05:30.060 --> 00:05:34.330 align:middle line:84% as if it were Earth's breast milk. 00:05:34.330 --> 00:05:37.210 align:middle line:84% Oh, we should be novas of our born days. 00:05:37.210 --> 00:05:40.060 align:middle line:84% We should be scraping wet dirt with calloused toes. 00:05:40.060 --> 00:05:43.540 align:middle line:84% We should be flowering petals playing ball. 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:47.350 align:middle line:84% Soon water, fish, dew wane into a pulsating whiteness. 00:05:47.350 --> 00:05:51.490 align:middle line:84% I enter a tunnel of circles, swimming to a glare of lights. 00:05:51.490 --> 00:05:53.890 align:middle line:90% Family and friends beckon me. 00:05:53.890 --> 00:05:57.310 align:middle line:84% I want to be there, in perpetual dreaming, 00:05:57.310 --> 00:05:59.650 align:middle line:90% in the den of exquisite screams. 00:05:59.650 --> 00:06:03.700 align:middle line:84% I want to know this mother comfort surging through me. 00:06:03.700 --> 00:06:06.070 align:middle line:84% I am a sliver of blazing ember entering 00:06:06.070 --> 00:06:07.910 align:middle line:90% the womb of brightness. 00:06:07.910 --> 00:06:10.810 align:middle line:84% I am a hovering specter shedding scarred flesh. 00:06:10.810 --> 00:06:14.600 align:middle line:84% I am a clown sneaking out of a painted mouth in the sky. 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:17.980 align:middle line:84% I am your son, ama, seeking the security of shadows, 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:22.060 align:middle line:84% fleeing weary eyes bursting brown behind a sewing machine. 00:06:22.060 --> 00:06:24.760 align:middle line:84% I am your brother, the one you threw off rooftops, 00:06:24.760 --> 00:06:28.480 align:middle line:84% tore into with rage, the one you visited, a rag of a boy, 00:06:28.480 --> 00:06:31.060 align:middle line:84% lying in a hospital bed, ruptured. 00:06:31.060 --> 00:06:33.580 align:middle line:84% I am friend of books, prey cops, lover 00:06:33.580 --> 00:06:37.390 align:middle line:84% of the barrio women selling hamburgers and tacos at the P&G 00:06:37.390 --> 00:06:39.180 align:middle line:90% burger stand. 00:06:39.180 --> 00:06:41.340 align:middle line:90% I welcome this heavy shroud. 00:06:41.340 --> 00:06:44.340 align:middle line:84% I want to be buried in it, to be sculptured 00:06:44.340 --> 00:06:47.190 align:middle line:90% marble in craftier hands. 00:06:47.190 --> 00:06:50.490 align:middle line:84% Soon an electrifying hum sinks teeth into brain, 00:06:50.490 --> 00:06:53.580 align:middle line:84% then claws surround me, pull at me, back to the dust, 00:06:53.580 --> 00:06:55.800 align:middle line:90% to the concrete river. 00:06:55.800 --> 00:06:59.970 align:middle line:84% Let me go, to stay entangled in this mesh of barbed serenity. 00:06:59.970 --> 00:07:04.730 align:middle line:84% But over me is a face, mouth breathing back life. 00:07:04.730 --> 00:07:09.650 align:middle line:84% I feel the gush of air, the pebbles and debris beneath me. 00:07:09.650 --> 00:07:12.200 align:middle line:90% Give me the bag, man, I slur. 00:07:12.200 --> 00:07:14.600 align:middle line:84% No way, you died, man, Baba said. 00:07:14.600 --> 00:07:17.030 align:middle line:90% You stopped breathing and died. 00:07:17.030 --> 00:07:20.170 align:middle line:84% I have to go back, you don't understand. 00:07:20.170 --> 00:07:23.230 align:middle line:84% I try to get up to reach the sky. 00:07:23.230 --> 00:07:26.470 align:middle line:84% Oh, for the lights, for this whore of a sun 00:07:26.470 --> 00:07:28.900 align:middle line:84% to blind me, to entice me to burn. 00:07:28.900 --> 00:07:32.530 align:middle line:84% Come back, let me swing in delight to the haunting knell, 00:07:32.530 --> 00:07:34.810 align:middle line:84% to pierce colors of virgin skies, 00:07:34.810 --> 00:07:38.170 align:middle line:84% not here along a concrete river, but there, 00:07:38.170 --> 00:07:40.105 align:middle line:90% licked by tongues of flame. 00:07:40.105 --> 00:07:42.900 align:middle line:90% 00:07:42.900 --> 00:07:47.580 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:07:47.580 --> 00:07:53.000 align:middle line:90%