WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.900 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.900 --> 00:00:05.100 align:middle line:90% Now, they want you to talk. 00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:07.525 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:07.525 --> 00:00:15.450 align:middle line:90% 00:00:15.450 --> 00:00:21.210 align:middle line:84% I just want to say this has been a really powerful visit. 00:00:21.210 --> 00:00:24.720 align:middle line:84% And I don't even know that I've ever given-- 00:00:24.720 --> 00:00:27.040 align:middle line:84% read poetry while people sat out in the cold. 00:00:27.040 --> 00:00:27.540 align:middle line:90% I mean-- 00:00:27.540 --> 00:00:28.420 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:28.420 --> 00:00:28.920 align:middle line:90% 00:00:28.920 --> 00:00:32.640 align:middle line:84% You guys 6 to 12 row back there, I just-- 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:33.750 align:middle line:90% I bow. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:35.200 align:middle line:90% I bow before you. 00:00:35.200 --> 00:00:39.150 align:middle line:90% I am just-- yeah. 00:00:39.150 --> 00:00:46.160 align:middle line:84% So this is a really important thing 00:00:46.160 --> 00:00:50.930 align:middle line:84% you're doing here, talking about restoring restorative justice. 00:00:50.930 --> 00:00:56.270 align:middle line:84% And I thank you very much for the stories you've told. 00:00:56.270 --> 00:01:01.370 align:middle line:84% I think you will hear before I leave this microphone how my-- 00:01:01.370 --> 00:01:04.160 align:middle line:84% what I've written absolutely directly 00:01:04.160 --> 00:01:07.070 align:middle line:84% connects with what you've just said. 00:01:07.070 --> 00:01:09.410 align:middle line:90% We didn't plan it that way. 00:01:09.410 --> 00:01:10.940 align:middle line:90% There's no script. 00:01:10.940 --> 00:01:16.880 align:middle line:84% But when you're doing truth work, 00:01:16.880 --> 00:01:19.070 align:middle line:90% it just lines up like that. 00:01:19.070 --> 00:01:20.630 align:middle line:90% And today, I need to tell you-- 00:01:20.630 --> 00:01:26.090 align:middle line:84% I want to tell you that I spent three or four hours, 00:01:26.090 --> 00:01:31.580 align:middle line:84% I lost track of time, out of the Cape Detention Center 00:01:31.580 --> 00:01:36.920 align:middle line:84% with young people in that detention center talking 00:01:36.920 --> 00:01:38.750 align:middle line:90% about poetry. 00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:41.740 align:middle line:90% And that was planned. 00:01:41.740 --> 00:01:43.530 align:middle line:90% It was purposeful. 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:50.420 align:middle line:84% And there's a teacher here, Lisa O'Neill, who doesn't just go-- 00:01:50.420 --> 00:01:51.410 align:middle line:90% didn't just go today. 00:01:51.410 --> 00:01:57.500 align:middle line:84% She goes out there every week and does the hard committed 00:01:57.500 --> 00:02:01.760 align:middle line:84% work of talking about poetry to young people who really, really 00:02:01.760 --> 00:02:05.400 align:middle line:90% are hungry to not be forgotten. 00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:09.949 align:middle line:84% And if you think this night is just about four or five people 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:13.220 align:middle line:90% who have direct-- 00:02:13.220 --> 00:02:17.420 align:middle line:84% have some direct relationship with the juvenile justice 00:02:17.420 --> 00:02:22.580 align:middle line:84% system or the prison industrial complex, 00:02:22.580 --> 00:02:25.640 align:middle line:84% I want you to ask me about that before I leave after I finish 00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:32.000 align:middle line:84% reading because what's happening in that realm is impacting 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.890 align:middle line:84% every one of us, whether it's our husbands or our wives 00:02:36.890 --> 00:02:39.830 align:middle line:90% or our children or it's-- 00:02:39.830 --> 00:02:42.170 align:middle line:84% you don't think it is, but it is. 00:02:42.170 --> 00:02:46.490 align:middle line:84% And I can explain that further after I read this piece. 00:02:46.490 --> 00:02:50.150 align:middle line:84% But I asked Lisa does she think-- when I left today, 00:02:50.150 --> 00:02:52.950 align:middle line:84% they made me cry while I was out there, but I cry easily, 00:02:52.950 --> 00:02:54.230 align:middle line:90% so that's-- 00:02:54.230 --> 00:03:00.962 align:middle line:84% but they-- there was a young man who was being really tough. 00:03:00.962 --> 00:03:04.730 align:middle line:84% And you could-- I could just see his tenderness 00:03:04.730 --> 00:03:06.620 align:middle line:84% through everything he was doing and saying, 00:03:06.620 --> 00:03:09.470 align:middle line:84% and I asked him to write some poems. 