And so I'm going to--
I'm at the halfway mark, 20 minutes.
I'm going to read from my own work for the rest.
And I'll read a few pieces from Lake Michigan, which
is a book that came out this year
and which is thinking a lot about police violence
in Chicago, among other things.
And then I'll read some newer pieces to conclusion.
So Lake Michigan is divided into scenes and acts,
and I'll read the first few pieces of the second act, which
comes with two epigraphs.
The first from the Chicago economist
Milton Friedman, who says, quote the great virtue
of a free market system is that it does not
care what color people are.
And only cares whether they can produce something
you want to buy.
It is the most effective system we have discovered
to enable people who hate one another to deal with one
another and help one another.
The second is from Pablo Neruda's poem
about the Spanish Civil War.
Y por las calles la sangre de los niños corría simplemente,
como sangre de niños.
And through the streets the blood of children
ran simply like blood of children.
Lake Michigan, scene 10.
The police shooting boys are like police shooting boys,
and the Nazis burning Jews are like Nazis burning Jews.
And the police protecting Nazis are
like police protecting Nazis.
And the prisoners who were tortured
are like prisoners who are tortured.
And the psychologists overseeing torture
are like psychologists overseeing torture.
And the mayor privatizing prisons
is like the mayor privatizing prisons.
And the rule of law being suspended
is like the rule of law being suspended.
And the broken prisoners on the beach
are like broken prisoners on the beach.
I dream I am pregnant and my baby is a revolutionary plan
to destroy the global economy.
And my baby is like a baby with a bullet in its mouth.
It's like a baby with a bullet in its mouth.
It is like baby with a bullet in its mouth.
And the disappearing public employees
are like disappearing public employees.
And the puddle of vomit from a tortured prisoner
is like a puddle of vomit from a tortured prisoner.
And the hunger of an actual child
is the hunger of an actual child.
And the basic function of the economy
is the basic function of the economy.
And the politically impossible is the politically inevitable.
And the bourgeois savages are like bourgeois savages.
And the bourgeois savages who do not see themselves
as savages are like bourgeois savages who do not
see themselves as savages.
And the bodies that are expropriated
for private purposes are like bodies expropriated
for private purposes.
When they disappear into the pinhole of capital,
they disappear into the abyss of capital.
When they disappear into the abyss of capital,
there is that silence when everyone refuses
to act because they are too concerned
with their own material health to care about the broken body
of another.
And the wasted food on the beach is
like wasted food on the beach.
And the starving children who are not
allowed to eat the wasted food on the beach
are like starving children who are not
allowed to eat the wasted food on the beach.
And the bourgeois savages do not notice the broken bodies
until they are beaten in their bourgeois backyards.
And they say, how dare you use my backyard
to beat this broken body?
I will look away if only you don't beat them in my backyard.
And they say, one broken body in my backyard
doesn't count for anything.
And they're like people who think one broken body doesn't
count for anything.
And a massacre at a Black church is
a massacre at a Black church.
And a massacre at an elementary school
is a massacre at an elementary school.
And the Nazis with torches are like Nazis with torches.
And the police who kill are like police who kill.
And the dying sand is like dying sand.
And the refugee arrested for speaking the wrong language
is a prisoner who never learns to speak the right language.
And the bomb is like a bomb and the anesthetic
is like anesthetic.
And the blankness of the city is like the blankness of the city.
And the language of the riot is the language of the riot.
And the blood of the silenced is like the blood of the silenced.
And the blindness of the bourgeois savage
is like a mouth that can't stop biting,
body that refuses to die.