00:03:09.470 --> 00:03:13.650 align:middle line:84% And I wanted him to be here tonight with us, and of course, 00:03:13.650 --> 00:03:14.660 align:middle line:90% he couldn't. 00:03:14.660 --> 00:03:18.440 align:middle line:84% But I wanted-- I asked Lisa if I could read this, 00:03:18.440 --> 00:03:21.290 align:middle line:90% and she thought it would be OK. 00:03:21.290 --> 00:03:23.060 align:middle line:84% So the prompt that Lisa gave them 00:03:23.060 --> 00:03:27.080 align:middle line:84% weeks ago when she knew I was coming was a poem that I read-- 00:03:27.080 --> 00:03:29.330 align:middle line:84% that I wrote called "He Never Had It Made." 00:03:29.330 --> 00:03:32.330 align:middle line:84% And it's about my father being a country boy 00:03:32.330 --> 00:03:38.690 align:middle line:84% and really having just the love of the family around him 00:03:38.690 --> 00:03:42.200 align:middle line:84% to become the first Black Chief Justice 00:03:42.200 --> 00:03:43.880 align:middle line:90% of the State of South Carolina. 00:03:43.880 --> 00:03:48.440 align:middle line:84% And it was a story about his getting there 00:03:48.440 --> 00:03:52.400 align:middle line:84% not because he had money and not because somebody 00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.740 align:middle line:84% did him a favor, but because he worked really hard, 00:03:54.740 --> 00:03:57.830 align:middle line:84% and he just kept a lot of stuff in his heart that he needed to. 00:03:57.830 --> 00:04:01.400 align:middle line:84% And so she gave him this line, "He Never Had It Made," 00:04:01.400 --> 00:04:03.680 align:middle line:90% and this is what DeAndre wrote. 00:04:03.680 --> 00:04:07.940 align:middle line:84% And I know he's in this room because he loves poetry. 00:04:07.940 --> 00:04:12.590 align:middle line:84% I never had it made, but I tried going for it. 00:04:12.590 --> 00:04:17.839 align:middle line:84% I never stopped recognition, accomplishment sometimes 00:04:17.839 --> 00:04:24.350 align:middle line:84% failed, also, fallen, but I got back up, accomplished again. 00:04:24.350 --> 00:04:27.710 align:middle line:84% Sometimes I succeeded, but I never had it made. 00:04:27.710 --> 00:04:30.902 align:middle line:90% 00:04:30.902 --> 00:04:33.824 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:04:33.824 --> 00:04:39.670 align:middle line:90% 00:04:39.670 --> 00:04:43.480 align:middle line:84% I don't have enough thank yous for Tyler and for-- 00:04:43.480 --> 00:04:44.180 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:04:44.180 --> 00:04:44.680 align:middle line:90% That's OK. 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:45.180 align:middle line:90% For Diana. 00:04:45.180 --> 00:04:46.330 align:middle line:90% Yeah, for Diana. 00:04:46.330 --> 00:04:49.840 align:middle line:84% For everything you guys have done for me the last 48 hours, 00:04:49.840 --> 00:04:50.980 align:middle line:90% I just-- 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:52.090 align:middle line:90% I'm at a loss for words. 00:04:52.090 --> 00:04:56.470 align:middle line:84% So I'm just going to read a few poems that are in "The World Is 00:04:56.470 --> 00:04:59.580 align:middle line:84% Round" and "Head Off & Split," and I'm-- 00:04:59.580 --> 00:05:03.070 align:middle line:84% and then I'm going to read the new piece that was commissioned 00:05:03.070 --> 00:05:05.440 align:middle line:90% by the Art for Justice program. 00:05:05.440 --> 00:05:09.280 align:middle line:90% 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:12.400 align:middle line:84% When I was born, every time I tell the story, 00:05:12.400 --> 00:05:14.380 align:middle line:84% my mom cries because I had to stay 00:05:14.380 --> 00:05:16.900 align:middle line:84% in the hospital for a couple of weeks, 00:05:16.900 --> 00:05:19.510 align:middle line:90% and I had yellow jaundice. 00:05:19.510 --> 00:05:21.850 align:middle line:84% And so I always think that the nurses-- 00:05:21.850 --> 00:05:24.430 align:middle line:90% 00:05:24.430 --> 00:05:26.500 align:middle line:84% in my mind's eye, I see them coming in the room 00:05:26.500 --> 00:05:28.990 align:middle line:84% and putting their hands in that old contraption that 00:05:28.990 --> 00:05:30.700 align:middle line:84% had the circle, and you put your hand in 00:05:30.700 --> 00:05:32.350 align:middle line:84% to touch the baby when the oxygen-- 00:05:32.350 --> 00:05:33.680 align:middle line:90% they don't do that anymore. 00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:36.700 align:middle line:84% But I love the circle, and the title for this book, 00:05:36.700 --> 00:05:38.800 align:middle line:84% "The World Is Round," came from me thinking 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:43.360 align:middle line:84% that the first geometric symbol I might have seen as an infant 00:05:43.360 --> 00:05:45.600 align:middle line:90% was a circle.